on his long travel abundance of wholesome food. The prices in the good agricultural districts were very small. For instance, at the city of Liang-shan Hsien excellent beef and mutton, as well as the never-failing pork, was 2d. to 3d. the catty (1 lbs.), eggs five a penny, and other articles in proportion. Throughout the whole of his journey he received from the people nothing but civility and kindness, nor did an official even once ask him to produce his passport, a proof that the Chinese are on their part loyally carrying out the provisions of the Cheefoo convention.*

CHAPTER IV.

CHINA THE OUTLYING COLONIES AND TERRITORIES.

THE Chinese empire-either de facto or nominally-extended in ancient times so far that it is difficult to say what countries the Pekin authorities do not consider a more or less integral part of it. Many of the Asiatic Khanates now under Russian rule the Chinese maintain passively to be theirs, while, as all the world knows, Kuldja, which constituted the main portion of their old province of Dsungaria, has been receded to them, while Kashgaria, which a few years ago Yakoob Beg wrested from the conqueror, has again fallen into their hands, to remain how long it would be rash to prophecy. Annam, Burmah, and Siam the Emperor is understood to recognise as really tributaries, whatever he may do diplomatically The Shan States are no doubt considered in the same light. The Loochoos we have seen are in dispute (Vol. IV., p. 302), and though Cambodia and Cochin China have passed out of the Emperor's hands, the archives of Pekin recognise the alienation of no part of the ancient territories of the Cousin of the Moon, and it is just possible that his ministers may dream of recovering in the fulness of that time—in waiting for which the Chinese excel all the sons of men-Hong Kong from England and Amoorland from Russia. The last of these countries we have already described: the firstnamed it will be now necessary to touch briefly upon in describing the outliers of China, as well as those countries which, like Corea and Mantchuria, acknowledge, either as tributaries or directly, the rule of Pekin.

HONG KONG.

This little islet, though now a British colony, is geographically a part of the province of Quan-tung, off the coast of which it lies, near the mouth of the Canton River (p. 61). It is only about eight miles long and five miles wide, but within this area of thirty-two square miles-including the peninsula of Kowloon, on the mainland,

*Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1879, pp. 489-509. See also Cooper: "Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce" (1870), and the various official reports of Blue Books. It is impossible in this place to give references to even a fraction of the recent works on China, for a bibliography of the kind would occupy a volume, so extensive has been the literary activity of Europeans and Americans who have visited the Middle Kingdom."

on the other side of the Lyeemoon Pass, which completes the insularity of the island—is compressed a population of over 140,000, mostly Chinese, the whites numbering (in 1876) little more than 7,500, and the Indian coolies under 1,500. In ancient times this island shared, with various others, the name of "Ladrones," from the thieving or piratical character of the inhabitants. But in 1841 Great Britain, during one of our little wars with the Chinese, took possession of it. Next year, by the treaty of Nankin, it was formally ceded, and in 1861 the opposite peninsula of Kowloon was added to the Colonial territory. The Chinese name means the "fragrant streams," and in picturesqueness it well deserves this poetical designation. Surrounded by villa-dotted hills, 1,000 to 2,000 feet high, the harbour of the chief town-Victoria-is one of the finest in the world. Here is stationed a naval and military force, which can at any time be called on to protect our commerce, while in and about the town concentrates a large amount of trade, which has gravitated to it since the British obtained possession of the place. Opium, tea, sugar, flour, rice, oil, amber, cotton, ivory, sandal-wood, silks, &c., are largely imported and exported from Victoria; but the island itself produces little, and with a few unimportant exceptions it can scarcely claim any manufactures. There are municipal institutions in the town, but the Colonial Government is vested in a Governor, aided by an Executive Council of five, and a Legislative Council of nine members. The revenue was at the latest date £189,526, and the expenditure a few thousands less. Its exports to the United Kingdom were, in 1878, £1,174,469, and its imports from the same source £4,677,017. Victoria Peak, which is in reality the island, is one of the most prominent landmarks to vessels making for the Canton River-and to the visitor entering the harbour of Hong Kong for the first time from the Monsoon-tossed China Sea, the busy swarm of sampans, boats, junks, merchant and other ships through which he threads, form an interesting sight. Forty years ago the broad harbour, along the shores of which rise great warehouses, backed by fine villas on the cooler heights, was simply the haunt of a nest of desperadoes who infested the neighbouring sea. "Now," to use the words of a recent visitor, "it is the great centre of trade and commerce, and vessels come from Bombay, Calcutta, and Singapore, laden with the choicest products from those lands for transhipment to England, America, or our Colonial possessions, receiving in return tribute for their distant countries in exchange for teas and silk, opium, and other requirements. It is already one of the most flourishing of our colonies in the East, and destined to still further extension and greater importance. It has become the postal terminus of the many lines of mail steamers that arrive weekly from Europe and America, and now, with the submarine telegraph, is in instant communication with every place of importance." The offices and warehouses on the Praya, or quay, by the shore, are suggestive of busy commerce, and the wide streets, lined by houses built of stone, in the European fashion, crowded with busy pushing Englishmen, Chinese coolies, Indians, and Parsees, as well as by British soldiers and sailors, look, unless for the palanquins, which here take the place of cabs, very unlike any streets in China, though they bear a family resemblance to those which in time grow up in every town over the world wherever the Briton has made his home. At Hong Kong are held "the races," to which visitors from Shanghai, Canton, and Macao hie themselves, as to the great event of the year, and in the city itself flourish all the

"institutions" which Englishmen love so dearly, in addition to a few peculiar to the East and to itself. The Chinese quarter is built quite apart from the English one, and though the streets are wide and comparatively airy, it is as dirty, and to English ideas as un

comfortable, as a Chinese town almost invariably is. In addition to the tolerably well-todo population who live in houses, there are thousands who are born, reside, follow their business, and die in the sampans, or family boats, which cover the harbour of Hong Kong, as they do those of most other towns of China. The children are stowed away in a space where one can scarcely imagine it possible for an infant to survive. And as a matter of fact they do not always escape violent death. The mother rows with a child strapped on her back, and at the age of two or three the other begins to learn the simple art by which they are destined to earn their bread. Some little care is taken of the boys, for a gourd is tied round their necks, so that if they accidentally fall overboard they may have a chance to float, but the girls are allowed to take their chance, one or two less in a Sampan family

being considered no loss to the others. Yet, notwithstanding the beauty of the scenery and picturesqueness of the villas and the Government House perched along the steep sides of Victoria Peak, surmounted by the signalling apparatus, Hong Kong is said to be far from healthy. The sea breeze, which ought to cool the town, is shut out by the high peak that gives the island so pleasant an appearance; and as the place is so hot in summer, invalids, in spite of sanitary precautions, are disagreeably frequent from the Hong Kong station. Add to this the occasional prevalence of typhoons, which sweep along with such fury that granite pillars and iron bars snap as if they were glass rods, and it will be seen that to make money in Hong Kong is not unattended with drawbacks. Yet money must be made. The fine cathedral, Government House, clubs, and public buildings, would

not alone keep an eager Anglo-Saxon population together, and the best proof of all that Hong Kong is a place where coin can be picked up is supplied by the swarms of Chinese who have flocked to it during the last thirty years, and built that remarkable town of