12 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. I. 
ease, tliat few who were seized ever recovered. The only 
advice the doctors gave was at once to leave the island 
and fly to Macao. 
The south side of Hong-kong was at this time con- 
sidered much more healthy than the north, where the 
new town of Victoria was being built. The prevailing 
opinion amongst the inhabitants then was that the town 
ought to have been placed on the south side, which had 
the advantage of being exposed to the refreshing breeze 
of the south-west monsoon, from which the north was in 
a great measure shut out by the range of mountains. 
This theory, however, was soon disproved, for latterly 
the troops stationed at Aberdeen, on the south side, have 
suffered more than those in Victoria. 
The native population in Victoria consist of shop- 
keepers, tradesmen, servants, boat-people, and Coolies, 
and altogether form a most motley group. Unfortu" 
nately there is no inducement for the respectable Chinese 
merchant to take up his quarters there, and until that 
takes place we shall always have the worst set of people 
in the country. The town swarms with thieves and 
robbers, who are only kept under by the strong armed 
police lately established. Previous to this, scarcely a 
dark night passed without some one having his house 
broken into by an armed band, and all that was valuable 
being carried off or destroyed. These audacious rascals 
did not except the Governor even, for one night Govern- 
ment House was robbed ; and another time they actually 
stole the arms of the sentries. These armed bands, 
sometimes a hundred strong, disappeared, as they came, 
in a most marvellous manner, and no one seemed to 
