RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO explore trade possibilities outside the Americas. 13 The New England states especially took the lead in this expansion of maritime trade, and towns like Salem and Boston soon became busy ship-building and overseas ports. Boston ships sailed east to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope, while those from Salem sailed west round the Horn; when, as was inevitable on a globe, east met west in the Far East, they agreed to an east-west boundary line which ran south of Canton and the Philippines; the area of South China was thus in the Salem sphere, and hence most of the early American traders in this area belonged to early Salem, Beverly, and Danvers families. The procedure that had to be followed by foreign ships trading with Canton was briefly this. They made their first China landfall amongst the Ladrone Islands; here they took on a pilot from a junk, and he brought them to Macao; anchoring in the roads off Taipa, they made contact with the Chinese officials who were at that time established on the Praya Grande at Macao; on being cleared by them for Canton, the ships were allowed to proceed to Bocca Tigris at the river mouth, where, after a further delay, they were eventually given a Grand Chop, which was the permit to sail up river. The ships anchored at Whampoa, and the almost endless negotiations for discharging their cargoes and reloading with their purchases began. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the foreign floating population of Whampoa ran into thousands, and the sickness, accident, and mortality rates were very high. Up river, disposal of the dead was one of the easiest of all local business transactions; the Chinese had no such things as enclosed cemeteries, and neither had the foreigners; burials involved no legal or civil procedures; one merely negotiated with a Chinese landowner for a hillside plot and hired a few labourers. On Danes Island, French Island, at Whampoa, Lintin, Capsingmoon, and Cumsingmoon, there lie buried thus hundreds of foreigners whose frail memorials, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared.* In westernized Macao, however, the situation was different. There were enclosed cemeteries there, but they were consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church and therefore were not available to the other Europeans who were *For a map of the Pearl River estuary see p. 93. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r BOOK REVIEWS 131 artists. It is disturbing indeed to find that two of these previously published elsewhere as "attributed" — are promoted here to "full" Chinnery status without a word of explanation! 12 How does one reconcile the title "The Hong Merchant, Gou Qua" with the picture showing a man in the costume of a North China scholar? Anyone familiar with Chinese ship portraits and Chinese port scenes will question the two handsome Chinese Junk oils.13 The clue is the small British and American vessels in the lower corners of the "War Junk" — alluring to a prospective nautical purchaser, typical of many ship portraits, but so different in style and subject from other Chinnery marines. The time has come to bury forever that misused, euphonic term "School of Chinnery". Take port scenes. Mariners and merchants arrived in Canton centuries before Chinnery. Even my two great grandfathers14 had won their battle with the pirates off Macao nearly a generation before Chinnery's arrival. What is more natural than to take home a port scene oil to show one's family. These men were not art experts and Chinese representations were good enough for them. It is possible today to date port scenes definitely prior to Chinnery, proving that Chinnery had no influence on those Chinese artists. It is also possible to date similar port scenes after Chinnery's death that show no style change from the earlier representations. Why not be honest and call them "China Trade Port Scenes",15 which they are, instead of "School of Chinnery", which they are not? To all other port scenes such as St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope16 “School of Chinnery”, verges on fantasy, particularly so when the text denies the existence of any Chinnery pictures made on his voyage to India.17 12 Plate 42 top. 13 Plate 73. 14 William Sturgis and Daniel C. Bacon. See R. B. Forbes — Personal Reminiscences. 15 It has taken many years to substitute the correct "China Trade Porcelain" for "Oriental Lowestoft". 16 Plate 55 bottom, Plate 56 top. 17 Page 59. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 120 REV. MR. KRONE about. By this hospitality to the dead they hope to avert the evils which the spirits of unburied corpses are believed to occasion. There is also a home for aged men, one or two hamlets for lepers, and a cluster of houses for the blind. In the "Samon-che" district record, it is laid down that 200 persons shall be admitted and provided for in these several institutions; and the amount of funds to be expended, and the fields and houses from which the charitable revenues are to be derived, are minutely detailed. But it is well known that the poor and destitute derive little or no benefit from these sources, except the shelter against the wind and rain afforded them by the dilapidated tenements which are provided for them, and in which they may, without annoyance or maltreatment, consume the food which they have been able to procure by begging throughout the day. Lepers are not allowed to enter any village; when they arrive in its neighbourhood they have to stand on a hill, or some other conspicuous place, and call to the villagers, who thereupon come out and supply them with rice, tea, or whatever they may desire. But it sometimes happens that the villagers are rather deaf to the cry of the lepers, and then these unfortunates, who are very revengeful and consequently much feared, enter the village, defile the wells and water tanks, and use every means in their power to communicate the disease to their uncharitable countrymen. The blind have a separate establishment allotted to them by the people of Sai-heong. During the day they go about begging, and in their refuge they have no one to care for them, except some homeless strangers with whom they share their daily alms. If one of them happens to die, the others go about collecting money for a coffin, and the necessary expenses of the interment. Whilst I was living at Sai-heong, one of these blind beggars came to me to beg my contribution towards the purchase of a coffin for one of his comrades who had died; the coffins being cheap, I gave him 200 cash. The next day another blind man came to me, and told me that his companion had also died, and requested my assistance; I gave him a similar donation, and the rest of them having learnt this, a third one came two days after the last, and even a fourth made his appearance. Being advised by the people of Sai-heong that the only way to put a stop to this deplorable mortality among the poor blind, was to refuse any pecuniary aid for their interment, I ceased giving this alms, and the deaths immediately ceased also. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS 11 for nomination by the Governor. The new Council met on 28th February, 1884, and consisted of 6 officials excluding the Governor: the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Surveyor General, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Registrar General. There were also 5 unofficials: Mr. T. Jackson (elected by the Chamber of Commerce), Mr. F. D. Sassoon (elected by the Justices of the Peace), Messrs. P. Ryrie, F. B. Johnson and Wong Shing, appointed by the Governor. Thus in 1884 Wong Shing became the second Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council as an unofficial member. He too was a Cantonese from Chung Shan District. In 1841 he entered, with two other Chinese boys, Yung Wing and Wong Foon, the Morrison School in Macao which was later transferred to Hong Kong. In January 1847, Dr. Robbins Brown, an American teacher in the Morrison School, had to leave China on account of ill health. He offered to take a few of his old pupils back to America for further education. Yung Wing, Wong Foon and Wong Shing signified their desire to go and, through Dr. Brown and the Morrison Education Society, expenses for two years for the three boys were arranged. They embarked at Whampoa on the ship "Huntress" and proceeded via the Cape of Good Hope, the journey taking more than three months. Upon arrival in the U.S.A. the three boys were admitted to the Monson Academy at Monson, Massachusetts. As a result of ill health, Wong Shing did not manage to acquire any academic honours during his sojourn in the United States. On his return to China he was offered an appointment in the Foreign Ministry. He served with Viceroy Li Hung-chang and Marquis Tseng Chi-tze and was a member of the Chinese legation staff in Washington. He resigned later from the Chinese diplomatic service and came to Hong Kong as a merchant. He was also associated with the Anglo-Chinese College and with the London Missionary Society for which he directed its printing establishment under Dr. James Legge. When the Tung Wah Hospital was founded in 1870, he was a founder director. He was naturalized in December 1883 and was appointed to the Legislative Council in February 1884. He was described as a man of property, much-travelled, speaking good English and fully qualified to “look at Chinese affairs with English eyes and at English affairs with Chinese eyes". His career as a Legislative Councillor was an ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 24 STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. as soon as they were caught.20 A few days later, Captain Dew arrived in Ningpo and apparently impressed with General Huang's reply wrote of his satisfaction, and in his momentary spirit of good feeling toward the Taipings perhaps said too much. For example, he stated that "Till the late acts, they (the British) had every reason to be satisfied with your (the Taipings) conduct, and you may rest assured that no breach of friendly relations shall emanate from our side." And since the Taiping response had been "so satisfactory" and tended so much "to impress on us your wish to maintain friendly relations with the English and French," Captain Dew indicated that he would not insist on the demolition of the battery whence came the musket fire, but only that the guns be removed from the position. Incidentally, on the same day in a separate letter to Admiral Hope, Captain Dew noted that a "very active trade is being carried on with the rebels in rice and fire-arms,"22 which comment would in itself seem to be additional evidence against the contrary propaganda line which held that the Taipings were anathema to commerce. On the very next day, April 28, 1862, there came a surprising turn of events. Captain Dew suddenly reversed himself. He now demanded of the Taipings "an ample apology," insisted that the offending battery "be immediately pulled down," and that all guns facing the foreign settlement be removed. Twenty-four hours were given for compliance, after which he and the French naval commander would request permission from their respective admirals to destroy the battery. Dew threatened that should the Taipings fire but one shot in return it would be considered an act of hostility, leading to measures that would probably follow with the capture of the city of Ningpo.23 Considering the startling changed tone and the demands of this letter, it would appear that it was designed to antagonize and provoke the Taipings. One might have expected a defiant reply. Instead, on April 29, Generals Huang and Fan returned a very long letter characterized by an unusual degree of forbearance. It firmly maintained that the demands could not be complied with; otherwise the security of their position would be jeopardized. The letter pointed out all that had been done to keep relations proper and to protect trade. Without rancour it mentioned foreign transgressions against the Taipings. In the event that the foreigners should attack the Taiping positions, the generals made it clear Page 30 Page 31 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36 Editor's note. The extracts that follow from three of the surviving letters of James Calder Stewart are reproduced here with the kind permission of Mrs. Christopher Shorland of Warfield, Berks., through the kind offices of Mrs. David Dunkerley of Hong Kong. Both these ladies are descendants of the Herschel side of the family. It has not been possible with the limited research aids available in Hong Kong to ascertain the writer's dates of birth and death or more details of his life. These will have to await my next leave in Britain and will, I hope, form the subject of a later Note. James Calder Stewart was the son of Alexander Stewart, D.D., Minister of the Canongate Church, Edinburgh, and his wife, Emilia Calder, daughter of the Revd. Charles Calder of Urquhart. Mrs. Shorland advises that reference to other family letters produces little information about James Stewart. Before going to Canton, where he was apparently in business, he seems to have been in India; a letter written to Sir John Herschel dated L'Epéronnière, 13 October 1837, speaks of his being “still invited to return to India”. According to Mrs. Shorland, an uncle, James Calder, had a business in Calcutta, and it may be presumed that James Stewart found a position with him there. James' brother, Duncan, was also connected with the firm in some capacity. It is likely that Stewart's Canton post was obtained through the Calder connection, or was an extension of the Calder business. Mrs. Shorland states that after his return from China, he was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner of the New Poor Law Bill under Professor Jones 'at not less than £500 per annum'. He married later and had three children. The "Herschel" mentioned in the letters is Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1791 - 1871), the astronomer, 1st baronet, and only child of Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1832), also famous as an astronomer. Sir John was married to Stewart's sister, Margaret Brodie Stewart (1810-1884). In 1835-36, when the letters were written, and between 1834-1838, Herschel was at the Cape of Good Hope, to which he had gone on a private project to survey the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere. The prime interest of the extracts taken from these few letters is the view they give of the life and mind of one of the British merchants resident in Canton and Macau and the restrictions ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 186 REV. JAMES LEGGE On the 2nd July of that year, I was walking out on Caine's Road in the afternoon with a friend, when we saw a steamer coming through Sulphur Channel. At first we thought it must be the mail, but it proved to be the Shannon, with Lord Elgin on board. As she steamed into the harbour, and she and the Admiral saluted each other, and the thunder of their guns reverberated along the sides of the mountain, which were then all fringed with mist, I said to my companion, "There is the knell of the past of China. It can do nothing against these leviathans." And so it was. I need not try to tell you how Lord Elgin's measures were delayed in a manner that contributed much, through his prompt and magnanimous decision, to the preservation of our Indian empire. All this and his subsequent proceedings in China may be seen in brief in the memoir of his Life published during the present year. It is only when he is gone that the public at large have the means of knowing what a good and great man Lord Elgin was,—bold, prudent, far-seeing, conscientious. I hope all my hearers, if they have not already read, will soon take the opportunity to read, that memoir, and especially the chapters relating to his two missions to China. The Government at home was equal to the exigencies of the occasion as well as Lord Elgin. Fresh troops were sent out. He went to Calcutta, but was back from it in September. The war at Canton was brought to an end by the capture of the city on the 29th of that month, and Yeh was taken prisoner a few days after. The surprise and disgust of the Chinese in general were great, because he did not seal his loyalty to the dragon throne by at once committing suicide. In January, 1858, I made a visit to Canton, and had the satisfaction of walking all over it, and on a Sunday opened the first house, that was set apart in it to that purpose, for the preaching of the gospel. My sermon was followed by one from a relative of the T'ae-ping king, who came subsequently to be well known himself at Nanking as the Shield King. Poor man! He had been connected with the London Mission here for several years, and was the most genial and versatile Chinese I have ever known, and of whom I can never think but with esteem and regret. Had he taken my advice, he would have remained quietly in Hongkong as a preacher, and might have been living with his head on him to the present day. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART 67 the charge of the North Division magistrate, who was also Secretary to Government. The Secretary held a dormant commission to administer the affairs of the Territory in the Commissioner's absence. The South Division contained all the rest of the leased Territory, i.e., seventeen out of the twenty-six districts, and it was presided over by the South Division Magistrate, who also acted as District Officer. This gentleman controlled a diminutive police force of a sergeant and seven men, all Chinese; all his other staff were Chinese. Apart from the District Officer, there was only one other European official resident in the South Division, which contained 231 out of the 315 villages of the Territory. Until 1906, however, Lockhart as Commissioner could call upon the services of the Chinese Regiment in any emergency which the police were unable to cope with. This Regiment was raised in early 1899 and owed its origin to a suggestion made by Field-Marshal Sir Garnet Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief, that Chinese troops could be organised at Weihaiwei for use in other places. According to R.F. Johnston: 'They did good service in promptly suppressing an attempted rising in the leased Territory, and on being sent to the front to take part in the operations against the Boxers in 1900, they behaved exceedingly well, both during the attack on Tientsin, and on the march to Peking.' Johnston, it seems, over-praised their contribution for between 1899 and 1901 over 800 deserted and many of them moved straight into Chinese service after having passed through what came to be known as "the Wei Hai Wei Military School". As the India Office pointed out, Great Britain was in effect furnishing a "steady annual supply of trained soldiers" to China. At its greatest strength the Chinese Regiment numbered 1,300 officers and men but in 1906, the year the Regiment was disbanded, their numbers had fallen to about 600. A few picked men were retained as a permanent police force, and three European non-commissioned officers were provided with appointments on the civil establishment as police inspectors. In 1910, therefore, the entire Territory was policed by only fifty-six Chinese constables and three inspectors. There was no permanent garrison of British troops. Weihaiwei was officially designated not as a Colony but as a Territory, which meant that Lockhart as Commissioner was head of the local government and subject only to the control of His Majesty exercised through the Secretary of State for the Colonies in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 50 A. D. BLUE Jardine should not pass up the river. In the outcome, the passengers for Canton continued their journey in a sailing boat, and the Jardine returned to Lintin. Some time later the Chinese repeated their demand that the Jardine must leave the country, and as her machinery needed repair, she left for Singapore under sail, and arrived there on 28th February 1836. After several ineffectual attempts to repair the engines and to sell her, the engines were removed and the Jardine was converted permanently to a sailing ship. As such she returned to China on 23rd September 1836, but was recognised at Lintin as the "smoke ship" which had been turned away some nine months before. Although now minus the offending engines and paddle wheels, the hoppo decreed that she must leave. Her later history is obscure, but she seems to have continued in Jardine, Matheson and Company's fleet as a schooner. In his British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-1842, Michael Greenberg includes her in a list of the Company's ships on the China coast in 1840. It was the operations of the steamships of the Royal Navy and of the East India Company in the First China War, 1840-1842, which proved the value and practicability of steamships in Chinese waters. By the end of the war there were 48 British warships on the coast, including hospital, troop, and supply ships. Fourteen of these were steamships, nine wooden and five iron, the best known being the Nemesis. The Nemesis was a pioneer in several respects, and it was her exploits in the First China War which advertised the many advantages of steam over sail in coastal waters. She was the first iron steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, and to operate in Chinese waters for any length of time. Her outward passage to China in 1840 was probably the longest and most perilous voyage undertaken by a steamship up to that time; and some of the problems posed by her iron construction were never fully solved in her time—compass errors and the effects of lightning, for instance. She was flat bottomed and of shallow draft, only drawing six feet when fully loaded. She had two movable sliding keels, one fore and one aft of the engine room, and was divided into seven watertight compartments. With her shallow draft (she could be made to draw as little as five feet when necessary) the Nemesis was especially handy for inshore work on the coast and rivers. She probably demoralised ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA 51 the Chinese more than all the rest of the British warships put together, Chinese opposition to steamships was overborne after the First China War, and in the years between then and the Second China War 1857-1858, steam navigation in China was established on a secure foundation. During the first two decades of steam, American ships were as prominent as British on the Canton River and on the coast, and sometimes more technically efficient. This was largely because the Americans made good use of their experience on the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers, and also because their early steamships were designed specially for coastal and river conditions. Many of the early British steamships were merely sailing ships equipped with engines. The earliest American steamers were associated with Russell and Company, and Robert Benet Forbes was the man mainly responsible for bringing most of these early steamships to China. The first was the Midas, built at East Boston in 1844, which was the first American steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, as well as being the first to be seen in China. The Midas arrived at Hong Kong on 21st May 1845, and was put on a twice weekly service between Hong Kong and Canton, the first regular steamship service in China. She also engaged in towing and salvage work, which was usually more profitable than carrying passengers or cargo; so that the advertised regular sailings were often more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The Midas was followed by the wooden screw bark Edith, also built at East Boston, which arrived at Macao on 2nd September 1845 and Hong Kong a few days later. The Edith was originally intended to run in the opium trade between India and China, but plans were changed and she was loaded with general cargo for Shanghai. Bad weather and engine trouble foiled two attempts to make this passage, and the Edith was eventually sent back to Boston via Rio de Janeiro, reconditioned at Boston and then chartered to the United States War Department. In 1846 Forbes sent the small 20 ton screw steamer Firefly on another ship to Hong Kong, and put her in service between Hong Kong and Whampoa until 1849, usually making two trips daily. She was withdrawn in 1849 and sent to California by sailing ship. In 1846 Jardines were successful in inaugurating the first British steamship service on the river, with the Corsair between Hong Kong ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r Vessel Nemesis Material Tons 1839 Iron 630 gross Builder Laird & Co., Birkenhead, England. Dimensions 184'0" X 29'0" X ? Engines and Builder Paddle, Forrester & Co., Liverpool. Remarks: First iron steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, played prominent part in the First China War. Lady Mary Wood 1842 Wood 297 net T. Wilson, Liverpool. England. Midas ? 250 h.p., Paddle, Fawcett & Co., Birmingham. 56 Remarks: Inaugurated first regular mail service to China in 1846. First P. and O. ship to visit China. 1844 Wood 145 gross S. Hall & Co., Boston, Mass. ? Twin screw, Hogg & Delameter, New York. Remarks: First American, and first propeller-driven steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope; operated first steamship service in China. Iron Prince 1845 Iron 180 gross J. Hodgson & Co., Liverpool, 119'8" x 17'4" X 11'8" Paddle, by shipbuilders Sir Charles Forbes 1846 Wood 211 gross Mercantile 130'1" x 18'5" Dock, Bombay. X 10'2" Canton Remarks: Chartered by P. 1848 Iron 349 gross and O., and their second ship on Canton River, Tod & Macgregor, Glasgow. 172'7" x 21'4” X 10'7" 150 h.p., Paddle, by shipbuilders Remarks: First P. and O. ship on Canton River. A. D. BLUE ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 BRIDGEMAN'S LETTERS FROM CHINA AND HONG KONG 77 father's footsteps and entered the army by purchasing commissions, the usual practice then. Our Orlando, (the name has been a popular choice with the Bradford Bridgemans since the seventeenth century) purchased a commission as an ensign in the 98th Regiment of Foot on July 2, 1841.3 Within six months, Orlando Bridgeman and his regiment were on their way to the war in China. In March of 1843 he was promoted to lieutenant. The letters Bridgeman sent home were addressed to his sister, Selina, who at the time of writing was travelling the European continent in the manner of the fashionable young lady of her day. Only nine of the letters have survived, seven of which were sent from China or Hong Kong; the other two letters, which were also the first two, dealt with the voyage out to China via the Cape of Good Hope. Judging from the contents and dates of the letters it is quite possible that more were sent but have since been destroyed or lost. As one would expect in letters between brother and sister, much of the correspondence deals with family affairs, the condition and whereabouts of mutual friends, Selina's travels on the continent and like matters. After discussing such affairs, Orlando would then go on to recount to his sister details of his life in the not so mysterious and rather boring orient. Soon after his arrival in China, Bridgeman and his regiment took part in the expedition up the Yangtze to Nanking. His only letter about the war, written sometime in August, records its successful conclusion. You can have no conception of the general joy this affords. We are all very seedy. I myself am done up. The 98th are landed and have been for some time, and are encamped near the city of Nankin, more to recruit our health than anything else, as we have been suffering a good deal. Now that it is all over, I do not mind telling you all about it. We have had cholera very badly in the Regt. On our first landing to attack Tsing-kiang-foo* it attacked us and in less than three weeks we lost over one hundred men. Many others are still very ill from the effects of it and the regt. is a mere skeleton from the number of sick in hospital. We were only able to land three hundred and fifty strong. Do not let this frighten you or my mother, as all is nearly over, and the men are fast getting strong.4 Chinkiang, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 178 SUNG HOK-PANG There is a stone tablet near the bridge with an inscription carved on it which can be roughly translated as follows: -- "My grandfather's official name is Kam(); the name for his friends to call him by is Kui Haam(&). My father's official name is Ch'ung Kwong(★★) and the name for his friends to call him by is Wai Cheuk(). My mother's surname is Wong(#). My mother bore Tsun Yuen (myself) and my younger brother Yin Yuen(£). We two brothers were unlucky, in our youth we were without a father to rely on. My mother lived alone as a widow, and had to practice economy and diligence. She gave us good instructions every day and night. Now when Tsun Yuen (myself) grew up, I married a wife named Ch'an() being ashamed to be a useless son, but fortunately I begot two sons, the eldest named Tung Ping(#) and the younger Shing Tak(). At that time there was peace at last with the bandits and in the 43rd year of Hong Hei(A) in Kap Shan() year I rebuilt my dwelling house at my original home in Shui T'au village. My younger brother and my mother did not come back to the home, but they still lived in T'aai Hong Wai, on the other side of the stream. My mother paid great attention to her baby grandsons, day and night she came to see them, and kept on coming backwards and forwards from her house, each time having to bear the difficulty of crossing the water, and obliged to hum the song of "The difficulty of crossing the water" as she passed. Therefore I have exerted myself to build this bridge for the convenience of my mother, and give it the name of Ping Mo(£#), (to convenience my mother). If anyone says that I build it to relieve many people, in the hope of obtaining happiness, I do not dare to have such an idea." (See plate 38), "Hong Hei(a) 49th year, in Kang Yan(P†) year. Winter month, lucky day, Tang Tsun Yuen erected this stone tablet." The following is a rough translation of another reference to the mother of T'sun Yuen, written by Tang Wai K'ui(✯✯). "My Tso Pei(int) (deceased grandmother), Wong, was the wife of my ancestor, Wai Cheuk(2). When she was twenty-one years of age, her husband died. She cherished her fatherless children, and maintained her purity in poverty. When the children were young she bore great fatigue to nurture them, and when they grew older she taught them in a proper way. She always kept on friendly terms with her neighbours, so that they all admired her highly. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 175 at the corners of the mouth and scrotal oedema. During August 1942 only 17 cases of deficiency diseases were admitted as such, but the same signs were common among the dysentery and diphtheria admissions. We began an investigation into all the various manifestations and intensive treatment was started. These patients with deficiency diseases were to form a nearly immovable block in our patient population for a long time because improvement came about extremely slowly. An outstanding symptom was burning pain in the feet which sometimes required morphine for its relief. Many sought to ease the pain by plunging their feet into cold water and one patient had to be confined in a place where water was not available in order to avoid maceration of the skin. Some who had had deficiency diseases improved enough to return to P.O.W. camps. Others remained in hospital up to our release in 1945. These last had balancing problems, numbness of limbs and visual defects. The hospital had admitted 1225 patients during 1942 and this figure included all patients transferred to us from all the other civil and service hospitals in the Colony. Of the total, 443 were admitted during the five-month period August-December and at 31 December 341 patients remained. Pressure on our accommodation had been severe, and repeated changes in the usage of wards were needed to isolate infectious patients and provide room for all who needed our care. The Canadian P.O.W. camp at North Point closed in October and the troops moved to Kowloon. Perhaps because of the rearrangements required by this move, but almost certainly reinforced by the well-known Japanese fear of infectious disease, we were not allowed to discharge patients whom we considered would suffer by a move to a camp. The pressure on our space and feeding arrangements was therefore intense and this did not begin to ease until April 1943. By the end of 1942, however, the heaviest burden of the infections had become lighter, though the long haul to cope with the deficiencies as the main load had already begun. The year 1942 had weighed heavily on the spirits and energies of patients and staff. The departure of the women nurses cast a gloom over the hospital. The future seemed uncertain, the rations were poor, patients flooded in, deaths were frequent, but food gifts to the hospital from friends in Hong Kong and the arrival of a Red Cross parcel per head, to which I shall refer later, together with a natural resilience as the acute epidemics subsided towards the end of the year brought about some lightening of the clouds. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 178 DONALD C. BOWIE he did not explain his meaning. I concluded that the fish had probably been taken from the harbour whose waters were thoroughly polluted. Some of the fish was quite horrid and my diary recorded on 8 August 1942 that I could not touch mine. This was quite an admission for it was rare for me to boggle at any sort of food. Our cooks at first removed the fish heads before cooking but Seino pointed out to us that this was a waste. As a result we began to make what we called fish head soup; this proved to be not to everybody's taste but it did add a new if not always attractive flavour to plain boiled rice and vegetables. Additions to the Japanese supplies of Food. (a) Gifts from Friends in Hong Kong Unfortunately I have no record to show the date on which these gifts started, but by August 1942 visitors from the City of Victoria were being allowed to bring gifts of food to the hospital on Mondays and Thursdays. The food was usually contained in gunny sacks and included tins which contained food sealed in by the makers e.g., jam, or which were filled by the donors with for example peanut butter. I have never learned the whole story about these supplies and I hope that Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, then Dr. P.S. Selwyn-Clarke, will find it possible to relate this in detail.* A little later I shall have more to say about this remarkable man who was Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong at the outbreak of war. As may be imagined the tins and containers became the vehicles for an exchange of notes between the hospital and citizens in Hong Kong. These notes contained personal and family items of news but very useful information came in from our friends to us suggesting methods of combating the deficiency diseases. Small supplies of important drugs were sent in by this route and information was given on methods of cultivating yeast, hop barm and other preparations thought to remedy vitamin deficiencies. Much ingenuity was expended in the hospital in making false bottoms and lids to tins and I can remember only one time when a communication was discovered. The culprit, a Hong Kong man, reacted by his cries and behaviour in a most satisfactory manner to the slapping he * Sir Selwyn's autobiography, Footprints, the Memoirs of Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, was published by Sino-American Publishing Company, Hong Kong in 1975. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 191 of course I was responsible. Only on one occasion was I accused of a misuse of stores myself. In a community the size of ours, in the disturbing atmosphere of the early year or two, I suppose I was lucky not to meet more accusations of my own shortcomings. Anonymous letters diminished and eventually disappeared as the policy of spreading responsibilities took shape and of course as conditions improved. In this account I have given much space to the problems of general messing of patients and staff for this was the most important general matter which affected everybody. Ordinary complaints as to quantity and quality of food were openly and freely made and as speedily forgotten by most of our population. There were some, a few only, whose recurring complaints made life miserable at times for all those in the supply line. Arrangements made by our friends in Hong Kong Even now I do not know the whole story about the food supplies which arrived at the hospital as gifts from our friends in Hong Kong. I repeat here the hope that Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke will find it possible to relate this in detail for it was he who originated the system. A short account of this remarkable man is necessary. He was Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong at the outbreak of war and was deeply committed to the welfare of Hong Kong Chinese citizens of all classes. He had reorganized the medical services in the Colony and had a formidable reputation as an advocate in any cause that he took up. He sought nothing for himself; he liked his own ways of doing things and often enough these did not commend themselves to others. Courage, pertinacity and not a little guile allowed him usually to carry the day. His wife and very young daughter were in Hong Kong with him, and were not evacuated to the Philippines and later to Australia with other service and civilian wives and families in July 1940. His view was that if the families of Chinese and other races for whom the Hong Kong government was responsible were not to be evacuated then his own family would also stay in the Colony. In this decision his wife backed him up fully. Before the Far East war, following representations by the Japanese Foreign Office a Japanese doctor named Eguchi came to study on the spot the medical and health arrangements in the Colony. Colonel T. Eguchi next appeared as the Director of Me- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 208 DONALD C. BOWIE If I had known I would not have named him to the Japanese. They carried out their own searches and interrogations, accompanied by tying up to water pipes or other suitable tethering posts those they wanted to interview. All were well slapped but the thief was never discovered. Two of our orderlies and one R.A.M.C. man were removed to P.O.W. camp though. On another note, soon after I took charge an electric bulb was stolen from the perimeter lighting system, no doubt by one of our people who needed one. The elementary error was made of not replacing the filched good bulb with a worn-out one. This was a useful lesson to me personally from which I profited, but on the occasion of which I am writing I was summoned and formally told that while a bulb was a small matter stealing it was an insult to the Imperial Army and I was warned that if I wanted trouble I could be sure of getting it by allowing such offences. The best story about trading, a true one, concerned a patient who was negotiating a deal with a sentry. Much experience had shown that some sentries were less governed by strong principles of honesty in business dealings than others, and often enough no confidence whatsoever was shown between the parties concerned. On this occasion the sentry wanted to take the article away for valuing before making an offer, but our patient was not prepared to allow this. Eventually a compromise was reached and the sentry left his loaded rifle with the patient as a surety while he took the article away for valuation. The patient kept the rifle in his bed and in due course the sentry returned and a bargain was struck. In the earlier days a number of sentries came to our nursing orderlies suffering from venereal disease being for some reason reluctant to report sick with such a complaint to their own people. They knew the value of the sulpha drugs and they knew that we possessed some of these. At first I was tempted to allow our men to treat them in the hope that we might thereby enjoy some advantages, in the form at least of their forbearance to be unduly zealous in their dealings with us. I soon came to see that we were likely to gain nothing from this practice and set my face firmly against it. Our small stocks of sulpha drugs were so extremely valuable to us that I myself controlled their issue to wards, a special case having to be made to me on each occasion by the doctor in charge. I would not however assert that some of our men did not supply ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 271 I can recall only three occasions on which the Japanese interfered with internal discipline in the hospital and I have given a short account of two of these earlier. On the third occasion our executive sergeant-major Mr. Bartley had crossed the Japanese in some way and for the only time in my three years' experience Sergeant Seino came to me, indicated displeasure with Bartley and asked if I wanted him removed from the hospital staff and sent to P.O.W. camp. Bartley's executive ability was of great value in the hospital and I had no hesitation in saying that I did not want him removed. He stayed with us until our release. Patients and staff were fairly often slapped by guards for some real or imagined disobedience or slight. These punishments were never serious, but I was always apprehensive that the person slapped might retaliate and so cause real trouble. I took up the cudgels on behalf of our people on every occasion, but I never obtained any real satisfaction and I wondered how much authority our hospital Japanese administrators had over sentries. Within the hospital the routine discipline affecting patients and staff was in my hands. Control in wards was in the hands of medical officers in charge, assisted most effectively by the system whereby selected patients were placed in charge of internal ward affairs. These patients were of several nationalities and were not always senior in rank. Their characters and standing with patients seemed to give them more effective authority. I have referred earlier to petty thieving. Occasionally offenders had to be dealt with formally by me in my office. Usually a reprimand sufficed though occasionally a man would be confined in a small room in an outhouse with a wire stretcher as bed. This method was used rarely and a man's food was never cut in any circumstances, while he was closely observed during the term of his punishment in order to avoid adverse effects. At the end of the war no records of misconduct were handed over to any authority by me and no man was reported to any service authority for misbehaviour of any kind. Many of the problems I had to cope with arose from the antagonisms which spring up between individuals, particularly if they are called upon to work in conditions of close proximity. There was no relief from the physical presence, the personal habits, the method of working of others in the particular team so that it was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 96 TIN-YUKE CHAR countries in the hope to find suitable people to replenish our population. We have the productive land. Sugar and rice are our main and most profitable crops." The letter also mentioned that the Chinese did not bring their women and that it was dangerous to give them franchise because their numbers would be a threat to the Kingdom. The suggestion was to try India where the British had been successful in using their coolies in agricultural development of the colonies. Armstrong, however, later sent a report that the East Indians were not suitable nor desirable as immigrants to Hawaii. Minister Green had also written on January 18, 1881 to William Keswick, Hawaiian Consul General in Hong Kong to expect King Kalakaua's arrival and to assist Armstrong in obtaining a good class of Chinese immigrants to be accompanied by wives and children. From Hawaii the party first started for San Francisco where the Chinese Consul General entertained the Royal party at Hang Fen Lou Restaurant and took the occasion to thank the King for his kind treatment of the Chinese in Hawaii. Sailing for Japan on the Oceanic, the Royal party arrived after twenty-four days at the Bay of Yedo on March 4, 1881 and landed at Yokohama. King Kalakaua wrote back from Tokyo on March 15, 1881, “Our reception has been most cordial and pleasant with the Emperor [Meiji]. He extended the hospitality of being his guest during our stay in the City of Tokio, occupying the same buildings that General Grant did when he was here and other distinguished guests, Prince Henri of Germany and the Duke of Genoa.” The subject of possible Japanese emigration to Hawaii received some consideration by the Japanese officials. And on February 8, 1885, the first group of Japanese immigrants (676 men, 159 women, and 108 children) came to Hawaii. Major credit for this successful endeavor was due to "the personal friendship of the Emperor of Japan for King Kalakaua." commented the editor of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. To proceed to China, the party sailed on the Tokio Maru. Upon arrival at Shanghai, they were furnished the Pautah by the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company to take the Royal group to Tientsin. They had hopes of being received at Court in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 260 MAURICE FREEDMAN are discarded, inscriptions neglected. I have already referred to the cast out stone in the Tin Hau Temple in Tai Po Kau Hui. The stock of genealogy books and old land deeds is being fast depleted by loss and decay. The apparatus of ancestral halls is in many cases being allowed to disintegrate. (I came across a village where only the initiative of the Village Representative restored to the ancestral halls the honours boards which villagers had filched to make beds). Now people are at liberty to do what they like about their past and I am not in favour of any artificial antiquarianism; but it is surely a good argument that both the world at large and their own future generations will be grateful to the New Territories people for the preservation of their historical relics. Would it not be possible for the Administration to undertake to register all monuments, to collect unwanted documents, to copy those which their owners are unwilling to part with, and generally to preserve what can stand as a witness to the past of an interesting corner of civilisation? I am told that it is the intention of the new City Hall Museum in Hong Kong to start collecting at some future date objects illustrating the art and material culture of the New Territories, but I fear that if action is long delayed there may be little to survive. 101. I have covered many subjects in this report and made a number of suggestions for research. In many cases I have implied the degree of priority I should give to particular kinds of investigation, but I have not attempted to offer a neat arrangement of subjects on a scale of usefulness, because it is for the Administration and not me to say what is more or less important to its needs. I have tried to indicate the kinds of research that I should sponsor if I were in a position to do so and within the limits of the talent and money at our disposal my colleagues and I hope to be able to pursue some of the investigations I have proposed. If the New Territories Administration is interested in the private research to be undertaken and should itself wish to sponsor investigations then a plan could be drawn up to co-ordinate more closely the needs of the Administration with the interests of the social scientists. Hong Kong, Singapore May-July 1963. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND 143 painted to the eyes, and clad in gay garments. Behind these a band of native musicians, youths dressed in gaudy clothes, provide the melody and rhythm. The dragon shakes his head and stamps his feet to the rhythm, the bearers grunt and sweat, the musicians fiddle and bang and blow, the spectators spit and chew, laugh and talk, admire and applaud. The last player disappears round a bend in the street and another procession begins to form itself with much good-natured chaff and chatter. Meantime the dragon processions which have already been sent off wander through the distant fields, and the curious rhythm of the dance rises and falls in every corner of the glens. So much we have seen for ourselves, but our kind host, who has lived on the island for many years, tells us that on the great day of the feast, all the small processions meet at the special matshed, where are assembled also some of the local gods, as well as visiting deities who have been brought by the folk from other towns and villages. All these gods are then carried in procession to the Pak Tai Temple to make their how to the occupant. Following this they are carried about a mile to the temple of the Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the fisherfolk, through the streets densely packed with fishermen and townsfolk, and thousands of visitors. At this temple the processions stand aside, and the gods in their chairs of state are raced back to the special matshed. The first god to arrive, even if he arrives in several pieces, brings to his devoted supporters the best of luck during the year. In the afternoon the cones are overturned and there is a scramble for the cakes, which are then eaten with the happiest consequences for all concerned. It would be interesting to hear more exactly what these benefits are, for the whole feast looks like an ancient fertility cult. We are much indebted in this account to notes jotted down by Mr. A. C. Franklin, and kindly put at our disposal. The opportunity to witness the Moon-cake festival was also due to his kindness. If we have not reproduced all the interesting and suggestive comments which those notes contain, it is because we hope that he will find time to throw them into literary form and publish them. Meantime we would welcome corrections, and an elucidation of the meaning of the feast from our students, some of whom might well take time to visit Cheung Chow for that purpose. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH 147 kept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire. Talking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station. When I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 52 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS in through the broken windows. Some started immediately to go through the house, while one, apparently a petty officer of some sort, made signs that we were all to come downstairs. Father Meyer tried to explain to the leader, who knew a very little Cantonese, that this was a religious institution and that we belonged to the Catholic Church. This did not seem to make much of an impression and the Japanese insisted we all come down. We accordingly obeyed and were told or rather motioned to sit down on the tile floor in our front hall, we foreigners at the right and the Chinese, our servants, at the left. The Japanese soldiers looked pretty well tired out. Evidently they had been in the night's fighting, and were accustomed to rough fighting. Over their helmets they had a small net, into the meshes of which they had inserted small branches or shrubs, which certainly went far to make them indistinguishable on the mountains. Evidently they had not eaten much in the past few days, for they immediately began carrying out our food supplies, and eating them on the lawn outside. As we squatted on the floor the soldiers, laden with the spoils, passed and repassed us. Some carried our personal effects, others cases of goods from our storeroom. A few carried out blankets and bedding evidently for their wounded comrades. But for the smokers, the straw that broke the camel's back was when they began carrying out carton after carton of cigarettes which many of the men had purchased and had in their rooms. As the Japanese soldiers carried out these cigarettes they would toss a pack or two to the Chinese sitting on the floor with us but nary a pack to the padres; this perhaps to show in what seat the foreigners were now sitting. From time to time packs of army hard-tack were also thrown to the hungry Chinese, and our own tins of milk, fruit and bottles of various things were being sampled right before our own eyes. Not one of us had had breakfast, and it was not until about eleven thirty that some kind-hearted soldier began to think of us and give us a can of cherries. This was passed around among the thirty-five of us, and with two or three cherries apiece the contents soon disappeared. Next a bottle of ginger ale came along, but how far it got I couldn't venture to say; however some of us got at least a swallow. Then a can of sausages went the rounds and each, or I hope each, got a bit on the end of a fork. To top off our repast another tin of cherries came along, along with some hard-tack, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 59 Father Szeliga, who was untied, handed it around and we all took a sip of the precious liquid, but the half-full canteen did not go far among thirty-four parched throats. Later on, a second canteen was handed in, and we had another swallow. We continued to ask and make signs for food, and at length, at four-thirty in the afternoon, we heard a commotion outside. Our door opened a little wider, and a few Japanese soldiers, one apparently a petty officer, brought in and distributed to each a small package of army hardtack and a can of evaporated milk undoubtedly from our own store. We found some sort of implement to open the cans, and we had our first meal of hardtack and milk. Not knowing what the future had in store, we drank only half the milk and kept the remainder for the morrow, just in case! An attempt to explain to the officer who came with the food that two of our men had dysentery met with no response. Then we pointed to our bound hands and asked to see a higher-ranking officer. To this, he replied that tonight we would be taken to the headquarters of the gendarmes, and hope sprung up anew in our breasts. However, as the night came on, no officer appeared, and we sought our bed on the floor as on the preceding night, but with a little less inconvenience, as during the day we had managed to clean up a little more of the debris, or at least to push it aside and thus made a little more sleeping space. During the course of the day, a few Japanese soldiers came along and peeked in through the crack in our door, and one of them threw in a couple of pieces of dirt or stones. As we lay down to sleep that night, we noticed shadows playing on our wall, and looking out surreptitiously, we saw that the Japanese had kindled some fires nearby, the flames of which partially illuminated our quarters. A second look confirmed our suspicion - they were cremating the bodies of the dead. A little later on, we thought we heard English voices outside, but could not distinguish them clearly. The next morning, we found that some captured British soldiers had been billeted in one of the rooms on the ground floor of the house to which our garage was attached, but not being allowed outside, we, of course, could have no conversation with them. Dawn of the twenty-seventh came, and we had breakfast in bed! Sitting or standing in our crowded quarters, we finished the few ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 70 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS On the fourteenth, an officer came in with a stern command that we were to pack up and leave for the internment camp. Just where, he did not seem to indicate, but he pointed towards the Prison and St. Stephen's College. After trying to explain to him that as a group we had considerable baggage, he reluctantly promised to have a truck sent over. We accordingly gathered together our meager belongings into a couple of suitcases and bags, rolled up our bedding, and awaited marching orders. The next day, word came that we were not to go immediately, that we may be sent to St. Stephen's College, and that we may take with us whatever food we have, but there will be no truck available. On the sixteenth, we took up a collection among ourselves and managed to get enough money with which to pay the coolies who were to help in carrying our baggage. The coolies arrived and, as a preliminary, weighed in our effects. Father Meyer took a hand in arranging the baggage and talking price, and I verily believe that if the number of coolies was not limited, he would have moved the whole house as well. For in addition to our personal luggage, there were food supplies, such as some tins of bully beef, tins of milk, oatmeal, a little coffee and tea, sugar, some flour, the remains of the salt pork in a barrel, and kitchen utensils, soup plates, and some dishes, a water filter, host iron, some bottles of Mass wine, a wringer, and a few tools. The question now is whether we shall be allowed to transport all this baggage, and if we have enough money to pay the coolies therefor. The next three days were still days of waiting. At night, we unrolled our bedding, and in the morning rolled it up again, just in case. As we have no more money and very little rice left, we are sorrowfully obliged to dismiss all our servants, except two, who expressed a willingness to share our fortunes or misfortunes, Ah Fung, a Hakka, and Ah Chin, a Cantonese. We understand that we may be allowed these two servants at St. Stephen's. We have only a part of a sack of rice left and only a few beans. In the meantime, we have sent some things, such as chalices, vestments, bookkeeping books, and various other belongings to the Carmelite Convent, where the Mother Superior has very kindly consented to store them for us, until happier days are here. We also emptied our rooms, and what books and other things we could not take with us were stored in the attic, with the hope that they will be here when, and if, we ever get back to our house. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 112 CARL T SMITH system must be abolished. On this there can be no compromise. At the third reading of the Bill the Hon. Mr. P. H. Holyoak, elected representative of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on the Legislative Council, also deplored the image of Hong Kong created by the discussion of the mui tsai question. He referred to the "gross misrepresentations of fact made throughout the press at Home". He described it as "a malicious campaign that should not remain unchallenged in defence of the fair name of the Colony and the good Government which it represents." The Hon. Mr. E. V. D. Parr referred to the united action of Christians and the labour unions: The support of the Bill came from a most extraordinary combination of bodies. Anyone who knows anything of the inside history of the Colony could say perfectly well that support of the Bill is — I hesitate to describe it — perhaps it is best to describe it as a fake. There can be nothing in common or in sympathy between the labour unions and the YMCA and they join together on this occasion for reasons far different from any consideration for the welfare of the mui tsai. What these reasons were he did not state. The Daily Press viewed these remarks in the Legislative Council as attempts to defend the Council and the Hong Kong Government for allowing the system to prevail so many years without taking any action either to ameliorate the practice or to abolish it. The speeches also clearly showed the real position of the Government to the Bill: If we had ever entertained any doubts of the Government's real attitude toward the Bill which it has been obliged to father, it would certainly have been dissipated by the wonderful unanimity shown by Unofficial Members in attacking the measure and scoffing at its sponsors. The speakers imputed unworthy motives — including a desire for cheap advertisement, political intrigue and even malice to those who, without any hope of reward, sacrificed time, energy, money and even position, in order to help those who could not help themselves."7 The editor concluded that the views expressed by Chinese Christians and union members, rather than those of the elite establishment, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 184 WEI PEH TI month on the way down by native boat and a month back. When I returned there was so much to do and before long we had Mr. and Mrs. Williams come, and July 5th Mrs. Ferguson had a little son. It all meant work and if I had been well would have been equal to every emergency, but I wasn't and gave up and consulted the doctor. For a few days only the necessary things were attended to, then after the doctor and Mrs. Williams left Mrs. Ferguson became alarmingly ill and I nursed her for two weeks and had the baby to bathe and look after generally, besides the housekeeping, not to speak of my regular work of classes, etc. I have only these last few days given the little one over to the mother but I always help with the morning bath and putting to bed. So you see my time has been fully occupied, besides, at times, not feeling up to much myself. I am feeling the need now of getting away for another rest as it is simply impossible here. Dr. Williams made general the knowledge that I dispensed a few medicines when he was here and doing medical work. So my "medical practice” has doubled and redoubled till I feel myself in kind of a predicament, as I know absolutely nothing about some of their ailments. And they think I ought to know it all. But I haven't killed any yet and the majority seem to get well! Just so it is a help in the work and more hear the Gospel and I am satisfied. I am willing to spend and be spent for the people whom I came out to help, but I must confess I begrudge the time and strength spent for fellow missionaries, except when there is no one else to do it and a native cannot be trusted. A single lady worker has a bad time living with a family as she is looked upon as general nurse and companion and seamstress. But I do not mean this as complaining. I don't know why I let it slip out of my pen. I hope you have had a good summer and all is well with you. With much love, EDITH ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x Taiho, April 5, 1906 Dear Louese: Your letter came before Christmas and I have thought to answer it as often but there have been letters that required immediate answers and I do not count as a lady of leisure, so your letter has been put aside till I do not want to do so any longer. Some one else will have to wait. I have had this little bookmark sometime ready to send to you, made by a woman here, hope you will like it although it is such a tiny love token to send. [Top margin of p 1 of letter: "On bookmark - the Lord protects us."] Please, you misunderstood my letter, I did not pay extra postage on your letter, but they charged me with it so I sent the letter back to Wuhu. I was explaining the delay in answering to you. Did you pay extra postage or duty on the shoes? Indeed your letters are worth the extra postage but I have never had to pay any on yours. This postage due system we have now takes a good many of the extra pennies and they are not always fair and square is why I sent your letter back. Yes why do any of us complain? You wish your good husband and dear little family are blessed and I wish such a wonderful Heavenly Father and so many dear good friends to care for me, write to me and pray for me, what more do we want? I would like to see some of the friends sometimes and find the time long, but much of the time I am so interested in my work that I do not have time to be lonely. I am enjoying my work so much lately, as I feel that I am getting into the heart of some of the women. I have been moving in the “upper circles” too and going to the small yamen, The Lady has received me very kindly. She has nothing grand but I have been served with the best they had. Imagine making an afternoon call and having fried eggs on ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 33 nominated E.R. Belilios. The only way in for Francis was by election by the Justices or the General Chamber of Commerce of which he was a member. He suffered a number of handicaps one of which was that he was not a businessman. He was present at a meeting of the Justices in 1884 to elect a member and expressed regret that Justices who were officials had, at the request of the Governor, declined to vote. He said they should either use their vote or, better, have no vote. In 1886 he was a candidate for the Justices seat. He published his interest in the newspapers saying "I honestly believe I can do the colony good and faithful service and better than any other man. I am nearly one of the oldest residents. I came here in 1859. Since 1862 I have taken a lively and I hope intelligent interest in the affairs of the colony. I have some knowledge of business and its requirements and am deeply interested in the prosperity and progress of Hong Kong as a whole. It is my home, my life's work is here and I rise or fall with its fortunes". He referred to his practice as a speaker and training as a lawyer and said he was thoroughly independent in all things. He said he was in favour of maintaining absolute freedom of the port and improving the harbour, changing the method of dealing in land and reforming the Legislative Council including increasing the number and powers of unofficials. An editorial in the Daily Press said “false modesty is not a failing of our eminent counsellor any more than want of courage. However the Justices may require other guarantees from their candidate. They may also object that Mr. Francis whilst perhaps independent now has not always been equally so and the tone he now takes smacks rather too much of constant and indiscriminating opposition to the Government. There is some reason to doubt whether the best interest of the colony would be best served by a lawyer. Mr. Chater would be a better member". Francis replied “unofficial members are permanently in opposition but obstruction for the sake of obstruction is a thing I hate and detest. I pride myself on having been in all things and at all times absolutely independent in thought and word. I have spoken and acted in support of what I thought right when it was in my interest in every sense to do otherwise". The paper responded “Nine years ago Mr. Francis and two other barristers (Ng Choy and Hayllor) arrayed with the Governor against almost every member of the British and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 215 small party of 12 practical miners to join me.” A-mei says he expended about £20 on each of his party. The sum included their passage, provisions and outfits. The group, accompanied by A-mei, arrived at Dunedin early in 1866; a few days later they set out for the fields at Taupeka, where, according to A-mei, "they were received by all classes with quite an enthusiasm.” He had also arranged for another group of a dozen or so to follow in a few days. After their arrival, he sent them off to a different area. He did not accompany either group but remained in Dunedin, where he waited for reports from the miners so that when he returned to Melbourne he could spread the news of riches to be gained in New Zealand by Chinese labourers. However, no news reached him. There did appear a lone Chinese whom he had met in Australia. He was a gold counterfeiter. Finding the law closing in on him in Australia, he intended to ply his craft in a new place. Unfortunately for his plans to fleece the gullible, A-mei recognised him. "This nefarious speculator, however, had come to grief, as at my request... he was searched. Apparatus adapted for the manufacture of the spurious precious metal, as also a parcel of already manufactured gold, were found in one of his baskets. He was, of course apprehended, and at my request he was again transported to the place whence he came, under my vigilant escort at my expense. Thus the object of his villainy was cut short without spreading any injury to the country.” A-mei, of course, had financial as well as patriotic interest in protecting the good name of the Chinese in New Zealand. Receiving no news from his miners, A-mei finally decided to return to Australia. Here he continued to wait for news. He finally gave up hope. "I certainly felt sick of the delay, and naturally became low spirited from disappointment.” ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 168 "We would hope that the almost unanimous voice of the meeting and the tone and manner in which its views would be expressed would have an effect, not only upon the immediate subject of the meeting, but the worldwide China question.” A few days following the meeting, Mr. David Welsh wrote a letter to the Daily Press supporting Mr. Whittall's unpopular position. In introducing his opinions, he took up Mr. Sharp's theme of cries of distress. Mr. Welsh suggested that, “in a war of opinion, a good cry is more than half the battle. This was made painfully evident at the public meeting. The cry of Hongkong blockaded is a good one, and almost every person came to the meeting prepared to vote for resolutions framed in that sense, notwithstanding their extravagance, and that the movers of the resolutions gave not one shred of evidence in favour of what they proposed." The final resolution of the meeting provided for a wide distribution of its results. They were of course to be sent to the proper Government authorities. Copies were also to be provided to the Chambers of Commerce in Britain and to all Members of Parliament and other prominent figures. British officials in Canton, Peking and London did not share the strong views of the meeting. Their position was more moderate and no definitive action was taken to break the “blockade.” STRIKING A HARD BARGAIN ON TRADE WITH CHINA Officials responsible for political relations between Britain and China were less emotional than Hongkong residents about the issues of a Chinese "blockade" of the harbour and the appointment of a Chinese consul. As diplomats their perspective was broader. They recommended that a report formulated by a commission appointed in Hongkong to study the blockade should not be made ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 81 + trying to find food and help. At last they came to a grasscutters path which they followed. After walking about ten miles they heard the sound of monastery bells and smelt the fragrance of burning joss sticks. Filled with hope they knelt and prayed to Buddha to bring them to safety. Then they came to a monastery, large and beautifully decorated, and saw ten or more priests outside, but coming nearer they found that they were made of stone. The travellers were amazed, and being afraid began to pray to be forgiven their sins. In the distance they heard a voice shouting to them, and searching in the direction of the voice they came across another priest, but found he also was made of stone. Many times they heard voices calling them, but could find nothing but some stone figures. Then they said to each other, "Those are all Saints, we are unworthy wicked men, so how can we see them", and they knelt down and prayed very earnestly for forgiveness. When they had finished praying they looked up and saw a real priest coming towards them, who welcomed them kindly and brought them into the monastery. A meal was set before them, all the dishes were ordinary vegetables such as Buddhist priests eat, but they smelt very fragrant, and tasted delicious, and the travellers had never tasted anything as good before. When the meal was over, they asked the priest how to get to the capital city, who answered, "From here to the capital is more than 200,000 miles, but do not worry, make up your mind to go and you will reach there quickly". Then he asked Chuc, "Do you know Pooi To?" The minister answered, "Yes, I know him well". Then the priest pointed to the north wall and showed him a cloth sack, a tall Abbot's staff, and a priest's alms bowl hanging there. He said, "Those are Pooi To's things. I beg you to give him back this alms bowl when you see him, and this letter that I will give you. And here is a green bamboo stick, which when you get back to your boat, throw into the water in front of the boat and shut the windows of the boat and sit quietly. You need not trouble to row or sail, for you will arrive at the capital very speedily." They all said goodbye and a young priest took them to the monastery door and showed them a path to follow which would bring them back to their vessel quickly. Once more on board they did what they had been told, and soon found to their amazement that the boat had left the water and was sailing over the tops of the trees. After three days of this novel means of travel, they reached the Waai river (17) and arrived at a place named Chue Tseuk (k) not far from the capital. Here they Page 105 Page 106 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 83 after he died. The wife of a worthy man, Ts'ai Haai (M) was ill, and all hope of her recovery was given up. As the doctors appeared no good, Tsai Haai asked the priests to come and pray for her. They could not help. Then one of them said, “Why not ask Pooi To to come?" When Pooi To arrived, he wandered into the room, looked at the woman and said quietly, "Easy". Then he muttered to himself for a while and gradually the woman was cured. Tsai Haai after that insisted on Pooi To staying with him in his house, and treated him with the greatest of respect. In the ninth month of the third year of Yuen Ka (元嘉) A.D. 426 of Sung dynasty, Pooi To went off to a lake in the East called Ch’ek Shaan Woo (赤山湖) where he became ill, and died. Tsai Haai took his corpse and buried it in a hill called Fook Chau Shaan (U) "upside down boat hill", which is somewhere to the north-east of Nanking. Two years later, one day in the third month, Tsai Haai was in his house with his family, when to his surprise the door opened and Pooi To walked in. He talked pleasantly for a short while, when there was a knock at the door and a priest appeared. He beckoned to Pooi To who followed him, but before he left Pooi To told the family that he had to go to Kaau Kwong (交廣) (now Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Annam) and would never come back to them. He then threw his cup into the sea and he and the priest sailed away in it, to the Monastery of Tuen Moon Shaan (Castle Peak), where as has been already said, he became Abbot. Pooi To is reputed also to have lived for a while in another hill nearby called Ling To Shaan (靈渡山) “miracle across the Sea Hill", and there is still a monastery there bearing the name of Ling To Tsz (靈渡寺). Nothing further is known about Pooi To and there are no stories about him after he came to Castle Peak, but it is supposed that the monastery there was carried on by Buddhist monks for many years after his death. There is nothing recorded to give any indication of how long the monastery continued to exist, but it must have fallen into disuse by the reign of To Kwong (道光) 1821-1850 of Ts`ing (清) dynasty because the Taoists built a monastery then on the site of the old one, and called ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 153 the dictionary to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words she had come across in her reading. Whether she was scolding, philosophizing, or teaching, she would usually quote a Chinese saying to reinforce her idea. Although before her marriage Mother knew only how to boil water, she became a very good cook and developed a fine taste for gourmet dishes. Endowed with a good reasoning mind, she managed to figure out how to make household repairs. Widowed at 32 and left alone to cope with the responsibility of raising four young daughters, she proved to be a skilful manager of what Father left us. Except for requiring good behaviour of us, she made no other demands on us. I am sure that she derived much strength from her deep faith in God and in the knowledge that she had fulfilled her promise to Father, before he died, that she would give their children the best of care. When my parents were married in 1903, Father was 25 and nine years older than Mother. Mother had found it very difficult to be dominated by a husband after having been indulged by a fond parent. Still more difficult was the fact that she began married life in the home of Aunt Yim Ali, who took on the role of surrogate mother-in-law and had a sharp tongue. Because Father felt he owed much to his sister, he tended to cater to her and did not think of giving support to Mother. Since Father was earning only 25 dollars a month, there were only two meals a day — breakfast and dinner. Mother spoke of being very hungry, for on the farm where she grew up there had always been plenty of food. At that time adequate nourishment was especially vital for her because she had become pregnant and was still a growing teenager. Whenever possible, Grandfather Jong would bring her a piece of poached chicken leg, salted, and some snacks, which she would hide away for herself. Later, Father found an apartment in a frame duplex located on the corner of Prison Road and a lane running towards the waterfront, and opposite the original site of the prison. He was now able to give Mother two dollars a month with which she was able to have lunch, usually a Chinese flat cookie, called Kiangsu Cake. Being chief homemakers, Chinese women rarely went out. Social relationships were usually with neighbours and family members. Our next-door neighbours were the Leong Nam's, with whom we shared a common porch. They had one son, Ah Sui, and three daughters, named ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 14 48 to have been a more junior soldier such as a drill or colour havildar who would have been ordered to hoist the flag. At the moment it is not possible therefore to say whether Mohammed Arab hoisted the Union Jack on Hong Kong or not, but what is undeniable is that by his death in 1878 Hong Kong had prospered and grown in importance to such an extent that he and the wider community in the colony considered that whoever had hoisted the flag that day had done something of interest to posterity. If it had been Mohammed Arab, it would have been a foretaste of the multiracial legacies that colonialism would leave to the island. 49 50 The other candidate for the honour of hoisting the flag is a far more conventional one. In his guide to Hong Kong of 1893, William Legge wrote: 'In January [1841] . . . the British Ensign was hoisted on Possession Point . . . by midshipman Dowell (now Admiral Sir William Dowell KCB)'. William Montagu Dowell was born on 2 August 1825 and was made a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1847, rising to be vice-admiral in 1880 and admiral in 1885. In January 1841 he would have been fifteen, so it is possible that he could have been a midshipman at that date and could have been among the group landing on Hong Kong to hoist the flag. More important than whether Dowell raised the flag or not is the fact that the author wished to associate a famous person with the act. William Dowell had been involved in the Second China War of 1857, he was at Shimoneseki in Japan in 1864 and he returned to the Far East as commander-in-chief of the navy in China between January 1884 and September 1885; his naval career had also included spells at the Cape of Good Hope, on the West coast of Africa and on the Egyptian expedition of 1882. By claiming an admiral and a knight as the perpetrator of the deed, the author may have been expressing a desire that Hong Kong's rise in importance should be seen to be mirroring that of Dowell. 51 52 It is extraordinary that historians have paid so little attention to the acquisition of Hong Kong and that so little effort has been expended in trying to establish the manner in which Hong Kong came to be possessed by the British, and contemporary reactions to that possession. Such omissions might perhaps have been more understandable had Hong Kong at this stage only been thought of as a temporary possession. But by the 1870s it was clear that Hong Kong had become a permanent and financially successful part of the Empire, and certainly by the twentieth century it could have been expected that there would have been considerable interest in constructing a colonial history. That such a history ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 79 Commandant of the near-by Gendarmerie post promised us protection, he took no steps to implement his promise, and we had a number of invasions from parties of Japanese soldiers, on and off duty, sometimes searching for arms, sometimes frankly looting watches, jewellery and other small valuables. My wife had a polite but firm way of dealing with these intruders, and in the end they got nothing from us but some cigarettes. On January 3rd Mr. Gimson (the Colonial Secretary) and Mr. Alabaster (the Attorney-General) came up the hill to find out what had happened to us. They told me that they had spoken to Mr. Yano (who had come back to Hongkong temporarily as Consul-General) and the Gendarmerie people about us and the other Embassy and Consular personnel who were in Hongkong (Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Rich, Evans, Herrett and Miss Howkins) and we were to be given special consideration. This was comforting but in the event did not mean very much as there was the usual confusion between the different Japanese authorities, none of whom seemed to pay the slightest attention to the others. Then on January 5th notices were posted up in different places instructing all enemy aliens to report at the Murray Parade Ground between 10 a.m. and noon for internment. The notice said they could take what luggage they could carry in their hands and that they must leave the rest of their property in charge of some responsible person. This notice only came to our knowledge on the Peak at 9 a.m. People didn't know what on earth to do. If they started off immediately, walking down the Peak, they could get to the Murray Parade Ground in time. But there were old people, babies and invalids. Most people thought it would be dangerous to disobey a peremptory order like that, and they struggled down the hill as best they could, taking a suitcase or pushing a pram and abandoning everything else to the looters. For my wife and myself there was no problem as we couldn't walk, so we decided to stay and hope for the best, and a good number of others followed our example. As it happened, things turned out all right, as Sir Arthur Macgregor called later in the day to say that he had arranged with the Gendarmerie that the people still on the Peak might remain temporarily but must be ready to move at a minute's notice. However, the Police post had gone, we were in difficulties about food and water (we had eaten the last crust of three-weeks-old bread that morning), and we had had an unpleasant visit from a party of Japanese soldiers at 2 a.m. We were completely alone in the flat, other flats in the building had already been looted, and generally the situation was unpromising. So we asked Sir Atholl to try ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 231 attitude to such interpolations, 13.2.1863). The qualities of most players have already been touched upon; others were JOHN EDOUIN, “a capital dancer"; his sister ROSE EDOUIN who, in burlesques, was "not to be overlooked; there is a style about her which commands and her gesture is sufficiently theatrical to impose upon her audience where a little less or a little more demonstration might have failed." Mr. W.B. GILL whose acting was not "thoroughly under command", nevertheless had "his place marked out for him and we hope some day to see him take up a leading position as a low comedian". On the other hand Mr. ANDREWS was a useful actor who is careful in his parts does not do more than he needs to do". The Company had had tolerably good houses and their departure was regretted for it was felt that Shanghailanders had seen "perhaps the best company East of the Cape". It went on to Foochow, Amoy and other southern ports. (SCR 5.5.1865). 6.5.-12.5.1865 Two concerts by Mr. and Mme Simonsen (violin and singing resp.) TH N.N. R: For the first time since August 1863 Martin SIMONSEN came to the port, with his wife who was a singer, after recitals in Hong Kong. Rather disappointingly the first two concerts “did not draw very large houses", but "they were warmly applauded by all who listened to the spirit-stirring sounds of Mr. SIMONSEN's violin and the melting tones of Mme SIMONSEN's voice", (NCH 13.5.1865). 8.5, 1865 (Mon) PELHAM HARDWICKE: (= C. MATHEWS) "A Bachelor of Arts" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts) J.M. MORTON: "The Two Bonny Castles" (1851) T: Farce (1 act) C: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps Th: Lyceum Theatre (1) R: According to both the Herald and the Record the pieces went off successfully (NCH 13.5.1865; SCR 22.5.1865). 17.5.1865 (Wedn) Concert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen Th: Lyceum Theatre (1) R: In order to draw more people the admission charge at the Lyceum Theatre had been reduced to $3 with the result that a "full audience was present” (NCH 20.5.1865). No programmes of these concerts were published. 20.5.1865 (Sat) Concert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen, with the Band of the 67th Regiment. Programme: "Kathleen Mavourneen" (song), **No not I** (song), C.A. de BERIOT: “Air varié”, N. PAGANINI: "Carnival of Venice", C.M. von WEBER: "Aufforderung zum Tanz”, 'Monastery Bells", "Valse de concert" (song). Th: Lyceum Theatre (1) R: This was the last concert given by the SIMONSENS in Shanghai. According to the Shanghai Commercial Record it was a great success. Mme SIMONSEN sung the song "Kathleen Mavourneen" which "literally “brought down the house" (this must have been an exaggeration), after which she gave with great effect a very charming little skittish song “No not I'". Her husband repeated some of the pieces he had performed seven years earlier (October 1858); Paganini's "Carnival of Venice" (with which the critic was "not so much pleased") and the variations by De Bériot. In addition "he introduced one or two movements [into the Carnival of Venice? – JH] which we have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 266 the best of it. The weather has now grown intensely hot. In the shade the thermometer is now standing at 84°, which is rather inconveniently warm. Since we have a lady on board, we are obliged to keep ourselves quite dressed, and really sometimes at meals it is very oppressive. At night even lying without clothes at all is very warm work. But in the day time on deck it is a trifle cooler when there is any breeze. In fact I have almost lived on deck for above a fortnight. It is pleasant of a night, especially now the moon shines. The stars however are all strangers to me. There is one fine constellation, the southern cross which is very pretty. The north star is just now going out of sight, and after tomorrow I shall not see it again for a while. I am getting more and more used to sea, although I shall never be very fond of it. It is all very pleasant to sit on deck and read all day, but soon one gets tired of it. It is the same thing every day, and no variety. Not even a sail has appeared for several days. The other day I saw a herd of grampusses, and the other evening a great fellow about 30 feet long, came blowing around the ship for some time. The flying fish are now very numerous, and sometimes a great shoal of them dart out at once from the water, and skim along above the waves. Today I spent some time in watching the stormy petrels as they skim along. Several of them have followed the ship for some days. I am now making some progress with Chinese, so that I can get on slowly through the gospel of St. Matthew in Chinese. I should do famously if the Chinese servant on board was only a Cantonese. I can of course make him understand in writing, but his pronunciation is as different as French from English. I also shall try to get some German if possible out of Captain Moate, so that I can discourse with the German missionaries. We must now call at Anger [Anjer] for a fresh supply of fowls, and perhaps of water. I shall then hope to get hold of some fruit, which of course cannot be procured on board ship. I am very glad we may stop there, because I shall perhaps be able to send you a line just to say I am all right. I expect there will be a wonder at not hearing from me sooner. I fear however it will be impossible, since there appears no chance of falling in with an homeward bound ship. My health continues good, and if this hot weather does not last, I hope to keep all right. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 268 over the past, or meditating on the future. I am often picturing out the arrival at Hong Kong, and what sort of a place I shall find there; and how many letters I shall find there for me. I hope the Bishop will have sent me some further advice, and an order for the payment of my salary. I shall want to get some of my salary advanced, as it will cost a good deal to set up housekeeping on my own account. I have thought of a hundred things which I shall require to know when I get there. The other day I found out that the captain's wife is a Roman Catholic. I had suspected as much for some time previously. He professes to be of no religion at all; so it is no wonder that I cannot associate with such people. I had a bit of a row with him the other day, but he soon drew in his horns and was uncommonly obliging for a few days. It is miserable to live with a man who does nothing but grumble and growl at the men all the day long. I have hardly heard him speak kindly to anybody yet. Wednesday, May 1st I am very glad we have reached another month. Often am I thinking of May and how pleasant it is in England, now everything begins to look beautiful in the country. But for me there is nothing but the wide waste of waters to look at, and the sky overhead, and the consolation that only half the time of the voyage is yet over. It is truly a very monotonous life, but still it cannot be helped. I am now very hard at work with Chinese, Latin, Greek, and French and what with these and other subjects I can just manage to keep myself busied. And I find that the more my mind is occupied, the faster goes the time, only it is rather wearing work to the eyes and brain to read so much. Capt Moate and I are now tolerably friendly, and I do not mind him as a companion when he does not swear nor speak improperly. He has certainly very much improved, and I hope by the time we reach Hong Kong he will have become quite a clever fellow. We have been rather put out of our course through the continuance of the SE winds, which have driven us right back almost within sight of South America, and detained us considerably in our course. The wind has just lately veered round a little, but we are still going along very slowly and badly. It is a long way before we get to the Cape. We are ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 269 now out of the tropics, and already begin to find it much cooler; every day will now make a difference. As we reach the Cape it will be toward the middle of winter, so that we may expect to find it cold. The sea air continues to agree with me, although I very much miss being able to take exercise that is suitable. And I find it rather injurious to sleep in a cabin where the air is quite close, and the heat like an oven, even with the door and window open. Still I hope to more than make up for it in the cold weather. As it is, I am enjoying very good health, and have a good appetite, so that I ought to be thankful for them. Our fowls are beginning to get fewer every day. Yet we have I should think nearly half a hundred. Directly there is an egg laid they all begin to peck at it, and in a minute it is gone. So we watch and directly we hear the cackle we run to save the egg from being destroyed. The poor third mate is in for it today, and has had nothing but bullying. The officers and men seem to get a day of it in turn. The captain's son, George Edward, gets it all day long. Every few moments he has a good smacking, so that if his heart does not grow tender, there is something else that does. It is disgusting to see a child, that would be quite an A 1 if properly managed, made quite a fool of, and treated worse than a dog. Captain Moate and I often have a laugh to ourselves to see their goings on. He does not forget to ridicule the way the men are managed and how things are carried on. But now I am growing quite hardened to such things and hardly notice them. Wednesday, May 8th After a good deal of knocking and blowing about we are now a little quieter, so I take advantage thereof to add to my journal. "We are now about a week's sail from the Cape, and probably about half the voyage is over. We had three days of very stormy weather, so that the captain says he does not remember a storm lasting so long before. During the night it was worse by far. Of course sleep was an impossibility, and long before the weather was over I was nearly used up. The ship rolled very much, and all I could do was to roll about in my berth, first to one side and then the other. But now we are all right again and going on tolerably smoothly, which I hope may continue. The wind now blows from the south, which is the cold quarter for this part of the world. It is now as cold as it was hot a few days ago. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 271 and fine ones they are too. I do not know how many we have now. We talk about getting some monkeys at Anjer when we get there. I wish we were to be there tomorrow. They reckon above 40 days now before we make it. We yesterday crossed the meridian of Greenwich and are now in East Longitude. I could not help thinking all day yesterday what was going on at home and among my friends and relations since it is the same time with us here as it is in England. I very often visited them all round, and had a peep at what all were doing during the day. We shall soon be ahead of you now, and very soon when you get up in the morning we shall be at noon, taking our luncheon. Saturday, May 18th Yesterday we were within 200 miles of the Cape, but had to come to a stop and turn back on account of foul winds, so now we are going back again. If we had gone farther the current would have taken us no one knows where out of the way. We have now to go south for about 300 miles before we get round the Cape; and today the sea is as smooth as glass, and it is the calmest day we have had since leaving England. Still we hope for a wind soon, and I believe the men are "putting the ship round" to be ready for it. Tomorrow we shall have been out ten weeks, and with fair winds we ought to have been here in seven weeks. It is very disheartening. 1 I have spent a good deal of time lately in study. In fact I am making it like college work, and thus the time goes very nearly as fast. I should like this very nearly as well as college if there were more society, and if I could hear from home once a week. Yesterday I amused myself by fishing for birds. I manufactured a hook out of a bent pin, but that did not answer, so I tried a bent needle, but that being slender and brittle was soon gone. So I bent a large stocking needle and managed to make it do. I caught a cape pigeon by the wing and hauled him up and put him to death. A second one I dropped into the water before I could seize him. In the evening I caught another, but in killing it I made its feathers so dirty that it was useless. The first I skinned and should preserve it if I had the proper chemicals. I can have plenty of alum, but that I fear would not do, so I shall throw it overboard after the other. They are large birds with very thick plumage, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 293 from our journey's end. The wind for days has sent us along at two or three miles an hour; but we hope it is now freshening for good. We ought here to have the regular SE monsoon, but it seems we do not deserve it. The captain tries to persuade everybody that it is through someone on board; and often he makes out that no ship can sail, with a b---- of a parson on board, as he considers me. All I wonder at is that his swearing has not been more severely punished, and that worse visitations have not befallen us. It is truly wretched to live with such a man, whom you perpetually feel to be your enemy, and whom you know hates you from the very bottom of his heart. Nowhere can I get out of the way of his swearing; and his daily conversation, saying nothing of his swearing, is enough to disgust even the lowest of the low. The night before last an amusing incident occurred, which at the time was rather alarming. Of course you know these islands are infested with Malay Pirates, who attack every ship that falls in their way, and murder the crew to get the cargo, after which they sink the ship. About four o'clock I was woke out of sleep by a shout. I heard the captain run on deck and in a tone of despair say: "Good God, it is a pirate boat alongside; we shall all be murdered.” I instantly got up, and dressed, and after putting my watch out of sight, was ready to sell my life only after trying my best at fighting. I determined that if I was robbed, the fellows should pay dearly for what they got. No one had seen the boat come alongside. The lookout had not seen it through negligence, and the second mate on the quarter deck had not seen it, because it lay the other side of the mainsail. But nobody moved, and there the boat lay, till at last we came to look closely at it, and found that it was an old tree that had been washed away by the sea, and drifted along side of the ship. The shoals of fish following it and leaping out of the water, sounded like the oars of a boat. Poor captain's guilty conscience made him a coward. He did nothing and said nothing through fright. His heart I believe was up in his mouth, and he came down to his cabin, where I heard him vomiting at a fine rate. It just shows what he is, with all his bullying. It was, however, very gratifying to find out our mistake. Yet I cannot reflect that if it had been a true alarm, there could have been but little resistance, since the firearms are kept out of the way and out of order. We have nearly 50 muskets, but not one can be used. Our two signal guns are both dismounted, and lie down on the main deck. The heat continues very great, but it does not effect me in the least. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 166 comes up to Anna's. In the Cathedral when she sings she can be heard at times quite distinctly from the powerful organ, and an efficient choir. She wants me to join the choir, but I am in no hurry to do so, till I can find out the character of the members. The organist is quite a young man, but a very fair performer. My description must now soon be brought to a close. I must however just say a few words as regards my pupils. They seem generally very shy, what I have seen of them. Two in college now will shortly leave. Hah-choong, the elder is a tall genteel looking youth of 18. His father was an Englishman and his mother Chinese. He was left an orphan, but a German missionary has care of him and his brother and when they come of age there is property for them. I take a great interest in the elder he does all he can to oblige me. He will soon get an appointment in an English counting house, but I hope to be able to keep my eye upon him. When I first came I could not get near enough to speak to them, they would all run away. Even now I cannot get them to talk. They stand motionless when I call them up to me. I find them as the Bishop said, a very cold hearted set. They take everything with the coolest indifference. Whether pleased or displeased one never knows. It is rather discouraging, but I shall adopt an even course of conduct with them, which will break down the barrier between us eventually, I hope. Indeed I may say it is fast improving already. The parents of some of the children are quite respectable people. The other day a Chinese B.A., or graduate of the First Class, called to get his son admitted. He came with a very low bow, and presented his visiting cards, which I enclose as a curiosity. One gives his family name, the other his surname, and his rank. I will also send you one of my bills which the industrious A-tse brings me every morning. I can now keep accounts in Chinese. Many of the pupils are still heathens in heart. I trust however that with God's blessing on my labours I may be enabled to do some good among them. It is only by his Spirit's influence that the heathen notions, and strong prejudices can be wholly extirpated from their minds. 我又有美非此牢者。 21 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 161 which could talk sceptical generals into agreeing to his suggestions. Not that the generals were not most co-operative: they usually went out of their way to meet us. In fact, we found it was true here, as it is always true of all wars, that the best elements of the nation were up at the front. In May, the party of two Americans and one Englishman, already mentioned as having escaped from Shanghai, came through our camp, and I decided to proceed with them, in the lorry by which our two officer reinforcements had arrived, to the headquarters of the British Military Mission in Hunan. There were so many things of which we were in urgent need, and the replies to our signals were so vague, this seemed the best course. We covered the 1500 kilometres to Hengyang in six days. After a night spent with American missionary friends, we were turned out at dawn by an alert, and we were picking our way in the lorry through the crowds making for the countryside, when I saw an officer in British uniform moving with the crowd. I stopped to speak to him and discovered he was a Russian doctor, who had been recruited in China the year before for work with the British Army in Burma. He had been granted leave to proceed to Eastern China to try and get into touch with his wife to get her out of occupied territory. He was making his own way as best he could, had arrived by train that morning, as the alert sounded, and so found himself moving into the country with the crowd. His hope of reaching Eastern China without adequate credentials was vain. I suggested he should jump into our lorry and go back to Headquarters, to return with me to Chin Ya, as I felt sure his best hope of getting into touch with his wife would be through our guerilla connections. That was a great stroke of luck because one of our most pressing needs was a doctor and medical supplies, and Dr. Petro was to remain with us for half a year and do much very useful work. The Mission had no other doctor they could spare for us. At Headquarters there was a good deal of confusion as the British troops were on the move, and then received counterorders. I was disappointed in my hope of receiving any further officer reinforcements, and all that could be spared in the explosive line was mostly ammonal. Ammonal is an explosive with a slower rate of detonation, so that it has more of a pushing or lifting effect. It is used for cratering roads and destroying buildings, and though that type of demolition was not likely to be of much use to us, it was better than nothing. It comes packed in 25 lb tins, about the size of 5-gallon kerosene tins. Two tins of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 166 to lend them cooking pots for their rice, or to provide the few vegetables that flavour the rice. They sometimes break into the houses and help themselves to what they need. It is a vicious circle difficult to control. Fortunately we could see a crack of light at the back of the building where we had last stayed and, when the occupants who were hiding inside heard who we were, they let us in; there was nothing too much they could do for our comfort. They told us that a large bridge some miles ahead, over a side stream which flowed into the Tsien Tang, was down and that we should be unable to get across. This sounded bad and I ordered a very early start. When we got to the bridge we found that a freshet after the heavy rain had weakened the wooden piers, and when a lorry overloaded with troops had gone over on the previous day, it had fallen through. A whole span had collapsed; soldiers were wading in the water searching for corpses and laying them along the bank. The bridge was high, the banks steep; it was obviously impossible for our lorry to get through. We returned to the village and 'phoned Chin Ya with a request that they would send a relief lorry down to meet us on the far side. We then set about unloading the lorry and ferrying our stores across in a small boat. When we had emptied the lorry the driver was ordered to take it back to Hunan; he was a man who had been lent us for the trip. He just got through before the road was cut. On the way through Yingtan and Shangjao we had passed many refugees; on old charcoal lorries, rickshaws, wheelbarrows, and even chairs, but mostly on foot, escaping from the advancing Japanese. We heard afterwards that the driver on the return trip found some refugees who were willing to pay heavily for the privilege of a lift on our lorry; he made a "squeeze" of $30,000. That is the sort of thing we were up against. In the afternoon a 'phone call came through to say that the relief lorry had reached within twenty kilometres of us, but had found another bridge down and had been unable to come further. By good chance we heard of a large junk, hiding in the Tsien Tang not far off our bridge in the hope of avoiding being commandeered. It was full of refugees who were escaping upriver from the Japanese. When we asked whether they would give us and our stores a passage for the next twenty kilometres they readily agreed; our presence would provide a sort of protection. I was careful not to explain too clearly the dangerous nature of our cargo. The Tsien Tang junks are long, rather narrow flat-bottomed boats, curved ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 207 100 boys in the Boys' School and 100 girls in the Girls' School. The Prep School, as the primary school was called, was in an old building and I can well remember the misery of homesickness. After tea at six o'clock we were sent to bed, which seemed ridiculous. My father stayed a few days before sailing for Hong Kong but I saw very little of him. When he left I felt abandoned. Others even younger suffered the same fate but seemed to survive. In fact these schools were run by a most devoted staff of missionaries who took great care of us - body and soul. They were of a fundamentalist persuasion and expected very high moral behaviour from all of us. The standard of teaching was high and the students got good marks in the Oxford School Certificate exams. The Four Seasons School life was regulated to fit the climate. The winters were bitter and so cold that one year we came back from holidays to find the sea frozen over. We walked from the docks to school over the sea. The summers were glorious. I suppose they were hot as I remember hearing of temperatures of 100°F or more but it was dry and on the whole not so hot as Hong Kong. The sea was perfect for swimming, which was allowed once it had reached the temperature of 64°F for three successive days. Spring and autumn were intermediate - considerably colder than the summer but not the freezing temperatures of the winter. To cope with these extremes in climate we had three sets of clothing - khaki shirts and shorts for summer, wool jackets and shorts for spring and autumn and thick wool jackets and plus fours for the winter. The school buildings were also designed to cope with these extremes. The spacious verandahs round the playground of the Boys' School kept the hall and common rooms cool in the summer. In the winter, wooden frames with glass were put up in the arches of the verandahs giving an extra layer of insulation while central heating was going full blast. There was always some excitement with each change of season. Watching the removal of the glass frames on the verandahs heralded the abandonment of our plus fours. The production of khaki shirts and shorts meant swimming and rowing was not far off. I can remember so clearly gazing out of the bedroom windows across the glassy calm sea in the early mornings wondering if it had reached the magic 64°. In the autumn the halcyon summer days would end abruptly with the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 55 The moral behaviour of Chinese delegations was stressed time and again, and often used as a counter-balancing force when defeats had been reported. Entitling the success to Chinese, people and country, forms another main branch of strategy in face-enhancing situations for China. The raising of the Chinese national flag and playing of her anthem were often included in gold winning events and sometimes in the headlines. More so, an editorial with headline reading "I'd like to hear the anthem" appeared on the front page of the 8 August issue in 1984. On the other hand, the successful events and athletes were often linked with leaders of the contingent and also of the country. Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang were mentioned as having watched the winning events. Whenever a group of victorious athletes came back, they were often welcomed by leaders of the Party. The government leaders were also depicted as responsible for the victories. It had been the wishes of the leaders to see the women volleyball team winning the Olympic gold medal; it has been the guide of the leaders, the people's hope, the country's honour, the honour of being a Chinese that the women volleyball team won the most prized reward in sports. These victories were presents for the country and the people because gaining first places was always the errand of the athletes for the country. All these appear more often than the depiction of good tactics and good coaching. This was not even included in the men's win in volleyball. Rather, it was attributed to the support by the entire Chinese volleyball institution. The status of the country, the four modernizations, the goodwill of the party, the kindness of the people had also been driving forces for the sportsmen. It was reported that because of the strength of the country, sports could be so strong (14 August, 1984). The performance of athletes had also been attributed to the status of China, a big and respectable country (1 August, 1984). In addition, the strength of the country stimulated athletes to work hard (headline on page three, 6 August, 1984). All these had induced pride among overseas Chinese (page three, 4 August, 1984). Basking in reflected glory is also evident in the press reports. In 1985 and 1986, the organization of the two events was favourably elaborated and concluded with a note of Chinese participation in the Games. In 1986, Chinese participation was put in a context of overwhelming success. More countries got gold medals, more records were broken. Asian sports ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 132 when he was tired out or feeling angry and frustrated. However, he made some annotations at a later date, 1933, on some of the entries and these were written in very clear, tidy, and easily legible handwriting. He was then sixty-seven, two years before he died. The diary must have meant a lot to him that he should review it forty years after the events. Maybe it was then that he decided to bequeath it to posterity with the hope that it might see the light of day, one day. Lowson began his diary in January 1894 and stopped writing after July. It was in the three-month period from May to July that he recorded the day-to-day happenings in connection with the Epidemic. He put down some statistical and clinical data in the first few days but, afterwards, he wrote mainly about the development of the situation, the measures taken to handle it, and of even greater interest, his clashes with the authorities. By editing the diary's contents, it is possible to write a coherent account of the early phase of the Epidemic, and this is what I have attempted to do. Lowson had also kept several pages of the Hong Kong Weekly Press dated May, June, and July 1894, on which weekly summaries of the events related to the Epidemic were reported. Besides, I am most grateful to Dr. John Nicholls of the Department of Pathology, Hong Kong University, for giving me a copy of a Report Lowson submitted to the Governor dated May 16th. Incidentally, the handwriting in this Report was as good and clear as the annotations. From these other sources, I have been able to obtain further data and information to elaborate on some of the entries I have chosen to present. To us, the diary came to life on May 4th. Lowson wrote that he went to Canton by night boat and mentioned seven names. It would seem that they were going there to play some match, for the next day, the 5th, he wrote 'Murray and Potts licked hollow.' However, in his Report to the Governor, he stated that his main purpose was to see for himself the state of affairs as there had been reports that bubonic plague had broken out there. May 6th Went into town to see plague and saw a large number of cases May 7th Back to Hong Kong. In Club 6 pm. Rumour of plague. Saw Ram who said not so and described what had occurred Ram was E.A. Ram, who was acting sanitary superintendent, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 23 Charles Brodersen, a partner of Pustau and Co., left at the end of 1861. Two new members were admitted to replace him, Julius Menke and G.W. Siewets/van Reeseman (GG 5 Apr 1862) The latter left in 1867 and Theodore Probst was named a partner (GG 12 Jan. 1867) A relative, William Probst, was already a partner, but left at the end of 1869 (GG 8 Jan. 1870) Theodor Probst's interest ceased in 1871 (DP 8 Feb. 1871). New partners were Otto Christian Behn and Johannes F. Cordes. Dr Behn's interest ceased in 1875 and that of Mr. Cordes the next year (DP 20 Apr. 1876, 2 Feb. 1877) After the failure of 1878 a new company was formed. Two of the sons of the founder of the old firm became partners in the new, Wilhelm Carl Engelbrecht von Pustau, Junior, and Theodore Johannes Engelbrecht von Pustau. The firm became Reuter, Brockelmann and Co in 1898. Ernest Carl Ludwig Reuter had been a partner in Pustau and Co. from about the year 1882 and Friedrich Alexander Alfred Buesing Brockelmann was admitted to partnership five years later (DP 4 Jan. 1887) Mr. Reuter died at sea only a few months after the name of the company had been changed (DP 15 Nov. 1889), Mr. Brockelmann died in 1902, aged forty-five (CM 15 Mar. 1902). In 1914 the office of Reuter, Brockelmann and Co. was in the Prince's Building. The partners were H. Heyn, of Hamburg, R. Fuhrmann and M. Steger. Carlowitz and Company The first German firm to be permanently established in China was Carlowitz and Co. It was founded by Richard von Carlowitz who opened an office at Minqua's Hong in the Canton foreign factory compound in 1844. Since 1840, he had been coming to China on periodic business trips sailing around the Cape of Good Hope (DP 31 Dec. 1895). He went into partnership with Bernard Harkot in 1846 (CM 13 Mar. 1846). A branch office was opened at No. 2 D'Aguilar Street in Hong Kong in 1866. At the same time Adolphus Erbeke was admitted a partner (GG 7 July 1866). In March 1868 the Hong Kong office was moved to 15 Playa Central opposite the wharf of Douglas Lapraik and Co (DP 31 Mar. 1868). Mr. Carlowitz served as the Prussian Consular Agent in Hong Kong (GG 5 Jan. 1867) By that time he had the title of Baron. He retired from ... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 127 1 # NOTES The Manchus established the Ch'ing dynasty in AD 1644, having overthrown the native Chinese Ming rulers. The Manchus were related to the central Asian group speaking a language akin to Mongol who settled in Manchuria many centuries earlier. They were usually referred to by Europeans as Tatars. 2. Lach garrison town, including Chapu, contained a Tatar walled city separate from the Chinese city. In 1840 HMS bug Algerine paid a flying visit to Chapu and was fired upon from some batteries near the town. During the attack on Chapu in 1842, these batteries were quickly put out of action by the Royal Navy. 4. Under command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker. *The Westmorland Regiment was granted the China Dragon superscribed “China” for service during the China War of 1840-42. *The Nemesis was the first iron steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope. She was never commissioned as one of HM's vessels of war, yet was generally commanded by Royal Navy officers. She was of the greatest use throughout the First China War and after the Treaty of Nanking returned to Bombay. A joss-house is the Victorian name for a Chinese temple or shrine, the house where the joss (god, from the Portuguese "Deos") was situated. From contemporary sketches and descriptions, the joss house in question would appear to have been a medium-sized Buddhist establishment, and although there were no references to priests, monks, or nuns, it had residential accommodation in addition to the usual altar halls. Lung Fu was a company commander, Iso-ling (grade 4a), of one of the Eight Manchu Banners. *Parker, L. II. Chinese Account of the Opium War. A Tao-tai was an imperial Circuit Intendant, a member of the hierarchy controlling several prefectures. I-li-pu (1770-1847) was a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner and an Imperial Clansman. He was banished for disobedience in 1841 but recalled and appointed acting assistant military lieutenant-governor at Chapu in early 1842, his predecessor having died of wounds during the British attack. Chapu was still occupied by the British, and I-li-pu had to remain in Hangchou, where he received orders to move to Soochou as it was understood that he was respected by the British, and the Court wished him to be on hand to carry out negotiations. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 143 our cultural programmes depend. These had always been available in Hong Kong's colonial era, now practically at an end, because of the settled lives of the many local expatriates working in the major fields of government service, business, education and the professions, and the fact that a good number of them came to admire and value the culture in which they spent their working days. I am assuming that the provision and maintenance of leaders from our local Chinese membership will not be a problem, but this remains to be seen. One can only live in hope. The Society is flourishing, and is well regarded. It is well-established in the hearts and minds of its members of all races, here and overseas. Notwithstanding the difficulties attending any major political transition, such as Hong Kong will face in 1997 and the following few years, like the Territory itself there is no valid reason - so far as we know - why we should not be able to continue our good work well into the next century. NOTES 1. Charles O. Hucker, China to 1850: A Short History (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1978), p. 2. 2. See the history recently published by the RAS, London. 3. They still exist, but a recent enquiry shows that the RAS library now forms part of the provincial collections. See also Harold M. Otness, "The One Bright Spot in Shanghai: A History of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society”, in JHKBRAS 28 (1988), pp. 185-197. 4. See JHKBRAS 1 (1961), pp. 4-5, with historical background at pp. 1-3. 6. JHKBRAS 1 (1961) pp. 11-17, given on 7 April 1960. Prepared by H. Anthony Rydings, our former long-serving Hon. Librarian and Vice-President, indexes to the Journals and “Occasional Publications" up to 1980 have been published by the Branch. Our founder President had applied to the Government for yearly financial assistance, and this small subsidy remained pegged at the same very low figure ever after. Approaches made to leading European banks and firms in 1989–90 for assistance met with no response, perhaps because they had contributed to a recent appeal from the parent body in London. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g Hatt. Virgie Chittenden, Western China, a Journey to Mount Omei, Boston Ticknor and Co, 1888 Hedin, Sven Anders, The Silk Road, English translation, New York Dutton, 1938 — My Life As An Explorer, London Cassell, 1926 Hillard, Mrs Barnet(Low), My Mother's Journal Hope 1829-1834, Boston Ginn & Libs. 1900 Manila, Macao and Cape of Good Holden, Reuben Andrus, Yale in China, the Mainland, 1901-1957, New Haven The Yale in China Association, 1964 Holm, Puts, My Nestorian Adventure in China, a Popular Account of the Holm-Nestorian Expedition to Sian-fu and as Result, New York and Chicago. Revell, 1923 Homer, Jay, Dawn Watch in China, Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1941 Hopkirk, Peter, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia, London John Murray, 1980 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) Hosie, A. Three Years in Western China, London Philip, 1897 (Taipei Reprint Cheng-wen Publishing) —, On the Trail of the Opium Poppy, London, 1934 1 Hoy Ching-ming, Foreign Investment and Economic Development in China. 1840-1937 Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1965 Hsu, Immanuel C.Y., The Rise of Modern China, New York: Oxford University Press. 1970 Huang, Ray, The Lung-ch'ing and Wan-li Reigns 1567-1620, Cambridge History of China, vol 7, 511-84 Hue, Ivan, Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary During The Years 1844 1845 and 1846, a condensed translation by Mrs Percy Simmett, London Longman, 1852 - A Journey Through the Chinese Empire, New York, 1855 1 Hughes, Mrs Thomas Francis, Among the Sons of Han Notes of Six Years Residence in Various Parts of China and Formosa, London. Innes & Brothers 1887 Hume Lotta Carswell, Drama at the Doctor's Gate the Study of Dr. Edward Hume of Yale-in-China, New Haven Yale Association, 1961 Hummel, Arthur W, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ching Period. Washington DC Government Printing Office, 1944 (Taipei Reprint. Cheng-wen Publishing) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g Claire came on board in the middle of last year and has quickly rooted out the requirements to make the Society move forward. She has assisted in the movement of the stock of Journals to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for storage and more importantly has had our membership satisfactorily computerised. And it is on Membership that I wish to conclude this report. Some very interesting statistics of the membership have emerged as a result of some sharp analytical research by our Treasurer. At this point of time the Society has 80 Life Members and 396 Annual Members, of which no less than 50 joined in the last four months. These statistics show that there has been a decline in paid-up memberships over the last two or three years. Given the increased transitory nature of those who join the Society this is not perhaps a surprise. The transitory nature of Society members is borne out by the fact that of the current annual paid-up members, only 75 were members five years ago. Further investigation revealed that most members left because they departed from Hong Kong rather than leaving the Society per se and a few needed to be eliminated from the membership because their whereabouts were no longer known or their subscriptions had been unpaid for two or three years. But a Society such as this is only as good as its members and it is heartening to see that there are many new members of all nationalities replacing those who have left. We welcome them and hope that they will enjoy and be stimulated by the lectures and activities, and if any of them and old members have ideas on the programme and inputs for the Journal please do not hesitate to let them be known. March 1996 XV ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 JOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: III. ACCOUNT OF THREE DAYS EXCURSION ON THE MAINLAND OF CHINA FRED DAGENAIS* 129 This is the third in a series of letters by John Fryer (1838-1928) to appear in this Journal. In the first letter Fryer described the tedious and sometimes difficult voyage from London to Hong Kong in 1861 on a sailing ship via the Cape of Good Hope with a brief stop at Batavia. In the first letter Fryer presented himself as a very young man just out of Highbury Training College coming into contact with the larger world, homesick, critical of the master of the ship and of the passengers, confirmed in his personal faith, bent on self-improvement, and interacting for the first time with missionaries in the colonial world of Batavia and Hong Kong. The second letter, written shortly after his arrival, described Hong Kong and its environs and the European and Chinese people encountered; in it he provided us with a detailed tour of the building housing St. Paul's College, where he had been assigned to superintend by the Church Missionary Society, and of its operations. St Paul's College had its origins in a school founded in the mid-1840s by then Colonial Chaplain Rev. Vincent Stanton; the College was given a boost by the arrival in 1850 of the Rev George Smith, Bishop of Victoria (1849-64). In that letter Fryer seemed in awe of his new authority and responsibility and quite proud of the commodious school building and its library; he began to socialize with the Colonial Chaplain and his family, and revealed an appreciation of the wider perspective offered by the interaction with the Chinese population of the island and its culture. The first and second letters were clearly identified as letters written for home consumption, for family and friends in Hythe and Chudleigh. The letters were extracted from his diary and designed to describe his adventures in an exotic land. The first letter had a salutation and a signature; the second letter had a salutation, but ended abruptly, the last page or pages with conclusion and signature having perhaps been lost or purposely destroyed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 246 palace 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? However 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... I.A.Goncharov, China Sea. 8th June 1853. *arshin - a measure of length of about 28 inches **Fadeev - a sailor assigned as Goncharov's orderly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 49 'I am a Christian, Sir.' 'Very good,' replied the officer, 'I hope I am one too.' 'But I am a Presbyterian, Sir, and at the Depot there were others of that religion, and we could have a service together. In my hut now there are no Presbyterians, and all are wicked.' Mutinies did, however, occur, not only amongst service personnel of the Allies, but also amongst the various Labour Corps. Some were court-martialled and punished in various ways, i.e. hard labour, penal service, imprisonment or even death. In September 1917 some British soldiers stationed at the base camp at Etaples, south of Boulogne, caused trouble and rebelled. Word of this spread to some unwilling Chinese and Egyptians, working at Boulogne, who then stopped work unloading supplies and went on the rampage. Field Marshal Haig ordered this to be quelled and, as a consequence, 27 unarmed strikers were shot dead, 39 wounded and 25 imprisoned. On 10 October 1917, in a serious shooting incident in the Fourth Army area, 5 Chinese labourers were killed and 14 wounded. The inquiry into this incident came to the conclusion that this was due to the CO not appreciating the standard of discipline required to be maintained between his officers and British NCOs as regards the treatment of labourers. On 16 December 1917, a mutiny, as a result of bullying by British NCOs, was reported amongst 21 Company CLC at Fontinettes. The armed guard fired on the mutineers, killing 4 and wounding 9. A Canadian soldier was also killed. The next day, a British infantry platoon forced the Chinese to resume work and, after the ringleaders were jailed, normality was restored on 23 December. On Christmas Day 1917, labourers of 151 Company CLC conspired to kill their Sergeant Major, a "half-caste", as he had been an extortioner and had forced the men to work too hard. Two hundred men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers rounded up some of the mutineers whilst others had fled to near the HQ of 5 Corps at Locre. On Christmas Day, D. H. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 136 In imitation of a real altarpiece the Dormition of Mary is followed higher up by an image above a rose window representing the Assumpta, or the Assumption of Mary into heaven, a favourite theme of Iberian retables, often combined with the theme of the Dormition. Above her there is a high relief of the Trinity with a Golgotha group at the summit. These images are quite typical of the iconography of contemporary retables and follow the sometimes-convoluted theological arguments of the Christian art of the period. As the intricacies of the Late Gothic style gave way to the Italian Renaissance, the artistic potency of retable-façades persisted under different forms, dimensions and styles, and in different places. It spread to Southern Spain after the Reconquista, where it developed its own Renaissance characteristics. Later, mainly in a Mannerist style, it appeared in Portugal. Finally some of the most amazing examples of the genre sprouted in Spanish colonies in Mexico and Peru in a Baroque and Rococo style, sometimes displaying the artistry, or otherwise, of indigenous craftsmen. Although such structures are not usually found in Portuguese colonies, there are nonetheless unusual developments in the decoration of some Jesuit church façades in Portuguese India, which can give insights to later developments in their Macao church. The study of these Indian examples is also useful in another respect. Instead of studying the Macao church in isolation, as is usually done, a comparison with these and a selected number of buildings in India can help us obtain a more coherent chronological and stylistic perspective for the façade of Madre de Deus. To trace back some of these developments in Jesuit architecture the city of Goa, today known as Velha Goa, is an obvious starting point because of its importance within the Portuguese empire in Asia. In fact, soon after Afonso de Albuquerque captured it from Yusuf Adil Khan in 1510, it came to be considered by the Portuguese as the capital of the whole Portuguese Empire in the East. It eventually became not only the seat of the vice-royalty, but equally of a huge Bishopric, which encompassed the entire region from the Cape of Good Hope to China. In the seventeenth century it counted some seventy religious establishments, including thirty-one churches. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 283 an important strategic port for merchants. In the process of competing with Macao as the doorway to China trade, Hong Kong had its moments of hesitation. It had its own internal problems to solve during the three decades after 1841, such as building roads, houses, godowns, and having to provide an attractive and safe environment for trade. Only in 1875, after Hong Kong had developed into a port which was busy receiving Chinese junks from the north as well as Japanese vessels from the East and European steamers from the West was the first lighthouse at Cape D'Aguilar constructed to facilitate the navigation route leading to its harbour. Ships from the West To build lighthouses was a need formed by several elements. First, the marine navigation route from Europe to Asia used to go round the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened for navigation, shortening the distance between Europe and East Asia by 20 to 30 per cent as well as cutting the cost, facilitating more frequent sea traffic.4 Secondly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe increased drastically the supply of consumer goods which, in turn, demanded more and more large steamships with greater speed to carry them. Thirdly, shipping costs depend not only on the size and speed of the vessel or the time needed for the transportation. Part of the cost goes to the insurance against the danger of shipwrecks. The safe route with good navigation aids affected the cost of the goods directly. Because of the above elements, the demand for building lighthouses on the sea route to Hong Kong became more pressing with the increase of trade. Old lighthouses Before the setting up of lighthouses in Hong Kong there were already lighthouses in nearby waters. On the Eastern approaches to the Singapore Straits Horsburgh Lighthouse was established in 1851.5 Off the west coast of Taiwan located on Xi Yu Island of the Pescadores/Penghu Islands, the Fisherman Island Lighthouse (Yureng Tao Lighthouse) was set up as early as 1778.6 In Macao, the Guia lighthouse (Farol da Guia), built in 1865, claims to be the oldest on the China coast. These lighthouses, however, did not provide enough help for 7 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 288 Cape Collinson Lighthouse The light at Cape Collinson was established on 1st March 1876, the year following the other two lighthouses. The reason for being later was that its apparatus was mistakenly sent to the Cape of Good Hope. The illuminating apparatus was fixed Dioptric of the Sixth Order. The focal plane of the light was 200 feet above mean sea level, and in clear weather it could be seen for a distance of eight miles. This lighthouse showed a white light on the bearings from N. 22 W. by East to S. 22 E. Ships heading for Victoria Harbour from the North and the Eastward were thus able to avoid Bokhara and Tathong Rocks, also the rocks outlying Sy Wan Bay by keeping the white light in sight. It also showed a red light from S. 22 E. by West to N. 22 W.20 When all three lighthouses were first in operation, vessels entering Hong Kong harbour were adequately provided with navigational aids. Gradually, as time passed, lighthouses were required to display their own distinguishing characteristics and to repeat these at shorter intervals for more frequent observation as the speeds of steamships increased. In the beginning of the 20th century an 18-knot ship could travel over a quarter of a mile every minute. The older optics that revolved at the speed of four minutes per revolution were replaced by new ones revolving at 15 or 20 seconds. This was made possible by floating the lantern in a mercury bath causing it to revolve with minimum friction. This new technique was installed in lighthouses built in the 1890s. New lighthouses In 1892 and 1893, after much discussion and negotiation between Hong Kong and China, lighthouses were built on the two best sites initially chosen to light the approaches to Hong Kong: namely on Gap Rock and Waglan. As early as 1867, before the building of the first lighthouse in Hong Kong, Commander Reed, a naval surveyor, was instructed to investigate suitable locations for lighthouses to cover the port approaches. He proposed Waglan Island and Gap Rock, small islands to the south of Hong Kong Island en route to Singapore. However, as neither of the proposed locations was within Hong Kong waters, these recommendations were not pursued.21 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 395 correspondent for The Times in southeast Asia, having previously supplied articles to the paper on a freelance basis. One of the last to escape the invading Japanese, he reported the retreat along the Malay Peninsula and the last stand and surrender of the British garrison in Singapore on 15 February, 1942. After Singapore, Mr. Morrison went to Java before following the campaigns in the South West Pacific under General MacArthur, and later in Southeast Asia under Admiral Mountbatten. Mr. Morrison was a courageous correspondent who never thought twice about entering a dangerous situation to get a good story. During the Second World War he spent a lot of time reporting from the front and shared the soldiers' life in the jungle. He regularly hitch-hiked on Australian or American army transport planes in order to follow the action and provide authentic accounts of the fighting with the Japanese. He often came close to death. In late November 1942 he was slightly injured during an air raid on the Buna front in Papua, and in December 1943 he was involved in a plane crash which resulted in head wounds and fractured vertebrae. This is how he telegraphed the paper: 'Regret involved in airplane accident enroute obtain eyewitness operational full stop hospitalised injuries seriouser than yestertime hope recover soon Dickson Brown newschronicler kindly consented cover next three days thereafter Curthoys sorry disappoint you good story - Morrison' His injuries on that occasion kept him out of action until July 1944, when he returned to cover the South East Area Command. He was not out of trouble for long. On 10 December 1945, while reporting from Batavia (now Jakarta) covering a local campaign he was again wounded and cabled the paper: 'Left hospital today. Thumb, in which fragments of Dutch bullet are lodged, will take at least a fortnight to Ian Morrison and family, circa 1950 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 72 he did want to sever the relationship with Ayaou in 1858 when she first became pregnant. In his diary entry for 26 May 1858 he writes "Ayaou two months "Then, on 16 September "I went to see Ayaou who came back from Macao the night before last... I must cut the connection. He even started managing a new native partner named Ayi. On 22 September he wrote: "...Went to see Ayi near N.E. gate." 23 September: "Settle for Ayi $100 and $22Ch. ..." 26 September: "Again Ayi.” The arrangement, as it is suggested by Bruner, Fairbank and Smith, is "undoubtedly quite according to custom in the colonial Asia of the 1850s”. (1986: 232) However, Hart's diary entries stop two months and ten days later when Ayaou would have given, or be about to give, birth to their daughter Anna. "The fact of fatherhood suddenly makes a difference to Robert Hart. There is no other way to account for the record, for he resumes the connection with Ayaou and they have two more children." (ibid) Hart might have changed the way in which he maintained the relationship since he left her at Macao - as he states in Declaration 1: "we never lived together afterwards" - and in that sense he could say he "ceased to live with her". But, it is by no means obvious that he terminated the relationship and only "saw her but seldom”. His emotional and physical involvement in the relationship is much deeper than that which he describes above, it is significant that in Declaration 1 we find the statement: "Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved." Almost ten years after he finally terminated the relationship and married Hester Jane Bredon, he received photographs of his three wards from England. He wrote to Campbell (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 205); Anna is very like what her mother was when I first saw her in 1857: only her mother was not pock-marked. I want Anna to stay at school four years more, and I hope she will be a nice, presentable girl by that time. Her mother was one of the most amiable and sensible people imaginable." The records show that Hart did not only treat Ayaou and his three children by her with kindness and generosity, but also with love. As Bruner, Fairbank and Smith have argued (1986: 154): Indeed, looking ahead at his twenty years of married life with ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 186 although for the first few years after their wedding, the family home remained in Suffolk while he went to sea. It was in the village of Hoxne that their eldest son Robert Benjamin was born in 1860 to be followed by Emily Ada in 1864. Young Samuel came along in 1866 after the family had moved to Framlingham and was given the second name Cornell. It would appear from an entry in Harriet Plant's New Ladies' Memorandum Book 1829 in which she recorded important family events, that Cornell was a family name, possibly the maiden name of her mother or Samuel's mother. One entry records a visit to Chedburgh, a village in Suffolk, by a Mr and Mrs TH Cornell. Whatever the origin, Cornell was the name by which he was known throughout his life both inside and outside the family. Cornell's younger brother Charles Henry was born in 1870 and it was not long after that time that the family moved to London and into a house in Tottenham. Perhaps this move away from the country into the big city came about as a result of Samuel Plant's promotion to becoming a ship's master. In 1881 he was in command of the Iron Ship Reigate, made of iron but powered by sail, for the trade with India. It so happened that the 1881 Census took place on the very day that Reigate was in Middlesbrough when, in addition to Captain and crew, those on board included Harriet Plant, the Master's wife, with Cornell and Charles, the Master's sons, all shown as passengers. But in truth, none of them were passengers - the 14-year-old Cornell had joined the ship for his first voyage while his mother and brother were there to see him off. The start of a life at sea The Reigate set sail from Middlesborough in early May, 1881 for the long passage round the Cape of Good Hope to Madras with no stops along the way. This was young Cornell's introduction to a life at sea and being a dutiful son, he spent some time every Sunday writing a few paragraphs of a voyage letter to his mother in strong, well-formed copper plate writing. It is a remarkably well written letter for a fourteen-year-old young man that now forms part of the Plant Archive at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Although the letter is in good condition, the writing on one side of the paper occasionally obscures the writing on the other side but it is still clear enough to make a full transcription. The letter is almost 2,000 words long but the following extracts give some idea of the young man who wrote them and the dramatic events that he experienced. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 191 also want someone to translate his words to those government officials and village chiefs with whom he would have to negotiate his way up and down the river. He engaged a local small boat skipper as Nocador (coxswain); a Chaldean by the name of Judges who had served some time on board a line of Turkish steamers plying on the Tigris as bo'sun; and a steward who also doubled as interpreter. A further eleven hands were taken on to complete the crew and Plant was ready to set off on his journey of exploration up the Karun river. It was truly a journey of discovery as he had no maps or books on the river and had to rely on local knowledge provided by the Nocador. After a number of excitements along the narrow winding waterway, they stopped at the small village of Shalaliah that acted as a port to Shushter. Plant covered the last seven miles to Shuster on horseback to report the safe arrival of the Shushan to the Company's agent, one of several young Englishmen in the area serving the interests of the shipping company. As both foreigners and Christians, the company's agents lived a life of some difficulty and danger. Plant felt that his life aboard the Shushan was far more congenial. Thus started the regular passenger and freight service that Plant was to run for some time. His relations with the many local officials with whom he came in contact were conducted with tact and skill - his private thoughts about them and his comments on their ways of life and business, he confined to his personal log book. The difficulties of piloting his craft up and down an uncharted river were considerable and required great resource and powers of improvisation. He found that his triple rudder could not cope with the narrow winding part of the river unless he went at full speed, which proved particularly exciting when navigating a series of blind bends. On another part of the river an unexpected eddy took him into some rocks at speed which sprung a line of rivets and opened up a section of the hull. Fortunately, the Shushan's watertight construction in sections kept it afloat but left him with the problem of making a repair - they were far from any dockyard facility. He provided the answer by lowering a weighted line through each empty rivet hole; fishing for the weight from the bank; attaching a bolt; hauling the bolt up through the rivet hole; and anchoring it with a nut which he tightened up to re-secure the sprung plate. This turned out to be a tedious, time-consuming but entirely successful means of making good a damaged hull that he later introduced to the shipmasters of the Yangtse. There were many more occasions when he was up the ================================================================================