in a statesman.  But to return to our own matters.  The Government and public are thinking of nothing but India at present.  It does not however follow, that quite as strong a feeling might not be got up for China in a few months.  If we met with anything like disaster here, that would certainly be the case.

[Sidenote:  Description of Hong-kong.]

Head-Quarters House, Hong-kong.—­November 22nd.—­I wish you could take wings and join me here, if it were even for a few hours.  We should first wander through these spacious apartments.  We should then stroll out on the verandah, or along the path of the little terrace garden which General Ashburnham has surrounded with a defensive wall, and from thence I should point out to you the harbour, bright as a flower-bed with the flags of many nations, the jutting promontory of Kowloon, and the barrier of bleak and jagged hills that bounds the prospect.  A little later, when the sun began to sink, and the long shadows to fall from the mountain’s side, we should set forth for a walk along a level pathway of about a quarter of a mile long, which is cut in its flank, and connects with this garden, and from thence we should watch this same circle of hills, now turned into a garland, and glowing in the sunset lights, crimson and purple, and blue and green, and colours for which a name has not yet been found, as they successively lit upon them.  Perhaps we should be tempted to wait (and it would not be long to wait, for the night follows in these regions very closely on the heels of day), until, on these self-same hills, then gloomy and dark and sullen, tens of thousands of bright and silent stars were looking down calmly from heaven.

Macao.—­December 2nd.—­Baron Gros and I have been settling our plans of proceeding, which we are conducting with a most cordial entente....  As he is well versed in all the forms and usages of diplomacy, he is very useful to me in such points....  I have been living here in the house of Mr. Dent, one of the merchant princes of China.  He is very obliging, and I have remained at his request a day longer than I intended.  I return, however, to-day.  I like Macao with its air of antiquity, in some respects almost of decadence.  It is more interesting than Hong-kong, which has only existed fifteen years, and is as go-a-head and upstart and staring as ‘one of our cities,’ as my American friend informed me a few days ago.

Hong-kong.—­December 5th.—­When I went out to walk with Oliphant, I was informed by a person I met in a very public walk just out of the town, that a man had been robbed very near where we were.  I met the person immediately afterwards.  He was rather a mesquin-looking Portuguese, and he said that three Chinamen had rushed upon him, knocked him down, thrown a quantity of sand into his eyes, and carried off his watch.  This sort of affair is not uncommon.  I have bought a revolver, and am beginning to practise pistol-shooting.

[Sidenote:  Preparation for action.]