360 Voyage of the Novara. 



Under these circumstances any more remote excursions, 

 or visits to tlie adjacent mainland, were of course impossible. 

 We had to confine our investigations to the island itself, 

 there to collect what memoranda we could, and see as much 

 of the island and its inhabitants as the shortness of our stay 

 and the prevailing disorders might admit. 



Life in Hong-kong has already a strong leaven of western 

 civilization. Only in the narrowest streets does the visitor 

 come upon examples of the genuine Chinese type. Most 

 of the natives even inhabit houses built in the European 

 style, so that one feels as though in a European city in- 

 habited by a Chinese population, the latter having however 

 greatly altered from its originality. Only very few types of 

 Chinese popular life are met with in this English colony. Of 

 these characters the most interesting and unique is the Com- 

 prador (llai-^yau), a sort of factotum, whom no household 

 can dispense with, and whose importance only those can 

 adequately do justice to who have lived some time in the 

 country. The Comprador, or shroffs is the soul, the good or 

 evil genius, of the house : he sees to all sorts of purchases, 

 manages the domestic economy, and maintains order and 

 discipline in the house and household. Tlie entire do- 

 mestic control is exclusively lodged in his hands, to that 

 extent that even the master and mistress of the house may 

 not, without consulting the Comprador, dismiss one of tlie 

 servants or engage a new one. For all that goes on, the 

 latter is responsible. He has to answer for the honesty of 



