Hong Kong was ceded to England in consequence of the war of 1842. The then inconsiderable fishing village is now one of the most important commercial cities of the globe. The harbour is spacious, affording good anchorage, and is well protected by a number of large and small granite islands. The city is built on the largest of these on slopes which rise from the shore towards the interior of the island. On the highest points the wealthiest foreign residents have built their summer houses which are surrounded by beautiful gardens. In winter they live in the city. We here met with a very gratifying reception both from the Governor, Mr. POPE HENNESSY, and from the other inhabitants of the town. The former invited Captain Palander and me to live in the beautiful Governor's residence, gave a dinner, arranged a stately official reception in our honour, and presented to the Expedition a fine collection of dried plants from the exceedingly well-kept botanical garden of the city, which is under the charge of Mr. CHARLES FORD, the latter presented me with an address of welcome at a festive meeting in the City Hall, specially arranged for the purpose and numerously attended by the principal men of the town. The meeting was opened by the Chairman, Mr. KESWICK, with a speech of welcome, after which Mr. J. B. COUGHTRIE read and presented the address, bound in red silk and beautifully illuminated in black; gold, and red, with 414 signatures, among which many were by Chinese. The address ended with a hearty congratulation to us all and a promise of a memorial of our visit to Hong Kong which should indicate the way in which the Vega expedition was appreciated there. Some time after our return home Palander and I received from members of the community of Hong Kong a splendid silver vase each.
I here embraced with great interest the opportunity, which my coming in contact with the principal men of the place afforded, of getting a glance into the political relations which prevailed in this vigorous and promising colony. At first sight they appeared to be by no means satisfactory. Peace and unanimity evidently did not prevail; for dissatisfaction with the Governor was loudly expressed by many of the Europeans settled in Hong Kong. He favoured, they said, the Chinese in an exceedingly partial way, and mitigated their punishments to such a degree that Hong Kong would soon become a place of refuge for all the robbers and thieves of Canton. At the time of our visit an instructive parliamentary debate on a small scale was proceeding in the Legislative Council of the city. The controversy was carried on with a certain bitterness, but with a proper observance of the parliamentary procedure customary in the mother country. The eloquent leader of the opposition had evidently, as is usual in such cases, the general feeling of the Europeans on his side. For they appeared to be pretty well agreed that the only means of protecting themselves against the evil-doers from the great heavenly empire would be to punish them in an inhuman way when they were taken in the act.
To an outsider it appeared, however, that the Governor not only had humanity and justice on his side, but also acted with a true insight into the future. When he came to the colony the corporal punishments to which the Chinese were condemned were exceeding barbarous, although mild in comparison with those common in China—a state of things which the opposition brought forward in defence of the severer punishments. Prisoners were repeatedly flogged with "the cat," often with the result that they were attacked by incurable consumption, they were prepared for the punishment by being subjected for some time to a starvation-diet of rice and water; they were branded when they left the prison, &c. Proceeding on the view that the greatest security for a colony such as Hong Kong lies in the affection which is cherished for it by the numerous native population, the Governor had sought to protect it from unjust attacks by Europeans. Considering that too barbarous punishments are likely rather to promote than to deter from the commission of crimes, in consequence of the protection the criminal in such a case may reckon upon from sympathising fellow-creatures, and that mild punishments are the first condition of a good protective police, the Governor had diminished the floggings, forbidden the public infliction of the punishment, given a reprimand in cases where "by mistake" or by an evasion of the letter of the law extra strokes had been given to criminals, exchanged "the regulation cat" for the rattan, abolished the preliminary starvation-diet and the branding, improved the prisons, &c. All this was now loudly complained of by the European merchants, but was approved by the Chinese subjects in the colony, who were however dissuaded from making any contrary demonstrations.
When we came afterwards to other English possessions, we found that the inhabitants were often more or less in conflict with the authorities, but nowhere was there anything to prevent the opposition from endeavouring to promote their views by public meetings, by addresses in newspapers and pamphlets. In this way a pretty active political life arises early, and this is probably one of the main conditions of the capacity of the English colonies for self-government, and of their vigour and influence on the surrounding country.
It will in truth be highly interesting to see what influence will be exerted on the great neighbouring empire if Mr. Hennessy's politics with reference to the Chinese settled in Hong Kong be carried out, and they be converted into fellow-citizens conscious that they are protected by law in person and property, that they do not require to crawl in the dust before any authority, and that so long as they keep within the limits of the law they are quite safe from the oppressions of all officials, and in the enjoyment of all the rights and privileges which the English law confers upon the citizen.
Many of the Europeans settled at Hong Kong were convinced that for another thousand years one would be justified in using the expression regarding China: "Thou art what thou wast, and thou wilt be what thou art." Others again stated that contact with Europeans at Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and the accounts given by the emigrants returning to China in thousands from California and Australia are by slow degrees changing the aspect of the world in the "heavenly empire," and thereby preparing for a revolution less violent, but as thorough as that which has recently taken place in Japan. If this comes about, China will be a state that must enter into the calculation when the affairs of the world are settled, and whose power will weigh very heavy in the scales, at least when the fate of Asia is concerned. At Hong Kong and Canton the report was current that the far-sighted Chancellor of the German Empire had taken this factor into calculation in settling his plans for the future.
Already the Chinese took part in the European life. A number of Chinese names, as I have already said, were attached to the address that was presented to me; at the Governor's reception many stout, smiling heads provided with pigtails were seen; and Chinese had taken part in the meetings at which the Governor's scheme of reform was under discussion. There have also existed in the country from time immemorial secret societies, which are said only to wait for a favourable opportunity to endeavour to link their fates to the new paths.[386] The observations that I made at Hong Kong and Canton are, however, too superficial for me to wish to detain my reader with these matters. I accordingly point to the numerous works on these cities published by authors who have lived there as many months or years as I have days, and proceed to sketch the continuation of the voyage of the Vega.
Accompanied by the good wishes of many newly acquired friends, we left the harbour of Hong Kong on the morning of the 9th November. It was my original intention to steer our course to Manilla, but the loss of time during our long stay in Japan compelled me to give up that plan. The course was shaped, however, not directly for Singapore, but for Labuan, a small English possession on the north side of Borneo. Its northern extremity (the coal mine) lies in 5° 33' N. L. and 115° 12' E.L. England took possession of Labuan on account of the coal-seams which are found there, which are of special importance on account of the situation of the island nearly in the midst of the large, numerous, and fertile islands of south-eastern Asia. It was the coal-seams too that attracted me to the place. For I wished to see whether I could not, in the neighbourhood of the equator itself, collect valuable contributions towards ascertaining the nature of the former equatorial climate.
We at first made rapid progress, thanks to a fresh and favourable monsoon wind. But when we reached the so-called belt of calms, the wind ceased completely, and we had now to avail ourselves of steam, which, in consequence of the low power of the Vega's engine and a strong counter current, carried us forward so slowly that it was not until the 17th November that we could anchor in the harbour of Labuan.
The largest of the islands belonging to the colony has, with a pretty considerable breadth, a length of 10' from N.E. to S. W. It is inhabited by some thousands (3,300 in 1863) of Chinese and Malays, together with a few Englishmen, who are either crown officials or employed at the coal mine. The north part of the island has a height of 140 metres above the sea, but towards the south the land sinks to an extensive sandy plain, closely overgrown with bushy thickets and traversed by low marshes. Most of the inhabitants live along the shore of the harbour which bears the now, or perhaps only for the present, indispensable name for English colonies (which on that account conveys little information) of Victoria. The Governor's fine residence lies at a little distance from the harbour town in the interior of the island, the coal mine on its north side. At the time of our visit the coal company had recently gone into liquidation, and work had therefore been stopped at the mine, but it was hoped that it would soon be resumed. The sandy plain is of little fertility in comparison with the neighbouring tropical lands. It had recently been burned, and was therefore for the most part covered only with bushes, among which stems of high, dried-up, half-burned trees raised themselves, giving to the landscape a resemblance to a northern forest devastated by an accidental fire. In consequence of the fire which had thus passed over the island the plain which, when looked at from a distance appeared to be completely even, was seen everywhere to be studded with crater-formed depressions in the sand, quite similar to the os-pits in the osar of Scandinavia.[387] On the north side there was sandstone rock rising from the sea with a steep slope six to fifteen metres high. Here tropical nature appeared in all its luxuriance, principally in the valleys which the small streams had excavated in the sandstone strata.