HONG-KONG. 
123 
Sometimes, when taking - our passage in a sampan, we were surprised by seeing the heads of 
two or three children suddenly emerging from under a lid in the fore part of the boat, which 
seemed to cover a space not much exceeding the dimensions of a traveller’s chest. In spite of 
their being thus cooped up, these Chinese “ cherubs ” looked very healthy, with black roguish 
eyes. The mother, often with a baby on her back, manages the oar, generally assisted by 
a grown-up daughter or other relative. Husbands and brothers seem to earn their livelihood 
on shore. We found these water-folk a good-humoured, light-hearted, industrious race. 
China has been called the “flowery” land, which may be true of certain parts of the 
Empire, but the only flowers I remember to have seen growing wild in the vicinity of Hong¬ 
kong are the convolvulus and a white camellia which is found on the slopes of Mount Victoria 
The peninsula of Kowloon, which projects into the harbour from the north, has been ceded to 
England, and is used for naval and military purposes. An enthusiastic amateur astronomer 
had, at the time of our visit, erected an observatory on one of the hills of Kowloon in 
preparation for the coming transit of Venus. Much to his disappointment, the long-expected 
morning proved .cloudy, and the first outer and inner contact could not be distinctly observed. 
Behind the peninsula rises a chain of hills and mountains as destitute of vegetation as the 
volcanic elevations of Ascension and the Cape de Verde Islands. Amid the recesses of these 
hills, and overlooking a well-sheltered bay, lies the Chinese town of Kowloon, which I visited 
with the object of seeing John Chinaman in his own country. The appearance of the place 
justifies its former reputation as a nest of pirates. What may be called the citadel or official 
part of the town is surrounded by a crenelated wall ; the remainder is a dense mass of low 
dwellings, only separated from each other by narrow passages a few feet wide, and more 
suggestive of a rabbit-warren, or of one of those colonies of birds’ nests we had seen in 
the oceanic islands, than of a collection of human habitations. On the two occasions when I 
extended my excursions to Kowloon, I was impeded at an early stage of my progress by a 
dense mob of children and grown people covered with dirty rags, and I preferred to make my 
retreat, followed by a shower of stones, rather than offer further resistance to native prejudices. 
The Chinese of the more cultured class, whom I had some opportunity of observing, gave 
me the impression of a proud, high-spirited, sensitive, very intelligent, and, in the ordinary 
transactions of life, remarkably matter-of-fact race ; and nothing could be in worse taste than 
the ignorant scorn and contempt with which the Chinese are treated by a certain class of 
Europeans. Even the well-meant but blunt and unceremonious bearing of some educated 
travellers must occasionally give serious offence among a people who, like all Orientals, are 
accustomed to the most punctilious observance of an old-established ceremonial, and of certain 
forms of speech varying with the rank and station of the person addressed. While the lower 
classes of the Chinese offer many examples of great bodily strength and powers of endurance, 
I was often struck with the fine stature, dignified bearing, and regular features of individuals 
belonging to the more prosperous grades of society. 
The harbour of Hong-kong may boast of the greatest variety of floating craft to be 
seen assembled in any port—Chinese and Japanese gunboats, the old-fashioned piratical- 
