The island of Hong-Kong, the original word in the Chinese is Hoong-Keang, which means "Red Harbor," is in about lat. 22° 17' 00'' North, long. 114° East, and is one of the Ladrones, a group of rocky islands which dot this part of Canton Bay. In length it is about eight miles, its greatest breadth not more than four, and it is separated from the mainland by an arm of the sea, called the Lyemoon Passage, in which are several smaller islands, which vary its width, and make admirable hiding places for the pirates, whose existence has given to this Archipelago its distinctive title of Ladrone. In fact the Strait is named after a celebrated pirate who once commanded there.
Upon the northern side of this island of Hong-Kong, is the settlement called Victoria, which, as I have before stated, is generally known by the name of the island, and a reference to it is made in a former page.
This island is mountainous, but contains many extensive valleys—none very remarkable for fertility.
The mountains are formed of a species of granite, the greater part of which is of a crumbling nature, and through them runs a stratum of a red sandy formation, which, I suppose, geologists would call "pœcilitic." There are occasionally to be found solid boulders of this material, which has been used for building. But it is to be remarked that the granite found in that state is generally detached from the larger masses, which appear to be in a state of decomposition, the particles from which, washed down by the heavy summer rains, are said to add greatly to the fatality occasioned by the decimating properties of an Indian sun.
That old lady who asserted that "it never rains but it pours," would have been furnished with corroborative proofs had she witnessed some of the pluvial exhibitions at Hong-Kong. It really does pour on such occasions there. Talk of the deluge, when the windows of heaven were said to have been opened! Why if that venerable dame could have seen the descent of these torrents, she would have thought that all obstructing barriers of the blue empyrean had been removed, and the surcharged clouds suddenly overturned, and have come to the conclusion that forty days of such outpouring would leave no resting-place, even upon the lofty peak of Victoria mountain.
They call the period from June to October the rainy season, but I have witnessed extensive showers in nearly all the intermediate months. These are sudden and overwhelming. Instances are related of Coolies having been caught in currents rushing down the mountain, and drowned without the possibility of assistance.
In the years 1845 and '6, from July to January, within a period of six months, ten feet of rain was measured by an ombrometer, having fallen at Hong-Kong.
The island came into possession of Great Britain in 1842 by cession, but had been occupied on the 26th of January of the previous year, in consequence of a treaty which was afterwards rejected by the Emperor. Great inducements were held out to Chinese to settle in Victoria by the British government. They were guaranteed all their rights and privileges, and allowed freedom in their religious rites, and permitted to follow their own customs. These inducements, however, appeared to have but little effect upon the Chinese. They distrusted the "outside barbarians," and it was to the interest of the Mandarins to prevent emigration to the new settlement. At present much of the distrust has worn away, and many have taken advantage of the opening made by thriving trade; still it must be admitted that the majority of Chinamen to be found in Hong-Kong, are of the nature of those patriots who leave "their country for their country's good," and the numbers seen in the chain gangs, show the manner in which they best serve the State.