Hong Kong harbour, Friday, April 1/98, on board the SS Verona, 9 p.m. local time.

We left Singapore at 5 p.m. last Sunday. The Governor, Sir Mitchell, & his lady came on board from a jetty near the government house & with demonstrations, a salute of guns was fired on shore, & I expect many of the inhabitants were on the jetty to give him a farewell. Singapore is a very beautiful city, ever green, with some very fine architectural buildings, good streets & several open spaces. The native parts are thickly populated & many nations represented. Chinese seemed to be in greater numbers. Rickshaw men in great quantities were everywhere & strong fellows they are. Gharries also are plentiful. I had a look into Bastiane’s pine preserving works. He was at Church 8:30 a.m. and so I did not see him. There was a great pile of pines[1] ready to operate upon & had time permitted, I should have certainly gone back. My visit to Dr. Leask prevented this. What a very lovely harbour it is & full of shipping, & the view of the front of the city from the harbour as we steamed out was very beautiful & the magnificent background of high hills lent a scene to the whole picture that is good to remember. Nothing worth recording transpired on the passage. Very few objects of any kind was observed. It was very hot indeed, even at sea, till Thursday. Yesterday we found it changing but today it has been very hot again, & now it is uncomfortably hot in harbour, not a breeze to be felt anywhere.

[3:16]

We were surprised yesterday afternoon by a visit of a single swallow at sea, & it hovered about us all night & was with us this morning. Today is April 1st & there are a lot of young mischevious [sic] fellows on board, & they’ve carried the day out, truly All Fools’ Day. Our position on Monday noon was as follows:

Lat. N.             Long. E.           Run since leaving Singapore

3.48                  105.45              218 noon to

Tues.               7.40                  108 32              285 noon

Wed.               11.43                111.9                290 noon

Thur.               16.4                  113.29              294 noon

Friday               21.8                  113.54              305 noon

leaving 72 miles to Hong Kong where we berthed about 6 p.m.

It was daylight till nearly 7 so we saw the beautiful entrance to harbour[2] & the town on the hill side, which looked very pretty, but to see it lighted up from the ship is quite a panorama. The harbour is well filled with fine steamers, passengers & cargo, & lots of craft, native especially. Mails had to be landed before any baggage could be got out of hold, so it caused it to be too late to go ashore. This we intend to do in the morning & as the mail leaves for home tomorrow at noon, I am anxious to get even a few lines away by it. Letters I hope to get when I go ashore & I earnestly hope for comforting news. Frank’s letter I will also apply for & I trust I may see him some where en route, if not here. We are laying at a jetty opposite side of the harbour, & we are [3:17] obliged to take a tender to land, which is very awkward but better daylight than tonight. My intention is to go to Canton see the Great City – steamers leave here daily – then go up the coast to Swatou, Amoy, & Yowchen. I hope to get a steamer on my arrival back here for Japan & on my return from there must endeavour as near as possible to fit the sailing date for Sydney. These connections everywhere are uncertain & difficult to work in, however, I will try & work as near as possible. I don’t want to spend a week or more here on my return from Japan. The Verona goes on to Shanghai & all passengers for Japan tranship here on board the Formosa, sailing next Sunday 3rd

We passed the “Empress of China”, one of the 3 Canadian Pacific mail steamers, as we came up the harbour. She is at anchor & sails on 6th, & a most magnificent vessel she looks. You can see a picture of these in the station near the book stall at WH.

I am writing a few lines to Meggie Bannister tonight, asking her if she can put me up during my stay at Sydney, & ask her to post a letter for me to get at the GPO[3] there, & I can make my call there first for all letters. I can’t tell her the date but somewhere near to it by guess. No doubt she knows I am on the way as her mother would mention it in her letter when she wrote after she communicated with me in January.

[3:17v]

[1] Inserted on facing page: “Pines”.

[2] Inserted on facing page: “Hong Kong”.

[3] General Post Office