& I generally have a terrific crowd of Chinamen around me gazing with their eyes wide open at the barbarian engaged in the strange sport of catching butterflies. They doubtless look upon me as daft but I don’t care for that & they can’t make out why the butterflies die instanter when I pour a little water out of a small bottle concealed in my waistcoat pocket upon them.
The water in question has a peculiarly strong smell & is in fact chloroform. Willie will envy me indeed. I can catch a better collection of butterflies in one day than all his put together – only of course I haven’t time to pursue it thoroughly.
Troops arrive every day but we don’t seem to get any further. I don’t know what becomes of them all but I believe they are all encamping on the main land opposite.
Tell Mary, whom I am debarred from writing to, that Gladwin Jebb, Maida Jebb’s brother is here, but I have not yet seen him. We were at Rugby together after I knew him previously. I do not think there is anybody else that I know or half know in the place. It is getting fearfully hot now. Only today is cool, there being a strong breeze blowing,.
We expect that Mr Adams will be made Judge – he has been acting Judge ever since he has been here. I have not been there as often of late as I got rather tired of them. Miss A. making herself a great deal too cheap which I didn’t like. Mr A. I like very much but he encourages it too much, besides which I am always afraid of his insisting upon my stopping to dinner which I decidedly object to inasmuch as he has a peculiarity of asking people to dinner to starve them. This is decidedly unpleasant.
Enclosed you will find a ‘Kobang’, a Japanese gold coin regarding which all the noise has been. It will make an addition to the collection on your watch chain.
I called my Japan Pony after these coins because he was of inestimable value. These gold coins were originally, on our first intercourse with the Japanese, to be bought for half their value from the Imperial Treasury. It was the exorbitant demands consequently sent in for them which brought in the row. People seem to think that there will be a revolution in the island in consequence of the admission of foreigners & that they will all be murdered. So great is the prejudice against us amongst the nobility who, when the country was poor, had every thing their own way, but now begin to find the difference which money makes.
I shall send the mermaid by the first opportunity. If you know any great naturalist who is anxious to add a specimen to his collection, I shall be happy to take a sum of not less than 1,000 guineas for it to arrive – of course guarantee nothing, but there can, I think, be no doubt as to its genuineness.
Don’t forget the pins & give little Helen her usual salute, from her affect. Brother
Peter G. Laurie
Please send me by post ‘12 years in China’ by John Scarth.* Don’t forget this as I know him out here.
* John Scarth – John Scarth, an English merchant, wrote about Chinese customs and characteristics, including the problem of collective violence, when he sailed along the Han River in the late 1850s
