18 THE HAPPY VALLEY. [Cuap. II. 
ployed pon the new road; three saved themselves 
ree, but many more are- minting, and are 
hears to have been carried out to sea.’ 
There is very little flat ground on the Island 
capable of being brought under cultivation ; indeed 
the only tract of any extent is the “ Wang-Nai 
Chung,” or, as the English call it, the “ happy 
Valley,” about two miles east from the town; and 
even that is not more than twenty or thirty acres 
in extent. There are several other small plots 
of ground near the bottom of the hills, and some few 
terraced patches amongst them, but the whole is of 
very trifling extent. In former times the Chinese 
used to cultivate crops of rice and vegetables in 
the Wang-Nai-Chung Valley, but the place proved 
to be very unhealthy; and the Government, sup- 
posing that the malaria might proceed from the 
water necessary to bring the crops to maturity, 
prohibited the natives from cultivating them, and 
set about draining theland. From this description 
it will be seen that our settlement on this Island is 
entirely dependent on the dominions of his Celestial — 
Majesty for supplies, which he, of course, can cut 
off when he pleases. Shortly after the present 
Governor, Sir John Francis Davis, took the helm 
of affairs in China, he, with the advice of the 
Legislative Council of Hong-kong, passed a law 
for registering all the inhabitants of the island, 
English and Chinese, the latter of course being — 
under the rule of Her Britannic Majesty’s repre- 
sentative. The Chinese population, ever jealous 
