HONG-KONG
January 6th.—In the afternoon we entered the calm harbour of Hong-Kong,
and moored at New Harbour, where the boats come in to take coal. When
we stepped on shore, chocolate-coloured natives, speaking all at once,
fought for our luggage and snatched our bags out of our hands. We hailed
a carriage which brought us to Windsor Hotel, where we took a suite of
several rooms.
After dinner we were carried in palanquins about Victoria Town. Our
porters panted like short-breathed horses whilst ascending the steep
streets, which wasn’t pleasant at all.
January 7th.—It is Christmas in Russia to-day. Hard luck to spend
Christmas in these far away parts, when one wants to have one’s dear
people about one! It makes me feel horribly home-sick. It is a dull day,
chill and cloudy; long gusts of wind come down the street. We have a fire
burning in the grate; fine tropics indeed! The Chinese inhabitants walk
about muffled up in big coats lined with sheep-skins. In the extreme
Orient it is the yellow race who predominates. I have had quite enough of
the Chinese, who resemble each other as two ears of corn.
January 9th.—We will make a flying visit to Canton to-day, going up
the Si-Kiang, or Pearl River, in a large English steamer bearing the
Chinese name of _Fat-Chan_. The Si-Kiang is so broad that one can’t see
across from bank to bank. The crossing takes only eight hours, and is
comfortably made in large floating palaces, plying between Hong-Kong
and the towns of the inner country. Except ourselves there are only two
first-class passengers. I caught sight in the saloon of stacks of rifles,
swords and revolvers, with printed instructions to the passengers to use
them if necessary, the river-steamers having been known to be attacked
by pirates, who rove in junks about the river and assail passing ships.
Last year a band of pirates boarded the _Fat-Chan_ as passengers. As
soon as Hong-Kong was out of view, the brigands, after having bound with
cords the captain and his crew, cut the throats of all the passengers
and threw their bodies overboard. Soldiers now accompany every steamer,
and the third-class passengers are locked up for the night in the hold
behind an iron rail, at the entrance to which stand sentinels. We have
three hundred Chinamen as third-class passengers, and it did not make me
feel safe at all. The captain took us down into the hold after tiffin to
show us the human ant’s nest. We saw the Chinese passengers heaped up
pell-mell, men, women and children. The men were smoking opium or playing
dice, and looked quite peaceful.