Aberdeen Used to be a Natural Fish Farm

On 9 February 1816, Embassy of Lord Amherst to China (阿美士德使團) on board of H.M.S Alceste set sail from England and arrived in China 6 months later in August. It was a failed mission as Emperor Jia Qing never granted an audience before the Amherst Embassy left China in January the next year. After spending tax payers some hundred thousand pounds, the Embassy had little to show to the public, except a flurry of memoirs and books. The most well known book then was by Surgeon to the Embassy Clarke Abel’s “Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China, and a Voyage to and from that Country in the years 1816 and 1817”, which was published in 1818/9. Abel was a member of the Geological Society, chief medical officer and naturalist to the Embassy. Unfortunately he was sick most of the time during the trip and he was more interested in rocks, plants and animals than people or customs. As such, his description of the Hong Kong part was sketchy and partially inaccurate. 
Another book “Voyages and Travels: Narrative of a Voyage to Java, China, and the Great Loo-Choo Island” by Captain Basil Hall received little attention when it was published much later in 1840. In the late 1830s, British public’s earlier fascination with China was replaced with commercial conflicts and the upcoming opium war. Hall was the captain for H.M. Brig Lyra, which was a guard ship that accompanied and protected Alceste and its Embassy staff. In the book, there is a vivid description of the Aberdeen Harbour (then was called “Hong Kong”):
- Amherst Embassy sailed 9 February 1816 Capt Murray Maxwell Alceste;
- 7 July reached coast of China;
- 8 July communicated with chief of the Factory, already waiting for us on board of Discovery, belong to Marine Bombay under Capt Daniel Ross;
- In a few days Alceste and General Hewitt joined us the rendezvous amongst the Ladrone Islands;

It was indispensably necessary, however, before steering to the northward into seas so little known, to complete our stock of water; and we made the sail accordingly for the Island of Hong Kong, one of the great cluster called the Ladrones. Here we found a noble cascade; and the night being perfectly calm, in consequence of anchorage being land-locked on every side by lofty islands, we filled our water caskets easily, and towed them on board in rafts of ten or twenty at a time; an expeditious method but practical only when the distance happens to be small and sea unruffled. It was almost dark when we anchored but the moon nearly full, rose shortly afterwards above the hills. The islands in this quarter lay so closely to each other, even in day time, it was difficult to discover any outlet.
Soon after we had taken up our station near the waterfall, but before this curious basin was lighted by the moon, and when most perfect silence prevailed over the whole scene, a fleet of several hundreds of Chinese fishing boats suddenly advanced, in large groups of 40 or 50 each, from behind the islands. They were rowed about with great celerity from place to place, and in each boat 2/3 men stood in the bow, with flaming torches in the hands, which they waved backwards and forwards, while others of the crew were employed in beating, in the most furious manner, several large gongs, suspended to the masts. To give full force and finish to this extraordinary serenade, a chorus of yells and shouts was set up from all the boatmen at the full stretch of their voices - an uproar which awakened the echoes on all the surrounding hills, and rendering the whole scene so truly diabolical, that the sailers, astonished and delighted at this sudden irruption, insisted upon it that a legion of Chinese devils must surely have been let loose to frighten away the Ambassador!  But this tumultuous and amusing uproar was evidently intended to drive the fish from the centre of the harbour into nets placed across the narrow channels between the surrounding islands.  It was just high water when boats first broke upon the stillness of the scene and in about half an hour, when the ebb-tide began to run gently to the eastward, our noisy friends allowed themselves to be gradually drifted out; greatly to the relief of those contented voyagers amongst us who preferred a sound sleep. 
The weather, which at first had been favourable, changed next day, and during the 11th/12th July our operations were seriously interrupted by constant heavy rain and violent squalls of wind. Even had the watering completed, the wind, which was from east-north-east, must have prevented our sailing. 
On 13th, we set sail for North China.
January 1817 quit China.