opium swindle, above referred to, which was perpetrated by an Indian merchant who, with the assistance of an Englishman in charge of the opium stored in the receiving-ship Tropic, defrauded the Chartered Mercantile Bank and others of some two million dollars (July, 1862) by means of forged opium certificates. Many daring burglaries and murderous attacks were made, during this period, by armed gangs, such as the attack on the signal station at Victoria Peak (July 27, 1863), the assault made on some men in the Artillery Barracks (October 11, 1863), the murder of an Indian and his wife (January 29, 1864) and an attack made on the offices of Holliday, Wise & Co. (May 11, 1864). Hongkong was now in daily communication with Canton by American river-steamers which took Chinese passengers at 20 cents a head in 1863 and 1864. These cheap fares caused the Colony to be inundated with Chinese ruffians who considered Hongkong, with its indulgent laws and humane treatment of criminals, to afford a temptation they could not resist. But the most novel feature of the depredations resorted to by Chinese burglars at this period was the ingenuity and engineering skill displayed by the so-called drain gangs. The godowns of Smith, Archer & Co. (January 30, 1864), the jewellery store of Douglas Lapraik (May 10, 1864), and the treasure vaults of the Central Bank of Western India (February 5, 1865) were successively attacked by burglars who used the subterraneous storm-water drains as the basis of their operations and drove from these tunnels by which they undermined the floors of treasure stores. The Central Bank was in this way robbed of $63,000 in notes and £11,000 in gold ingots, some of which were found strewn about in the street on the morning of February 6, 1865.
A most deplorable series of riots, resulting in the murder of two soldiers, three seamen and a boarding-house clerk, took place on three successive days in September (12th to 14th), 1864, between Malay seamen, a body of policemen, and men of the 99th Regiment. The excitement was intense and it seemed impossible to restrain either the soldiers or the police from
