RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 119 point to Feng as the more active leader in the movement's initial phases. An account given of him by a deserter from the Taiping army and a former member of Gützlaff's Chinese Christian Union, published in The Hong Kong Register, 27 September, 1853, states that when he met Feng in Kwangsi, they recognized each other as fellow members of the Union. According to the account, Feng had studied under Gützlaff. I have carefully gone over the rather detailed reports Gützlaff sent back to Germany reporting the activities of the Chinese Christian Union, hoping that he might have mentioned Feng, but I was unable to find him named. Gützlaff, however, does report trips made by his workers into Kwangsi, where they preached and distributed tracts. These reports were published in the Calwer Missionsblatt and Gaihan's Berichte. When Hung Hsiu-ch'uan left Roberts and Canton in the late spring of 1847, he travelled to Kwangsi in search of Feng, arriving there in August. In the Journal of Roberts published in the Southern Baptist Missionary Journal, vol. 2, no. 10 (March 1848), under date of 25 June, 1847, Roberts states that two of his followers were appointed to visit the inquirer Hung in a different province. Several efforts were initiated to bring the families and followers of the Taiping leaders to Kwangsi from Kwangtung, but the plans were frustrated by the authorities. Some were caught and imprisoned, others scattered and fled. The friends and relatives of the leaders of the Taipings were rooted out of their native districts and at the same time cut off from the troops of the Rebellion as it advanced from Kwangsi to Nanking. Some appear to have had branches of their clan settled in Hsin-an District, adjacent to Hong Kong. Many of the people moved in and out of Hong Kong. These movements left traces in the reports and records of the Missions, but they are not complete enough to provide a comprehensive account. The various adventures and travels of Hung Jen-kan before he reached Nanking in 1856 are documented in the writings of Jen Yu-wen. For an English language account see his The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (New Haven, 1973). A few additional details are provided by missionary archival sources. In 1852, Hung Jen-kan was brought to Hong Kong by a young tailor from Lilong (Li-lang) in Hsin-an District. He was the grandson of a clansman of Hung, who had befriended Jen-kan in his wanderings. The grandson Fung (Hung?) Sen1 had been under ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 120 CARL T. SMITH the instruction of the Rev. Theodore Hamberg, preparatory to baptism. On 26 April, 1852, Fung Sen introduced Hung Jen-kan to Hamberg. Two days later, Fung was baptized with ten others at the small chapel of the Basel Missionary Society in Hong Kong. The entry in Hamberg's report lists him as "Fung Asen, aged 21 years, from Lilong, tailor's worker." When Hamberg left Hong Kong at the end of March, 1853 to establish a station at Pukak (Pu-kit, Hsin-an District), Fung Sen accompanied him. He was employed by the Mission as a watchman. A biographical notice of one of the Taiping refugees, Li Tsin-kau (†), which was published in the missionary magazine of the Basel Society, Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, June, 1868, provides interesting sidelights on Hung Jen-kan's unsuccessful effort to reach Nanking in 1854. It also illustrates the connections established between missionaries and those who had been influenced by personal association with Hung Hsiu-ch'uan before he became the Taiping Wang. Li Tsin-kau was a native of Wo Kuk Lyan, in the Ch'ing-yüan District, Kwangtung. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan had been a teacher in the household of the maternal grandfather of Li Tsin-kau, and Tsin-kau's father was a good friend of Hsiu-ch'uan. He had often heard his father tell of Hung and his visions. Was the father the Li Ching-fan who drew the attention of Hung to Liang A-fa's Christian tract? Hung himself often visited Wo Kuk Lyang. During these visits there would be discussions regarding the moral and political conditions of China and hopes expressed that these could be improved and the rule of Heaven (T’ien-kuo) established. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan and Li Tsin-kau discussed especially the benefits of fasting and abstaining from meats and the worship of idols. Tsin-kau remembered that Hung spoke often of the power of God to conquer the demons. He also spoke of Jesus as our Heavenly Brother who forgave men's sins, but this was not the main theme of Hung's thoughts, "It was though it had not much touched his heart (“Wenigstens sei es ihm nicht sehr zu Herzen gegangen"). Li Tsin-kau was caught up in the displacement of the former friends and relatives of the Taiping leaders. When the authorities frustrated the plan to join the Taiping movement in Kwangsi, he fled to Macao. He lost track of his brothers and father, and later believed that they were imprisoned. His mother was taken in and Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 121 cared for by friends of the family, and his wife and children fled to her parents' home. Tsin-kau tried to make a living by travelling about the area between Macao and Canton offering his services as a fung-shui expert. After a time, he moved east to the districts of Kuei-shan and Po-lo. After more than a year, he ventured to return to his home district. Here he met up with Hung Jen-kan. The two of them, accompanied perhaps by other friends and relatives, came down to Hong Kong hoping that they could from here find a way to join Hung Hsiu-ch'uan at Nanking, the capital of the Taiping Kingdom. As Hakkas, they sought out the missionaries of the Basel Society, which had devoted itself to work among this dialect group. Jen-kan met the Rev. Theodore Hamberg for a second time at Pu-kit in Hsin-an District. Here he received further instruction in preparation for baptism and was baptized on 20 September, 1853. Hamberg reports six baptisms on this date. The first was "Fung or Hung, from Faheen, aged 31 years, teacher and doctor”, of whom he remarks that he was a relative and youthful friend of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, the Taiping Wang. Four others were members of the Kong family of Lilong, and the sixth was "Fung Tet-schin, from Thatipun, aged 31 years, schoolteacher". Li Tsin-kau did not remain at Pukak with Jen-kan but continued on to Hong Kong with two friends Khi-sem and A-kap. Here they were welcomed by the missionaries and taken on as inquirers to receive instruction. The Rev. Rudolph Lechler had come down from his station in the country to await the arrival from Germany of his fiancé. He assisted Hamberg in the instruction of the new arrivals. The basis of the instruction was the Lutheran catechism. In the light of it, Li Tsin-kau confessed he previously had held a distorted view of the Christian faith. He had understood, under the influence of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, "the discourses concerning the power of God and false idols, but had no understanding of sin and forgiveness through Christ". His prayer had been patterned after a form taught by Hsiu-ch'uan. After three months instruction, he was baptized by Hamberg, although on the urging of Hung Jen-kan, he had some years previous been baptized by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. The Day-book of the Rev. Lechler in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society under date of 28th February, 1854, has the entry of the baptism of four who were instructed by Hamberg at Hong Kong: "Li Khi Lim, from Tseang ye, Li Hin Long, from Tseang ye, Li Chin Kau, from Tseang ye, and Fun Shen Fong from Tung... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 128 CARL T. SMITH later to Lilong, where he served under Brother Bellon in the boy's school. Because of his relation to the Rebel King, it was difficult on the mainland so he came to Hongkong until 1878, when he emigrated with those of Shaukiwan. 14 A search of the records of British Guiana might provide details of his later career. Lechler's Day Book under date 12 January, 1871, mentions a visit from Tsau-phoi, a member of the Fung family of Tsim Sha Tsui, and on 18 February, 1871, he notes that Fung A-lin from Tsim Sha Tsui returned to the Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon. It is probable that Fung Tsau-phoi and Fung A-lin were the son and daughter of "a former Rebel King", who is referred to in the records of the Girl's Boarding School of the Basel Mission at Sai Ying Poon. A report dated 10 July, 1866, lists as a student Lyu Tsya, aged eighteen years, "betrothed to a son of a former Rebel King, who long has put away the crown, baptized by the Berlin Missionary Hanspach in her home." Also listed is Fung A-lin, the small sister of the young man. She had been enrolled in 1865, aged seven years. Her mother was a widow and a Christian. Keeping in mind that the Hakka version of the surname Hung was written Fung, and that the entries in Lechler's Day Book were written in a very illegible script, it may be that Fung Tsau-phoi is the same as Hung Tsun Fooi mentioned in T’ai-p’ing t'ien-kuo shih-shih jih-chih Appendix, p.24, as present in Hong Kong after the fall of the Taiping government. Two relatives of Feng Yün-shan, a twenty-one year old nephew A-sou and his fourteen-year old cousin, accompanied the Rev. Issachar J. Roberts to Shanghai in 1853, in an attempt to reach Nanking. A-sou was baptized by Roberts at Shanghai. The Baptist Missionary Rev. Matthew T. Yates became acquainted with the two boys, but in his book The Tai Ping Rebellion, he mistakenly states that they were brothers of Feng Yün-shan. Fung A-sou found it impossible to reach Nanking, so he came down to Hong Kong. From here he went up to Canton where he became a teacher to an American missionary. But he became ill, and returned to Hong Kong where he died on the 21 August, 1855. These accounts of some of the events in the lives of friends and relatives of Taiping leaders and their association with the missionary ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 131 CARL SMITH'S ADDITIONAL NOTE Carl Smith has added to the text of the article appearing in Ching Feng the following note on the family of Li Tsin-kau and their services to the Hakka Church of the Basel Mission in Hong Kong and in Sabah. Li Tsin-kau, otherwise known as Lee Sik-sam, died 8 April, 1885, aged sixty-two. On the letters of administration issued to his widow Ho Lai-yau, the value of his estate was estimated at $400. His assets consisted principally of a small house beside the Basel Society's Church and Mission House in Sai Ying Poon, which he had purchased in 1878 for $480. He sold a portion of the lot in 1878 for $370. Li Tsin-kau's wife was baptized in Hong Kong in 1861 and died there 21 September, 1888, leaving four surviving children. The family property after her death was conveyed by Li A-cheung, an interpreter, Li Shin-en, a missionary and Li En-kyau, unmarried to their brother Li A-po, a trader. The eldest son of Tsin-kau, A-lim, had died in 1864 “in trouble with the police". A-po, the second son was betrothed in 1865 to Kong Oi-fuk from Lilong. She was a student in the Basel Society Girl's Boarding School at Hong Kong, and he was a student of their Boy's School at Lilong. The third son, A-cheung studied at Hong Kong Central School (Queen's College) and in 1871 was given the prize for best scholar. After leaving school, he entered Government service, beginning as a charge-room interpreter for the Police, but in 1875 was transferred to the Magistracy as a clerk. Three years later he was promoted to Second Interpreter in the Magistracy. In 1882 he was offered the position of Interpreter to the Kingdom of Hawaii. Like his brother he had married one of the students of the Girl's Boarding School in Hong Kong, Tshin Then-tet. She accompanied him to Hawaii. In 1883, the Rev. Frank Damon, who was in charge of Chinese Christian work in Hawaii, visited Hong Kong. In a report of his visit published in The Friend (New Series, Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 9) he expresses his pleasure in meeting "the venerable and interesting father of our Government interpreter in Honolulu, Mr. Lee Cheong. A brother and sister are engaged in teaching here, while another brother is missionary to his countrymen". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 336 This book contains several technical flaws. Many of the Chinese works and place names romanized in the text do not appear in the glossary and place name index. The first two chapters present differing numbers for the size of the Dutch military force found on Taiwan. Hsu (p. 15) using a Japanese translation of the Dagh-Register, Batavia and an article by Nakamura Takashi, states that the Dutch forces never exceeded 2000 while Wang (p. 36) gives no source but states that the Dutch troops numbered 2200. A similar figure to Wang's can be found in James W. Davidson's The Island of Formosa. There are also some technical mistakes such as no scale nor direction indicated on a map (p. 149) and lack of unified spelling for the city of Jilong (Keelung, p. xv; Chilung, p. 140). The map on page 40, presumably indicating migration routes in Taiwan during the late seventeenth century, shows Fort Zeelandia (near modern Tainan) on the mainland portion of Taiwan as it is today due to silting at the mouth of the Yanshui River. Other maps or pictures display the fort on a sandspit, in some cases connected to the main island (pp. 29 and 119) and in one case on a separate small island (p. 13). On the linguistic side, the character for a Chinese picul which is pronounced dan (tan) is romanized by its other pronunciation (shih) which means a rock or stone. More crucial is the lack of a central theme to the essays selected as a whole. This is perhaps an inescapable problem of a book in which several authors are presenting their findings on singular aspects of a vast and complex subject. The contribution of this book, therefore, lies in the collection, within one English volume, of articles on various aspects of Taiwan's historical geography. RICHARD LOUIS EDMONDS The University of Hong Kong The Birth of Vietnam, by Keith Weller Taylor, Berkeley, The University of California Press, 1983. xxi + 397pp, tables, maps. Keith Taylor has provided a much needed and detailed account of Vietnamese history during the first millennium — its formative ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 269 was more proper. In the document translated below, the first view tends to be assumed; it is worth bearing in mind that there was a different way to view the question of rights to toll. “A VILLAGE WAR IN SHAM CHUN When we travel in either direction between Hong Kong and Lilong, our route usually passes the market of Sham Chun, or, to be more precise, the two markets and cluster of villages which bear this name. This area lies about three hours walk to the south-west of Lilong. It also lies several hours walk from the mouth of a stream which flows into the Pearl River. This stream is not really fully navigable. At the ebb-tide the passenger boats at Sham Chun lie on the mud for a certain time: with the flood-tide, however, they can make their way down to the vast body of water of the main river. In the same way they return back up the stream to Sham Chun. Because of this, Sham Chun is one of the most significant ports in the district of San On. Every three days many boats leave here for Hong Kong. Similarly, there are regular ferry connections with Canton, Fu Mun, and Nam Tau. This lively traffic brings considerable prosperity to the inhabitants of Sham Chun. A major factor in this prosperity is the "Transit Toll". This is a sort of toll taken on goods leaving the port. It is levied on all goods as they are brought to the ships. Particularly important in this respect are the pineapples and pears which, in the harvest season, are carried in hundreds of loads each week from the warehouse area near Sham Chun, where there are rows of godowns, to be shipped out to Hong Kong, Canton, and elsewhere. The right to levy this "Transit Toll” on goods originally belonged, not to the main village of Sham Chun, but to the village of Lo Wu, about half-an-hour's walk away, and to the Yuen clan of that village. The land on which the landing place stands is owned by that clan, who also own ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 280 16 treated as a neutral, and ignored,' apart from numerous stray bullets which hit it accidentally. However, eventually "more than a hundred bandits" decided to come and kidnap the missionary's wife, and hold her for ransom. The missionary at this point gave up and fled for shelter to Hong Kong. Were these "bandits” a gang of opportunistic thieves and robbers who had come out of the mountains to take what they could in confused times, or one of the antagonists attacking a neutral in an attempt to fill the "war-chest? Clearly, "bandit attacks" were generated by, and cannot always be safely distinguished from, inter-village warfare. From all this evidence, it can be assumed that inter-village warfare in the mid-nineteenth century was endemic in the Hong Kong region, and that the evidence for the serious outbreak at Sham Chun given above merely fits the wider pattern. NOTES P.H. HASE 1 "The Archives of the Basel Mission", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207. 2 It is Basel Mission Archive document A1-9, NR. 31, Quarterly Report, Lilong Station, 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. E. Gilkes for assistance in translating this document. 3 The markets in the area in the Ming are listed in the 1688 County Gazetteer. "Kim Hau Market" is mentioned in the list of villages → this market may, therefore, already have been abandoned by 1688. 4 Enclosure C in Item 59 "Despatch, Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton”. Jan. 11, 1905, in Eastern No. 88 Confidential: Hong Kong 'Correspondence Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway', printed for the Colonial Office. 1907, p. 87 mentions "61 large and 232 medium-sized shops" there, plus, presumably some smaller places. 5 Lilong (F) was the main Basel Mission station in San On (X) District. It lies close to the railway to the north of Sham Chun. 6 Tsoi Uk Wai. 7 Of Wong Pui Ling. 8 At Nam Tau on the coast of the Pearl River. 9 For the she hok (*, "Community School"), see D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 130, 136-138, 222 (n. 16-17), 223 (n. 18). 10 The documents are in File CSO208/1902(Ext) (no title), Public Records Office, Hong Kong, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 [1849] it numbered 25 boys. The free tuition he offered brought him goodwill in the eyes of the people, without much cost, since the boys provided their own food and brought their own books to the school. It was very difficult for Brother Hamberg to live alone and lonely in this way, in the midst of a great crowd of Chinese people, far from any of his Brethren or friends. 110 297 NOTES P.H. Hase See C. Smith, "The Archives of the Basel Mission”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207. 2 Basel Mission Archive, Document A-1,2 Nr. 44, "Half-Yearly report of the Missionary Rev. P. Winnes, from 1st January to 1st July, 1853**. 1 I am grateful to M. Anne-Maria Pordes for her help in transcribing and translating this document. # Unfortunately, the Mission in Sha Tau Kok was closed down and moved to Lilong in 1853, so no further descriptions of Sha Tau Kok of this type were written. 6 5 Jahresberichte der Basler Mission 1849, pp 141-143. Hamberg was forced to abandon his work at Sha Tau Kok in 1849; the Mission there was taken up again by P. Winnes and R. Lechler in 1852, but it was effectively abandoned again in 1854. THE BUDDHA, THE HEAVENLY TRUE WARRIOR An interesting phenomenon seen only in Taiwan was first noted in 1984 in Tainan. From an iconographic point of view, the sudden appearance on altars of a wooden carved image portraying a middle-aged scholar sitting sideways cross-legged on a crouching winged mythological creature with a dragon's head* was most unusual. The image, now observed in some sixty temples in most areas of Taiwan, labelled T'ien Chen-wu Fo ADA is gilded, though the creature is usually brown. The scholar, clean-shaven, with a full face, holds a seal in his right hand bearing the inscription, 'With * See Plate 6 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 195 Tau Kok District Committee Propaganda Section), TERRITORY ZINALA £** 愛國主義教 AAMAAT, Sharongaode Lish he vanzhuang aiguo zhiệm paoya panghua catho,(The History and Present Situation of Sha Tau Kok Material for Oral Teaching of Patriotism), Sha Tau Kok, 1986, p 4 22 Jali esberichte der Basler Mission, 1849, pp. 141-143, and PH Hase, “Sha Tau Kok in 1853, op cit. Some of the shops in 1853 occupied two shop units. 2 See W Schlatter, Geschichte der Basler Mission, 1815-1915, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der ungedruckten Quellen, Basel, 1916, Vol 2. p 297 The (Taiping) rebellion spread its waves throughout the whole Empire, disheartening and weakening the Mandarins, and making thieves and robbers impudent. The small school at Sha Tau Kok went under, as the children fled the prevailing insecurity, and the teachers left. Despite the disturbances, however, the services and worship of God were seldom interrupted, in fact, only when the cannons thundered. The Mission, however, closed down during this period, in part because of the “prevailing insecurity”, and in part because of illness among the missionaries. The Mission was re-established at Lilong (WJ), 20 miles to the north-west of Sha Tau Kok, near Po Kat (Bup, fb'). 24 The Punti clans around Sham Chun had a similar district school, the Sham Chun Community School, in the market there, which brought them a great deal of prestige (D Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op cit). 25 See Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op cit, p. 200, n. 4. These dead were very possibly the victims of the Taiping fighting in 1854. 26 See Enclosure 22 to Item 204 (pp. 272-273) in File No. 66. Correspondence (June 20 1898 to August 20 1900) Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, printed for the Colonial Office, London, November, 1900. It is worth noting that the Council of the Punti clans in Sham Chun, the Tung Ping Kuk, also met in a Meeting Hall attached to the Community School there. 27 No firm evidence survives as to the date of either gun-tower, but the eastern tower was in existence in the present elders' fathers' time, and thus before 1898. The eastern gun tower "looked less old" than the western one in the 1920s. 28 Sugar was probably the item most heavily smuggled into China in the early 1930s, because of its prohibitively high import duty. See Jutan BL, 1887-1986, (Xianggang Haiguan Bainian Dashiji, 1887-1986, (Chugao), [A record of major Events of the Hundred Years of the Kowloon customs, 1887-1986, (Draft)], Canton, 1987, 1931, and 1932 (estimates of smuggled sugar in 1932 were 640 tons in April, 20,984 piculs in May, and 14,400 piculs in July). 29 Administrative Reports, App J. “Report on the New Territories”, for the year 1932, p J3, refers to problems caused by "the heavy customs duty payable on the export of dried fish into China", for the Year 1934, refers to "continuing problems" due to the high import duty on dried fish, which, at $3 per picul, exceeded the value of the fish. For the year 1935, p. J3, refers to the high import duties on "New Territories fish", which were causing difficulties. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 114 of it are hard to come by One of the best-known sources in English, whose descriptions I shall speak of later, is Charles G. Leland. In his book, "Pidgin-English Sing-song" published in 1876, Leland polishes off his introduction to the language with the words: "There are, in all, not more than thirty altogether foreign or strange words in ordinary use, and a number of these are familiar to all persons of the least general information. What remains can present no difficulty to anyone who can understand negro minstrelsy or baby talk" To the modern person who has not lived in the Pacific Islands or Papua New Guinea, Pidgin English brings to mind partly apochryphal stories of Duke-of-Edinburgh worship and terms like "mixmaster-bilong-Jesus" (a helicopter) and "big-man-box-you-bash-him-teeth-he-cry" (a grand piano). We have set the background to the article. Before we go further, let's just remind ourselves what China Coast Pidgin English spoken in the later part of the last century really did sound like. Listen carefully for the baby talk. "O-lo dim Hongkong sai hab dou-mat-ji man tok-gi Ying-li-sı a-la sim mai. Je-sı naau no hap gat; a-la daat man go dai. Je-si naau mai ding-ki you no gen hi-ya wan pr-si Chee-na man tok-gi long daat o-lo dim man sim, fa-san. ++ Historical background Macau was occupied by the Portuguese in 1557. They had previously been trading with south China for many years from a place called, in Portuguese, Lampacau Dr Graciete Batalha, who has carried out extensive research on the Portuguese dialect of Macao (Glossario do Dialecto Macaense, Instituto Cultural de Macau. 1988 from original articles published from 1971-1977), has formed the opinion that during this early period of the development of the Macau "patoa”, the formative influence was not so much the way that Chinese people learned to speak Portuguese, but the manner in which the Macau Portuguese formed the habit of speaking to the Chinese in the Portuguese language. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 140 at the top was another of these tea houses and here we called a halt. I soon got into a chat with an old priest with his clean-shaven head. His temple, or rather hovel, was close there and he got his living by begging. He was stone blind. It was a mendicant Friar, and a wandering Friarð in argument. He freely acknowledged the absurdity of his creed. He is a Buddhist: and offered me on the spot to go with me and learn my creed if I would feed and clothe him. Then I jeered him about his idols, and why he did not get them to help him. The worst of them is, they all acknowledge the absurdity of it, but say it is their custom. Western Foreigners have customs and celestial's have customs, and all creeds are good alike: here the matter ends. We again got on our route, and descended the valley. Mr Stringer and myself were so long with the old priest that we were far behind the rest of the party; but we were armed and therefore there was no danger. When we again reached the valley at the bottom, our road lay along a small stream for a few miles. The rest of the party were out of sight, and we went on alone, partly uncertain that we were going right. At last, however, the road suddenly opened into a deep valley on the right, and at last we saw the German Mission House, just under the brow of the hill, and our companions seated very comfortably on the balcony [Ed.: An illustration of the Lilong Station accompanies this article.] So we put our best leg foremost, and at last tired of walking and riding we got in about 5 o'clock. The house is not a very grand affair. But it just has served their purpose. There is only one other house near it for a long way. The situation is beautiful in the extreme, and as healthy as possible. They have a little ground in front, and on the sides of the hills are plantations of tea shrubs, though nothing very bright about them. The missionary staff consists of Mr Winnes, who has been in China nearly 20 years, and a fine young German, named Eitel". I was much struck with him. There is a nobleness and firmness in him which I greatly admire. In fact, there is something almost severe about his look. But the animation with which he speaks, and the natural energy of his character, together with his pleasing and gentlemanly deportment, lead you soon to see he is not an ordinary person. [Ed.: Photographs of Lechler, Winnes and Eitel accompany this article.] We took a short walk on the hills, and then came home to dinner, which by the bye I enjoyed with a keen relish. Then we sat a while on ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 141 the verandah and afterwards in the little parlour I was soon deep in an argument with Eitel and Winness, as to the general tendency and aim of Paul's preaching, and we maintained the point a long time, without either giving way. At last Winness is a fine Chinese scholar, and we had a long talk about religious publications in the Chinese language, of which he has written several. Then we turned in for the night, after our evening devotions, and after hearing Mr Winness' evening service, in his chapel. Really the singing of his boys was melodious to a high degree. He has about 20 whom he teaches German, etc. One is now at Hong Kong waiting to go to Germany to be educated as a missionary, and can play the Harmonium quite well. We then turned in. The only two rooms in the house for Europeans served our turn. Four in one, and three in the other. It was sharp work. The mosquitoes were immense great things, and big enough, and many enough to suck all the blood out of one man, but with seven of us, they could not quite manage it. So in the morning we were all able to get up. Few of us slept much. I slept but very little, although I had the best bed. In the morning I took a walk over the hills with Eitel for an hour or two, and then after breakfast we prepared to go on the hills pheasant shooting. I got a long two-barrelled gun, and Stringer got another, and so four of us started, with a guide. Two at last struck out one way, and then Capt Drummond and I went the other. We were soon out of sight and hearing of the rest. But no pheasants were to be seen. This Drummond is a fine fellow, and has no foolery about him. He appears to be as good a Christian officer as could be expected, considering the many things they have to make them wild and dissipated. His right hand and shoulder were bitten severely by a great tiger in India, which caught him and carried him off. The tiger was soon wounded, and at length dropped him, and next day was shot dead. It just gave him a pat on the head with its paw, and made him insensible. It was a narrow escape. The tiger was rather old and its teeth were almost worn out, or it would have been far worse with him.'2 We walked a long time, but shot nothing. So we began to bend our steps home through the village of Lilong. We looked at many houses and things, and even entered some of them and looked about. We were much amused with the immense great wheelbarrows the people use. The wheel is made of planks, sawed... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Philip Winnes of the Basel Mission worked in Kwangtung 145 "Ernest John Eitel, PhD), (1838-1908) was with the Basel Mission. He worked in South China during 1862-65. Eitel was a scholar and linguist who settled in Hong Kong in 1870, where he was Private Secretary to the Governor and later Inspector of Schools. He migrated to Australia after his retirement in 1897. His book Europe in China, first published in 1895 and reprinted in 1983, is an important history of Hong Kong during the years 1841-82 12 Major AG Harfield has written to say that upon completion of a tour of nine years in India, an officer was obliged to take a leave outside India. China apparently was a popular destination Major Harfield also writes. “The favourite sport of officers serving with the Indian army was to go on tiger hunts. As we are thinking of the mid-19th century such a wound would not have resulted in an officer having to leave the service | This last paragraph appears to be a non sequitur. It is integral to the manuscript and neatly fills up the last page of the manuscript. It refers to the German missionary community at Lilong. Perhaps Fryer omitted something relevant earlier in the narration during transcription from his notes 11 Possibly "ornament ++ ¦ ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 146 Figure 1. The Basel Mission Station at Lilong was visited in January 1863 by John Fryer, Rev. Rudolf Lechler, Rev. John Irwin, the Colonial Chaplain, and Rev. Thomas Stringer. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission. copyright, Basel Mission Archive. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Figure 2. Rudolf Lechler (1824-1908), who invited John Fryer to join an excursion to the Basel Mission Station at Lilong in 1863. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission. © copyright, Basel Mission Archive. 147 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 148 Figure 3. Philip Winnes of the Basel Mission Station at Lilong was host to a visiting group in 1863 which included John Fryer. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission, copyright, Basel Mission Archive. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Figure 4. Ernest Johan Eitel (1838-1908), was at the Basel Mission Station at Lilong when visited by John Fryer in 1863. Dr. Eitel was author of Europe in China (Kelly and Walsh, 1895; reprinted Oxford University Press, 1983), a standard history of 19th century Hong Kong. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission, © copyright, Basel Mission Archive. 149 ================================================================================