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Domain-Driven
Laravel
Learn to Implement Domain-Driven
Design Using Laravel
—
Jesse Griffin
Domain-Driven Laravel
Learn to Implement Domain-Driven
Design Using Laravel
Jesse Griffin
Domain-Driven Laravel: Learn to Implement Domain-Driven Design Using Laravel
Jesse Griffin
Spring Valley, CA, USA
v
Table of Contents
vi
Table of Contents
Requirements Overview�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72
Where to Start����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78
A Real-World Scenario����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93
Conclusion���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 95
vii
Table of Contents
viii
Table of Contents
ix
Table of Contents
xi
Table of Contents
xii
Table of Contents
xiii
Table of Contents
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 605
xiv
About the Author
Jesse Griffin is a seasoned Laravel and Symfony developer who specializes in building
e-commerce systems as well as add-ons for a variety of purposes and platforms related
to shipping, packaging, warehouse management, inventory control, barcode systems,
asset management/tracking, customer tracking, as well as statistics and reporting. He
has more than 10 years of professional web application development experience and
holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, although he’s been programming since
he was 9 years old.
xv
About the Technical Reviewer
Zeeshan Chawdhary is an avid technologist, with 14 years
of experience in the industry. Having started his career with
mobile development with J2ME, he soon ventured into web
development, creating robust and scalable web applications.
As a chief technology officer, he has led teams to build web
and mobile apps for companies such as Nokia, Motorola,
Mercedes, GM, American Airlines, and Marriott. He is
currently the head of technology for an international team,
serving clients with technologies such as Drupal, React,
React Native, GraphQL, WordPress, WooCommerce, Laravel,
NodeJS, Google Puppeteer, and occasionally .NET. He has
also authored books on iOS, Windows Phone, and iBooks, writing his fourth one titled
Practical Laravel for Apress.
xvii
PART I
An Odd Combination
CHAPTER 1
3
© Jesse Griffin 2021
J. Griffin, Domain-Driven Laravel, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6023-4_1
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
My hope is that you will find the material digestible as well as useful in a real-life
environment and team.
What I don’t expect you to be fully knowledgeable in (or even heard of before) is
domain-driven design. I take ample page space in this book to describe and define DDD
and lay out the concepts in terms of their application to developing web applications.
If you are already familiar with DDD’s concepts, that’s great! That will flatten the
learning curve a bit, but it is not a requirement. I will describe some of the modifications
that had to be made to the original version of DDD to be applicable as a practical
approach to developing modern-day web applications (using Laravel as the means of
implementation), with a core focus being on designing, modeling, and refining the
domain layer.
I will show you a variety of best practices throughout the book that are either widely
accepted standards regarding software development or my own practices and shortcuts
that have taken me a decade or so of working as a professional web developer and more
than twice that long researching curiosity-inspired topics (with the help of somewhere
in the ballpark of 150 IT and software engineering books I’ve read so far) to discern this
information. Oftentimes, I will demonstrate these concepts in code so you can get a clear
understanding of what they are and also give you some context borrowed from SOLID
principles. I will provide examples to what would otherwise be a bunch of random
suggestions that you probably won’t remember, and almost certainly never use in your
own projects.
There is a section in this chapter that goes over all the basic tools of the trade and
some basic concepts and definitions of important terms that are relevant to the demos
and examples given to support all the theory I dish out. On a higher level, however,
what I’d like for you to take away from this chapter is an appetite for construction (pun
intended!). Along with giving you some basic fundamentals on web development so
as to empower you to follow along in the theoretical examples we walk through later in
the book, it is also my aim to instill within you the desire to learn domain-driven design
principles and ideally spark an interest in learning advanced usage and customization of
Laravel to make it as flexible as you need it to be for your application.
I will be jumping around a little in this chapter to give you a good sense of what we
are attempting to learn here: what is DDD is and how does it relate to the quality of our
software? To answer this question, I will introduce you to some important concepts,
patterns, and practices that you will need to be successful at modeling real-world
domains in software.
4
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
Domain-Driven What?
DDD is itself built using a variety of best practices and reliable design patterns, and it has
origins stemming from both extreme programming (XP) and agile development. I will
introduce to you a few of the more fundamental aspects of DDD, including the software
horror that can become reality if these best practices and SOLID patterns are ignored
because of either developer ignorance or a poorly managed development effort.
The simplest way I can think of describing DDD is this: it is a series of practical
and useful concepts, processes, and techniques that aid in modeling complex software
systems in a systematic and structured way by focusing on the core aspects of the
underlying business rules in order to manufacture a domain model that truly describes
and represents that business in terms of software and then letting that knowledge and
insight from repeated discussions and group meetings with the respective domain
experts guide the development and construction of the software that is ultimately being
built to serve that business’s customers or front-end users. DDD basically arose from
a gap in the software industry relating to answering the question of how to properly
design and develop software that best suits that business’s needs. There was no magical
manual that gave any sort of standard or basic approaches to constructing applications
that are focused on the domain of the application (domain-centric), nor were there any
published approaches to learning the ins and outs of a business’s core processes enough
to construct software that represents it.
Programmers have had design patterns in our code toolboxes for many years,
although they were never documented as such until 1994 when the Gang of Four
published the holy grail of design pattern books, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable
Object-Oriented Software. Design patterns serve as an important, core set of practical
and repeatable solutions to the common problems that you are likely to face when
constructing computer programs. They are well thought out and thoroughly tested
ways to tackle the most common aspects of problem scopes you’re likely to encounter
in virtually any program, in any programming language. One such pattern, the famous
strategy pattern, is useful when you need to give objects additional behaviors at runtime
by encapsulating changes into families of behaviors. Another is the adapter pattern,
which is used to integrate two unlike interfaces (such as those running on different
systems or programmed in different programming languages entirely). If you needed
your objects to have dynamic behaviors that could be added or removed at runtime and
that follow a similar suite that allowed for aggregation calculations to be placed on said
group of objects, you could employ a decorator pattern.
5
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
What we needed was that very same thing for developing solutions—in terms of
code—to the ever-growing and vast set of business problems that arose in response to
the increase in demand of software development In other words, we needed some sort of
approach to developing the domain layer of an application so that we could express any
such domain (business) model in terms of software. The nature of business problems is
that they tend to be very specific, and their respective solutions were products of many
years of designing, developing, testing, and refining business processes that are unique
to each business, or industry. As such, it was and sill is difficult to establish any sort of
standards or best practices to facilitate the development of the most critical aspect of
any software project: the domain layer. In contrast, there are mountains of references,
toolkits, and frameworks that help in designing the other layers (which may indeed
talk to and know about the domain layer), but they don’t encapsulate it. Rather, they
surround it. The infrastructure layer is basically the liaison between the application
layer and the domain model. It facilitates all the moving parts that are operating on,
managing, and otherwise handling the domain objects directly.
What we needed were tactics on how to go about seeking out sources of truth in the
companies in which we worked in order to properly model them in software, and tools
to help us implement that model in a domain-driven way. The business information
isn’t always direct or easy to derive, especially in the context of a complex business
process spread across multiple components (at least we would hope they are separated
into some component structure, but this is not always a reality). In a case where the
code in the application is so “stepped on,” or beaten up, by the slew of developers over
the years forcing its behavior to bend in ways in which it was not intended or designed,
implementing a domain-driven approach becomes more difficult. But it is possible to
still avoid an entire rewrite of the application (which is almost always a terrible idea).
We will explore how to do this later in the book, but the short answer is to use an anti-
corruption layer to section off portions of the app and then keep replacing legacy code
with the smaller sectioned-off ones until the layer absorbs the old code, until no legacy
code remains at all.
Architecture
The architecture of a system embellishes the complete structure of the system’s domain
model including its domain objects, modules, bounded contexts, and the various
interactions between them. Architecture is one of the most important things in an
6
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
application, as it is the foundational fabric in the software and acts as the “support
beams” for the rest of the application to be built upon.
What tends to happen in the real world is that these business processes and models
are constructed without best practices or proper structure and are used in production
because they “work.” Don’t get me wrong, developers work with what we have and can
usually “hack” together something that will indeed “work.” However, when we neglect
to refactor this code after we’ve made refinements to the processes themselves or fail to
fine-tune any unclear or blurred definitions we may have clarified or to reflect gained
insight into the business models and how those insights affect business operations and
its software, we are most likely headed toward a “big ball of mud” (or what I call it a big
ball of sh...potato pottåto).
A big ball of mud is a:
More often than not, these mud balls are built as monolithic architectures, ones that
lack the notion of a complete separation of concerns on a “platform level” (physical
level). Monolithic architectures are self-contained and include within them all concerns
of the application (infrastructure, database, application-level, and presentation
concerns). We will discuss the architectural layers of software systems later in the
chapter.
The opposite of a monolithic application is a microservice. Microservices are tiny
applications distributed across a variety of different components that together make
up a complete, usable system. The setup involved in a microservice architecture
is much more dramatic than simply using directory names (which is really all that
physically separates the various structures into groups of related ones). The components
themselves oftentimes exist on separate platforms, usually on separate machines in
the cloud, and implement a variety of strategies aimed at facilitating their usage and
enabling communication between themselves and the client (the calling code).
7
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
Enter Laravel
One of the core features of DDD is that it is an agnostic approach to designing system
architectures. This means it makes no assumptions what framework you are using, what
database you decide on, or whether you even use data persistence at all for that matter
(if you’re a web dev, of course, you most likely do). It is meant to be more of a general
approach to designing scalable enterprise systems. So why, then, would I suggest not
only the concept of a framework, but a specific flavor of one (i.e., Laravel) combined with
the concepts and strategies offered in DDD?
This question can be answered with an old expression that proves truer every day:
necessity is the mother of invention. I noticed a real-world need for a set of guidelines
of how to go about developing complex web systems and some strategies for how to
implement a domain-driven application in a real-world scenario, without reinventing
the wheel and while using some of the more popular tools of the web development
trade such as Laravel and Eloquent—allowing them to do what they do best so that we
may focus on modeling the business itself and building out a rich domain layer, one
that reflects the needs and requirements of the business it was built to manage. We will
accomplish all this with the tools and concepts that come with DDD, yet tuned for use in
a web development project, along with the implementations of those concepts within a
Laravel application.
Only lately have the two concepts (domain-driven design and frameworks) come
close enough to each other to actually generate enough traction that would suggest it
would be useful to have a domain-driven approach to developing web- and Internet-
based applications. I made the realization, finally, that Laravel could be used as a
medium in which to build out a domain-driven design.
However, because of the way DDD was created and also because of the basic
structure of a web application, it doesn’t quite mesh well with the idea of using a
framework of any type. We will go over many examples of where the clouded area lies in
relation to the DDD guidelines. We almost need a sort of custom DDD implementation
to be able to work with it on the level that we would need to in order to build web
applications using it as a backbone of the domain’s design. If we take into consideration
that working within a web development context is related to the contextual boundaries
within a system that need to operate directly and primarily across the wire. If we look at
the categories of knowledge contained within the Technical Strategies pillar of DDD, it
is quite obvious that they could exist alongside a Laravel application (i.e., repositories,
DTOs, factories, jobs, etc.)… we can actually see that most of DDD’s suggested
8
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
approaches coincide quite well with Laravel’s components and inner workings. In this
regard, DDD is well suited to shape a web system or Internet application.
The idea of implementing a domain-driven design using the Laravel framework
seemed very feasible to me. If I could bend a few of the rules in the strategies and
guidelines, I could make the two technologies work well together. Because of this, I will say
right off the bat that this is not a true implementation of DDD and all of its different facets,
patterns, approaches, and guidelines. DDD requires a lot of work up front, but pays off
big time when you have things situated. That being said, I realized that this is not always
desirable, especially if you are a startup or are working for a startup. Costs can make or
break a startup, and it’s not always possible to allocate such a large amount of resources,
time, and money into putting into place all the tools, procedures, and architectural
structures that will be the product of a deep exploratory analysis of not only the code (if
you are already working in a codebase) but of the business’s core functions as well.
So, you should be extremely careful with your decision to build an application
using the guidelines of DDD: most domains are not complex enough to require the
level of complexity that DDD attempts to manage succinctly. Laravel, on the other
hand, offers a bite-size approach to crafting an implementation of some domain from
a business model. My interest in writing this book lies in the utilization of using the two
in combination with each other within the context of a real-world project. However, the
decision to go with a DDD-based design must come only after carefully examining the
requirements of the domain model and how complex the underlying business model is
going to be to represent as software.
Selective Content
What I aim to do, then, is to provide you with the main essentials, tools, and tactics of
DDD so you can gain real value out of implementing it in your own projects. This is
possible because we initially forgo the usual large chunk of information and overhead
that is part of traditional DDD—allowing us to focus on the core aspects and tactics
needed to get started quickly—and return to these topics later in the book when we do a
“deep dive” into both DDD and Laravel.
I also must mention that this is slightly risky when you attempt an implementation
of a half-learned DDD implementation. If you start applying all the techniques and
technical patterns of DDD willy-nilly, you will end up building things without knowing
fully what they do or, worse, will apply a particular technique or pattern in an incorrect
9
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
context, eventually forcing a big refactor or a complete rewrite. The reason for this is
because of the pure size of DDD; there are so many concepts and ideas in the subject
itself that it can be relatively easy to misconstrue things or mix up definitions. However,
as long as you go about it in a domain-driven way, that is, by letting your business
requirements and ubiquitous language steer development, the likelihood of this
happening is minimal.
• Domain experts were not involved when initially creating the system
(or its processes), so concepts are applied either incorrectly or not at
all—oftentimes causing a cascading domino effect of design issues
within the domain layer (and the things that touch it) down the road
when adding more complex logic to an incorrect business model.
10
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
I intend to arm you with the essentials of DDD in terms of its practical application
in the real world. I will give you advice that I have myself cultivated after 10 years in
the industry, and I teach you what “best practices” are and what you get in return
for following them. We will learn the foundations of DDD and how to go about
implementing a domain-driven model in a practical and feasible way. However, it is
not a road easily traveled, and it’s not all that difficult to get lost in the vast amount of
information and distilled knowledge that the DDD subject matter contains.
11
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
We will also be going over various best practices that could be implemented and
what ends up happening to the codebase and the project when you ignore them.
The first few sections will get you up to speed on some of the more basic pieces we
will need to actually put this machine into practice (in a real-world scenario) and get out
of it an application with a model that has been developed using DDD’s procedures and
techniques and that is based on well-thought-out and implemented strategies and core
best practices that will ensure it can handle any changes or updates that the business
might need to make later.
Eloquent ORM
One significant component that is included in a data definition language (DDL) goes
against the practices and values inside DDD. The inclusion of the Eloquent ORM
(allowed only by slightly bending the DDD suggestion of not having one) will allow us to
do many neat things.
12
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
• Mass assignment
• Query scopes
• Eager loading
• Collections
• Model events
• Model observers
• A validation component that will make sure our models are in a valid,
consistent state and have the proper restrictions in place to prevent
erroneous usage
One of the most important tools for developing a domain-driven design in Laravel
(on the “code side” of things) is Eloquent. Eloquent is an active record–based ORM that
offers a whole slew of cool features and tools that are baked in (and indeed come for free
in Laravel). These are some key things that we very much need to pursue our goal of a
DDL application.
In modern-day programming, the tendency has grown toward devising a split of an
object’s data and its behaviors. The way this is achieved is by separating the raw data an
object contains into a specialized class called a domain transfer object (DTO). Although
we go over DTOs in extensive detail later in the book, for now understand that it’s a basic
13
Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation
object with getter and setter methods for every property that exists on the object that
needs to be either retrieved or stored. It holds only data and not behavior.
I know this is going to sound odd and may indeed go against everything your inner
programmer says is correct, but, in Eloquent, entities and their DTO counterparts
are more or less mixed in a practical fashion and come for free inside any PHP object
extending Eloquent’s Model class. Now, that’s not to say you can’t have an independent
DTO layer between your persistence layer and the ORM, but it really would be a
pointless effort because all you would be doing is rewriting features that already
exist in Eloquent’s abstract Model class. If you ever wanted a model’s raw database
representation, you’d simply access whichever field it is directly from the model. If,
however, you wanted a list of all the properties that exist on a Model object and their
corresponding raw values that have not been modified by that class’s accessors (similar
to what you would find in a DTO), you could just use Eloquent’s toArray() method.
Let’s say you have a Customer model (and a corresponding customer table in the
database, which has a phone field (containing the customer’s phone number) and a
phone_type field, containing either a 1 to indicate a home phone, a 2 to indicate a cell
phone, or a 3 for a work phone. Using Eloquent, we could implement the class shown in
Listing 1-1 to represent a Customer object.
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Customer extends Model
{
public $table = 'customers';
protected $fillable = [‘name’, ‘phone’, ‘phone_type'];
}
14
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
While our troops were thus engaged upon the heights, the Chinese
threatened an attack upon the landing-place at Tsingpoo. Their
object might have been either to endeavour to cut off the retreat of
our troops from the heights, or else to get possession of the stores,
&c., which had been left behind. A considerable body of the Chinese
sallied out of the western gate of the city, from which a narrow,
irregular causeway, led down to the landing-place at Tsingpoo.
This movement being immediately observed from the heights, orders
were sent down by Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, at the suggestion of Sir
Hugh Gough, for some of the officers of the vessels at anchor there
to land with their men, and assist in the defence of the place. These
orders were delivered to Captain Hall by an officer of the Blenheim,
sent on purpose. Preparations had already been made on board with
this object, and Captain Hall lost no time in landing with half his
crew, the other half remaining at quarters on board, under
Lieutenant Pedder. There were twenty-eight men and two officers
(besides Captain Hall) from the Nemesis; about fourteen men and
two officers from the Sulphur; and eighteen men and two officers
from the Blonde; altogether sixty men and seven officers.[49]
Having landed and formed, they immediately joined the small body
of troops which had been stationed at the joss-house to protect the
guns, stores, &c., which had been left behind. They were
commanded by Lieutenant Grant, of the 49th, and consisted of thirty
men of that regiment, thirty of the 18th, under Lieutenant Cockburn,
and fourteen of the 37th M.N.I., under Ensign Anquitelle. Lieutenant
Grant had got his men under arms the moment the alarm was given,
and, perceiving a body of about two hundred and fifty Chinese
skirmishers advancing in extended order, he moved out to meet
them; when within about fifty yards, he poured in a smart fire, by
which many of them were killed, and drove them back upon their
main body, who were drawn up in close column, about four hundred
strong, (regular troops,) behind a bridge some distance off, upon
which they had planted three field-pieces. The blue jackets having
joined, Captain Hall instantly led the way, at the head of his own
men, directly down the causeway, towards the bridge; and, under
cover of an excellent fire from the Nemesis and Starling, the whole
column attacked the Chinese in front, and were received with an ill-
directed fire of grape and curious rocket arrows, by which two men
were slightly hit.
The Chinese were driven from their guns, and endeavoured to rally
behind some houses in their rear, but they soon made a hasty
retreat towards the town, closely pursued, for some distance, by our
men. But it was not thought prudent to follow them within range of
the ginjals upon the city walls, as no good purpose could be effected
by it, and some loss might have been suffered. About thirty of the
enemy were supposed to have been killed and wounded. The three
field-pieces were spiked: and the houses near the bridge, in which a
quantity of military stores were found, were set on fire.
It is worthy of notice that this little spirited affair, although officially
reported to Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, was never specially mentioned
in any of the public despatches—an omission which at that time
created some surprise.
To return to our movements upon the heights. During the greater
part of the day, a spirited fire was kept up from the city walls by
guns, ginjals, and matchlocks; which made it necessary to keep the
men under cover as much as possible.
In the rear, and a little to the eastward of the forts occupied by the
18th and 49th, was a high hill which, in fact, was the key to the
whole position, but it was not fortified. There was, however, a large
joss-house upon the top of it, which was occupied by a detachment
of the 49th regiment. Upon the low ground to the eastward of this
hill, and between it and a large entrenched camp, situated upon
rising ground close to the suburbs, was a village occupied by
Chinese troops. Frequent communications were passing between it
and the entrenched camp, in which there appeared to be not less
than three or four thousand men. The enemy were soon dislodged
from the village by the 49th, and dispositions were made by Sir
Hugh Gough to carry the entrenched camp by assault. Several high
officers had been observed to pass out of the city on their way to
this camp, and it was evident that some fresh attack was projected.
The 18th were therefore ordered down from the heights to reinforce
the detachment of the 49th, together with a few marines, and
Major-General Burrell was directed to carry the encampment, the
only approach to which was along a narrow causeway. A heavy fire
was opened upon them from guns and ginjals upon the north-
eastern face of the city walls, to which the men were unavoidably
exposed as they advanced. The Chinese seemed to have got the
precise range of the causeway, and some loss was suffered in
consequence. But the enemy were soon driven gallantly out of the
camp, and fled in disorder across the country. The buildings were
then destroyed, together with several magazines, and the force then
returned to the heights.
The day was now far advanced, and the men were much fatigued
with the oppressive heat. The steep and broken nature of the
approach to the heights had made it impossible to get up the heavy
guns and ammunition until the following day. The assault of the city
was therefore deferred; but Sir Hugh Gough, having made a careful
reconnoissance of the walls and gates, determined to carry them on
the following day, while the panic of the Chinese was still at its
height.
On the morning of the 26th, all was apparently quiet within the city,
except that numbers of people were issuing out of the gates, which
were removed from the scene of action, hastening to carry away
with them all the valuable property which could be easily
transported. Our troops were early under arms, but no further
operations against the city could be undertaken until the ammunition
and the heavy guns could be brought up.
The weather in the morning did not look auspicious, and before the
day was half over, rain began to fall in torrents. Few Chinese
appeared upon the walls of the city; and at length, soon after ten
o'clock, a flag of truce was displayed from the walls. It is remarkable
how perfectly well the value of the white flag was remembered (as
before noticed by Capt. Elliot) whenever the Chinese wished to
negotiate, or to induce us to suspend our operations; although they
thought proper to slight it whenever it suited their purpose. Shortly
afterwards the general deputed Mr. Thom, who was attached to him
as interpreter, to advance and ascertain what the Chinese desired. A
mandarin, distinguished by a red button, now stated that they
wished to propose terms of peace, with a view to spare the city, and
that in the meantime there should be a suspension of hostilities. It
was replied, that the general could treat with no other officer than
the Chinese commander-in-chief, his equal in rank; that the British
forces had come before Canton much against the wishes of the
English nation, but were compelled to do so owing to the insults
offered to the British subjects, and the bad faith of the Chinese high
officers; that they might, therefore, address their requests to Capt.
Elliot, who was with the advanced squadron in the river before the
city; and that two or three hours would be allowed for them to
communicate with that officer, and also to arrange an interview
between the English and the Tartar general; but that if within that
period no satisfactory communication should be received, the white
flag would be struck.
These overtures, on the part of the Chinese, led to no immediate
result. Sir Hugh Gough waited more than four hours before the
white flag was struck, and even then the Chinese did not lower
theirs.
During the remainder of the day, and in the course of the night, by
the unwearied exertions of the Royal and Madras Artillery, assisted
by the Sappers and Miners, all the guns and ammunition were got
up, except one 12-pounder howitzer, the carriage of which had been
disabled. During the whole of this time, the rain fell heavily, which
much increased the necessary labour, and added to the privations of
the men, who either bivouacked or were partially sheltered, as best
they could.
The truce, if it could be so called, was of some use to us, as it gave
time for the completion of all the preparations for the assault, which
was to have taken place at eight o'clock on the following morning.
Our batteries were to have opened at seven o'clock, and it was
expected that the parapet of the walls, which was high, would have
been reduced by the concentrated fire of our guns. The walls were
not less than twenty-eight to thirty feet high, and were separated
from the heights, from which they were in some parts less than two
hundred paces distant, by an intervening glen.
The broken nature of the ground was peculiarly favourable for the
several attacks which were designed; and as soon as a lodgment
had been made upon the walls, the different columns of attack were
to unite, and make a rush at the fortified hill, which, as before
described, was situated within the walls, and commanded the
interior of the city. The attack was to have been made in four
columns, of which the right, consisting of the royal marines, under
Capt. Ellis, was to blow open the north gate with powder bags; but if
that attempt failed, they were to escalade a circular work thrown up
as a defence to that gate. The second column, composed of the blue
jackets, under Capt. Bourchier, were to escalade the wall a little
beyond the circular work, where its height was not so great, under
cover of musketry. At the same time, the 18th Royal Irish, under
Lieut.-Colonel Adams, were to escalade the wall close to the seven-
storied pagoda, under cover of our batteries on the heights above.
The assault was also to be covered by the Bengal volunteers, and
part of the Madras 87th N.I. Further to the left, the 49th, under
Lieut.-Col. Morris, were directed to carry a sort of bastion in front,
and within range of the largest and nearest of the forts upon the
heights, of which we had got possession the day before. Sir Hugh
Gough's principal object would then have been to occupy the
fortified hill within the walls, upon which a heavy fire of shells and
rockets was to have been kept up during the assault of the walls.
Every arrangement was thus made which could ensure the certain
and speedy capture of the city, with little loss on our side. What then
must have been the chagrin and disappointment of the general and
all his officers, when, soon after six o'clock, just as the final orders
were given, and the batteries were about to open, a letter from
Capt. Elliot was put into the general's hands, which announced to
him that a truce had been agreed to, and that further operations
must therefore be suspended. It barely arrived in time to stop the
assault of the city, which was on the point of being commenced.
Under these circumstances, as Sir Hugh Gough observed, "whatever
might be my sentiments or feelings, it was my duty to acquiesce,
and therefore the attack was countermanded, and the feelings of the
Chinese were spared." To this he added that he had no means of
judging of the policy of the measure.
If any further doubt upon the subject remained, it was finally set at
rest by the arrival of Capt. Elliot in person at the camp, about noon.
From that moment all idea of further hostile operations against the
city was abandoned.
Shortly before Capt. Elliot's arrival, Sir Hugh Gough had held a short
conference, accompanied by Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, with the
Tartar General in person, outside the walls, in a tent pitched for the
purpose. The result was of little importance, as it was already known
that terms had been negotiated by Capt. Elliot.
It could not be doubted that both Sir Hugh Gough and Sir Le
Fleming Senhouse were exceedingly averse to granting any terms to
the Chinese until our troops should have got possession of the city,
and established themselves upon the fortified hill within the walls,
which would have secured our troops against any possible surprise
or treachery, and would have exercised a salutary moral effect upon
the government, without causing any wanton damage to the town or
annoyance to the people. In fact, it could not have failed to humble
the pride of the Chinese, when they knew that a large garrison of
foreign soldiers had made themselves masters of one of the principal
cities in the empire, supposed to contain nearly a million of
inhabitants.
Various stories were current concerning the mode in which the
ransom of the city was first proposed. One of the most credited
accounts was that the Hong merchants were ordered by the
authorities to go and make terms for the ransom of the town, in
some way or other, under pain of severe displeasure or punishment.
It was said that they were authorized to go as far as ten millions of
dollars, if a less sum would not suffice; but on no account to return
without effecting the object. They must have known that they would
themselves have to pay the greater part of the amount, and
naturally wished to make the best bargain they could.
It is said that in the first instance they pulled along side one of our
men-of-war, and offered three millions for the ransom of the city. As
they evidently appeared to be in a hurry to make a bargain of some
sort or other, they were told that a much larger sum would be
required. Four millions were then proposed, and then five millions;
and at length, in great trepidation, and with many protestations of
poverty, they raised the offer to six millions. In the first instance they
were scarcely thought to be in earnest, but as the thing now really
looked serious, they were directed to go and confer with Capt. Elliot.
It was not difficult to persuade him to grant a truce until twelve
o'clock the following day, the 27th; and, in the intervening time,
terms were definitively agreed upon.
The twenty-four hours' truce, in the first instance, was quite
unknown to Sir Hugh Gough, to whom an officer of the navy had
been sent in the afternoon to convey the information; but having
missed his way, and wandered all night, he only reached the head
quarters, as before stated, within half an hour of the time the
batteries were to open. The fact of the truce having been granted
was now sufficient to account for the Chinese having continued to
display the white flag from the walls the preceding day, after it had
been lowered by Sir Hugh Gough upon the heights.
As it had been stipulated that the Tartar troops should leave the city
and retire to a distance of sixty miles from it, a conference was held
on the 28th between Sir Hugh Gough and the prefect of the city, in
order to make arrangements for the evacuation of Canton. It was
now ascertained that the force amounted to no less than forty-five
thousand men from distant provinces, besides those troops which
belonged to the province itself.
The Tartar soldiers were allowed to march out with their arms and
baggage, but without displaying their banners, and without music.
So far then the authorities appeared to have perfect control over the
people of the city, and over the troops belonging to other provinces
which formed the garrison. But beyond the city it was not so easy
for them to exercise the same degree of authority, particularly as
regarded the armed peasants. For some time the peasantry of the
province, particularly in the neighbourhood of the city, had been
encouraged to form themselves into societies, or patriotic bands, as
they were called, for mutual defence against the foreigners. They
constituted a sort of rude military; but having inexperienced leaders
and no discipline, they were calculated, if once their passions were
roused, to become much more troublesome to the province itself
than they were formidable to the enemy. They were imperfectly
armed, every man according to his own taste, with spears, swords, a
few matchlocks, and shields. With perfect ignorance of military
affairs, and without any knowledge of the resources of the enemy
they were to encounter, they believed that, by mere force of
numbers, and a show of courage at a distance, they could effect that
which even their regular Tartars had been totally unable to
accomplish. Yet they were held up to the nation at large by the
government as models of patriotism and self-devotion; and so
impressed were they with the high value of their proffered services,
that they really believed the high officers had betrayed their trust in
acceding to Captain Elliot's terms for the ransom of the city; and that
the anxiety of the inhabitants to save their own property had
induced them to make unreasonable concessions, at the very
moment when they (the patriots) were advancing to exterminate
their enemies by falling upon their rear.
It is, therefore, not surprising that, two days after the city had been
ransomed—namely, on the 29th, a considerable body of these men
began to collect upon the heights, about three or four miles in the
rear of our positions. Their numbers continued to increase
throughout the day, and Sir Hugh Gough, being fully prepared to
expect some act of treachery or bad faith under cover of a flag of
truce, directed Major-General Burrell to take charge of our positions,
and to hold every man in readiness to repel any attack from the city,
while he himself advanced in person to meet and disperse the
enemy, who now shewed themselves.
The 26th regiment, under Major Pratt, which had occupied the
factories until the 27th, had been brought up to Tsingpoo by the
Nemesis on that day, and had joined Sir Hugh Gough upon the
heights. The force which the general now took with him comprised
that regiment, the 49th, except one company left at the joss-house
on the heights, the 37th, M.N.I., and the company of Bengal
Volunteers, supported by the Royal Marines. These two latter were
to be held in reserve, so as to be in readiness to return towards the
heights, and act upon the flank, should any attack be made from the
town during the absence of so large a portion of our force.
The Chinese had descended from the heights in the rear upon which
they had first appeared, and had taken up rather a strong position
behind an embankment along the bed of a stream; they appeared to
number about four thousand men. The 26th regiment, which had
not yet been engaged, supported by the 37th M.N.I., were ordered
to advance and drive them from this position, which they effected
without any loss. Like most irregular troops, the Chinese patriots
could not act together in a body, but took to flight, throwing away
their spears as soon as a well directed fire was opened upon them.
They attempted to rally for a moment at a sort of military post in
their rear, but they did not make a stand. The buildings were
immediately destroyed, together with a magazine, which was
unexpectedly found in the adjoining village. The Chinese retreated to
the heights upon which they had first appeared.
Sir Hugh Gough, having then directed the 49th and Bengal
Volunteers to fall back upon our original position upon the heights,
remained to watch in person the movements of the Chinese, with
the 26th and the 37th M.N.I., amounting together to between five
hundred and six hundred men.
The heat of the sun this day was excessive; it was so sultry that
both officers and men suffered great exhaustion, and Major Beecher,
the deputy quartermaster-general, whose exertions had been
unremitting throughout the previous days, fell down and almost
immediately expired; several other officers also fell sick. Within two
or three hours after the first repulse of the Chinese, they again
collected upon the heights in greater numbers than before, fresh
bodies of them having now come up with banners, &c., amounting
to from seven thousand to eight thousand men.
Captain Knowles of the artillery, who had been ordered to bring up
some rockets, now threw them with great precision among the
Chinese, but without being able to disperse them; indeed, they
appeared determined to shew a bold front; and the general,
therefore, directed Major Pratt, with the 26th, to attack a large body
of them who had descended from the heights to some rice-fields on
his left. Captain Duff, with the 37th M.N.I., supported by the Bengal
Volunteers, was also directed to advance and disperse a large body
in his front, who had attempted to reoccupy the military post which
had been already burnt; they were then to push forward towards the
hills, and clear them of the enemy.
These manœuvres were executed with complete success, the
Chinese being dispersed at all points. The 37th M.N.I., however,
pushed on rather further than had been intended, and got separated
from the Bengal Volunteers. Captain Duff had, however, detached a
company to open his communication with the 26th, who were at
some distance on his left. But the day was now far advanced, and
the thunder-storm, the approach of which had been surely indicated
by the extreme sultriness and oppressive heat of the morning, now
burst upon them with inconceivable fury. The rain also descended in
such torrents that the firelocks got wet and scarcely a single musket
would go off. The 26th were, in consequence, frequently compelled
to charge with the bayonet, for the Chinese, who hovered about
them, seeing that they could not use their firelocks, came boldly up
to attack them with their long spears, which are formidable from
their length. After several repulses, the Chinese at length withdrew,
and our troops were directed to return to their positions.
It was on this occasion, and in the midst of this terrific storm, in the
dusk of evening, that the gallant conduct and steadiness of the
company of the 37th M.N.I., which, as before stated, had been
detached to open a communication with the 26th, on their left,
saved them from total destruction, and won for them the praise of
all military men. The story has been so often told, and with so little
variation in its details, that it is scarcely necessary to repeat it; a few
words will do justice to their gallantry. The detached company
having missed the road during the storm, did not succeed in joining
the 26th, who, in the meantime, had, in fact, retired. Their muskets
were found completely useless, owing to the wet, which emboldened
the Chinese to attack their rear with their long spears, as they had
done the 26th. They were soon surrounded; and one or two of the
men were pulled over with a long crooked spear, something in the
shape of a small reaping-hook, fixed upon a long pole. The musket
of one of the men who had fallen was picked up by the Chinese, the
powder being so damp in the pan that it would not go off with the
flint and steel. The Chinese soldier, however, deliberately placed the
musket to his shoulder, and, taking steady aim at one of the officers,
Mr. Berkeley, applied his match to the damp powder, which ignited,
and the musket went off, and unfortunately wounded Mr. Berkeley in
the arm.
The gallant little company of Sepoys were now moved to some rising
ground, where they could better defend themselves. For a moment,
the rain ceased; and then with the utmost difficulty they were
enabled to get a few muskets off, with unerring effect upon the
dense mass of Chinese who surrounded them. But fortune was
determined to prolong their trial still. The rain again descended in
torrents, just as they had begun their retreat; and the Chinese,
taking fresh courage, resumed their attacks. Nothing now remained
but to form a square, and stand true to each other, until the morning
dawned, and enabled them to fight their way through the enemy.
The absence of this company, when all the rest of the force was
concentrated, caused great anxiety concerning their fate. It was
rightly attributed to the severity of the storm, but it was feared that
they might possibly have been cut off by the Chinese.
Without loss of time, Sir Hugh Gough ordered up two companies of
marines, who were comparatively fresh, and armed with percussion
muskets, to return with Captain Duff in search of the missing
company. As they advanced they fired an occasional shot, as a signal
to their comrades of their approach, and to animate their spirits. At
length, an occasional shot was heard ahead of them, and they soon
afterwards came up with the missing company, drawn up in a
square, surrounded by thousands of Chinese. A couple of volleys
sent into the midst of the confused crowd, by the unerring
percussion-muskets[50] of the marines, accompanied by a loud
"hurra," dispersed them with great loss, and they fled in confusion.
The generals own words will best do justice to this little incident:
—"The Sepoys," says he, "in this critical situation, nobly upheld the
high character of the native army, by unshrinking discipline, and
cheerful obedience, and I feel that the expression of my best thanks
is due to Lieutenants Hadfield and Devereux, and Ensign Berkeley,
who zealously supported them during this trying scene."
They did not, however, escape without some loss, as one private
was killed, and one officer and fourteen men were severely
wounded.
This open hostility of the Chinese, during the operation of a truce,
could not be permitted to continue; and, moreover, it was evident
that no good purpose could be attained by merely dispersing these
irregular bodies of the Chinese. Accordingly, on the following
morning, the 31st, the general sent to inform the Kwang-chow-foo,
or prefect, that if these hostile demonstrations were continued, he
should be under the necessity of at once hauling down the flag of
truce, and of recommencing hostilities against the city. In the course
of the day, before any further arrangements had been made with the
prefect, who promised to come and meet the general and Captain
Elliot under the walls, the Chinese again collected upon the hills,
displaying their banners, &c., and firing off their guns. Detached
parties were also thrown in advance, as if they had some design of
communicating with the Tartar troops, who, to the number of 7000,
had already marched out of the city, and were still moving.
In the afternoon, the number of Chinese had still further increased,
upon the same hills upon which they had appeared the day before.
At length, the prefect arrived, and assured the general that the
movements of these peasants were quite without the knowledge or
sanction of the authorities, and that he would immediately send off
an officer of rank to order them to disperse to their homes. It was
agreed that one of our own officers should also accompany him, to
endeavour to effect this object by their joint efforts; and Captain
Moore, of the 34th Bengal N.I., volunteered to undertake this
hazardous and responsible duty. Some treachery might possibly have
been intended, although, as there was reason to believe, without the
sanction of the prefect, who was personally, at that time, completely
in our power. These irregular bodies were at length induced to
disperse, and no further collision took place.[51]
During all the operations upon the heights, the greater part of the
wounded were brought down and put on board the Nemesis, where
they received every attention from the surgeon of the vessel, and
particularly from Mr. Peter Young, who was then on board merely as
a volunteer. The Nemesis was employed to convey them daily to
their respective ships and transports. The total number of casualties
amounted to fifteen killed, and one hundred and twelve wounded;
among the latter were no less than fifteen officers.[52] The Chinese
must have suffered very severely, as almost every shot told upon
their heavy masses.
Upon the heights of Canton forty-nine guns were captured, besides a
great number of ginjals. But if we reckon all the guns taken and
destroyed in the Canton river and its numerous branches, from
Chuenpee to Canton, they will be found to amount to not less than
twelve hundred pieces, besides ginjals, &c.
The resources of the Chinese seemed endless, and the rapidity with
which they erected batteries and field-works was not a little
remarkable. It cannot be said that they yielded without first making
the most strenuous efforts to defend all the approaches to Canton;
and they were rather wanting in skill, and the knowledge of the best
mode of applying their abundant resources, than in courage or
determination to resist. The Chinese are capable of becoming a
formidable enemy, and we cannot forget that, like the Russians, who
were once so easily conquered, they may soon learn the art of war
from their conquerors, and become formidable from the experience
which their first disasters taught them.
On the 31st of May, nearly 18,000 Tartars had marched out of
Canton, according to the terms agreed on. Five million dollars had
also been paid, and security given for the other million which was
still to be paid. Preparations were therefore made, at the request of
Captain Elliot, for the re-embarkation of our forces, and their
withdrawal from before Canton. With the assistance of eight hundred
Chinese labourers, who were furnished for the purpose by the
prefect, the guns, ammunition, and stores were brought down to
Tsingpoo on the morning of the 1st of June, under a strong escort;
and the British flag having been lowered in the forts upon the
heights, the whole of our force was re-embarked in the afternoon,
under the superintendence of Captain Bourchier and Captain
Maitland.
Sir Hugh Gough particularly noticed the absence of excess of every
kind which distinguished the men during the eight days they were
on shore. Although placed in situations where temptation was
abundant, only two instances of drunkenness occurred during the
whole period.
The treaty, or perhaps rather the truce, which had been made, by no
means implied the conclusion of peace between the two nations; it
had reference solely to the city and river of Canton, the whole of the
forts and defences of which were to be restored to the Chinese as
soon as the ransom had been paid; it was, however, stipulated that
they were not to be re-armed "until affairs between the two
countries should be finally settled." Accordingly, as soon as our
forces, both military and naval, had been again concentrated at
Hong-Kong, preparations were immediately recommenced for the
resumption of the projected expedition against Amoy.
FOOTNOTES:
[48]
FIELD LIST OF TROOPS ENGAGED ON THE HEIGHTS ABOVE
CANTON ON THE
25TH OF MAY, 1841.
Officers All other
ranks.
Left Brigade, under Lieutenant-
Colonel Morris.
H.M. 49th Regiment, commanded
28 273
by Major Stephens
37th Madras Native Infantry, {European
15 215
Captain Duff 11}
{Native 4}
Company of Bengal Volunteers, {European
4 112
Captain Mee 2}
{Native 2}
—— ——
47 600
—— ——
Total, Officers 124
——, Other ranks 2271
Grand total 2395
N.B.—It is to be remarked that the company of Bengal
Volunteers, comprising one hundred and twelve men, had only
two European officers.
[49] Names of officers:—Captain Hall, Mr. Whitehurst, and Mr.
Gaunt, Nemesis; Mr. Goss and Mr. Hooper, H.M.S. Sulphur; Mr.
Holland and Mr. Lambert, H.M.S. Blonde.
[50] Only two of the percussion-muskets of the marines missed
fire, although they had been loaded two or three days before,
without having been discharged since. The men belonged
principally to the Blenheim, under Lieutenant Whiting.
[51] It is impossible for us to know exactly what communication
was made by the Chinese officer, to the heads of these patriotic
bands, but it was thought that the people did not withdraw
altogether owing to the conviction that their efforts would be
useless against us, but because they were bound to obey the
orders of the prefect. At the same time, they really believed that
they had been betrayed by their own authorities, and were ready
to unite again whenever occasion offered with some confidence
of success.
[52] Lieut. C. Fox, R.N., and Mr. Kendall had each a leg shot off;
the former died.
CHAPTER XXIV.
In the first week in June, all our ships of war and transports had left
the Canton River, and were again assembled at Hong-Kong. All the
forts from Chuenpee upwards had been restored to the Chinese,
without any other stipulation except that all those below Whampoa
should be suffered to remain in statu quo.
The emperor seems to have been much displeased with the latter
part of this agreement; and, in reply to the memorial of Yih-shan
upon the subject, his majesty directed that "secret means of defence
should be prepared as soon as the foreign ships had withdrawn from
the river, and that they were then to build new and strong forts, and
repair the old ones." On our side, however, nothing of this kind was
permitted below Whampoa; so that, until the ratifications of the
treaty of peace had been actually exchanged, the whole of the
defences of the Bogue remained in the same dilapidated state in
which they were left when our squadron quitted the river in June,
1841.
Sickness had already begun to prevail among our troops before they
had reached Hong-Kong. The eight days' exposure which they had
endured upon the heights of Canton sowed the seeds of ague and
dysentery, which proved far more formidable energies to us than any
troops the Chinese could bring against us. After the lapse of a few
days, and when the excitement of active operations on shore, and
the cheering influence of hope and novelty had subsided, the
sickness spread among the men with alarming rapidity, so that, at
length, out of our small force, no less than eleven hundred men
were upon the sick-list at Hong-Kong. Part of this alarming state of
things must be attributed certainly to the pernicious influence of the
atmosphere of Hong-Kong itself at that season of the year. But every
allowance must be made for the exposure which the men had
undergone at Canton, and for the susceptibility of constitution
produced by long confinement on board ship. The germs of disease
were planted in their bodies before the men returned to the harbour
of Hong-Kong; and, therefore, an undue stress was laid at the time
upon the unhealthiness of Hong-Kong itself. It is worth while here to
mention, that the three imperial commissioners laid particular stress
upon the known unhealthiness of the neighbourhood of Canton at
that season, as a ground for the impossibility of keeping any large
body of troops long together; and it happened, remarkably enough,
that two of the high officers died as nearly as possible at the same
time—one on the part of the Chinese, and one on our side. Lung-
Wan, one of the imperial commissioners, died of fever at Canton
about the middle of June; and Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, the senior
naval officer, also died of fever at Hong-Kong on the 13th of that
month.
Sir Le Fleming Senhouse had partaken of all the privations of the
troops on shore, and exposed himself on every occasion in which his
zeal and example could serve the cause. He was, moreover,
undoubtedly chagrined at the unlooked-for termination of his labours
by a truce, the provisions of which, right or wrong, scarcely
accorded with his own views of the exigencies of the moment. All
these causes combined, acting upon a not over-strong constitution,
sufficed to hurry him by sickness to his grave. On the 17th, his
remains were removed to Macao, according to a wish which he had
expressed before his death, as if he retained a lurking doubt
whether Hong-Kong would not some day or other be restored to the
Chinese. The Nemesis was employed upon this melancholy occasion,
to carry over his remains. At Macao, the body of the gallant veteran
was buried, with all the honours due to his rank, in the English
burial-ground.
The loss of Sir Le Fleming Senhouse and other officers, as well as a
good many men, and the prevailing sickness on board all the vessels
of war and transports, at length threw a gloom over the whole
expedition, which was hardly to be relieved until the expected
movement upon Amoy should take place: this was accordingly
looked forward to with great anxiety.
The island of Hong-Kong, which was originally ceded to us by the
terms of our treaty with Keshen, but, in consequence of the
disallowance of that treaty by the emperor, was afterwards only held
by us by right of occupancy during the progress of hostilities, was at
length confirmed as a possession of the crown of Great Britain by
the ratification of the treaty of Nankin. It was proclaimed as a part of
the British empire, and, together with its dependencies, erected into
a separate colony, on the 26th of June, 1843, under the designation
of the "Colony of Hong-Kong."
It is difficult to ascertain what are the actual dependencies of Hong-
Kong. They, probably, include all the small islands immediately
adjacent to it, particularly on its southern side; but whether Lamma
Island is comprised in them or not, we have little means of judging.
In the proclamation, dated at its capital town, Victoria, and
published by the authority of Sir Henry Pottinger, the colony is said
to be situated between twenty-two degrees, nine minutes, and
twenty-two degrees, twenty-one minutes, north latitude, which
would give it an extent of twelve miles from north to south; so that
Lamma Island, as well as the smaller adjacent islands, would appear
to be included in the dependencies. The extent of the colony from
east to west is not distinctly laid down, as only one meridian of
longitude is given-namely, 114° 18' east longitude from Greenwich.
The position assigned to the island of Hong-Kong in the maps is,
probably, incorrect, as it does not coincide with that laid down by Sir
Henry Pottinger in the proclamation. The greatest length of the
island itself is from east to west—namely, eight miles; but the
breadth is extremely irregular, varying from six miles to about two
miles only.[53]
The present capital, Victoria, extends for a considerable distance
along its northern shore, and, from the nature of the ground, has of
necessity been, built in a very extended, straggling manner. The
distance across to the mainland of China, if it can be so called, (for
part of the opposite coast is probably an island,) varies considerably.
The breadth of the Lyemoon Passage to the eastward is little more
than a quarter of a mile, but from the town to the nearest point
opposite to it is about a mile and a quarter, while the greatest
breadth is upwards of four miles.
The roads of Hong-Kong and the Bay of Victoria form an excellent
anchorage, having deep water very near the shore, and only one
small shoal having sixteen feet water upon it. There are, however,
two disadvantages under which it labours: it is exposed to the full
fury of the typhoons whenever they occur; and the high mountains
of Hong-Kong intercept the genial breezes of the south-west
monsoon during the hot season, when a movement in the
atmosphere is most necessary, not only to moderate the sultry
summer heat of a tropical climate, but to dissipate the unhealthy
vapours which are generated after the heavy rains which occur,
particularly during the night, at that season.
In other respects, the lake-like appearance of the harbour is
beautiful; it forms a sort of basin, lying between the mountains of
Hong-Kong and the mountains of the mainland opposite. For this
reason, however, the rains which fall are sometimes excessively
heavy: the dark, threatening clouds seem banded across from one
side to the other, pouring down their waters in torrents upon the
basin between them. The mountain sides of Hong-Kong, steep
though they are, occasionally appear almost covered with a sheet of
moving water, so torrent-like do the streams pour down their
declivities. To this succeeds the burning, tropical sun of July, with a
sort of death-like stillness in the atmosphere, which, little influenced
as it is on that side of the island by the south-west monsoon, cannot
fail, if it last long without any change, to produce fever and sickness.
Almost all tropical countries are occasionally subject to these
visitations; but, as a proof that Hong-Kong is not always exposed to
them, I may be permitted to mention that a gentleman who was
once at anchor there, in company with a fleet of full fifty sail of
merchant ships during a period of nine months, including the whole
summer season, declared that he observed no prevailing fever or
sickness of any kind.
The extremely barren appearance of nearly all the islands at the
mouth of the Canton River, the deep and rugged furrows which
seem to plough up their mountain sides, the exposed, rocky surface
of their summits, and the absence of soil, except in sheltered spots
or hollows, seem at once to point out that they are situated within
the influence of hurricanes and tropical rains. In this respect, the
contrast between this part of China and the Chusan Islands to the
northward, is very remarkable. The latter look as rich and inviting,
both near and at a distance, as the former appear inhospitable and
barren. In the one case, there is an industrious and thriving
population, who contrive to cultivate the surface of the mountains,
frequently to their very summits, with the greatest care and nicety;
in the other case, there is a hardy and adventurous population of
fishermen, smugglers, and pirates; the unwilling soil is only
cultivated in scattered patches, and the villages are few, and
comparatively of mean appearance.
MAP OF HONGKONG.
REFERENCE
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