As we round the west point of the island, the Peak is on our right, and below it are warehouses, wharves and piers, spread out for three miles along the water front. Behind is the crowded native quarter, and in the background the city rises in tier above tier of terraced houses up the lower slopes of the ridge. On the summit, too, we can see many houses scattered about. 3 Here is a panoramic view of the west end of the city, taken from the harbour. Notice the fine pile of offices and the European Club in the foreground of the picture. Our next view, further 4 east, shows the Admiralty dockyard, which makes an ugly break in the line of the sea front. The white band on the hill behind is the cable railway running up to the Peak. We pass merchant steamers, warships, and crowds of junks at anchor, and all about us the small native boats or _sampans_ are plying busily to and fro. Opposite the middle of the town, where the low peninsula of Kaulun juts out from the mainland, the harbour narrows to rather more than half a mile, and here is the ferry. On our left as we enter is Stonecutter Island, a long bare rock heavily fortified and guarding the passage; beyond it to the north the view is everywhere closed in by the mountain ridges of the mainland. 5 Here are two views from the hill, showing the west end of the 6 harbour, with Stonecutter Island and Kaulun; a third shows the 7 eastern passage, known as the _Lai-i-mun_, by which we shall leave after our visit. [Illustration: HONGKONG ISLAND.] Seventy years ago Hongkong was a mere rock, inhabited by a few fishermen; its sole value lay in its anchorage beyond the reach of Chinese troops. For two centuries the East India Company had traded on sufferance at Canton, but in 1834 its trade monopoly was abolished and the servants of the Company gave place to a British official. The Chinese failed to understand the change; they wished to treat our representative just as they had treated the merchants. In the end the foreign community was forced to leave Canton, and we despatched an armed expedition to support our claim to trade and to place the interests of British subjects on a secure footing. The war which followed is often styled the opium war; but the opium trade was only one item in the quarrel which involved recognition by the Chinese of international relations.