When the British took possession of Hong Kong in 1840, their new colony consisted of just Hong Kong island, largely a baron rock except for a few fishing villages. It would be ten years (1856) before the British gained control of the adjacent Kowloon Peninsula and thus the north side of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor and fifty-seven years before they leased the badly needed water resources of the New Territories and Outer Islands.
This brief account of Hong Kong in the 1840s by Frank Marryat, a midshipman on the surveying vessel HMS Samarang, begins with praise but moves on to a darker side of the new colony. His account appears in his travelogue Borneo and the Malay Archipelago, published in London in 1848. The volume features life-like lithographic plates and wood cuts of people and places, including two of Hong Kong. The account begins below.
| Tanka Boats, Hong Kong. |
“There never was, perhaps, so rapid a rise in any settlement made by the English as that of Hong Kong, considering the very short time that it has been in our possession. Where, two years back, there existed but a few huts, you now behold a well-built and improving town, with churches, hotels, stores, wharves, and godowns. The capacious harbour which, but a short time ago, was only visited by some Chinese junks or English opium clippers, is now swarming with men-of-war and merchant ships. The town extends along the base of the mountain.
“Every day some improvement takes place in this fast-growing colony, but, from the scarcity of building ground, house rent is very dear, and every thing has risen in proportion. The town which, from the irregularity of the ground, has but one street of importance, lies under the highest part of a rock, which is called Possession Peak. It is built on a kind of ledge, but this is so steep that the basements of the back houses can be seen over the roofs of those in the front, although the houses are no further apart than is necessary for the streets.
“Above the town the rock rises almost perpendicularly; but every spot which can be built upon is appropriated, and scattered buildings may be seen half way up the rock, only accessible by tortuous and narrow paths. The houses are built of white freestone; many of them are handsome erections, and on a fine day the town of Victoria has an imposing appearance.
“The island is now intersected by roads, in some parts necessarily precipitous, but equestrians can make the circuit of Hong Kong without any other risk but from the marauding Chinese, who, in spite of the police, still find means of exercising their vocation.
“To the left of the town of Victoria is a very pretty valley, but in the middle of it is a swamp, which renders the place so unhealthy that no one can reside there: some who did, died there; and there are one or two neat little villas on it, now untenanted and falling into ruins. Strange to say, it still bears the name of Happy Valley.
“The harbour is completely land locked, and has two entrances. One side of it is formed by Hong Kong, the other by Kow-loon, which is part of the mainland.
| West Point, Hong Kong Island, 1840s |
“But all this has its reverse. The unhealthiness of the climate is very great, and this is impressed upon the stranger while at anchor in the roads; for the first object that meets his eye is the Minden hospital ship, with her flag continually half mast high, announcing that another poor sailor had gone to his long home. When you land you will certainly meet a funeral; and watching the countenances of the passers by, their sallow complexions, and their debilitated frames, with the total unconcern with which they view the mournful processions, you may assure yourself that they must be of daily and hourly occurrence. And such is the fact.
“I was sorry to find that murders and robberies were most frequent at Hong Kong, although the police force has been augmented from London, and is under the charge of an experienced officer. While on shore, I observed the body of a Chinaman rise to the surface, disfigured in a horrible manner, and although notice was sent immediately to the authorities, it was allowed to remain beating against the wharf till late in the afternoon, when it was towed out and sunk in the middle of the harbour.
“I once witnessed the punishment of a Chinese robber at the market gate; he had been apprehended on the preceding night. His tail, which was false, and filled with blades of knives, needles, &c., came off in the officer’s hands. However, he was secured, and received a daily allowance of fifty lashes, which was continued as long as he was capable of bearing the punishment, and then he was sent to work on the roads.
“I left HMS Samarang at this port, and joined the Iris, commanded by Captain Mundy, whose high character as an officer and a gentleman I well knew; unfortunately I was only lent to the Iris, and the consequence was, as will be seen, I had ultimately to return to the Samarang. I found that the Iris was to sail for the north coast of China, and I was delighted at the idea of visiting those parts, which there was little chance of if I had remained in the Samarang.” — Frank Marryat.
Note that the only sizeable town in the area in the 1840s was Kowloon City just northeast of Kowloon Peninsula’s tip. This is what became known as “the walled city,” for a protective barrier built not to keep out thieves but in response to the foreigners’ arrival. In the 1840s the area would have been a bit like the Wild West.
As for the cheerily named swamp Marryat complains of, the British were if nothing else resourceful, as were the local Chinese. In need of a pastime for bored residents, in 1845 the British decided to build a horse track there, one that made horseracing a tradition in Hong Kong and that still bears the swamp’s no longer ironic name — Happy Valley Racecourse.
A side note: Thinking the local Chinese would neither understand nor have any interest in this British equestrian sport, they built stands only for the British they expected to attend. They were entirely wrong. Local Chinese took one look at horseracing and fully understood and wanted to join in the betting, and more stands were built.
 |
Happy Valley Racecourse today is surrounded by high-rises on three sides and roads climbing the Mid-Levels and Victoria Peak on the other. |
Today, Happy Valley’s seven-story stands are able to accommodate 55,000 spectators and the inner track houses eleven fields for football (soccer), rugby, and other sports. A second track, Sha Tin Racecourse, was built in Sha Tin in the New Territories in 1978. Both tracks are managed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Founded in 1884 as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, it is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong; it dropped the royal from its name in 1996 ahead of the 1997 turnover of Hong Kong to Chinese control.
This is the first excerpt of Frank Marryat’s accounts of Hong Kong in the 1840s. In the next excerpt coming soon, he gains a liking for both the place and its residents and we learn a bit more about daily life there.
These excerpts come from Marryat’s book Borneo and the Malay Archipelago at Project Gutenberg (Gutenberg.org), a phenomenal volunteer-driven effort to digitize and archive cultural works. The project currently boasts more than 70,000 free ebooks available to be read online and downloaded in multiple formats.
By John Sailors, History Journeys
Copyright 2024, by John Sailors.