6 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. I. 
places the Queen's Road lias been covered with soil, 
sand, &c., to the depth of more than two feet, and 
nearly all the cross drains are choked up. The bridge 
at the Commissariat has been carried away, and that in 
the Wang-nai-chung has also disappeared. Several 
lives were lost by the fall of a house in which some 
Chinese resided ; and it is said the stream at Pokfowlum 
burst upon a mat hut in which were a number of 
Coolies employed upon the new road; three saved them- 
selves in a tree, but many more are missing, and are 
supposed 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, supposing 
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 the land. 
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 
Governor, Sir John Francis Davis, took the helm of 
