Source of Emigration_

Let us take an imaginary journey through the provinces and begin
at Hong Kong, where, in 1850, I began my actual experience of life
in China.

From the deck of the good ship _Lantao_, which had brought me
from Boston around the Cape in one hundred and thirty-four days,
I gazed with admiration on the Gibraltar of the Orient. Before me
was a land-locked harbour in which all the navies of the world
might ride in safety. Around me rose a noble chain of hills, their
slopes adorned with fine residences, their valleys a chessboard
of busy streets, with here and there a British battery perched
on a commanding rock.

Under Chinese rule Hong Kong had been an insignificant fishing
village, in fact a nest of pirates. In 1841 the island was ceded
by China to Great Britain, and the cession was confirmed by the
treaty of Nanking in August, 1842. The transformation effected in
less than a decade had been magical; yet that was only the bloom
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of babyhood, compared with the rich maturity of the, present day.

A daily steamer then sufficed for its trade with Canton; a weekly
packet connected it with Shanghai; and the bulk of its merchandise
was still carried in sailing ships or Chinese junks. How astounding
the progress that has marked the last half-century! The streets that
meandered, as it were, among the valleys, or fringed the water's
edge, now girdle the hills like rows of seats in a huge amphitheatre;
a railway lifts the passenger to the mountain top; and other railways