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Isabella L. Bird - The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
I. L. B.
LETTER II
A Delightful Climate - Imprisoned Fever Germs - "Pidjun" English - Hong Kong Harbor - Prosperity of
Hong Kong - Rampageous Criminal Classes - Circumspice!
THE PALACE, VICTORIA, December 29.
I like and admire Victoria. It is so pleasant to come in from the dark, misty, coarse, loud-tongued Pacific,
and the December colorlessness of Japan to bright blue waters crisped by a perpetual north wind - to the
flaming hills of the Asian mainland, which are red in the early morning, redder in the glow of noon, and
pass away in the glorious sunsets through ruby and vermilion into an amethyst haze, deepening into the
purple of a tropic night, when the vast expanse of sky which is seen from this high elevation is literally
one blaze of stars. Though they are by no means to be seen in perfection, there are here many things that
I love, - bananas, poinsettias, papayas, tree-ferns, dendrobiums, dracenas, the scarlet passion-flower, the
spurious banyan, date, sago, and traveler's palms, and numberless other trees and shrubs, children of the
burning sun of the tropics, carefully watered and tended, but exotics after all.
It is a most delightful winter climate. There has not been any rain for three months, nor will there be any
for two more; the sky is cloudless, the air dry and very bracing. It is cold enough at night for fires, and
autumn clothing can be worn all the day long, for though the sun is bright and warm, the shade
temperature does not rise above 65 degrees, and exercise is easy and pleasant. At night, even at a
considerable height, the lowest temperature is 40 degrees. It is impossible to praise the climate too
highly, with its bright sky, cool dry air, and five months of rainlessness; but I should write very
differently if I came here four months later, when the mercury ranges from 80 degrees to 90 degrees both
by day and night, and the cloudy sky rests ever on the summits of the island peaks, and everything is
moist, and the rain comes down continually in torrents, rising in hot vapors when the sun shines, and
people become limp and miserable, and their possessions limp and moldy, and insect life revels, and
human existence spent in a vapor bath becomes burdensome. But the city is healthy to those who live
temperately. It has, however, a remarkable peculiarity. Standing in and on rock, one fancies that fever
would not be one of its maladies, but the rock itself seems to have imprisoned fever germs in some past
age, for whenever it is quarried or cut into for foundations, or is disturbed in any way, fever immediately
breaks out.
Victoria is a beautiful city. It reminds me of Genoa, but that most of its streets are so steep as to be
impassable for wheeled vehicles, and some of them are merely grand flights of stairs, arched over by
dense foliaged trees, so as to look like some tropical, colored, deep colonnades. It has covered green
balconies with festoons of creepers, lofty houses, streets narrow enough to exclude much of the sun,
people and costumes of all nations, processions of Portuguese priests and nuns; and all its many-colored
life is seen to full advantage under this blue sky and brilliant sun.
This house is magnificently situated, and very large and airy. Part is the Episcopal Palace, and the rest St.
Paul's College, of which Bishop Burdon is warden. The mountainous grounds are beautiful, and the
entrance blazes with poinsettias. There are no female servants, but Chinese men perform all the domestic
service satisfactorily. I learn that for a Chinese servant to appear without his skull-cap is rude, but to
appear with his pig-tail wound round his head instead of pendent, is a gross insult! The "Pidjun English"
is revolting, and the most dignified persons demean themselves by speaking it. The word "pidjun"
appears to refer generally to business. "My pidjun" is undoubtedly "my work." How the whole
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