One of the rowers then came on board, pretending he had a
letter from the captain; and as the sailor went near the lantern to
read the letter, he received from the pirate a blow upon his head
which laid him senseless on the deck; the rest of those in the boat,
who had hitherto remained concealed, now scaled the side of the
brig, and quickly overpowered the slumbering crew.
In our case, however, the night passed without any incident worth
noting; and on the morning of the 10th of July, having first taken
on board a pilot, we proceeded to Hong-Kong, a distance of sixty
nautical miles. The voyage proved highly interesting, on account of
the varied succession of bays, creeks, and groups of islands which
we had to pass.
The English obtained Hong-Kong from the Chinese at the conclusion of
the war in 1842, and founded the port of Victoria, which contains at
present a large number of palace-like houses built of stone.
The Europeans who have settled here, and who are not more than two
or three hundred in number, are far from being contented, however,
as trade is not half as good as they at first expected it would be.
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