over the head, in spite of the daily examples of
parties suffering from such imprudence.

The number of European inhabitants in Hong Kong will this summer (1844)
be trebled by the removal of most of the merchants from Macao; and the
general health of the place will be anxiously watched. Should it prove
as bad as last summer, (which God forbid,) it will drive many people
away, and injure the settlement irreparably. The prejudicial effects of
going into the sun might be avoided, almost entirely, even by men of
business, were they to adopt the Calcutta system of note-writing. There,
a merchant seldom or never moves from his office; and when he does, it
is in a covered vehicle. Let the Hong Kong residents follow their
example, and their numbers will not be thinned as they have hitherto
been.

That the European fresh from home, full-blooded, and in robust health,
should be more liable to fever than his acclimated countrymen, is not to
be wondered at; but many of the new comers might escape disease by
common prudence. Confident in their strength of constitution, and
wearied with a long confinement on ship-board, they sally forth, day by
day, to take a walk, just as they would in England, heedless of the
fierce luminary that is pouring his rays on their exposed heads, and
bent only on amusement or variety. A week of such folly (to call it by
no stronger name) has sufficed to bring many a youth to a premature
grave.

The weather begins to grow warm in China (I speak of Hong Kong, Macao,
and Canton) about the middle of April; in June, it is oppressively hot;
and during the following three months, which are the most unhealthy, the
thermometer in the shade ranges from 85 deg. to 90 deg.. This is a degree of
heat that ought not to be much felt by experienced Indians; and in Java,
or in the Straits of Malacca, I should not complain of it; but there is
a peculiarity, an oppressiveness, in the heat of China, that makes even
respiration difficult, and excites such copious perspiration as to
weaken the frame. In October, the weather becomes cooler, and, for the
next five months, is sufficiently cold to render fires a comfort morning
and evening; and occasionally during the whole day. Were it not for
their winter, I know not what would become of the European residents in
China: this season braces them up for the coming summer, and, in short,
saves their lives.

The progress made in Hong Kong since its occupation as a British Colony,