August 27th, 1873. Fine.

At nine o'clock in the morning we berthed at Hong Kong. At ten we went ashore and took rooms at the Hotel de Hong Kong.

At daybreak we had found ourselves passing among a multitude of mountainous islands, large and small, scattered over the sea. The mountains were all covered in grass, but there were no trees. The shapes of the steep mountains on the mainland around Canton were very graceful. Among their folds were fallen rocks looking just like the brushed dots in a Chinese landscape painting. For the first time we could see where the Chinese style of painting had its origins.

China ceded Hong Kong to Britain in 1841. The British then built a harbour here, and the population has increased over the years to 126,051. Most of these are Chinese. The mountains here are all high and steep. There is no land fit for cultivation, and very few trees. There are no rivers, but a plentiful supply of clean water is piped to the city from reservoirs. Granite is quarried in the mountain valleys, and the buildings constructed by the British with this stone are beautifully white and clean. The British began building stone houses to rent to the Chinese some time ago because wooden houses so easily caught fire. As a result, the streets are clean even though most of the inhabitants of the city are Chinese.