The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-02 00:00:00

Half a dozen sharp prows are edged in contact
with the companion ladder or thereabouts ; you de-
scend, and a moment's indecision is enough to cost
you a ducking, if not your life. Nothing but a de-
termined spring into one can save you, happy if a
treacherous syren, with a grasp of iron, does not
seek to tun you into that which lies to the right or
to the left, or some laggard with a desperate thrust
does not send your own selected boat six yards
away, without exactly filling up the vacant space
over which you see yourself suspended. These perils
safely passed, you have then time to look what has
become of your " boy"—a corruption of the Indian
call for a servant—and, more important still, your
bag and trunk. Most probably you have the satis-
faction of seeing him with one foot still on the lad-
der, your boxes passing into another boat, and your
bag nowhere. As, however, the same scene of utter
Confusion and despair takes place at least ten times
every day, and travellers do reach the shore, while
boy and trunks turn up in safety, you resign your-
self to Providence, take the rudder and guide your-
self to port, where the best of hospitality or the
worst of hotel accommodation awaits you, with a
third chance of a room in the club-house—not so
good as the first, nor quite so bad as the second.

TLtr 17.

The sun is up, and, through heavy banks of
cloud and mist, is struggling hard to light up the
bay, the opposite shores of which are still shrouded
in an impenetrable veil. Ships of many nations,
and junks of every size and description are shaking
out their sails to take their chance of drying before
another drenching rain comes down. But, fair
weather or foul, this Bay of Hongkong, one of the
finest in the world, is always picturesque—land-
locked with bold rocks and swelling hills, and full
of life and movement from the shipping which
crowds its waters. The daybreak gun wakens up
all early risers ; the loud screaming whistles or
scarce less discordant bells of the river steamers
soon after begin the business of the day, and keep
up an incessant alarm from seven in the morning
to eight or nine o'clock, and again from four in the
afternoon, on their return from Canton or Macao.
The snorting and puffing of gunboats diversify the
sounds, while from the shore and the streets a busy
hum f cries and sounds untranslateable tell the
drowsy stranger that a city in the tropics has
leaped into life and activity before the sun attains
his scorching power. If he turns out for an early
morning walk, and bends his steps upward to the
higher ground, he 'dill find the convolvulus spread•
ing its beautiful flowers for the fresh breath of
dawn—creepers of wild luxuriance disputing each
wall and bank; and looking seaward, a whole suc-
cession of bays lie at his feet, stretching away into
the distance. Market boats laden with provisions
from the main land, with their richly coloured sails
of matting and many picturesque forms, are crowd-
ing into the harbour. Square-rigged ships are press=
ing all sail to gain the long-desired anchorage, while
' others are unmooring to proceed to the several ports
for their outward cargo. Men-of-war, trading junks,
merchant craft from every country, all are here to
give testimony to the activity and importance of the
trade which in some way or other finds in Hongkong
a connecting link. Craft in numbers from the ad-
joining coast, each differing in shape and colour, ac-
cording to the port; the great bulky Shantung junk;
the Shanghai, with its gaudy colours and mystic eagle
lon the stern but little differing ; the long craft of
Ningpo, and so on, down to Hainan ; and even
Siam and Singapore, all have their representatives.
A Chinese sailor will distinguish where they come
from by differences of shape and rigging, paint and
decorations, without difficulty, and if he be honest
may also tell you where stout-built junks are lying
undisturbed with a pirate crew, and nearly fitted
out with fresh supplies of guns and powder. Only
I do net recommend you to trust him too implicitly,
for he may be one of the pirate crew himself, and
will send you on a wrong scent, to the damage of
some honest trader whom he wishes to ruin, or
simply to damage you, and prevent the Hong-
Kong authorities pursuing his fellows on informa-
tion given, by letting you into a few deplorable
mistakes, of which, doubtless, Mr. Anstey has al-
ready said his say in London, as in Hong Kong.
With a large harbour full of junks from every sea-
port and island between Shantung and Singapore,
Siam, Java, and the Philippines, with 60,000 Chi-
nese and Macaonese on shore, it is not easy for the
authorities to put their hands upon all the rogues
or pirate craft that take shelter beneath the sure
protection of the British flan, were they the best
and most honest that ever wielded colonial power.
This barren rock they have made their home, build-
ing a large Chinese town, which spreads along the
western shore and skirts the bay, creeping upward
on the hillside, along the face of the ravine. Nest
on nest of houses attract the eye, until they dispute
the higher levels with the merchant princes of the
colony, sufficiently attesting the untiring industry,
perseverance, aye, and enterprise too, of these plod-
ding celestials, when in pursuit of gain. Not 20
years have passed over our heads since England
first took possessien of this pirate haunt, and all
its properties of unlimited granite and bare hills ;
and now it is the great centre of a Chinese coasting
trade, to feed which numberless ships come laden
with produce from India, Siam, and Manilla ;
from Batavia and Singapore, with the collected
tribute cf the Malayan Archipelago ; from Eng-
land, New York, and San Francisco ; even New
Zealand and Australia are contributors of
the required supplies. Not only this, but it
has become the central postal and financial station
whence all the directing wires of the great Euro-
pean and American trade with China receive
their impulse, and are pulled by heads of houses
located in the colony, determining the ultimate des-
tination of all the ships and cargoes that enter or
leave the China Seas. What is the secret of this
sudden and enormous growth in population and in
trading importance of this barren rock ? This is
among. the first thoughts of a stranger. Hong
Kong itself, he sees at a glance, produces nothing
but granite boulders and the thinnest scrub. The°
City of Victoria, 'with its Cathedral, episcopal
palace, Government house, its Supreme Court, and
all its palatial merchants' houses, are just on the
spot of earth where no one would have thought of
placing them. The great Victoria Peak towers
across the whole line of the city, and effectually
shuts out every breath of air during six months of
a most oppressive summer, when every one gasps
for want of that needful aliment of life, whence
some go home sick every year with spleens much
larger than their fortunes, and not a few leave their
bones to be laid beneath six feet of Chinese earth.
The neighbouring mainland has good and commo-
dious seaports, far nearer to the producing markets
and the purchasers of foreign goods, and apparently
in every respect better fitted for trade. But it is
an open secret, and may be told in very few words
—though some facts are not acceptable to all par-
ties. Security to life and property is the first and
broadest foundation of such prosperity; a magni-
ficent bay of easy access, the second condition ; and
the absence of all Customs, with proximity to
Chinese ports, where these exist in more or less
oppressive form, furnish a full solution of the pro-
blem. Given a barren rock in the near vicinity of
a wealthy empire, with a base and corrupt Admi-
nistration, how shall the trade of the mainland be
made to overflow to the islet ? - To it an enterpri-
sing and industrial population can bring their pro-
duce from the whole seaboard on advantageous
terms of export with their own people, as not
declared for foreign market ; and from it
run cargoes of return goods, with like exemption
from import duties. Hong Kong is to China what
Gibraltar is to Spain—a great smuggling emporium.
It offers some little premium of facilities to pirates
also, and to those engaged in the trade, and taking
up their residence, the protection and security their
own land cannot afford. Thus it happens that Hong
Kong, though in a subsidiary sense promoting
foreign trade with China (in the only sense in which
this was understood by the contracting Powers),
really owes its wondrous growth and prosperity to
a vast contraband trade with the whole seaboard
of China, conducted chiefly by the Chinese them-
selves. Here they can bring their opium, long
cloths, yarns, and woollens, free of all duty, with
all the chances of laying them down at the points
of consumption for a small bribe. Hero they can
sell their rhubarb, sugars, camphor, and sundry
other produce, and at Macao their tea, at a better
price than at the consular ports, for the same reasor,
that they succeed in escaping duty en their trair.A.,
For this state of things, of which. the Cl-3,' ntse
authorities well may and do complain, we are not
wholly to blame ; nor is it with as, or in. ear power
altogether, to devise a remed:. AI a great depot
for our British and Indisea produce, where ample
security exists, it wo/fid be impossilAe and suicidal
to make it other tisan a free port. To attempt any
supervision of the; Chinese crafts without the levy
of duties, or to, allow the Chinese officials to do so
—as contemplated in the supplementary treaty of
1843, but never acted upon—would be equally de-
structive any development of trade. Whether we
t mnat oe a
t be prepared to sacrifice all that is not
which it could
, consistent with treaties is a question
o
11
answer little purpose to certainlydiscuss
rattemptwillColo-
nial
the thoroughgoing,he first fruit
measures
necessary to carry out the
Prl l
would doubtless be to depopulate the island of its
Chinese population, drive a s,aall the Chinese coast-
ing trade, and empty the
pocketfsolt' ourci.merchants
g
of large gains poured into them
from
ere l nefseCttl;ade
treaties. And were there any chance of a sells‘stiosrl
which is not in exact accord with.
•
Secretary of State or Governor being wittins,
to
face the outcry and clamour such an attempt in the
mildest form would • inevitably, raise, there is yet
another consideration very fatal to such a scheme.
The eaerifise of interests at Hong Kong Would be