RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
174

REV. JAMES LEGGE

the Central Market was formed; and on the other side were some foreign Stores, and a tavern or two. Looking up Aberdeen Street, you saw a few indications of building, and a house on the south of Gage Street, forming the headquarters of a Madras Regiment; and looking up Pottinger Street, you could see the Magistracy and Gaol of the day, where the dreaded Major Caine presided, and below them were two or three other buildings. On from Pottinger Street, a few English merchants had established themselves, and the house which long continued to be known as the Commercial Inn was a place of great resort. On the west of D'Aguilar Street, not then so named, building was going on, and just opposite to it, was a small house called the Bird Cage, out of which was hatched the Hongkong Dispensary. All the space between Wyndham Street and Wellington Street was garden ground, with an imposing flat-roofed house in it, built by Mr. Brain, of the firm of Dent & Co. That great firm had its quarters where the Hongkong Hotel is now, and further on was Lindsay & Co.'s house. All else on the north side of the street was blank, on to the Artillery Barracks, which were building. On the south of the street was the Harbour Master's establishment on Pedder's Hill; and as conspicuous as are now Messrs. Heard & Co.'s Offices, which have been manufactured from it, rose the house of Mr. Johnstone, who had been administrator of the island on its first occupancy. On the Parade Ground was a small mat building, which was the Colonial Church, and above it, about where the Cathedral and Government Offices now stand, were the unpretending Government Offices of that early time and the Post-Office. Far up, if I recollect aright, might be seen a range of barracks, out of which have been fashioned the present Albany residences, and beyond the site of the present Government House was a small bungalow where Sir Henry Pottinger and Sir John Davis after him held their court. Crossing the bridge from the Artillery Barracks, there were some poor buildings for military purposes where the Naval Yard now is, and the houses of Gemmell & Co. and Fletcher & Co., the former of which has since been metamorphosed into the Commissariat Offices. On the right was the General's House, looking much as it does now, and below it was the Canton Bazaar, mainly occupied by troops.

Following the bend of the road, one met with a few Chinese houses on the bluff opposite the present Military Hospital, and
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
80 

ROBIN MCLACHLAN 

in this horrid place. I am therefore leading a most regular life. I get up at 6 a.m. and walk for two hours before breakfast. I remain in my room all day during the heat of the sun and walk again in the evening, and go to bed early. I live on fish, fruit and curry and drink but little wine. But I smoke a great deal; in fact it is necessary in India. I cannot get on without it. The whole fleet expect to sail in a few days. They go back to India. This place, which is now a perfect bear garden, will once more be quiet. There is only one spot on the whole island that has a tree on it. It is called Happy Valley, and is certainly a pretty spot. The rest of the island is one barren rock and perfectly devoid of all vegetation, although there are springs innumerable. ... Now I have told you everything about this delightful spot. It is inferior to Sierra Leone from the fact of its being less healthy, less amusing and less near England.

10 

An important social activity for the infant colony was the rounds of dinner parties held by the senior military and colonial officers. Bridgeman seems to have regarded these events as at least tolerable social functions, but was very critical of the more rowdy partying that went on in the officers' barracks. While writing to his sister, he commented on one such party going on in the next room. This was a farewell party by the Madras Artillery for one of their officers, Captain Balfour. Bridgeman considered it a very noisy party with far too much drinking and feared that it would go on far into the night. 

Men of this sort never sit down to a large party without drinking to such an excess that they lose their senses and are put to bed more like beasts than Christians. God forgive me, but I hate them all. Give me women's society! Without it we are beasts.

11 

Another form of entertainment that attracted Bridgeman's critical comment was the amateur theatre established in Hong Kong in late 1842. The actors were largely drawn from among the soldiers and sailors stationed at Hong Kong. 

I regret to say it was a complete failure. The first and only performance was about a week ago. The pieces they chose were stupid and not one of them knew their parts. However, the house was filled; for in a stupid place like this everybody caught willingly at anything in the way of amusement. The house is now being...
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g
122

the 49th Regiment (Hertfordshire Regiment consisting of 25 officers and 426 men) and a Sapper unit. The Force commander, Sir Hugh Gough accompanied the Left Column.

The Centre Column under Lieutenant Colonel Montgomerie consisted of detachments of Royal Artillery and Madras Artillery, a Sapper unit and a rifle company of the 35th Madras Native Infantry.

The Right Column, under Colonel Schoedde, consisted of the 26th Regiment (The Cameronians) under Lieutenant Colonel Pratt, the 55th Regiment (Westmorland Regiment) and a unit of Sappers.

6

The British plan required the 2,200 troops to be landed on the right flank, on the west face of the line of low-lying hills some two miles to the east of Chapu Bay. From there the three battalions would separate, one, the Centre Column, to hold the base, one, the Right Column, to pass round the base of Huang-p'an Shan to cut off the Chinese retreat and the third, the Point or Left Column, to storm the heights of Kuan Yin Shan. On 16 May the Nemesis and the Phlegethon reconnoitred the northern coast of the Bay of Hangchou and on the 18th they landed in a bay some two miles east of the city without opposition, with the Left Column advancing along the heights parallel to the coast, whilst the rest moved inland to the rear of the heights on which the enemy was posted. Elements of the British Naval Brigade, consisting of some 700 men, landed within a quarter of a mile of the harbour and advanced straight for the harbour battery and then on to the town itself. Only about one in ten of the Chinese force had firearms, the rest being armed with bows and spears. The British plan so took the Chinese by surprise that they fell back in disorder, throwing away their arms and fleeing in every direction. The Chinese having made their nominal stand in the hills had left their rear wide open allowing Chapu to be taken without any major problems. After a battle lasting more than four hours, Chapu was taken by the Right Column and the Naval Brigade with the British casualties of nine killed and fifty-five wounded. Of these, in addition to Colonel Tomlinson, the loss to the Royal Irish were one serjeant and three other ranks killed, and Lieutenants E. Jodrell and A. Murray, one serjeant, one drummer and twenty-seven other ranks wounded. Major Jeremiah Cowper was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on the day following the battle, in succession to Colonel Tomlinson. The Chinese defenders fled to the west, towards Hangchou leaving the British with the town which was promptly looted by the native Chinese.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x
224

seemingly well prepared for paying imperial honours. Surgeon Cree relates in his diary that upon the signature of the Treaty of 1842 on board the British flagship on 29 August, a plain yellow flag was hoisted at the main and saluted with twenty-one guns. On September 14 following he noted that "all ships of the Expedition hoisted the yellow flag at the main - the royal standard of China - and at noon fired a royal salute of twenty-one guns."

50

There was a distinct awareness of the fineness of the country itself. Of Central China, Sir John Davis declared that “it yields to none in the whole world, and is equalled by very few."5 Lieutenant Wyndham Baker of the Madras Artillery also waxed lyrical on the subject.52 Even Sir Henry Pottinger, the Plenipotentiary responsible for forcing the Treaty of Nanking upon the Chinese, had called China "this superb country,” in his despatch to the British Foreign Secretary announcing the event. Several decades earlier, Sir Henry Ellis, member of the Amherst Embassy in 1816, had written that "it was impossible to travel through the Emperor of China's dominions without feeling that he has the finest country within an imperial ring-fence in the world."54

53

None of the books and letters consulted contains the derogatory or offensive terms for Chinese in use later in the century. British sailors jocularly used the term “Fokies" for their opponents,55 and referred to the mandarins as “mad-marines,"56 but the Chinese themselves are not here dismissed as “Chinks,” “Chows," "Heathen Chinee” or “Mongolians" (as they so often were at a later time, in those English-speaking countries to which they had gone in search of gold or employment) but invariably as "the Chinese" or "Chinamen." Indeed, many of the authors pay tribute to the honesty and good manners of the ordinary people.

In short, our naval, military and civilian writers of the period were still generally respectful of China, its Court and its inhabitants.57

These facts are worth keeping in mind when considering the Opium War. We should be careful to view the conflict in the context of its own time, and not of that later period when Western attitudes towards China had changed for the worse.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390
56

80 Macartney's Journal, January 1794. See (editor) Cranmer-Byng, J.L.(1962). An Embassy to China, Being the Journal kept by Lord Macartney during his Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung 1793-1794. London, Longmans, p.215.

#1

Ouchterlony, Lieutenant John (1844). The Chinese War: An Account of All the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking (London, Saunders and Otley, p.37. Wyndham Baker of the Madras Engineers wrote home: "I have read every work I can get hold of concerning the Opium Question and have come to the conclusion that we have no right to date the present eruption to that cause, as we have been insulted, our Trade interfered with, and British subjects have been maltreated long before Opium was mentioned and we have only been too tardy in seeking redress". Letter of August 21st 1840 from Chusan, from (1964) An Artillery Officer in China, 1840-1842, Blackwood's, p. 80.

$2 Levien, Michael Levien. (Edited and with an Introduction by). The Cree Journals, The Voyages of Edward H. Cree, Surgeon R.N., as Related in his Private Journals, 1837-1856. Exeter, Webb & Bower, 1981, p.117.

* This section should be read in conjunction with my article (1999-2000). "That Singular and Hitherto Almost Unknown Country': Opinions on China, the Chinese, and the ‘Opium War' among British Naval and Military Officers who Served During Hostilities There, in JHKBRAS Vol.39, pp.211-233.
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