Since we have held possession of the island, the Chinese have naturally been attracted to it in great numbers. The tradesmen, mechanics, servants to English residents, labourers, boatmen, and market people, are all Chinese. Add to these also, a small body of Chinese police, and we shall find that the population must be considerable. In all the warehouses of the merchants a vast number of porters and attendants are employed; all the houses are built by Chinese workmen, and a vast number are also employed by government upon the public roads and works. The number of migratory, or trading people, who come down from Canton, Macao, and other parts, is also large; so that upon the whole the high estimate of 30,000 which has been given, may not be much overrated. But this number probably includes the Europeans, the number of whom, exclusive of the military, cannot be large, perhaps a very few hundreds. The reputed unhealthiness of the town of Victoria has deterred many from coming over from Macao for the present, who otherwise contemplated establishing themselves on the island. The uncertainty which has prevailed respecting the liberty to store opium, has also tended to give a check to the originally rapid progress of the settlement. In the meantime, the Portuguese, becoming fully sensible of the deterioration of the value of property at Macao, owing to the sudden rise of a rival European settlement in their neighbourhood, began to take into consideration the propriety of rendering Macao a free port, similar to Hong-Kong, and probably without any restrictions as to opium. Great efforts have been made to effect this object, and the Portuguese governor had gone up to Canton, attended by his suite, with a view to confer with the authorities, in the hope of procuring from the government the recognition of greater privileges than they had hitherto enjoyed. This circumstance, together with the momentary pause at Hong-Kong, had tended to reassure the European inhabitants of Macao, and to raise the value of houses (which had previously fallen) from ten to fifteen per cent. If means should be found (of which strong hopes are entertained) of improving the condition of Hong-Kong, as regards its healthiness, no attempted rivalry of Macao could affect the new settlement to any extent. It has neither a harbour for ships to anchor in sufficiently near the town, nor ground upon which warehouses could be built, nor can the Portuguese officers ever possess more than a very restricted, and perhaps precarious authority.