no more than a nominal quit rent, if that tenure continues to obtain.' When later on (April 10, 1843) it was understood that the Government would only grant leases for 75 years, the Hongkong merchants had a real grievance which they thenceforth nursed industriously until they brought it before Parliament in 1847.
The purchasers of those lots, who may be considered as the first British settlers on Hongkong, were the following firms or individuals, viz.: Jardine, Matheson & Co.; Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee; Dent & Co.; Macvicar & Co.; Gemmel & Co.; John Smith; D. Rustomjee; Gribble, Hughes & Co.; Lindsay & Co.; Hooker and Lane; Holliday & Co.; F. Leighton & Co.; Innes, Fletcher & Co.; Jamieson and How; Fox, Rawson & Co.; Turner & Co.; Robert Webster; R. Gully; Charles Hart; Captain Larkins; P. F. Robertson; Captain Morgan; Dirom & Co.; Pestonjee Cowasjee; and Framjee Jamsetjee. This sale was followed by the erection of godowns and houses, and the building of a seawall, the road alongside of which was thenceforth (in imitation of Macao parlance) called the Praya. The following places were the first to be utilized for commercial buildings, and private residences of merchants, viz.: West Point, the Happy Valley, Spring Gardens, the neighbourhood of the present Naval Yard (Canton Bazaar); the sites now occupied by Butterfield and Swire, by the Hongkong Hotel, by the China Mail, by the Hongkong Dispensary (which can trace back its history to 1841); the slope below Wyndham Street; Pottinger Street, Queen's Road Central (the Bazaar); the site below Gough Street enclosed by a ring fence (Gibb, Livingston & Co.); Jervois Street (where the first Chinese piece goods trade settled), ending in the Upper Bazaar; the Civil Hospital site; and Saiyingpun.
Captain Elliot, whose attention and presence was required by the troubles brewing at Canton, consequent upon the disavowal of the Chuenpi Treaty, appointed Mr. A. R. Johnston, the Second Superintendent of Trade, to be Acting Governor of the Island of Hongkong. Mr. Johnston accordingly assumed charge of the local Government on behalf of Captain Elliot
