Letter from Henry to Em, October 8, 1870

Letter from Henry to Em, October 8, 1870

Family; Weather; Boats and boating; Safety; Chapels; Cost; Fire; Violence

Henry writes to Emily letting her know that both he and Harriet are in Hong Kong and have been there for the last week. Henry was expecting family to spend some of the days with them but some are saying that Canton is not safe and thus they did not come. There were violent occurrences in Fatshan. A chapel was just finished on the 21st of September and the same night it was attacked and burned. Henry remarks that the country is in an unsettled state and mentions the appearance of a deadlock between the Chinese and French authorities.

Noyes, Henry, Varnum

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #3

Unpublished

1870-10-08

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_705

Hongkong Oct 8th 1870
My dear Sister Em
I am very thankful
for your letter which came by
last mail. It has been a
long time since you have written
before. You must have got very
tired sometimes, I should think,
not being able to read, or write,
or sew, but only sit and think.
I Expect if we had all your
thoughts during this time we
should have a large and [u]very
readable[/u] book. Well I hope your
Eyes will not get so bad again.
I was sorry to hear that Frank's
throat was so sore but I hope it
is well again long before now.
You will see by the date of this
that we are again in Hongkong
Hattie + I have been here for the

past week at the house of
Dr Collins whose wife was for-
merly Mrs French. We have had
rainy weather considerable of the
time but this morning it is clear
beautiful weather. Yesterday we
spent the day on ship-board in
the harbor with Dr Adams + his
family + had a very pleasant
time. I suppose we have written
you before that his son is captain
of a ship in which he + his two
daughters are taking a journey
round the world. They have been
detained in Hongkong for 5 or 6
months on account of having no
cargo + have no idea how
much longer they will stay. The
ship is a very nice one. The
little cabin where they live is
a very cozy nice place and

looks very homelike. We Expected
the family up to spend some
days with us but somebody got
the Dr to think that Canton
was not a very safe place to
be at present + so they did not
come. I tried to make them
understand that there was
no danger whatever but did
not succeed. The people in
Hongkong seem much more
Easily alarmed than we are
in Canton. There has been
some trouble in Fatshan. The
native church members con-
nected with the London Mission
Society in Hongkong + Fatshan have
been building a chapel in Fatshan
They had subscribed somewhere
between one + two thousand
dollars. Every cent of the money

had been raised among the
Chinese + the Chapel was just
finished + opened on the 21st
of Sept. That night it was at-
tacked + utterly destroyed. It
was burned. Fire engines came
+ played upon the adjoining
building so as to not let any-
thing but the chapel [?here?]. There
were some 40 or 50 of the church
members in the house at the time
they all Escaped. Most of them at
the rear by a ladder - going up
upon the roof + then climbing
down. There did not seem to be
any design on the part of the
mob to take life. The whole
country is in a rather unsettled
state + will be until there is
some definite settlement of the affair
at Tientsin. There seems so far to be
a dead lock somewhere between the
French + Chinese authority. Well my
paper is full + I must stop which I
[Note: Letter concludes sideways in left margin of page four]
will do by saying that we have had as yet no apprehension of danger
at Canton + have little doubt we should should learn of any threatened danger in
time to move away to Macao in case it should be necessary. With much love
Your [u]Bro Henry[/u]



香港 1870 年 10 月 8 日
我亲爱的Em姐姐
我非常感谢
你的来信
最后一封邮件。这是一个
很久没写了
前。你一定很
有时累了，我应该想，
无法阅读或书写，
或缝制，但只能坐下来思考。
我期待如果我们拥有你所有的
这段时间我们的想法
应该有一个很大很
可读的书。那么我希望你的
眼睛不会再那么糟糕了。
我很遗憾听到弗兰克的
喉咙很痛，但我希望它
很久以前就好了。
您将在此日期之前看到
我们又在香港了
海蒂 + 我来这里是为了

过去一周在
柯林斯医生，他的妻子以前是弗伦奇夫人。我们有过
阴雨天气相当的
时间，但今天早上很清楚
美丽的天气。昨天我们
在船上度过了一天
亚当斯博士和他的海港
一家人过得很愉快
时间。我想我们已经写了
你之前他儿子是队长
一艘船，他和他的两个
女儿们正在旅行
环游世界。他们已经
在香港被拘留 5 或 6
几个月因为没有
货物，不知道如何
他们会停留更长的时间。这
船是一艘非常漂亮的船。这
他们住的小木屋是
一个非常舒适的好地方和

看起来很温馨。我们预计
家人最多花一些
和我们在一起的日子，但有人得到了
博士认为广州
不是一个非常安全的地方
目前+所以他们没有
来。我试着让他们
明白有
没有任何危险，但做了
不成功。里面的人
香港似乎更多
比我们容易惊慌
在广州。有过
法山有些麻烦。这
与伦敦传道部有联系的本土教会成员
香港和肥山社会有
一直在法山建教堂
他们在某个地方订阅了
一到两千之间
美元。每一分钱

已经在其中提出
中国人和教堂只是
21日完工并开业
九月。那天晚上，它遭到袭击并被彻底摧毁。它
被烧毁了。消防车来了
并在相邻的地方演奏
为了不让教堂以外的任何东西燃烧而建造。那里
大约有 40 或 50 名教会成员
当时家里的成员
他们都逃走了。他们中的大多数在
梯子后面 - 上升
在屋顶上然后爬上去
下。好像没有
任何设计
暴民夺走生命。整体
国家处于相当不稳定的状态
状态并将一直存在，直到有
确定地解决了这件事
在天津。到目前为止似乎有
之间某处的死锁
法国和中国的权威。好吧，我的
纸满了，我必须停下来
[注：信件在第四页的左边空白处结束]
会说我们还没有担心危险
在广州，毫无疑问，我们应该了解任何威胁的危险
是时候搬到澳门了，以备不时之需。非常多的爱
你的亨利兄弟

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