HONG KONG. 43 



music, and dancing, performed by professional singing and dancing girls. The music was 

 somewhat harsh and monotonous, but the songs sounded harmonious, and the dancing was 

 graceful, though it was rather posturing than dancing, great use being made of the fan and 

 the long trailing skirts. The girls, who were pretty, wore peculiar dresses to indicate their 

 calling, and seemed of an entirely different stamp from the quiet, simply-dressed waitresses 

 whom we found so attentive to our wants. Still, they all looked cheery, light-hearted, simple 

 creatures, and appeared to enjoy immensely the little childish games they played amongst 

 themselves between whiles. 



" After dinner we had some real Japanese tea, tasting exactly like a little hot water 

 poured on very fragrant new-mown hay. Then, after a brief visit to the kitchen, which, 

 though small, was beautifully clean, we received our boots, and were bowed out by our pleasant 

 hostess and her attentive handmaidens." 



Recommending the perusal of the interesting works last quoted, let us finish our trip on 

 paper at its natural termination, so far as the route from San Francisco is concerned, in China,, 

 to which country the American vessels take us in a week or so. 



Hong Kong is a commercial port of the first order, but has not come up to the expectations 

 once made of it. It has not progressed in the same ratio as has Shanghai. Its situation is 

 picturesque. " Fancy to yourself the rock of Gibraltar, on a large scale, looking to the north. 

 There facing us is terra Jinna. Let us scramble up to the flag-staff, proudly standing on the 

 highest peak of the mountain. The sun, which is already low, bathes sky, earth, and sea in 

 crude, fantastic, exaggerated lights. Woe be to the painter who should dare reproduce such 

 effects ! Happy would he be if he could succeed ! 



" Towards the south, the sun and the fogs are fighting over the islands, which at this 

 moment stand out in black groups on a liquid gold ground, framed in silver. Towards the 

 north we look over the town, officially called Victoria, and vulgarly Hong Kong. It is 

 stretched out at our feet, but we only perceive the roofs, the courts, and the streets ; further 

 on the roadstead is crowded with frigates, corvettes, gun-boats, steamers belonging to the great 

 companies, and an infinity of smaller steam and sailing vessels of less tonnage. In front of us, 

 at three or four miles distance, is a high chain of rocks, bare and rugged, but coloured by the 

 setting sun with tints of rose colour and crimson, resembling a huge coral bracelet. That is 

 the continent. Towards the west are the two passages which lead to Canton and Macao ; to 

 the north-east is a third passage, by which we ourselves have come. The sea here is like a 

 lake, bordered on one side by the rocks of terra fir ma, and on the other by the peaks and 

 summits of the Hong Kong cliffs. I have seen in many other lands softer and more 

 harmonious effects of light, but I never saw any so strange. 



" Victoria is charming, sympathetic, and imposing : English and yet tropical a mixture 

 of cottages and palaces. Nowhere can be found a happier combination between the poetry of 

 nature and the prose of commercial life; between English comfort and the intoxicating 

 exuberance of the south. The streets, which are well macadamised, well kept, and beautifully 

 clean, run in a serpentine fashion along the rock, sometimes between houses, of which the 

 rather pretentious facades are coquettishly veiled by the verandahs, sometimes between gardens, 

 bamboo hedges, or stone balustrades. It is like Ventnor or Shanklin seen through a magnify- 

 ing-glass and under a jet of electric light. Everywhere there are fine trees banians, bamboos,. 



