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14 Mar 61 Peter Hong Kong Mother 10, Hyde Park Terrace ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong. 14 March 1861

My dear Mother

I have received all your long letters wishing me many happy returns of my birthday & telling me how you had kept it up. I am very much obliged to you for your trouble with Ackerman’s & the boots & will thank you more particularly for all the kind presents which you have sent me as soon as I have been gratified with the receipt of them, when I shall be better able to appreciate & value them. Packages overland do not arrive very regularly but are often detained on the route. I am surprised at Dr Menzies not calling upon you as he distinctly told me he should certainly do so. Perhaps however he may yet turn up.

The death of Mr Jardine was a very sad thing. He was a frightful tyrant to us out here although from his appearance you would hardly have thought it, but he was a man whom one & all of us could have looked to, I feel confident, as a friend at any time when he needed one & he was a man of wonderful mind. Not perhaps a clever man, but a man of shrewd interest & farsightedness & of the most wonderful energy & perseverance in anything he undertook.

It was this last which brought him prematurely to his grave, for unfortunately he overworked it & would not listen to advice. And so at some seven & thirty years of age, rolling in riches, & with a brilliant future before him, he sank as his brother David did before he had been six months in England after retiring from his labours. His brother Robert is worth now about two millions & a half. Young & handsome & the whole world before him. He never did a day’s work out here, but he stuck to his brother of whom he was very fond, followed him home & buried him.

I sent three boxes of Tea for you in the Str. ‘Chevy Chase’. She broke down as you probably heard & is sailing home. It is Foochow foo Tea & I shall be glad to hear how you like it. I am afraid I mislaid the receipt but I daresay it will not matter. The tea is that which I originally ordered for my Christmas presents but was too late, which accounts for the marks which in case I cannot find the receipt, are FI JL x HCA. She will however not be home for a good three months from receipt of this.

My usual kiss to little Helen & love to all

Your affect. Son

Peter G. Laurie