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8 Oct 58 Peter Hong Kong Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong, 8 Oct ‘58

My dear Mother

You will be able to see from my writing that I am now all right again. I had a nasty attack of fever which lasted about ten days before I was able to do any thing & even at the present moment the Doctor daily tells me I can go on with the Quinine to which I give my assent altho’ if the truth were known I have left it off long, long ago. He thinks it is the Quinine which is bringing me round – a dreadful delusion – in as much as I have not touched it for at least ten days.

I went over to Macao in one of our steamers when I got better & stopped two or three days, but altho’ the weather was very unfavourable – that is to say there was no sea-breeze, I think the change did me good.

But talking of sea breezes, we have had enough of them since. In fact we have been every day expecting a typhoon if you know what that is – a sort of sea-whirlwind, peculiar to this part of the world & in which vessels at sea – as also everything – shipping, houses &c. upon the coast are nearly sure to be destroyed.

Of course such houses as this would be pretty safe but any thing more fragile would be whisked away in an instant. There was a very severe gale – not a typhoon – but a steady gale, at a place called Quatou*, about 200 miles hence & I am sorry to say we were fearful losers by it. One of our vessels was driven upon the rocks & smashed to bits; another went down bodily & every soul on board was lost – both riding at anchor in the Bay. All the opium on board (of enormous value) was either lost or spoiled & about 70,000 Dollars in Bullion irrecoverable. Every ship in the port was lost but one & every dwelling place – in fact everything on shore was utterly destroyed & blown away. Our agent had not so much as a bit of paper to write & tell us of the disaster.

We hear today that the Commissioners have at length arrived at Shanghai but nothing is doing here (or rather at Canton) & indeed I think it is better not to be in a hurry as it is only encourages the Chinese in their notion that we will give up anything, prestige & all, for the sake of making a few dollars.

The Canton claims have of late been all the go. Some of them are the most ridiculous & barefaced things I ever saw. I wonder some of the houses have not sent in claims for loss of profit during the time the trade has been stopped. Some people make capital specs of claiming for loss of private effects. I only wish I had been here at the time. Wouldn’t I give the Chinese Govt. a dose & retire upon my fortune at once.

I have had great trouble with my horse boy of late. At the time they all went, he went away too, with the excuse that his mother was sick. It is always the mother. My other boy’s mother died.

When he came back I was obliged to keep him on as I could get no one in his place & after a time I paid him his wages – having declined doing so when he went away. No sooner had I paid him the Dollars than his mother got sick again & he said he must go. I told him he could not – altho’ I knew I couldn’t help myself if he chose to & somehow he didn’t go, but kept bothering me whenever he saw me & I always pretended not to hear & bolted.

At last one evening he made his appearance in my room & said he must go, upon [which] I said if he did he had better stop away altogether & I should not pay him a cent that was due to him. Next day I was taken ill & when I recovered he was not forthcoming. I got a boy from Mr Jardine’s stable & anticipated his return & when he did come back, turned him & his traps out of the stable.

Since then he has never ceased to way-lay me at every turn, demanding his wages, so that like Frankenstein, I ever have a demon at my heels. This morning he gave me to understand he should sue me – upon which I lost all patience & rendered myself liable for assault as well. But I have little fear of this.

My only fear is that he will poison the horse à la mode Chinoise. The first day I got one of our English grooms to watch, fearing this or that some of the horse trappings might be next in train, all which charming little schemes are incidental to Chinese notions. Notwithstanding all my troubles the horse manages to do well.

I have been wanting very much to collect together some few things to send you all for Christmas but there is nothing to be had now. Even what few shops are open have literally nothing & ask enormous prices for that. I intended to have sent a small package round the Cape, as freight overland is so expensive, but the shops – such as they are – did not open soon enough for that.

Preserves are a great thing here, procurable at Canton, but none are to be had now & there is not such a thing in all Hong Kong. Just fancy, [work] as a bit of silk to make a suit of night clothes. We don’t wear linen night shirts here, but pyjamas or loose trousers & jacket made of silk.

I think by the next steamer you may expect to receive a small package containing a few trifles which I have been able (or shall be able) to procure, but just now it is an unfortunate time & I cannot make up such a nice little collection as I had intended & as I would have wished.

There is a lady here – a Mrs Dent – who came on with her husband shortly after I did, whom Parson Gray yesterday informed me went to Calcutta with Julius. The husband I knew by sight in Calcutta, he being a very fast young man. Rather cranked & consequently very conspicuous.

Mrs D had gone home on the outbreak of the mutiny & Mr D, a civil servant, consequently being for the time being a free man, was taking advantage of his liberty.

Julius, it appears, according to the parson’s account, was great friends with Mrs Dent & her companion Miss Day – a lady not arrived at (but verging towards) a certain age. However I daresay she’ll find a husband here.

So I am going to try & make friends with them too, particularly as the way the thing came out was by Mrs D asking who ‘that gentleman’ was – a proof I must have made an impression.

I have two very nice silk gauze dresses which I got one of our Captains to bring me from Shanghai – one for yourself & one for Mary. I think they are very pretty & that you will like them very much. At any rate I hope so.

These things are so difficult to get just now that you must appreciate them doubly & altho’ they will probably cost as much before you get them as if they had been bought at home, still you must value them as having come from an absent son in China.

It was said upon a good authority that it was better to give than to receive. Do you know, I feel such a pleasure in sending you home little things & many a happy moment is spent in thoughts of the delight you will feel as you open the newly arrived package & delve into its strange contents.

I think I see them scattered about the drawing room tables or exhibited some way & I fancy I hear you telling every one that that came from China & then they too seem to take an interest in it. My only happiness now rests in the thoughts of the happiness of others & I am quite sure there is a great pleasure in giving – of course when it comes from sincere & proper motives.

10th Sunday

Your letters arrived yesterday & I am Uncle Peter* – I hope ‘that blessed baby’ is doing well & have written to the happy mother. Everything else seemed unchanged except Frankie’s mode of attire, for the waistcoat pocket of which – had I been aware of it in time – I would most certainly have enclosed him sixpence.

You can tell him this. He wrote me a very nice letter, something in this style:

‘Dear Peter. Mary has such a nice little baby, you are Uncle Peter, John is Uncle John, I am Uncle Frank & Helen is Aunt Helen – isn't that funny. We are all uncles now. Papa is Grandpapa. Mama is Grandmama & Charlotte & Ann are quite well. I am, your affect. Brother, &c. &c.’

I observe he signs himself Frank now, which I take to be a sign of approaching manhood as I believe it used to be Frankie, which by the bye is much prettier. I think after that letter he certainly ought to be sent to a bigger boy’s school as he certainly must be far beyond in intellect all the other boys of eight. Besides which (without joking) it is very bad to let a little boy get too big among little ones as he gets grand & when he gets with bigger ones has to be dreadfully thrashed to bring him down again to his level.

Send him to Hanwell College* that seems all the go now. There are lots of gymnastics there, which are far better than Latin & Greek – very little of which are required for mercantile life.

Alfred had better go to Harrow – the sooner he goes the better. You cannot go too soon to these places, but there is one thing which my Father should not do & that is keep changing them about. Do you know how many different Masters I was under between the years of 6 & 16.

I daresay you will be surprised when I tell you that in 10 years I was placed under 9 different modes of tuition: Mr Edwards, Mr Watts, Dr Cuthbert (who bolted) Mr Cumming, St Paul’s, Dr Butler’s*, Dr Krause (where I learnt Latin & Greek to the German pronunciation) Mr Oldham & Rugby.*

John had 6; Julius 5 besides the cramming & Arthur 6 besides Addiscombe. I think looking at this in a clear point of view it must seem rather ridiculous & altho’ my Father is of a nature which can not bear to see things going on the same day after day, still I think he will think that in this case it would be better to let them – at least to a certain extent.

Oct 12.

This has indeed been a busy mail but I take things calmly. I was nearly saying coolly – otherwise I should not be writing to you at this moment. To tell the truth the mail closed at six & it is now half past seven but there is a supplementary mail tomorrow morning with an extra charge of 1s but the benevolent firm of JM&Co will pay that for me.

Since my last addition I have been figuring at the Police Court. A case of summons. My horse boy bolted about the 23 Sept, having failed to get my permission & at the time that I was ill. As soon as I was able, tho’ there was considerable difficulty about it, I set about getting another boy & with the assistance of Mr Jardine’s groom, happily succeeded.

On the same morning that the new gentlemen was to be installed, the old one made an appearance & told the usual story of his mother having died & so on & finished by demanding his wages which I respectfully declined & turned him out of the stable. But I believe I have already told you the history.

Well, it ended by his saying he would summons me for which I was compelled to kick him & sure enough he did summons me. I went to Court – a thing highly objectionable, but upon principle I could not do otherwise – & he arrived & his witnesses & in all my life I never heard anything equal to it. He proved by witnesses that I gave him leave & again that I arranged with another groom to take care of the horse during his absence.

But unfortunately the witnesses were all strange beings & when asked how they knew all this – after a suggestion of mine as to whether they understood English, it turned out that they didn’t & so their evidence fell to the ground. Well, such a concoction I never heard. The poor Magistrate was quite done. He said it was not possible to give a judgement in such a case.

However at last they put me in the witness box, swore me in & I just made my plain statement. The Magistrate then said of course it was unlikely a person of my position would come there for the sake of a few Dollars, that an Englishman was sworn upon his oath, that a Chinaman’s was merely a declaration & that a Chinaman was bound by merely fear of punishment in this world whereas an Englishman rendered himself liable to justice in this world & to eternal punishment hereafter.

Under these circumstances he felt bound in such a case to accept the word of an Englishman in preference to that of a Chinaman & so my friend the horse boy had to fork out all expenses & costs & I drove away in the Buggy & left him to enjoy himself with happy notions of ‘how not to do it’ or how not to do me rather. Next morning I had the pleasure of again kicking him out of the stable & I am happy to say the horse is not poisoned yet.

We have had a comet* here – such a comet – for about a fortnight. I wonder if it is visible to you at home. It has a tremendous tail, spreading out very wide & always reminds me of a ginger beer bottle going off. It doesn’t seem to have the slightest intention of going away but as some one observed ‘seems rather to like it’.

I got Rand & Beckley’s letter enclosing Bill of Lading & requesting the favour of further orders. I see they have given me another whip (£1.2/-) an article of which I certainly did not require a duplicate, but I daresay I can get rid of one. I fear there is little chance of my getting the package even by Christmas altho’ it started in August for this is a very unfavourable time of the year, but I shall be very anxious to get it.

Cooper Sumner told me on Sunday that I was looking better than he had ever seen me & I think I am – that is, I feel delightful just now. I am afraid he is a sad character, but there is nothing of the sort apparent in him until you know him. He is a regular old woman in his ways. At races & horses & all that sort of thing he is a great hand. That is how he loses all his money I believe. All the money that he has been a whole year working for & sometimes perhaps a little more than all.

But I must go & finish my mail work. If I stop up late tonight & begin again at six tomorrow, I may finish in time. I think I may say I shall.

A kiss to Helen & to the Riley Baby John (No. 5, I believe) – that is to say if John the 5th has left off slobbering otherwise pray don’t do it on my account & tell my Father I meant to have written to him but can’t now.

Your affect. Son

Peter G. Laurie

Not heard from John – very strange. Can’t understand it at all.

* Quatou – Probably Quanzhou, about 350 miles along the coast to the north east

* Uncle Peter – His nephew, John Athelstan Riley, had been born

* Hanwell College – Run by the Revd. J. A. Emerton, and specialising in educating boys who were to enter the army. It seems to have been started in 1832 and closed fifty years later

* Dr Butler's – Run by Dr William Henry Butler and his wife from premises at Dyke Road, Brighton, where Peter, Julius and Arthur were boarders at the time of the 1851 census

* Rugby – Rugby School’s register records his arrival in 1854

* Comet – Donati’s was a bright comet in 1858 that developed a spectacular curved dust tail