carry before their masters large lanterns, either of horn or highly-varnished paper, with his name and title painted on them in large characters. At the Feast of Lanterns, which takes place at the early part of the Chinese year, these lantern shops have a very gay and diversified appearance, and their proprietors reap a rich harvest, as it is customary at this feast for parents to make presents of lanterns to their children, and for inferiors to act similarly to their superiors, which are expensive in proportion to the means of the donor. Some of these are formed to represent birds, beasts, and fish, and others have moveable figures on their sides. In fact, this feast is somewhat similar to the fête of the New Year in France, lanterns being given in place of bon-bons. At night all these lanterns are lighted up, and hung on the exterior of their houses, and the illumination thus created is far superior to any ever witnessed in Europe. The streets are crowded, and each person takes as much pride in his expensive and showy appearance of the lanterns hung outside his house, as the members of clubs, &c., in London, do at the brilliancy of their illuminations on birth-nights. They exhibit a surprising degree of ingenuity in the mechanical construction of some of the lanterns, which are formed with moving figures, intended to represent the actions of life. But of all I have seen, one which was presented to me was the most perfect and beautiful. This was of a hexagon form, about two feet and a-half, and five feet in circumference. On its respective sides were moving figures, representing a Chinaman fishing with a rod, which moved up and down, with a fish hanging at the end of the line (this was rather

out of proportion, strongly resembling a cod's head and shoulders); John Bull dancing, and in the act of pouring out the contents of a bottle of porter into a goblet, all the limbs being in motion; a tiger in the act of jumping upon a man, who evinced from the motion of his limbs, and his head turned towards the beast, great terror; a sanpan filled with fruit and vegetables, sculled by a boatwoman, with that peculiar motion of her arms and feet used in sculling; a Chinaman in the act of raising his food to his mouth with chopsticks; and lastly, a sportsman taking aim at a bird, which was perpetually fluttering in the air; while Tartar horsemen, in their tiger-skin uniforms, and lances or spears couched, were constantly chasing each other round the lantern. The costumes, figures, and appurtenances, were accurately pourtrayed according to life and nature; the figures continued in motion as long as the lamps burned. The lamps were composed of several small saucers filled with oil, to feed small wicks lying at their sides. The revolution of the horsemen was affected by a species of smoke-jack, to which they were attached by long human hairs; an inner framework revolved by the same means, and moved the pegs to which the various figures on the sides of the lantern were fastened. The framework of this lantern was composed of bamboo, which was covered with silk, and the bottom was decorated with an embroidered silken fringe. I considered it a perfect masterpiece of mechanical skill in its way, and regretted very much that, from the fragility and delicacy of its construction, it was impossible to remove it to England.

By the commercial treaty entered into with China, five ports were opened for British commerce. In additon to these ports, Great Britain was put into temporary possession of Chu-san, till the amount of the indemnity for the expenses of the war, engaged to be defrayed by China, was discharged.

The island of Chu-san, or Chow-san, lies in latitude 29° 22′′ north. The

city, which had fallen into decay when closed against European enterprise, immediately felt the benefit arising from the visits of British merchants to its harbour. It is a great rendezvous of native junks, which average two hundred tons burthen, and are supplied with four oblong sails of matting. It is only a short distance from NingPo, the principal emporium of Che

Keang province. Chu-san is blest with the most productive soil; its internal resources are abundant; its climate healthy; and the town particularly well built, for that country. It has become the sanatorium of China. All who impair their health in HongKong are advised to take a voyage for their recovery to Chu-san, from whence, after a short residence, they generally return perfectly convalescent. It is much to be regretted that our negociators neglected to secure this salubrious island for a British colony.

Hong-Kong is one of the worst of that cluster of islands known as the "Ladrone or Piratical islands," which lie off the mouth of the Canton river. It is a barren, uncultivated region, where no vegetation thrives. The island was always held in such ill-repute by the Chinese, that it was destitute of a single habitation when delivered up to our troops. It presents only an aspect of barrenness to the eye of the voyager. A rocky, sterile mountain, on whose side the town of Victoria is built, rises from the shore. The houses, of every variety of form, are built with stone; streets have sprung up with continuous ranges of buildings, interspersed with detached and enclosed villas.

The dwellings and extensive godowns, or stores of the merchants, with private wharfs, extend for three miles along the shore.

Wong-ne-Chong, or the Happy Valley, which might with more propriety be called the Valley of Death, is the only picturesque portion of the island. Some who were attracted by the scenery, erected a few desirable-looking residences along this valley; they are all deserted now. The inhabitants were successively seized with fever, and died.

The road to Chuck-Choo, a military station situated at the opposite side of the island, passes through this valley, and winds up the mountain side. Many picturesque views of the harbour and shipping may be obtained by the lover of nature, as he pursues his way along this road. Broken rocks, relieved by stunted trees in the foreground, give some interest to the picture.

Hong-Kong is as insignificant in magnitude, as it is deficient in resources, and insalubrious in climate. It is not more than fifteen miles in

length by ten in breadth. It is dependant entirely on Cow-Loon for supplying its markets with fruit, vegetables, poultry, and the great mass of live-stock consumed by the population. In fact, the island contributes but little to the support of its inhabitants. It indeed returns the manure to Cow-loon, which enables the cultivator to rear vegetables and fruit for its consump tion. It is but natural to conclude, that should the Chinese authorities choose at any time to stop the supplies, which they once did, and which they constantly do at Macao, we should either be obliged to submit to their terms, or the island inevitably experience the extreme of famine, unless an extraordinary amount of provisions happened to be in store.

It

The seasons are exceedingly trying to the strongest constitutions. would convey a very inadequate idea of the rainy season, merely to speak of torrents of rain; the flood-gates of heaven appear to open, and threaten the earth with another flood. The deluge continues through the months of May and June, and sometimes of July. When these rains cease, miasmata arise, and the most unhealthy season of the year begins. The summer has been admitted, by all the Indians whom I met in China, to be far hotter and much more oppressive than in any part of India. In HongKong, I have known the thermometer at 116° in the shade. The transition from the burning heat of summer to the cutting blast of winter, injures the most robust. A piercing north-east wind blows, while a burning sun scorches the head. The nights during winter are so cold, that ice is formed in the water-jugs. In fact, the winter in China is felt much more severely than in Russia. There, indeed, the internal arrangements of their dwellings is such as to exclude all cold, and here the comparison will not hold. But in Russia, warm clothing will suffice to protect those who take exercise in the open air, which it will not do in China.

The climate of China is in no part healthy; yet the north is by far the most salubrious part of the empire. Fevers and dysentery prevail through the whole land, and the sudden changes from heat to cold, produce rheumatic fevers and catarrhs of a

severe nature, which too frequently prove fatal.

But of all parts of China, HongKong is the most unhealthy, and the fever prevalent there, known as the Hong-Kong fever, is as fatal as cholera morbus. The temperate and intemperate become alike the victims of this dreadful fever, which generally commences with slight headache, and gradually increases until the whole head is so sore, that no part can bear its own weight or pressure on the pillow. The body becomes so weak and enervated, that the patient is forced to assume a recumbent posture, and fever rages in the veins to an incredible degree. The eye-balls are in such excessive pain, that light can be ill endured, and yet the closing of the eye-lids is intolerable. The symptoms increase hourly; but it seldom lasts longer than five days. The fever has this peculiar feature, that the patient frequently becomes much better, and rallies so much previously to death, that instances have (constantly occurred of his sitting up in bed, or, if allowed, of rising from it, when he suddenly becomes delirious, and often violently so. If opposed injudiciously by force, the violence of the patient increases, and he expires from exhaustion. In other cases, the patient, after rallying, is seized with frightful convulsions the features are distorted, fixed and rigid, and after some hours of painful suffering, he ceases to breathe. If blood be taken from the arm, in the commencement of the fever, the case is generally sure to terminate fatally; indeed it seems to have baffled all medical skill. No treatment, however successful in one case, has proved effectual in another. In this fearful disease, medical men allow that medicine is of little avail. All they can do is to administer aperients and febrifuges, and apply cooling lotions constantly to the head. Local bleeding is also adopted, by the application of leeches to the head. The patient is kept in a horizontal position, with the head depressed. Light nutriment should be constantly given, and the utmost kindness and most soothing manner used, when delirium appears. A medical man can therefore do but little, and the only chance of recovery, humanly speaking, is from constant, careful, judicious, and tender nursing, which men rarely receive in Hong-Kong, being left to

Of

servants, or male friends unaccustomed to act the part of nurses. the value of a good nurse, I can speak from sad experience, having had myself a most fearful attack of fever, from which, under Providence, I recovered, owing principally to the tender and anxious nursing bestowed upon me, day and night, by one of that sex, whose peculiar characteristic it is, "when pain and sickness wring the brow," to act the part of ministering angels. During recovery from fever, the great danger to be apprehended arises from the extreme debility and dysentery which follow, in the few cases which have not terminated fatally. The ravages upon the constitution are most trying, the debility and weakness of limbs fearful, and the joints feel the effects for years. The general system is shattered, and febrile attacks frequently recur. Hong-Kong is as insalubrious to the Chinese as to Europeans; but few of the former die in Hong-Kong. The moment illness appears, they immediately quit the island. The

Chinese, generally speaking, are not a healthy race; they are subject to scrofula, ophthalmia, leprosy, and cutaneous diseases.

Some who expended much capital in improvements upon the island, naturally endeavoured to increase the number of colonists. Hence the local press, under their influence, never recorded half the deaths which occurred. A gentleman, who had large property in houses, expressed great alarm to me at the illness of the chief justice, lest a panic should be produced in case of his death from fever, his daughter having then recently sunk under that direful disease. "The death," said he, "of the chief justice must become necessarily known at home. It would give the colony a bad name, deter others from settling here, and it would ultimately be the ruin of us all."

In common justice, however, let the truth be told, and afford those who may be lured to reside there, the opportunity of doing so with their eyes open. Hong-Kong itself is not only the most unhealthy spot in China, sparing neither age nor sex, but the site selected for Victoria, the principal town and seat of government, is the most unhealthy locality of the whole

their shops, but left the island. It was the object of British merchants to induce old and wealthy Chinese merchants, if not to reside in the colony, to form establishments there, and occasionally visit Hong-Kong for the purpose of traffic. One of the richest and most respectable in Canton had arranged to do so at this period, but he informed a friend of mine, a British merchant, that he must now abandon the idea, fearing that the introduction of such a system of taxation might cause all his dollars to be "squeezed out" of him. The governor on most occasions is at variance with the merchants, and constant attempts are made to load the infant colony with taxes. Hong-Kong, in all probability, after the sacrifice of so many thousand British lives, and the expenditure of an enormous British capital, will not only not pay the colonial expenses, but will become a burthen upon the nation. Our merchants will probably abandon it for Macao, which the Portuguese authorities have had at length the good sense to make a free port, where they will find a more agreeable and healthy place of abode. An ordinance of the same year formed the subject of much bitter feeling, and no small amusement to many, for a long period. Robberies and housebreaking being of frequent occurrence, it became necessary for merchants and private individuals to employ watchmen, who, according to custom, struck together two hollow pieces of bamboo, to show they were on the alert, as they walked round the premises. During the temporary absence of the governor, who went to visit the ports, the major-general assumed the reins of government, as lieutenant-governor, and caused an ordinance to be passed and promulgated, prohibiting, under certain pains and penalties, the striking of these hollow pieces of bamboo between the hours of eight o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning. This gallant officer was the only person who complained of this usage; he alone declared that his health was sacrificed -his slumbers disturbed—and he alone had no occasion for a watchman, having a military guard. His edict was universally complained of, as those who employed watchmen had a right to require an audible proof of their vigilance. It was considered too good a

joke, that because an old soldier who ought to have been accustomed to war's alarms could not sleep, merchants and private individuals were to be suddenly deprived of the protection for which they paid, without the substitution of a better. In spite of much squabbling, the grumbling of the major-general, and his personal visits, attended by the police, the watchmen of the merchants continued to beat the bamboo; and many a laugh was raised by this "bamboo question" during the progress of the strife. The slumbers of the major-general, it must be owned, were very easily disturbed. He could not sleep if a goose cackled; an American trader who lived opposite to him was therefore requested to kill or remove all his geese, as their cackling caused the major-general to awake at too early an hour in the morning!!! There is a member of the colonial government who, in the general estimation, is one of the few in authority perfectly qualified, in every respect, to govern, command, and enforce respect-possessing that suavity of manner, and hospitality of disposition, which has obtained for him the universal esteem of the mercantile body, and of all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. Experience has taught him the true character of the Chinese. His unflinching firmness, and his just and impartial conduct on the bench, produced such an effect upon them, that one word from him is sufficient to secure their respect and attention. Those who know China will have anticipated the name of Major William Caine, the chief-magistrate of Hong-Kong. When I first anchored in Victoria Harbour, I was much struck with the estimation in which this gentleman was held. Not being understood by some Chinese who came on board, when I asked "Who is the governor here?" I changed the form of the inquiry, and asked "Who is the great man?" The immediate reply was, "Major Caine." knew nothing of Sir Henry Pottinger, nor of Sir John, then Mr. Davis. On many occasions, I have tried various Chinamen, and questioned them about the Governor, or No. 1, Mandarin, but they knew nothing of Sir John Davis! -while I have invariably found the name of Major Caine sufficient to deter them from extortion or insolence.

They

It has invariably been, and no doubt