[
    {
        "id": 206246,
        "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-1971",
        "page_number": 63,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "LETTERS FROM China 1835-36\n\n57\n\nof subjects that will one day avenge themselves on all of us if neglected. This is almost a more painful sight than the ignorance of the poor Chinese around us; it is being regularly \"blinded by the god of this world\" in spite of the light of day; in the other case, day has not yet dawned on the benighted souls.....\n\nI am more chagrined than I can tell you, at being unable as the time draws nigh, to give Herschel any hopes of meteorological observations here on the 21st Inst. Instruments cannot be borrowed from the Ships at Whampoa, and I cannot leave Canton for two days at this over-busy season to go to the instruments, and I have tried to move one or two Ships' Officers residing there in vain. My old Partner G.I. Gordon (whom you may know by my report of old, for a man of uncommon talents and most cultivated mind, as well as amiable and honorable feelings) is at Macao now, with Herschel's brochure in his hands, endeavoring something: he may be up here in a few days and then I shall know the worst. I look forward to disappointment on this 21st Decr as now fixed. But if I live till 21st March, I shall have better hopes of doing something, however little that something be, because for one thing I shall not be so excessively busy in office at that period as at present. So my regret though great is not altogether despair; and I wish you would give H. [Herschel] my warm love with the assurance of the hearty zeal I take in this matter, and which I shall yet evince I hope more practically than in all this bow-wowing.\n\nI am sending under the care of Lieutenant P. Nicolson by this opportunity, a small parcel to H's [Herschel's] address containing what I daresay will be a great curiosity to you both – genuine Chinese Map of China, and eke of both hemispheres. The latter (the Old World at least) you will make out immediately. But the New World will be new to most Geographers who look at it. I am sorry I have not time to search for some translation of the Chinese characters on it, but perhaps I may supply the want yet. Accompanying this map, is a Prospectus of a most excellent Institution lately set agoing here, for the success of which I feel a deep interest - a Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Society in China! Is not the idea good? Simple elementary Treatises on all useful subjects to be translated by it and diffused as much as possible, over the Empire, and into the Imperial Palace itself if",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206986,
        "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-1974",
        "page_number": 57,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG \n\n51 \n\nboarded Huck Finn's raft on the Mississippi went by the names of the Duke of Bilgewater (Bridgewater) and the Dauphin. But a title not only helped to disarm potential sceptics but allowed an adventurer to secure credit, often a necessity for the realisation of his schemes. Mayréna, as we have seen, kept himself afloat for some time by the sale of bogus titles, decorations and honours. A title, as it were, gave the claimant a fake persona, a social mask or facade behind which the predator could lurk. In this century, however, a devaluation of titles has taken place coincident with the rise of meritocracy.\n\nPoor communications helped an adventurer of the impostor or swindler type, for if knowledge of his past leaked out too soon, this would undermine any claim to respectability and diminish confidence in his intentions. News flowed more sluggishly in the nineteenth century, though it was a period of great achievements in the development of a network of world-wide communications. In 1853 the P. and O. had established a regular mail service between Hong Kong and Calcutta, thus establishing fortnightly communications with England; in 1863 the French Messageries Maritimes opened a route to the East; telegraph connection with Manila was achieved in 1880, with Canton in 1882. Nevertheless, mail, newspapers, and reading matter of all kinds took time — usually a month — to reach Hong Kong from Europe, even at the end of the century. There was also no Interpol to flash news by telegraph or wireless about international swindlers, pretenders and other social pests. The Hong Kong public had to wait several weeks before Le Courrier d'Haiphong brought news of the accusations Father Guerlach had levelled against Mayréna. It was not until 24 December 1888, six weeks after his arrival in Hong Kong, that the general public acquired some knowledge of Mayréna's chicanery and general untrustworthiness.\n\nIt was not only the pursuit of adventure, of fame or fortune, that drew adventurers to alien shores. Some left their homelands to escape from the cultural constraints and legal bind of their own societies — an escape, as they saw it, into freedom, innocence and, its corollary, libertinage.57 Laurence Hope, the wife of Lieutenant-General M. H. Nicolson of the Bengal Army, in 1902 wrote:\n\nUpon the City Ramparts, lit up by sunset gleam,\n\nThe Blue eyes that conquer, meet the Darker eyes that dream,58",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
        "rank": 0
    }
]