RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 Sheilah Hamilton - The District Watch Force ... 199 NOTES AND QUERIES Hong Kong (From the Notes of a Russian Traveller), translation of an article written by Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich in 1871.... 229 Hong Kong, translation from a book chapter written by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov in 1853 237 ...... 247 R.G. Horsnell - The Story of Stanley Fort 257 R.G. Horsnell - The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks ..... 265 B.C. Fawcett - First World War Labour Corps Cemeteries in Flanders 281 Keith Stevens - The American Soldier of Fortune Frederick Townsend Ward: Honoured and Revered by the Chinese with a Memorial Temple 285 Ronald Bishop Smith - Sir Ralph Moor and the 'Benin' Cannon of the British Museum and the Royal Armouries 293 Photographs from the Hong Kong 1906 Typhoon contributed by Victoria Brown 297 Dan Waters - Arnold Graham, 1905 - 1996. 305 Translated letter from the Bishop of the Philippines to the King of Spain dated 1584 contributed by Robin M. Bridge.............. 315 Geoffrey W. Roper - The Drunken Dragon Dance and the Tam Kong (Tam Kung) Festival: Notes on the RAS HK Visit to Macau, May 1997 .. 323 Robert Nield - Bits of Broken China: The RAS Visit to North-east China in Search of Colonial Remnants, 1999 329 viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 293 SIR RALPH MOOR AND THE "BENIN CANNON OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE ROYAL ARMOURIES Ronald Bishop Smith (D If might be of interest to the members of the society and to readers of the Journal to know from unpublished sources how four old cannon recovered in Benin City (in modern Nigeria) at the time of the British expedition of 1897 arrived at their present locations, that is a Portuguese swivel-gun of about 1540 in the British Museum and three rather archaic looking pieces of various precedences found in the Royal Armouries.(2) One of the Royal Armouries' cannon, curiously to note, has writing in Chinese on it. These four cannon are the only "Benin" cannon presently known to exist in England. Another is found in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin and more may exist. In the central Archives of the British Museum there is a document in the "Book of Presents" for 1899 which throws much light on the four "Benin" cannon in England. It is dated 30 May 1899. Mr Read has the honour to report that he has received from Sir Ralph Moor H.M. Commissioner and Consul General for the Niger Coast Protectorate, through Major Gallwey D.S.O., a consignment of Benin antiquities consisting of three cannon, two of iron and one of bronze; and, in addition, a second bronze gun and a bronze plaque also from Sir Ralph Moor, through the Crown Agents for the Colonies. Mr Read was somewhat doubtful whether all of the three objects in the first consignment were appropriate to the Museum, and whether they would not be more fittingly placed in the armoury of the Tower of London. He therefore consulted Lord Dillon, who confirmed his opinion that the bronze guns were not made in Europe, and are probably, therefore, of Benin manufacture; while of the two iron guns, one is doubtless of European make, and the other a copy made in Africa. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 296 Old Calabar. Niger Coast Protectorate. Sir Ralph concurred with Mr Read's division of the cannon. By letter of 8 September 1899 Mr Read informed Sir Ralph that three of the cannon had gone to the Tower. The Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities possesses an acknowledgement from the ordnance office of the Tower of London to the Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum, dated 17 July 1899, that three guns from Benin City had been received. NOTES (1) Upon which cf. Robert D. Smith's "A 16th century Portuguese bronze breech-loading swivel gun," Militaria. Revista de Cultura Militar N.o 7, Madrid, 1995, pp.197-205 and my "A 16th century Portuguese swivel gun in the British Museum," Lisbon, 1995, where I identified what the writing on this piece means. (2) Upon these cf. Howard L. Blackmore, The Armouries of the Tower of London. I. Ordnance, London, 1976, pp. 154, 170 and 171 (entries Nos 204, 238 and 239) (3) cf. page 154; No.204 of Howard L. Blackmore's catalogue (XIX.114 in the Royal Armouries). Mr. Blackmore states that it is an iron gun 3 feet 3 inches long. He portrays it in the catalogue and believes it was made in China in the 18th or early 19th century. He notes: "An inscription in Chinese characters engraved by the trunnions refers to the weight of the gun and probably gives the names of the officials who supervised its manufacture; it is, however, too worn for accurate translation.” Often judgements of what can be read in old inscriptions are too hastily made. I do not know if that would be the case here. How this piece arrived in Benin City, and when, is presently anybody's guess. (4) A verb in the past tense, some four letters of which I cannot read, appears to be written here. ================================================================================