[
    {
        "id": 214420,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 278,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "244\n\nHaving recovered, I went ashore every day, walked along the embankment and impatiently awaited the day of departure. There were daily visitors to the frigate from shore, whom I had to receive. Incidentally two monks once arrived, on the Bishop's behalf, and stated that the Monsignor himself would follow them. At that time however, taking advantage of the absence of the admiral and the captain from the frigate, their cabin decks were being caulked; the oakum lay in heaps; all cracks had been filled with pitch which had not yet dried. I persuaded the monks to ask the bishop to postpone his visit till the return of the admiral.\n\nOn the admiral's arrival, the Bishop paid him a visit. He was accompanied by a retinue of four missionaries, two of whom were Spanish monks, the others - a Frenchman, and a Chinese, studying at the famous Roman college of propaganda. He retained his Chinese dress, in order to travel more freely in China for closer contact with the Christians there and for the conversion of new ones. They all lunched with us: conversation with the Bishop, an Italian, took place in French, while O.A. spoke to the Chinese in Latin.\n\nAfter them we were visited by the English Governor-General ('governor of the strait' - i.e. of Hong Kong), the same being the English plenipotentiary to China. His name is Sir Bonham. He was greeted with the same honours as those with which he had greeted our admiral on shore: music played, cannons fired.\n\nI often walked along the shore, visited the shops, observed Chinese trade, reminiscent in many ways of our shopping emporiums of fairs, bought various trifles, and incidentally, tea - just to try it. Excellent tea, which costs about five roubles at home, sells here (and this is after having passed through three or four hands) for thirty silver kopecks and the very best for sixty kopecks for an English pound. The cigars here are from Manilla, cheroots of the very lowest quality, and also from Macau: the latter are decidedly no use at all.\n\nOnce, having bought all sorts of things, I gave them all to a coolie, who put the purchases in a basket and followed me. But Fadeev**, who was with me, couldn't stomach this, tore the basket from him and carried it himself. I could never instill in him the desire to play the role of a foreigner and a gentleman and all our progression to the pier was a",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214421,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 279,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "245\n\ncontinuing battle between Fadeev and the coolie, for the basket. I hired a boat and placed Fadeev in it, but the coolie followed him and resumed the fighting. The Chinese in the surrounding boats started shouting; Fadeev was about to sit down in the boat, like a mandarin, holding the basket in both hands, but the coolie wouldn't leave him alone. The boatman didn't want to take us, waiting for a resolution of the matter. Fadeev moved to go ashore again - but they wouldn't let him. \"With your permission, Your Excellency, I'll settle them,\" he said, taking the basket in one hand, and energetically pushing the Chinese aside with the other, he got ashore. I left, leaving him to sort it out as best he knew, only from afar I could see him beating off the Chinese like a bear amongst a pack of dogs, hitting them on their outstretched arms. Then later I saw him proudly moving away on our ship's boat, with just the purchases, and not the basket, which had belonged to the coolie and was, through our slow-wittedness, the cause of the conflict.\n\nAt one end of Hong Kong's extensive roadstead the trading house of Jardine and Matheson has been established. The four of us went to have a look at this example of the indefatigable energy and insatiable greed and enterprise of the English. Sten-Bil, the commander of the Danish corvette \"Galatea\" believes the English have invested too much labour and money in Hong Kong and the undertaking will not vindicate itself. On the appropriation of this island, merchants from Calcutta and Singapore rushed here and some of them sank all their capital, counting on the proximity of the Chinese mainland and on the sale of opium. But so far this has not been justified. Perhaps misgivings about the commercial imprudence of some Jardine may be warranted but nevertheless the possession of Hong Kong, the cannons, their own harbour - all this at China's doorstep, assures the English of trade with China for ever, and this little island will, it seems, be an everlasting eyesore for the Chinese government.\n\nA palace has been built at the Jardine establishment, and a garden and path laid out nearby; other buildings are being erected. While we were there hoards of Chinese were paving the ground with slabs; a few vessels stood by the shore. It was not yet midday when we walked onto the wharf and then hurriedly disappeared into the scant shade of the young garden. The chirping of the insects, with the approach of midday was so loud, that it could have challenged a large orchestra. We sat wearily on a bench, glancing occasionally at the glass doors of the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214422,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 280,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "246\n\npalace in the hope that a hospitable host would emerge and offer us sanctuary in the marble halls and refreshment with a glass of lemonade. But the doors were locked, no one appeared. Our doctor tirelessly pursued insects, especially big black velvety butterflies. Returning to the wharf, we saw in the crowd of Chinese, a woman, who holding a naked baby in her arms, was moistening her fingers in her mouth and then mercilessly pinching him on the back along the spine. The child struggled and screamed desperately. Was this punishment or medical treatment?\n\nHowever it is impossible to write: the tossing is terrible; the order is to 'reef the fourth.' There hasn't been a storm like this since the Cape of Good Hope. I'll go and have a look at what's happening...\n\nI.A.Goncharov,\n\nChina Sea.\n\n8th June 1853.\n\n*arshin - a measure of length of about 28 inches\n\n**Fadeev - a sailor assigned as Goncharov's orderly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]