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3 Jul 58 Peter Hong Kong Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

East Point, Hong Kong

3 July 1858

My dear Mother

We are now expecting the mail every moment & I hope again to hear from you before I close this letter. For in your last, altho’ it certainly was most lengthy, you did not enter upon every topic.

You said you had sent a letter to John to forward which I strangely received in a letter from him the day before yesterday. I say strangely because it was directed simply to me on board the Tynemouth at Shanghai, while I have not received such letters from you as have been addressed to the ship’s agents who must be able to follow her up better than the post office authorities.

In that I received a good deal of news which had been omitted in the previous but late written one & which you presumed I had long since received. You cannot therefore be aware of a fact strange indeed it may seem (but still everything is strange in China) that a letter very often – I will not say always – takes much longer going from & to the Mauritius than it does from & to England. For instance, altho’ I wrote to John by the same mail as I did to you to tell him of my being stationary, I have not yet heard from him direct.

You must excuse this scribble of mine for the fact is, not being busy just now, I am trespassing upon office hours & am writing at a tremendous pace so as to get thro’ it quickly.

John says he has got the Midgidee or whatever it is called. Of that I am very glad altho’ he seems to think it common. He also expiates upon an extraordinary notion my Father has got hold of in consequence of something he had said. Of course you know what this refers to. Now I always thought this was smoke but however it matters little now. I am afraid in these hot climates you will find that we will all grow tremendously fat.

I am, of the family, perhaps the least inclined that way & as I ride & walk & pull (row) a good deal, I think I may keep it down. Julius too will have a good deal of exercise running after & cutting down ns, but John in ten years’ time – really I shudder to think of it. I think my Father should advise him to ride in the next Port Louis races & to steam himself well down to the proper criterion. You can have no idea to what unearthly sizes naturally stout people grow in both India & China.

We have just had intelligence down from the North of an uncommonly pacific nature & which has quite astonished us. Perhaps & in fact probably before I close these lines we shall hear ‘the whole truth’ &c. but this you will be able more minutely to understand than I can detail it from a newspaper which I send to my Father. This newspaper the ‘Overland China Mail’ is the best paper we have here & as I am sure you will all take an interest in everything that is going on in China now I have ordered it so that I can send it you every mail.

If therefore you do not at any time hear from me, at least you will know on the receipt of this paper that I am still in existence, neither garrotted à l’Anglaise nor kidnapped à la Chinoise. Nor should I perhaps add, carried off by Cholera – the latter is I think going, going or gone, but in the short time which it lasted, it was very severe.

One dear old lady whom I used every evening to meet out driving & whom altho’ I did not personally know I had yet a great affection for – was most suddenly carried off & buried next morning. This certainly does look most strong evidence but I am determined notwithstanding all doctors not to believe that it was cholera. For my own part I too have been very unwell of late. One day especially but I feel today quite well again.

The climate in China is certainly most intolerable. India is nothing to it and as Sir Arthur Butler (a Judge in Calcutta) who was lately here, expressed it ‘India is not half so hot because there you are prepared against it’. When I come home of an evening after pulling or riding, I dive into a linen Chinese suit in which I sit the whole evening & afterwards sleep.

We may laugh at the Chinese but it is strange to see how we all rush to their mode of attire the moment we are out of company or eyesight. In fact their mode of dress is an acknowledged undress uniform with us. Then, as to eating dinner at night it is another impossibility. Last night I commenced on a cup of tea & a boiled egg & found myself thriving most wonderfully this morning.

There is a Mr Cooper Turner * here, whose first name is George. I suppose that must be the gentleman you mean as he has been in Australia & all over the world as far as I can make out. As to his importance, Hong Kong people have not heard of that, but he is a very well to do man & very well known. He is also fond of racing &c. in which line perhaps he has gained more importance than in his own legal profession which, by the bye, as you will see from the paper I send, is about being abolished. So perhaps he will have to try one more part of the world yet.

As soon as I have an opportunity I shall certainly call, tho’ I may assure you that I know him very well already, especially as he is a particularly spruce gentleman.

Gen. Jan Straleburger, * whose name would prove him to be a Dutchman, seemed to be anxious to obtaining the cognomen of ‘the flying Dutchman’ as it seems to be very generally believed he is showing the white feather at Canton. But the affair is now put in the hands of the naval authorities who generally go about things better.

The Commissioners lately issued an address in which they came the Mandarin most beautifully, finishing up ‘Let every one tremble & obey’ a regular Yeh turn-out. The Chinese who are very clever at getting hold of notions, now say that we are not strong enough to fight against them ourselves & have been obliged to get others to help us, winding up by laughing most heartily at the simplicity of the French who as our natural enemies, have been induced to join us in a cause by which they cannot possibly gain anything. Moreover the Canton Chinese declare they neither know nor intend to know anything about negotiations in the North. They will take Canton under any circumstances.

People in Hong Kong do not believe in such a man as the Emperor. He is believed to be a myth – an imaginary being. The Feast of Dragons had not concluded as I imagined when I wrote my last letter. Oh dear no. We had a most grand set-out before our gateway in so much that we had most sincere intentions of routing them out.

A whole pig was roasted – they always roast them whole here – & decorated with flowers and a great tent was erected & many striking devices surrounding and suddenly a noise was heard & curious individuals rushed to the verandah to take note of the disturbance. And amongst the clashing of cymbals & the beating of gongs & a noise like a Highland bagpipe to say nothing of strings of hundreds of crackers suspended to every house in the bazaar, an imposing procession was seen to advance. Little boys dressed in strange attire carried huge banners & they laughed & giggled & played all sorts of pranks, such as little boys not properly schooled are wont to do.

And then marched the 12 Musicians with their gongs & cymbals & three stringed lutes, dressed in long scarlet coats down to their heels and then all sorts of wonderful things à la Lord Mayor’s show & they all settled around the tent where sat in state the great roasted pig. There all good Chinamen came forth & fell down before something – but what the something was, nobody could make out. Some indeed said it was Jos & others the pig. At any rate it is certain that Chinamen worship roast pork far more than they do their God.

Others have said it before me & have been most fearfully abused for so saying, but I do most certainly believe that the Chinese have no religion. To see all our ‘boys’ and our ‘Compradors’ who are very great men among Chinamen, go out & while we were all looking at them, tumble down & knock their heads against the ground before some unknown thing was too much of a joke & as such they all seemed to regard it for they all came away after this solemn rite, laughing. These are the people that call us ‘barbarians’ that bring up their children in fear of the ‘red devils’ (as the English are called) as we do of ‘bogies’. I suppose on the same principle they must call the ns the ‘black devils’ – at any rate to them the term would be more appropriate.

Just fancy all the little brats of China children running away at my approach because they think the ‘red devil’ will eat them.

I have been wanting to write to Arthur but cannot do so as I do not know to what regt. he is likely to be attached. I wrote to Blyth some time ago to let me know if he had heard of him but fear he did not receive the letter.

I am very glad to hear Honor’s wedding* is coming off at last. Please congratulate her & give my well wishes on the occasion. You all say Mary’s too is soon about to take place but in so saying forget I have had no letters & consequently know nothing about it. Who is the happy man?

Really, if I were to stay out here long, I could be so changed – every one else would be so changed – that on my return we old friends of youth should be quite strangers. It would be beginning life again. It never can be. I could not stop out as others have done some 15 years without getting a sight of all my old friends. There is only one thing I want here; that is something to look forward to, but fifteen years is too long to look forward to.

By all means destroy snakes & all rubbish. Save the Salamander! & carefully preserve anything that has a tale (not a tail) attached to it. What has become of the dogs. I have got a Newfoundland puppy promised me. It is at present in existence but has not yet got its eyes open. I am also going to get a China dog, which are something of the cut of a wolf – between that & a fox. I think a fine one, black with long hair & bushy tail would be considered very handsome at home. It requires some thing of this sort to amuse one here altho’ dogs do not thrive here.

It is a great shame but the mail day is now always Sunday. The mail closes at 6 today (Sunday 4th) so that we are obliged to stop in the office which is not right & makes us all very grumpy.

While writing this last I have just heard the mail is put off for 2 days; probably to wait for the news down from the North. Of this I am very glad for altho’ I am writing in my room I cannot leave the house. Such being the case, I shall close for today.

3 p.m. 5th July (Monday)

The mail closes at six so I too must close. No steamers have arrived within the last 24 hours either from the North or from England, so I suppose it is no good waiting any longer. Give my love to every one. A kiss to Helen who, John says, is really growing a fair child ‘so fine that he would not like to carry her’ & tell Mary that as she would not get a turquoise ring as I wished for her wedding present, I have got one for her. I have also got a pearly one for you – both relics of Calcutta which I will send by the first opportunity.

Yr. affect. Son

Peter G Laurie

* Mr Cooper Turner - George Cooper Turner, Crown Solicitor in NSW, Australia, then Hong Kong. Died in Shanghai, 1861

* Gen. Jan Straleburger - This seems to be a reference to Major General Charles van Stranbenzee (1812-1892) from a distinguished British military family, who had fought in the Crimean War and was commander of the British troops in the successful attack on Canton, 28 Dec 1857. He later became Governor of Malta

* Honor’s, wedding – Honor Anne Jeffery married William Pulley on 22 June 1858 in St Luke's Chapel, Norwich Cathedral, her family having lived in Norfolk for many generations. William Pulley was a barrister who was called at Lincoln’s Inn but who practised in Liverpool. They subsequently had 10 children, but 5 (aged 3 to 10 years old) died from scarlet fever in a period of 6 weeks in 1869. The child that Honor was expecting at this desperate time also died before its first birthday. William died aged 55