______________________________________________________________________________________________
20 Feb 58 Peter Hong Kong Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Feb 20. 1858
Hong Kong
My dear Mother
The races have been the great Lions of the last two days & finish today. Indeed, ever since the 10th, the commencement of the Chinese New Year, little or nothing has been doing.
On the 10th the blockade at Canton ceased but the place is still in our hands under Martial Law, the Chinese civil authorities being allowed to continue their various functions under our surveillance.
Nobody is allowed up there now without a pass, & passes can only be provided at Head Quarters in the Town – so that that is a very clever scheme to keep people out of the place, for if you happen to be caught in the town on the way to Head Quarters to get a pass, the police immediately take you up for being in the town without one.
The other day report said there was to be an attack on the city, so that every one was in a great state of excitement. But it has since transpired that the attack so much dreaded was perhaps more to be feared than that of the pigtailed gentlemen. It proved to be an attack of fever & dysentery.
Ever since the commencement of the New Year, we have had nothing but crackers going off all around us. Boats come off on the water & let fly their crackers all amongst the shipping, much to the discomfiture of unhappy navigators who storm & threaten to no purpose, for do what you will to a Chinaman, you cannot disturb his equanimity.
The New year is, I believe, the only holiday they have. They have no Sabbath either, and they devote 5 days to the crackers & many other equally diverting amusements & all business was suspended during that time & now again for our races so that for some ten days, business has been forgotten entirely.
The races are rather slow. I do not mean the paces of the horses, but the apparent length of time during the diversion, and there is no fun going on the usually most attractive part of the sport.
Still, there are some remarkably nice horses & only amateur equestrians, so that the thing has an interest for parties concerned & as far as the race itself goes, it is remarkably well carried out.
A few Jacks lie tipsy about & others amuse themselves at the expense of unhappy Chinamen who of course laugh at it until at last Jack gets too merry & the Chinaman for the sake of opposition gets savage, so sundry policemen rush to the rescue but as they are collected from all the nations of the earth except the two most concerned – namely England and China – everybody begins chatting & storming in a strange & unintelligible language & the confusion is most delightful & amusing.
The day before yesterday one unhappy equestrian came riding up long after all the rest were in. Being desirous of distinguishing himself in some way he only added to his discomfiture & went head first on to the ground.
In a race yesterday between two ponies, one kept the lead beautifully nearly all the way but suddenly took it into his head to bolt and cleared the rails & went steeple chasing away for at least a quarter of an hour when he returned seemingly quite proud of his prowess, only he lost the race and his owner the dollars.
P.G.L
Feb 22nd 1858
Today is Washington’s Birthday & as this ship (from a weakness on the part of the Captain) has nearly turned into a Yankee* we, like all the other American ships are decked out with all the colors cutting a great figure.
For the Captain has a longing desire to turn Yankee & ‘guesses’ & speaks thro’ his nose just like the nation he apes. Yesterday we had a great dinner & sat down 22 to table, but there was not a soul except Yankees present. He has promised to hoist the American Ensign if one of the ladies who were present would work him one & she is so patriotic that she fully intends to perform her part of the compact.
There are lots of American ladies here for Yankee Captains always carry their wives with them, but this particular lady is a sister of one of the said wives & thinks our Captain a single man & he, as he has a strange desire always to appear what he is not, of course pretends that he is. The truth is however that he not only has a wife but she is considerably older than himself, at least so tradition says.
The races finished on Saturday with a great Chinese Equestrian match which was the crowning part of the whole – about fifteen Chinamen were mounted on small ponies & led into the ring but defied all attempts to get them in a position for starting – for some had bolted with their riders & others were performing sundry strange feats, much to the amusement of the spectators. At length however they were drawn up in a line.
The signal given & off they went. But at that particular crisis the scene was awful. Chinamen draw in their reins & cling to their horses necks but a long whip well applied soon gets them all in motion.
Before they had got 20 yards, half of them were playing leap-frog over their horses heads & rolling in the dust & out of the fifteen only five appeared with any eclat, one having extended his hippodromic performance to flying head first over the railings of the course, right in the middle of the spectators.
I was telling you about the difficulty of getting up to Canton in my last letter. It appears now that no one is any longer allowed to go up in Gun boats so that a stop is put to it completely. The Attorney General of this place went up the other day & of course had to go to Head Quarters to get his pass, but on his way a policeman arrested him for being in the town without one & he was locked up for a whole day.
I believe the real object is to keep the reporters of papers out. But Lord Elgin, so they say, has got the reporter of the Times* living with him & is taking great care of him. That is doing it a little too strong. I think my Father ought to find out something about the matter & stir the Government up about it.
They say they are giving the streets European names & writing them up. That looks as if they intend to keep the place, but we out here don’t know half so much of what is going on as you do at home – particularly with the Times reporter at Lord Elgin’s right hand. Telle est la vie!*
Feb 22 – No 2.
We expect to carry coolies to Havana so I shall have to get a revolver, blockade my cabin & have a good stock of provisions & water in case of emergency. I’m not a fighting man but I’m always in danger’s way somehow – first out in the Crimea; then in India; now in China & lastly in the expectation of carrying coolies. They say the trade is going to be put a stop to. I think it is time it was, after a number of vessels that have left China & never been heard of.
This is about the history of the transaction. Certain Chinamen are offered so much if they will go to certain places, a sum of money being advanced them for their outfit. Whoever accepts this is carried off to a sort of dungeon & confined until the ship sails & then marched on board. But Chinamen are naturally rogues & like this easy manner of obtaining dollars. A large number therefore put their hands together, accept the advance, go on board the ship & as soon as they are out of sight of land murder all the ship’s company, get into the boats, set the ship on fire, get on shore & are ready for a fresh adventure.
As a Chinaman is born with blood before his eyes & hundreds of executions every day, of course he thinks nothing of murdering. To avoid this you have an armed watch & the guns ever ready & all that sort of thing. But of what use is that with about twenty Europeans in the ship & all except 4 or 5 of them living in the midst of the villains.
We shall carry about 500 of them & have only that number of Europeans & then it is no use having the guns ready loaded for the powder would only get damp at sea & before we could load them we should have our throats all cut.
Everybody wants to leave the ship – in fact they declare that they won’t go & can’t understand why I don’t do anything rather than risk my life. I certainly never have the least desire to place myself in danger but at the same time I don’t like the idea of running away, so I shall invest in a revolver which is fearfully expensive by the bye out here, & at any rate if it ever does come to anything serious, I shall sell my life as dearly as possible.
I like Dean & Adams revolvers* much better than Colts. Only the worst of it is I should only be able to shoot 5 coolies with the former whereas the latter are six barrelled [sic]. I saw a very nice one today which I think of buying. It is an improvement on Dean’s and a size smaller than John’s & Julius’ which I think an improvement for coolie-shooting – which sport differs a little from that of Russianising.
I like the double trigger because while you are cocking yr. pistol a coolie might easily come behind. They don’t require cocking but go off at once. There are also pistols with the single trigger which go off at once but they are more apt to go off by mistake than the double triggers which is a decided advantage & the double triggers go off at once: or don’t – just as you like.
I sent a letter off to Teddy this morning by the Armenian, the same vessel in which tradition says he came down from Calcutta to Penang, and requested him, if he had any news from you, to communicate the same to myself as I do not understand how it is I have not heard from you since the 4 Nov. with the 26th Dec. Mails in, because as I before said, you must distinctly understand that my letters, even if directed to Shanghai, would not go on there – at least if you have directed them to Russell & Co* our agents. If you have not, remember in future always to direct to the agents.
Money again. While I write, Mr Gray the clergyman from Jardines has come on board & I have been compelled to give $5 – nearly 25s to a ship wrecked widow. I wish I had been out of the way.
P.G.L
* Yankee – There is no mention in these letters of Confederates. The American Civil War (1861–65) was still three years away, and it seems that Peter simply regarded all Americans as Yankees
* reporter of the Times – Thomas William Bowlby had travelled with Lord Elgin from England. He narrowly missed the wreck of the Nulabar at Galle, Ceylon, and remained in Lord Elgin’s party until, with Harry Parkes, the consul, and H. B. Loch, Elgin’s private secretary, he was taken prisoner by the Emperor and died in captivity, as described in Peter’s letter
* Telle est la vie – Such is life
* Dean & Adams revolvers – Deane, Adams & Deane, 30 King William Street, London Bridge. A development of the Colt revolver which first appeared at the Great Exhibition of 1851. While a separate action was required to cock the hammer of the Colt before each round was fired, the Deane & Adams was self-cocking, requiring only the trigger to be pulled. When Peter described it as six barrelled, he meant that its cylinder was six chambered
* Russell & Co – US company founded by William Russell for the opium trade