Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1859-04-14

MESSRS. EDITORS :-Fresumlng that many
friends of j. L., and S. j. Heso', who have
not yet received letters from them, will be in
terestcd in the following extracts from letter
just received, We send them to you for publ
cation. l..
HoNGKoNG, January 22d, 1859.
lam once more on shore. We were Just five
months wanting one day in making our voy
age. We wrote to you the morning we left
the harbor In about an hour after, | was
taken sea sck-and was really very sick for
about two weeks-thcn we had n calm, and
| got better II. did not suffer much from
sea sickncss-hut enough about being sick.
What have I seen on the voyage? Plenty
Of Mother Cary's chickens, whale birds, al
hatroSscs, cape pigeons and boobies. OF
fishes dolphins, q few Of which they succeed
ed in catching, which made us y nice break
fast. g'hc dolphin varies in length, | be-
licyc from foot and half, to five feet. Of
sharks, several were caught, one of which was
ten or twelve feet long. These of course we
! did not eat, though some NJ. the sailors cat
the fins and tail They struck several por-
poises with the harpoon, but did not succeed
| in drawing them in. These fish are quite
largc--some seven or eight feet long, and are
said to taste very much like bccfstcak. But
the most remarkable fish we saw, was the
suniish, large, odd-shaped fish. | suppose
it was about four feet across and seven long.
| Among Tie little fish is one called tho Por-
tuguese man-of-war. 1t is about the size OF
a hickory nut, and floats along the wator APP
parently without any life, looking more like
a bubble than anything else. Ono of these
| little men-oi-war was captured AS he came
sailing along. | took it in my hand. Soon
felt n smarting sensation and an aching
; which reached my shoulder. Not very Sc
rious matter however. The captain hid quite
a laugh about it, and said the sailors often
had their fun at the expense of curious pas
sengers. We only came very near one island
during our voyage. We sailed within Il milo
of it, and saw the rich foliage, and little
! village on its banks Some of tho houses
were built i'll European style, and some sccnc!
to lie built of straw, with peaked top. II
is not laid down on the common school maps
| but is called Amblow. But at last on the
! 18th of January we arrived in sight of the
island of Hongkong 1t was about daylight
but as the harbor is very narrow, we did moi
dare to venture in without pilot, and We
had to wait until about noon. The entrance
to Hong kong interested me very much. There
are rocky, barren hills OH both sides Of the
harbor, with little Chinese villages built al
short distances from each other. And the
harbor teens with fishermen, and other boat
men, whose little boats, arc the only hOmt
they havo for themselves, their wives, and
their children. The boats are not rs large as
our canal boats, or oven MS a river ferry boat
| but little skiis, but nicer than the sktf we
| had when we lived on the Crock. 1t really
seems wonderful To sec little youngstcr q
ten or twelve months, crawling about til,
boat, seeming to have been born with alto,
gether too much sense to do such foolish
thing as to fall into the water, the thing al
American children do the first opportunity
As soon as the ship anchored, we got iuto one
of these little boats and were rowed ashore
We stopped at the hotel that night, bu't the
next morning IL. found out Mr. Ashmore',
residence, called upon him, and We were
prcssingly invited to make his house our home
during our stay in Hongkong Lis house is
in pleasant part Of the town thick walls
and high ceilings, with verandaLs all around
with ycnitian work, so as to let in the air, aud
keep out the sun, as much as possible, all OF
which is necessary for health in this hot eli
mate 1t must DO intensely hot here in sum
mcr It is is now mid-wiuter, and all around
the trees, flowers, fruit and vegetables are
growing rs they do in summer in Maryland.
The city of Hongkong contains about sixty
thousand inhabitants. think it is beauti-
full place. Nearly all the houses of the for
eign residents have large yards or gardens at.
tached with different kinds Of trees and flow
ers in them. lattended Chinese service Sun
day morning; there were twcnty-six present
ten or twelve of them were. members OF
| the church. a native preacher spoke, and
Mr.. Ashmore made some remarks aitcrward.
In the afternoon they have sort of billie
class and prayer meeting. Mr.. Ashmorc asked
the younger portion of the congregation to
tell him what was said in the morning ser
mon. | am really very much pleased with
! the Chinese. Of course ] do not know what
they are talking about, but | can read some
thing Oh the expression Of their colintcnance,
and they talked as il they understood what
was said to them. Yesterday two Chinese
girls came to sec me. | was much pleased
with them One of them wa. quite pretty,
and looked much like Moooo $1,000, who
used to go to the Academy in Cumberland;
of course her complexion was not so fair as
Ms. She speaks English tolerably well.
Hongkong seems to be little world Of it.
self. We meet people OF almost every ma
ton - Americans, English, French, Portu-
guesc, Malays, Persians, Irish, Germans, ia
panese, &c.
Wednesday. l just had call from the Rev.
Mr.. Brecher, brother of Mrs. Stowe, and
of Henry Ward Bee,her He is sailors chap
lain. Ii. has returned from Canton, and only
seems to regret that did not 60 with him.
l however do not regret it as | have spent a
very pleasant week at Hongkong, and have
been gaining strength every day.
Jan. 29th. We start tomorrow morning
for Shanghai. We will write to you on our
arrival at that place. Yours, &C.,
S. j. II.