Character of Chinese
Inhabitants.

Our passage to Hong-Kong was unmarked by any incident worthy of especial
notice; and we reached that harbor safely upon the second of March, and
came to anchor. Found every thing in about the same condition as when
we left, and a large fleet of merchantmen in port; but missed the
"Hastings" from her moorings, as also the "Herald." They both had
sailed during our absence: the Hastings' to be roasted by the hot
sun of Bombay; the Herald's to a warm greeting in their native isle.

Missed the officers of these vessels very much; for a kindly feeling had
sprung up amongst us, and interchanges of courtesies had made us
friends. But thus it is in this roving life; and it may be best that the
acquaintance thus stumbled upon remains but long enough to please, and
is gone before the gloss of novelty is rubbed off,--before familiarity
deadens or destroys its first impression.

There is one thing connected with this colony which adds greatly to its
interest to a person coming from a country where "the art preservative
of all arts" sends the rays of knowledge throughout the entire length
and breadth, to all classes and conditions, illuminating as well the
squatter's hut, as the patrician's hall. I allude to the existence of
newspapers. Only a person who has been accustomed to them, as we are in
the United States, can appreciate the deprivation of this mental food,
when placed beyond its reach, on a foreign station like this, where a
paper some three months after its publication is seized upon with the
greatest delight; and news, which at home has long lost its name, is
devoured with avidity, and discussed as a dainty. How true is it, that
we can only appreciate our blessings by their loss. Why, with all the
arts lending their aid; with steam, with electricity, with the painter's
skill, condensed by the most powerful intellects; with midnight toil,
and daily effort to produce that "map of busy life," which is diurnally,
almost hourly, spread out before us, and for a consideration, too, which
in many instances is not equivalent to the cost of the material upon
which it is sketched: with the lightning harmlessly conducting along the
pliant wire, stretched from one end of the continent to the other,
thoughts which have annihilated time: with another element, which has
nearly obliterated space, they are spread over its face; and by another
application of the same magic power are wafted hundreds an