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19 Jun 59 Peter Hong Kong Mother 5, Hyde Park Place West ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong 19 June 1859

My dear Mother

As you will see by my last letters I have got some tea & ginger & other preserves on the way for you, but you mustn’t expect them for about 14 weeks.

There is a 10 catty (about 12 lbs) box of very superior Tea from Canton and altogether 12 Jars of Preserves, 3 of Presd. Ginger, 3 of Chowechow, 3 of Citron & of Cumquots, a sort of small orange which is my favourite. These are in the ‘Earl of Eglinton’ which left here on the 9th. I have also a half chest (about 6 lbs) of the New Tea which I have requested our Agent at Foo Chowfoo to ship in the ‘Fiery Cross’ the clipper that carries home our new Teas & which he has promised to do. But our last advices respecting the Fiery Cross were rather unfortunate. The Capt. had kicked one of the Officers out of the cabin for insolence & in return had been stabbed & was not expected to live. It is doubly unfortunate that a few days since, the Capt. of the only other clipper available also died.

By the bye while I think of it, I hope my Father has found out Capt. Crockett who brings out our new steamer, ‘to lick creeation’. He is a very nice fellow – a very good fellow, I would say – is worthy of any civility you can show him (only I daresay his time will be pretty well taken up) & will be very happy to bring me out any thing. Don’t forget the dog.

The new arrangements I suggested don’t appear to have come into operation yet, for I still continue to receive a quantity of old Illustrateds & Punchs & two Observers which I never read. Another thing I must complain of is dates of your letters. When we have letters up to the 26th April, yours are actually of a month earlier, arising from a system which I before warned you against, namely that of writing via S’hampton & posting them too late. With dates up to the 26th, one of my letters was this time of the 2nd. If it had only been a day earlier I might have thought I was being made an April Fool of.

John & Julius appear quite happy, the former with the idea of being able to go out shooting with the sun at 105 (he’d better take care!), the latter with the knowledge of having failed to catch Nana Sahib but with the satisfaction of having run some n thro’ the body. Arthur I am very sorry to hear about & I think the best thing my Father can do is to bring him home & put him into Lindsay’s. Send him down to the docks & so forth & eventually put him in a way of earning money as successfully as he appears now to be spending it. If you recollect I always said Arthur could not live upon his pay & my object in saying it so was merely to counteract an idea which he had got in his head that he was to be in the receipt of an income, the great difficulty attendant upon which would be to get rid of it. If as John tells me, he has hit upon the idea of buying horses for 300 rupees & selling them for 200, he appears to be very successful. Julius tells me that he has not money to buy common necessities & John again seems to be under the impression that his object in changing into the Europeans (for it is a change for the worse) was simply to avoid learning the language.

My impression is that he can live upon his pay & he would have done so easily if he hadn’t gone out to India with the false notions he did. As it is I certainly recommend recalling him or putting him thoroughly straight & telling him that if he goes wrong again he must bear the consequences. But I would at the same time give him a very severe reproof, explaining to him how he is bringing disgrace upon himself & his family & so forth. I’m afraid he’d hardly be settled for business now, tho’ I should very much like it.

I am beginning to look out for a case overland with a few necessaries but do not hear anything of it. Should it not have started before you receive this & should our new steamer be very shortly coming out, it might be sent in her, but don’t send it by a sailing vessel as they are so very uncertain.

With a Kiss to little Helen, two at least in order that she may not be jealous because John No. 5 is going to get one this time.

Your affect. Son

Peter G Laurie