of some forty persons, and shook most houses in town. In the month of October, two landslips took place, one destroying the gas mains at Westpoint and leaving the whole Colony in darkness for one night, while the other converted a row of eight Chinese houses at Taipingshan into a heap of ruins, involving also the loss of some lives, whereupon a jury blamed the Surveyor General for not having foreseen the accident. On 8th May, 1870, the singular spectacle occurred of a vessel, the Dunmail, sailing into harbour and being wrecked in the act of anchoring within a few hundred yards from the Docks, on the rocks near Hunghom.
The obituary of this period is particularly distinguished by the death, at Headquarter House, of Mrs. Brunker (July 1, 1868) and Major-General Brunker (March 23, 1869), and further includes the names of Mrs. Smale (October, 1868), Assistant Surveyor-General Clark (October, 1868), Mr. Margesson (July, 1869); G. J. Barber, R.N. (December 28, 1869), Dr. A Cochran (March 7, 1870), H. P. Austin (September 14, 1870), Mrs. Kresser (September, 1870), Captain J. B. Endicott (November 6, 1870), Th. Donaldson (November, 1870), J. Donoval, Electrician of the Telegraph Company (February 9, 1871), F. T. Hazeland, Crown Solicitor (February 21, 1871), Bishop Smith, who died in England (December 14, 1871), and Mrs. Hugh Hughes (January 5, 1872).
By the time when Sir Richard's term of administration came to an end, in April 1872, the whole community of Hongkong sincerely regretted his departure. Besides a farewell-dinner given in his honour by the members of the Civil Service (April 5), the foreign community gave him a magnificent banquet (April 9), and the Chinese merchants presented a grandiloquent but genuine laudatory address (April 11) together with a Memorial against the coolie trade. Sir Richard left the Colony on 11th April, 1872, by French mail-steamer, having for his fellow-passengers the Portuguese Governor of Macao and the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. After his return to England, he retired from the service, occupied himself
