View of Macao.
The intelligence by the March overland mail has occasioned a total suspension of all buildings at Hong-Kong, and most of the foreign community continued at Macao and Canton. Little trade has been carried on at the new settlement in anything but opium, and nearly the whole of that branch of business had been removed to Whampoa, where there was a fine fleet of smugglers — ten or twelve sail in all--bearing the English flag. A Portuguese vessel lately came among them, but, being considered an interloper, was taken and towed out of the fleet. They were on the very best terms with the people, and, to say the least, were let alone by the Mandarins. The factories were still more than half deserted, and some were in utter ruins, and the number of foreigners in Canton did not exceed fifty or sixty. The people were quiet, and offered no molestation to them in the streets. Howqua did not often go abroad, and appeared desirous of keeping clear of all business. All this, of course, is prior to Admiral Cochrane's entrance within the river, the result of which is not yet known. The waters in the neighbourhood of Hong-Kong were infested by pirates, some of whom had been captured. Three foreign men-of-war, two American and one French, were in China, and either had proceeded, or were about to proceed, to the northward, to watch our operations there. Captain Campbell, of her Majesty's 55th Regiment, died at Chapoo on the 27th of May, of wounds in the head, received at the capture of that city, after lingering nine days. The Hong-Kong newspaper does not seem much to relish the present rather unfavourable decline of what it calls the "capital of the Anglo-Chinese empire." As an inducement to settlers, it says that three years' rental of a house or warehouse at Macao will suffice to construct an equal accommodation of a stable character at Hong-Kong; and that the charges for landing goods and discharging cargo amount to about one-fourth of the customary rates at Macao.
Bibliography
The Illustrated London News I, No. 27 (12 November 1842): 420-21.
Last modified 16 September 2006