234 
CRUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
toria Peak (Hong Kong) was seen, and a few hours 
later we were threading onr way through a very maze 
of boats and shipping until reaching the anchorage 
off the Naval Yard. Soon we were surrounded by a 
host of sampans and junks, whose noisy occupants 
were each seeking the honour of being appointed the 
Challenger s bumboat. 
Few places are more interesting to the traveller 
from Europe than this city, furnishing as it does such 
a change of scenery, manners, and customs, so widely 
different from anything he has probably seen be- 
fore. 
The harbour is crowded with men-of-war and 
trading vessels of many nationalities, while hundreds 
of junks, sampans, and fishing-boats, full of life and 
movement, contribute in making the scene one of 
great attraction. Not more than half a century has 
elapsed since England took possession of this island, 
at which time it was little less than a bare uninviting 
rock, affording a haunt and home for pirates and 
desperadoes, who were the terror of these seas. 
What a change has been brought about in this 
brief period ! Now it is a great centre of trade and 
commerce, and vessels come from Bombay, Calcutta, 
and Singapore, laden with the choicest products from 
these lands for transshipment to England, America, 
or our colonial possessions, receiving in return 
tribute from those distant countries, in exchange 
for teas, silk, opium, and other requirements. It is 
