RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 52 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Library, sanctioned by the Trustees, shall be published, with a Catalogue of the Books, and a copy of the same be placed in the hands of all those who are admitted to the privileges of the Society and the Library.' "The Regulations of the Library" were published in the Anglo-Chinese Kalendar for ... 1839 and include a provision that "Any person, who is not a member of the Society, may be admitted to the privileges of the Library, by the payment of $10 per annum, or of $5 for six months or any shorter period, (* A single contribution of not less than $25, or an annual contribution of $10 constitutes membership.)" The "Second Annual Report of the Morrison Education Society" of 3rd October, 1838, says: -- The Library, as was contemplated, has been opened in a convenient apartment in Canton, and is now of easy access to all those who desire to enjoy its benefits. The trustees recommend the early adoption of measures for its enlargement. As a public library, it ought, in the course of a few years, to rise from its present limited number of two thousand volumes to a hundred times that number, and thence to increase until it shall equal some of the best collections of books in the world. The Society moved to Macao in 1841 and the Library containing between two and three thousand volumes was again open to those who desired to borrow books from it at the Society's house, near St. Paul's, under the care of Mr. Brown. "The Third Annual Report" of the Society was not published until this year, the gap since 1838 being caused by the disturbed conditions prevailing in the intervening years. By 1842 the Society had already established itself in the newly ceded island of Hong Kong. At the fourth annual General Meeting of the Society on 28 September, 1842, it was reported that, as the result of correspondence with Sir Henry Pottinger, (the Superintendent of Trade and Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China) a site had been granted to them for a permanent headquarters on Morrison Hill, a hill which at the time of writing is quickly nearing complete demolition just over one hundred years later. One of the larger rooms of the building to be put up was designed for the Library which now contained nearly 3500 volumes. The usual vicissitudes occurred which seem to beset so many libraries run on a voluntary or partly voluntary basis. An 1843 report says: The Society's Library requires some attention in order to preserve it, and render it of greater public utility. I believe there are not far from 3500 volumes in it; but of these, a large number, perhaps one third are so injured as to make them unfit for circulation. Some sets have been broken by ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 10 LINDSAY RIDE Let us first go to the top of Monte Fort and view this historic spot where so many foreigners lived their eastern lives and not a few found eternal rest. From the Fort we can see practically the whole of the peninsula and the city of Macao. To the east, beyond the Guia lighthouse, stretches the South China Sea, studded by the Ladrone Islands of which the two nearest - Taipa and Coloane form part of this overseas Province of Portugal. Between these islands and the peninsula lie the Macao Roads and the Outer Harbour. To the west can be seen the narrow neck of land with its barrier gate which bars access to the large delta island of Heung Shan and to the mainland of China. Separating the main portion of this island from the city of Macao, is the Inner Harbour whose two lines of junks, Communist and Macanese, are separated only by the narrow fairway used by the larger sea-going junks, launches and the Hong Kong ferries. Just below us as we view this busy scene, stands, stately and calm, the façade of all that remains of the Jesuit Church of St. Paul, commenced in the sixteenth century, completed in the seventeenth and destroyed by fire in the nineteenth century, Behind it, almost at the harbour's edge, is a low wooded hill whose trees shelter the Camoens Grotto and on whose lower slopes nestle the Camoens Gardens and the neighbouring cemetery. It is but a short walk from the Fort to the cemetery and gardens, access to both of which is gained from a small grassed and treed square the Praça Luis de Camões. On the extreme right as we enter this square, is a high stucco wall pierced by a most unimpressive gateway over which is mounted a small tablet; on which is carved: PROTESTANT CHURCH AND OLD CEMETERY (EAST INDIA COMPANY 1814) This inscription poses a number of questions, a characteristic which, as you will find out later, it shares with many of the inscriptions in the cemetery itself; in fact it is the attempt to solve these problems that supplies much of the fascination and the interest of this cemetery. What was the British East India Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 84 A. D. BLUE came from cholera and fire, and not from revolt. It was generally believed that the Chinese were more able to look after themselves than the Indians. One of the greatest tragedies in Chinese emigration befell the American clipper Flora Temple in 1859. The Flora Temple left Macao for Havana with 850 passengers, who were rebellious from the very start of the passage. Although they were unsuccessful in breaking out of the holds, they killed one of the crew who fell into their clutches. The ship ran into bad weather four days out from Macao, and was unable to take accurate sights. Two days later she ran on a reef off the coast of Indo-China. It was apparent that she would soon break up, so the captain and crew launched and provisioned the two lifeboats, and abandoned the ship and passengers. After a rough passage the captain and one of the lifeboats reached the coast near Touron twelve days later, but nothing was heard of the other lifeboat. A French naval ship was sent to rescue the deserted coolies and search for the missing lifeboat. When they arrived at the scene of the wreck, however, all they could find was a few planks of the Flora Temple, but no trace of the passengers or other lifeboat. Another tragedy, but on a smaller scale, befell the British barque Sophia Fraser when taking emigrants from Amoy to Penang. The Sophia Fraser ran into a typhoon three days out of Amoy, and during the pandemonium which broke out among the coolies confined in the 'tween decks thirty-five died. The subsequent enquiry revealed that only four of the deaths were due to natural causes, the rest having been killed in the senseless fight caused by panic. This bears some resemblance to the central incident in Conrad's novel "Typhoon", as the burning of the Shah Jehan in the Indian coolie trade resembles the central incident in "Lord Jim". What appeared at the time to be one of the major tragedies in the history of Chinese emigration concerned the French ship St. Paul in 1858, when taking 327 indentured labourers from Hong Kong to the Australian gold fields. The St. Paul ran on a reef off Rossel Island, a small island lying to the east of the New Guinea islands, and the captain and eight of the crew were picked up fifteen days later by the British schooner Prince of Denmark. After an inexplicable delay of two months they were put ashore ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 208 NOTES AND QUERIES was bought by the Church and a large number of houses were built for the poor. In 1849, the Roman Catholics acquired land next to the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and ceased burying in the old cemetery, though headstones remained scattered about for a long time. Another Roman Catholic institution was located south of Queen's Road on the waterfront between what is the present Anton Street and Li Chit Street. Here the French Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1848, built an orphanage called the Asile des Sainte Enfance. In 1845, two Americans, Charles Emery and George Frazer, moved their ship-building yard from Kowloon Point to a lot east of the French Orphanage. The yard passed through a succession of owners. In 1880 George Fenwick came into possession. He gave his name to the present Fenwick Street. In 1871 the Hong Kong Pier and Godown Company was launched to develop extensive wharfing and storage facilities. It occupied the land between the Orphanage and the shipyard. The present Gresson Street intersects the original property. The venture was not a success and the Company went into liquidation in 1873. In 1876 several Europeans financed by Chinese capital built the Oriental Sugar Refinery on property now defined by Swatow and Amoy Streets. It also soon failed and passed into receivership. Eventually, it was taken over by Jardine, Matheson and Company and was merged with their China Sugar Refining plant at East Point. The first Protestant Chapel in the area was built in 1863 on Wan Chai Road by the London Missionary Society. A school was also opened, supported by Chinese subscriptions. The present Ying-Wa Girls School had its origins in the Wanchai Girls' Boarding School of the London Missionary Society opened in 1888. The Wanchai Chinese Methodist Church on the triangle of Hennessy Road, Fenwick Street, and Queen's Road East was occupied in 1936. The Urban Services Office, where we are having tea, and the Wanchai Post Office next to it, are located on a lot which was sold to the first American resident of Hong Kong, Charles V. Gillespie. Here, in the spring of 1842, he built a substantial brick house of six rooms surrounded by a verandah at a cost of about $2,800. It was called “Jorrock's Hall” (sic) and was located on Inland Lot 14. The adjoining Lot No. 15 was also owned by Gillespie. He sold it ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d and 1860s. Like Hung Shing, its image is taken out in procession on the major festivals and placed in the seat of honour at opera performances given on the island and in neighbouring Aberdeen. Members also visited a soy sauce factory, a shipyard specialising in fishing boats and a fishing store. In November, Miss Werle arranged another visit, to a ceramics factory at Yuen Long, and to the single lineage village of Sam Tung Uk in Tsuen Wan, a joint excursion with the Hong Kong Ceramics Society. In January this year, I arranged a visit to the Sikh temple, with the kind cooperation of Mr. Pritham Singh, who is an active member of the temple. Sikh religion is a revisionist movement from within Hinduism, founded formally at the close of the seventeenth century as a reaction to what the Sikhs saw as the ritual and social excesses of orthodox Hinduism. There are some 2,000 Sikhs in Hong Kong. The occasion this time, we had a previous visit last year, was the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the last Guru of the Sikhs. Members of the Society attended part of the religious service at which members of the congregation came up to the altar to sing sutras, give comments or make observations relating to their religion, or play musical instruments and sing. We were then invited to the vegetarian curry luncheon prepared and served by members of the congregation for the congregation. Finally, in March, we were invited by our Council member M. Geoffroy-Dechaume, the French Consul-General, to his house in Old Peak Road. This is one of the few surviving old houses on the Island. Built in 1895 by Messrs. Leigh and Orange, still one of the large architectural firms in the Colony, on a piece of land acquired by Sir Paul Chater, it was named Victoria Lodge and has been the home of successive French Consuls since the earliest part of this century. Tea was kindly provided by Madame Dechaume. FILMS Most of our film shows were arranged by Miss Werle and shared with members of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, with which Miss Werle is professionally associated. In May, we had an evening of Japanese films, one on Noh drama, one on Kabuki and one on Japanese print-making, all in English and supplied by courtesy of the Information and Cultural office of the Consulate-General of Japan. A highlight of our film programme was a film made by Mr. Hugh Gibb, an old friend and member of the Society, whose ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 248 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: + AIKEN, Mrs. L. · AKERS-JONES, Hon D., C.M.G., J.P. ALLCOCK, R. C. ALLEN, O. J. R. ANDERSON, J. S. ANGOVE, W. B. ARCHER, Hon. Mrs. S. + - ARSAN, Mrs. K. AU, K. N. · Room 2411, Plaza Hotel, Hong Kong, Island House, Tai Po, N.T. Dept. of Law, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Flat B2, 29 Severn Road, The Peak, Hong Kong, Diocesan Boys' School, 131 Argyle Street, Kowloon. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Operations Building 4/F, Kai Tak, Kowloon. 41, Stubbs Road, Apt. 21, Hong Kong. 43 Stubbs Road, Flat C-1, 5th Floor, Hong Kong. Grantham College of Education, Gascoigne Road, Kowloon. BARD, Dr. S. M., O.B.E., J.P. Hong Kong Museum of History, Star House, 4/F, Kowloon, BARR, J. W. E9 Repulse Bay Towers, 119A Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong. BARRETT, Fr. Cyril S. J. Wah Yan College, Queen's Road East, Hong Kong. BARRETTO, R. O. 1903 Hang Chong Building, Queen's Road C., Hong Kong. BENNETT, Dr. J. R.. Dept. of English, New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. BERKHOUT, P. The Shell Co. of Hong Kong Ltd., P.O. Box 22, Hong Kong. BERTRAM, J. 601 Swire House, Hong Kong. BIRCH, Dr. A. Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. BLAIKLEY, P. E. - 4 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. BLAKE, Mrs. D. Paul Y Construction Co., Bank of Canton Building 18/F, Hong Kong. BLOOMFIELD, Miss Frena - 38A, 1/F, Kennedy Road, Hong Kong. BOND, M. W. - BOYLAN, Mrs. C.. BRAGA, P. BRANDON, Miss J. BRIGGS, Hon. Sir Geoffrey, Q.C. BROADBENT, Miss M. 404 La Hacienda, 31 Mount Kellett Road, Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific Airways, P.O. Box 1, Hong Kong. 61A Bisney Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. St. Stephen's Girls' School, 2 Lyttelton Road, Hong Kong. Courts of Justice, Hong Kong: Helena May Court, Garden Road, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 260 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY OVERSEAS MEMBERS: ANDERSON, Dr. E. N. BERKOWITZ, Prof. M. I. BEVERIDGE, R. J. BINGHAM, Mrs. A. BRAGA, J. M. BUNGER, Prof. K. CHAR, Tin Yuke CLARK, Mrs. A. T. DANSEY-BROWNING, Mrs. S. M. EITZEN, Mrs. J. GARD, Dr. R. A. GOODRICH, Prof. L. Carrington HARRISON, Prof. B. HAYWARD, G. W. HEATHERINGTON, Mrs. E. KRAMERS, Dr. R. P. LAWTON, D. LIU, Prof. Ts'un-yan LU, Mrs. S. LYNCH, Rev. P. F. MACLEAN, R. MACPHERSON, J. A. Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Cal. 92502, U.S.A. Dept. of Sociology, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. 13 Hartwell Hill Road, Hartwell, Victoria 3124, Australia. Welby Croft, Chapel-en-le-Frith SK12 6CY, Cheshire, England. National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia. 53 Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Lukas-Cranach-Strabe 14, Germany. 3898 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816, U.S.A. Williams & Glyns Bank Ltd., Hottsbank Kirkland House, Whitehall, London S.W.1., England 155 Mount Pleasant Road, Singapore 11. The Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions, 531-2 Melville Library, State University of New York, Stony Brook, Long Island, New York 11790, U.S.A. 640 West 238th Street, The Bronx, New York 10463, U.S.A. 26 The White House, St. Paul's Bay, Malta. White Mill End, 5 Granville Road, Sevenoaks, Kents, England. c/o Col. & Mrs. Raymont, 270 Park Road, Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa K1M 0E1, Canada. Ostasiatisches Seminar, Der Universitat Zürich, Mühlegasse 21, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland. Time-Life News Service, c/o Associated Press, P.O. Box 775, Bangkok, Thailand. Dept. of Chinese, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia. c/o U.S. Embassy, 581 Merchant Street, Rangoon, Burma. Maryknoll Centre House, 120 San Min Road 1st Section, Taichung City 400, Taiwan. The Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, Denmark House, Singapore 1. The Library, Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, California 95003, U.S.A. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v shopkeeper, land speculator, auctioneer and entrepreneur; William Tarrant, Land Office clerk and later editor and proprietor of the newspaper Friend of China, Charles Markwick, auctioneer for the Government; Hugh Mackay, shopkeeper his lot No. 4 was resumed in 1859 for nonpayment of Crown Rent; and Wong Ah Hoy, one of the original So Kon Po cultivators. Wong sold his lot in 1852 to Chang On Kee, a merchant trading at Hong Kong, who in turn sold it to George Duddell in 1857. Duddell had already bought in 1851 the lots of Markwick and Tarrant. Thus all the arable land of the valley was in his possession, except the lot of Mackay which reverted to the Government shortly after. Duddell added to his holdings by purchase from the Government in 1853 of Farm Lot 13. This was between his valley lots and So Kon Po village. It was probably in the 1850's that Duddell experimented with growing coffee plants in the valley. Evidence of the project was still to be seen in 1878. The Hong Kong Daily Press in that year published a series of articles on places of interest around Hong Kong. The issue of 17 December 1878 gave directions for a walk to the "Coffee Plantation". The hiker was directed to proceed to the Race Course, passing the Obelisk and keeping straight on over a bridge to the gardener's cottage. There he was to turn to the right for one hundred yards, with the race course on his right and a densely wooded hill on the left, and follow the footpath up the hill through the trees. On descending the hill on the other side, he would find himself near some huts occupied by Chinese quarry-men or stone-masons and on the path leading to the coffee plantation. The writer noted, however, that "the coffee shrubs are now neglected". George Duddell, having retired from Hong Kong some years previously, sold his So Kon Po land to William Keswick, of Jardines, in 1884. The lots, whose twenty-one lease had been extended to seventy-five years, were regranted to Keswick as Inland Lots 955, 1018, 1019, 1020 and 1021. Keswick transferred the present site of St. Paul's Convent and Hospital to a Jardine enterprise, the Hong Kong Cotton Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company. This was in 1898. The property was bounded to the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v The area is bounded to the east by King's Road, to the west by Leighton Road, to the north by Tung Lo Wan Road, and to the south by Caroline Hill Road and Cotton Path. A prospectus for the new company was issued in August 1897, with J. J. Bell-Irving of Jardines as Chairman of the Board and a capital of $1,200,000. The mill began operation on 1 June 1899 with 12,000 spindles, with an anticipated full capacity of about 50,000 spindles. The company, however, was plagued by set-backs. It closed at the end of 1910. After a time, it was revived only to be forced to close again permanently in 1914, when its machinery was removed to Shanghai and the land and buildings sold for $400,000. The purchasers were the French Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. The Order had come to Hong Kong in 1848 and located in Wanchai, where they opened the "Asile de Sainte Enfance" to receive abandoned children. As the years passed, the Wanchai location became increasingly undesirable. In 1908 the Sisters opened a Hospital in Wong Nei Chung valley. In 1914, when they bought the cotton mill premises, they converted some of the mill buildings for their own purposes and later built new and more adequate accommodation for a convent, St. Paul's Convent School, an orphanage, a hospital, and a church. The same year that Keswick transferred IL 1018 to the cotton mill, he conveyed the remaining part of the valley to Sir Robert Jardine. In time, the land came into the possession of the Government, which used it as sites for the Hong Kong Stadium, the South China Stadium, and a recreation ground. On the Caroline Hill side of the valley was a large Chinese cemetery. Gravestones and other reminders of the cemetery can still be found among the trees and underbrush. Five trustees for the Japanese Community acquired a site in So Kon Po Valley in 1911 (Inland Lot 1879). The trustees transferred the site to the Japanese Benevolent Society in 1918. In 1920, the Benevolent Society was merged with the Japanese Education Society to form the Japanese Residents Association. A plot plan of the lot shows buildings that appear to be a temple. The lot is probably the same as that now occupied by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association School. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 275 tossing about. Great blame is therefore due to those who saw it for not describing what they saw, and to those who ought to have been on the lookout for not seeing it. Just before dark we saw another ship in the distance, quite disabled, or rather nearly so, and laid to. We steered close under her stern, and found the crew all right, and preparing to set her to rights. She was a Dutchman from Cape Town, bound for Batavia, Every sail in her was blown to rags and gone, except two spankers which helped to keep her steady. Yet she laboured fearfully. Instead of being thankful that we were not so badly off, the captain kept laughing at the poor fellows, and saying how mortified they must feel to see us going on so well under the circumstances. On Sunday as they were clearing the wreck away, a lot of the upper rigging fell on the new yard that had been put up, and snapped it off as clean as possible, to add to our troubles. I expected no other, and am only surprised it did not give way during the storm. It will take two days to "scarf" the pieces together and put it up again, and even then it may not stand. I do not know how long it will be now before our journey will end. I am almost disheartened about it. Three months gone, and not yet got to St Paul's Island or Amsterdam, in the Indian Ocean. As to you ever hearing from me again, it seems out of the question altogether. This storm will have put us by very considerably and no mistake. I dare say you all very much wonder you have not heard before, but I have only this consolation, that it is not my fault. I am continually thinking of home, and picturing in my mind all the pleasures of the country in May and June, while here I am tossed on the ocean, in the depth of winter, where the cold is enough to freeze anybody, with everything damp and cold. No more going round the Cape for me while my name is John Fryer, if I can avoid it. It is worth a pound a day to put up with all the inconveniences, and were it not for the thought of what I am going to do, I could not endure it at all. It is now dinner time, three o'clock, so I must now stop. Thursday, June 6th Since my last entry our circumstances have been much on the improve. Yesterday we got the topsail yard up, and the sail bent. The old yard Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 147 Highbury and in a position to encourage Fryer to enter into missionary service. Alford later became "Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College in 1867". What seems certain is that Alford was instrumental in obtaining the appointment for Fryer at St. Paul's College, under the sponsorship of the Church Missionary Society, thus launching his career in China. In the letter describing his "First Impressions" Fryer appears to have quickly adjusted to the culture shock of Hong Kong and its people. Through the course of the letter Fryer takes the reader, in this case the family and friends to whom he has written, on a walking tour first of the island and then of the College. After a brief description of the island's geology, flora, and fauna, Fryer offers his impressions of both colonizers and colonized. He is pithy at times and harsh at other times, yet perhaps not off the mark. The letter concludes with a walking tour of the building that housed St. Paul's College with comments on the ambience of the building, each of the rooms, the students, the methods of instruction, and the Chinese house staff. In the letter we see Fryer coming to terms with the European community and with the Chinese, among whom he was to work and live for the next 35 years. We see a determination which includes both a mastery of the situation and an accommodation to the requirements of the missionary community and the various social hierarchies in which he chose to live and work. This assimilation was to serve Fryer well during his career in Hong Kong (1861-63), in Peking (1863-65) at the T'ung-wen Kuan, and in Shanghai (1865-96) primarily at the arsenal at Kiangnan, where he accomplished his major work as translator of books on Western science and technology. The manuscript for "First Impressions ..." is to be found in the Fryer Papers in The Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The papers contain both the holograph and a typewritten transcript made by Fryer many years later. Along with the holograph is a single sheet of paper with pen and ink drawings, tinted with watercolor, made of the floor plan of St. Paul's College, with the ground floor and the second floor on opposite sides of the sheet. Unfortunately, the ink and color of the sketches has run through the thin paper making them unsuitable for reproduction. An attempt has been made to reproduce the spirit of the sketches in the illustrations. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 148 that accompany this essay. Other illustrations include a photograph of the college found in the Fryer Papers and photographs of the college as it looks at present. Finally, a photograph of Fryer with a group of students was used as centerpiece for a holiday greeting card by Fryer in 1927-28, 66 years after his impressions of Hong Kong were formed, and eight months before his death at age 88: it is also included. NOTES Published in Vol. 29 (1989) pp. 252-301 of this Journal as "Diary of Voyage to China: From March 10, 1861 to August 6, 1861", Richard G. Irwin, "John Fryer's Legacy of Chinese Writings" (mimeo.) n.d. There is no evidence for this in Fryer's extant writings, but it is known that Dr. Irwin had contact with Fryer's eldest son, retired Professor Charles Edmund Fryer, of McGill University, in the early 1950s. Presumably this and other information on Fryer's life that cannot be verified at present was transmitted during that contact. 1 See note 10 in Fryer's "First Impressions" + See Plates 2-5. " FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG AND THE CHINESE PEOPLE' St. Paul's College. August 7th! My dear Parents, relations, and friends. Being now comfortably settled down in my new abode, I am going to give you a closer insight into the place, and of my new style of living. Knowing how inquisitive mothers, etc., generally are I mean to go into every little particular, just to gratify all curiosity, and this yarn being passed around will save having to insert it in every letter. And now to begin with Hong Kong itself. Hong Kong is a small rocky island, about half a mile from the mainland of China. It is about 26 miles round. The centre is nothing but hills of hard granite, covered with scanty vegetation. Yet there are numerous ravines and valleys which are fertile, and well watered. Among these "Happy Valley" ranks as the most eminent. It is indeed a lovely place. Behind the town the hills rise to the height of nearly 2000 feet. On the top of the Peak of Victoria stands a small lake which from its romantic position is an object of interest. The summit is obtained by ================================================================================ 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-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 1861) is both a tour de force and riveting, to boot. Ch'ëa was the keeper of a temple at Poklo. He was visited in 1856 by two colporteurs from Hong Kong who left him with a bible. On reading it, he was almost immediately converted to Christianity and was later baptised in Hong Kong becoming, essentially, a disciple of James Legge. He returned to Poklo where he pursued his faith with great, if not excessive, zeal, becoming an object of suspicion and hatred in many quarters. In October 1861 he was seized by a local vigilante squad, tortured, ordered to renounce his faith - which he refused to do - and was ultimately beheaded. Stephen Selby's interesting account of archery in China from the pre-Shang period to the end of the 19th century mirrors the excellent address that he recently gave to the Society. The indefatigable Keith Stevens takes us on a voyage of discovery into the history of Zhenjiang. As always the illustrations are wonderful. And Dan Waters reminisces about Hong Kong in the post-War years. There are a total of 18 NOTES AND QUERIES on a wide variety of subjects. Paul Bolding gives us some insights into the life of the intrepid Belgium aviator, Louis de San - who he ultimately met in 1988 with some interesting photographs. There is an amusing 1905 Christmas card from Arnold Graham - that great benefactor of the HKBRAS Library - and an account of the Library by our Hon. Librarian, Julia Chan. Peter Hansell discusses the famous clock maker Douglas Lapraik. Paul Harrison writes penetratingly on the highly unusual subject of restoring artefacts for display in Hong Kong's museums. Bob Horsnell continues his highly interesting pieces on old military installations. David Mahoney provides further insights into the Chinese Labour Corps in France during World War I. Martin Merz adds another follow up to Solomon's Bard's TEA AND OPIUM advising that Chinese and Indian teas are, essentially, the same (we live and learn!). Robert Nield's beautiful photographs of Bhutan which I messed up in Volume 41 are now reproduced in all their glory. I'll leave you to read The wrestling princes by Keith Stevens (a little suspense will do no harm). Peter Stuckey and Chris Bailey take us to St. John's (Shangchuan) Island to the southwest of Hong Kong where St. Francis Xavier died in 1552 (not, as I originally thought when skimming through the article, iv ================================================================================