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TOWN OF HONG KONG.

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belonging to the Morrison Education Society, the Missionary, the Medical, and the Seamen's Hospital, with public edifices and goodly mansions in all directions, will attract your attention. Among these, are the Court-house and the Gaol. One might almost suppose, by the number of people which take up their abode in the latter building, that it was by far the most desirable and favourite residence. The deep valley running from north to south across Hong Kong is called "The Happy Valley."

The vessels running to and fro between Canton, Macao, and Hong Kong, are fast boats, using sails and oars, which carry letters - Schooners and cutters, small vessels of European build and rig -and lorchas, large-decked Chinese boats, from twenty to forty tons. The latter are generally preferred by passengers, but if you can get aboard an European ship do; you may be a little longer on your passage, but your comfort will be greatly increased. We learn these things by experience.

That Hong Kong is a place of rising importance is certain; and that the British people who congregate there may one day have great influence on the great Empire of China, is almost as evident. It is for this reason that I hope many who go there will embody the British character; settling down, not as a mere group of money-getters, teabuyers, and opium-sellers, but, as men with hearts in their bosoms, that beat for the real good of all

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THE ENGLISH AT HONG KONG.

mankind. Too often do Englishmen, when abroad, bring dishonour on England. May the residents of Hong Kong be of a different character; openhearted, hospitable, and generous, spreading around them knowledge, humanity, and justice, kindness virtue, and piety.

A Briton, though on foreign ground,

Should spread a generous influence round;
As true in temper, heart, and soul,

As trembling needle to the pole.

The southern side of the island is more fertile, pleasant, and picturesque than the northern, though the buildings of the British are on the latter, to secure the anchorage of the bay, and to avoid the fury of the south-west monsoon. We must not expect to reap every advantage. Wherever we are, we must give up one thing to possess another.

In Hong Kong Island there is plenty of clear fresh-water, and no difficulty in procuring granite; while in the bay to the north there is abundance of ships, and no lack of fishing-boats in the bays of Tytam and Chuck-py-wan, to the south. The sportsman will find snipes, quails, and partridges, without much trouble; while the naturalist may extend his acquaintance with deer, armadillos, land tortoises, and snakes; palms, plantains, bananas, wild pomegranates and mangoes, longans, lichees, and pechees, pine-apples, oranges, pears,

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sweet potatoes, and yams. Though a considerable part of the land becomes boggy after rain, and though the cold blast and the heavy shower are rapidly followed by burning heat, yet are there worse places in the world to live in than the island of Hong Kong.

Hardly do I know a more exciting scene than that which is often presented by Hong Kong Bay; for what with the mountainous masses around it, both on the islands and the mainland; the British war-vessels, clippers, and steamers; the Chinese junks, chop-boats, sanpans, rafts, pleasure-boats, and fishing craft; the bamboo sails, the gay colours displayed on the masts, the Chinese sailors, the deafening sounds of the tom-toms and gongs, when a vessel is about to sail, and the Ching Ching Joss, or firing of crackers, and burning of highcoloured and tinselled paper, cut into fanciful forms, and scattered in a flaming shower on the water; altogether a stranger is absolutely bewildered with novelty.

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CHAPTER III.

MACAO AND WHAMPOA.

Macao.-European Ships.-Tanka-women.-Tanka-boats.— Coolies.-The Praya Grande.-The Doctor.-The Astrologer.-The Umbrella Maker.-The Cobbler.-The Tinker.The Bookseller.-The Blacksmith.-The Inner Harbour. -Opium Smokers.-Smugglers.—Gamblers.-Thieves.— Camoen's Cave.- Protestant Burial Ground.-Print-hawkers. -Whampoa.—Walled Town.-Villages.-Pagodas.-Plantations and River Scenes.-Whampoa Reach.

LET me now suppose that you have left Hong Kong for Macao. The appearance of the place from the sea is good. You will run through the European ships which anchor some miles from the shore; and you will hear the clamour of the Tanka-women, water-women, who ply in the tankaboats, which are in form very much like half a walnut shell, and about six or eight feet long, and three or four broad, with a deck and a cane roof over the middle of it. These boats are just the very things for your sketch-books.

Well, the tanka-boats will take you to the shore; the Chinese coolies, or porters, will rush

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into the water to meet you; they will seize hold of your luggage, and grapple with one another for the honour and profit of carrying it across the quay to the habitation where you mean to take up your abode. You arrive safe at last, and sit down, hungry enough, to your "tiffen," pork chops, beefsteaks, ham, eggs, and potatoes. Refreshed by your meal, you begin to feel courageous, and make up your mind for an expedition. Nothing will do but a stroll along the Praya Grande. As you walk along, the young Chinese stare with all their eyes at the newly imported "barbarians;" for such is the name given to foreigners. The Portuguese part of Macao is principally on the hills, while the Chinese, or Bazaar part, occupies the low ground. The town is well-built, and has good streets; but as the lanes are too narrow to admit wheel-carriages, sedan-chairs, covered with cloth of a dark colour, gloomy-looking things, are mostly used. There is no likelihood of your fancying yourselves to be in Cheapside, London.

If your purses are well lined, you will go into the Chinese shops in the European part of the city, and pay half-a-dozen dollars for what you may get in Old England for much less than as many shillings. You will, of course, go to the open space before the Court-house, and there you will see such an assemblage of itinerant Chinamen as you never witnessed before.. Human beings of all ages, and seemingly engaged in all occupations, are presented

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