326 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. XIX. 



formerly highly dangerous to entrust oneself to the tender 

 mercies of the boatmen after dark; and even now from 

 time to time sailors taking a boat without this precaution 

 are robbed and thrown overboard by the miscreants into 

 whose power they thus faU. I have known of an instance 

 of a lady being torn from her sedan by a gang of scoundrels 

 while passing through a quiet street, and of children stopped 

 on their way to school; barbarous murders from time to 

 time take place; and of late, gang-robberies with brutal 

 violence have once more become rife. 



It must not be supposed, however, that all parts of China 

 are equally insecure as Hong Kong ; for the most remark- 

 able circumstance is that the reverse is the case, and that 

 in almost any part of China life and property are more safe 

 than they are ija the English colony. In Canton, one may 

 go about in perfect safety, and a lady who had resided there 

 for many years assured me that she would have no hesita- 

 tion in walking alone in any part of Canton, or at any hour. 

 Under the Imperial government the laws protecting life 

 and property f*om violence and robbery are well calculated 

 to be effective, being enacted by those who understand 

 the people with whom they have to deal ; but in Hong 

 Kong the legislation which is directed against the offences 

 of Europeans, utterly fails when applied to those of a 

 people of so entirely different a spirit as the Chinese. The 

 Chinese are Easterns and Pagans, and they have all the 

 faults and vices which characterise Easterns and Pagans. 

 They have no regard for truth, but are proverbially and 

 systematically a nation of liars, who do not know the value 

 of truth — ^have no inherent love of it, and think it no harm 

 to cheat and deceive. It is therefore the most difficult 

 thing in the world to know how much of a Chinaman's 



