134 



EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



have described it in glowing colors. It is a jncture of busy activity ; the shore is lined 

 ■with Chinese boats, the harbor is crowded with the shipping of all nations, and the toiling 

 Chinese are kept at work in the roads, or in other labors required by this progressive place. 

 When the English took possession of the island of Hong Kong, in 1841, there was but a bleak 

 and barren hill-side where there now stands the city of Victoria. The population of the place 

 now amounts to no less than 14,671, and while its commercial warehouses, its docks and piers, 

 and its fleet of traders, give evidence of its material prosperity, its social, intellectual, and 



Barber Boy, Hong Kong. 



religious progress are proved by its club-houses, reading-rooms, schools, and churches. 

 Heathenism has also its visible signs. The Chinese have three temples, and the Mahommedans 

 a mosque at Hong Kong. 



The island rises at the north in a range of mountains, the base of which terminates near the 

 sea, leaving a narrow edge, along which the town of Victoria extends for two or three miles. 



