its transactions the greatest Colonies of the world. Six weeks later, the Letters Patent (dated April 10, 1877) having arrived, Mr. Hennessy was sworn in, with the usual solemnities, as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hongkong and its Dependencies (June 6, 1877).
With the exception of a visit to Japan (May 31, to September 6, 1877) and a trip to Peking (September 11, to October 24, 1881), the Governor spent his whole term of office in Hongkong. During his absence in Japan, the Hon. W. H. Marsh, and, during his trip to Peking, the Hon. M. S. Tonnochy administered the Government temporarily. On 22nd April, 1880, Her Majesty was pleased to confer on Mr. Hennessy the honour of knighthood, which fact was published in the Hongkong Government Gazette by anticipation on 21st April, 1880.
Apart from private correspondence with a few distinguished diplomatists in China and Japan, Sir John Pope Hennessy had, like his predecessor, no diplomatic correspondence with the representatives of other Governments, beyond one brief exchange of notes with the Governor of Macao. A Chinese junk having properly cleared from Hongkong (November 29, 1877) with a cargo of gunpowder for Macao, was stopped by the officers of the Chinese Customs Blockade on issuing from the harbour and forced to return to Hongkong. When the owners of the junk complained to the Governor, they were informed (June 29, 1878) that the Governor could not interfere, because the Cantonese Authorities considered Macao to be a part of China. This reply having been noticed in the public papers, the Governor of Macao forthwith addressed an official protest to Sir John, asserting the sovereignty of the King of Portugal over Macao and pointing to the fact that all the nations of Europe had hitherto recognized it, and so also the Chinese officials, while the flag of Portugal had waved over the peninsula for 300 years. Sir John replied that he did not lend any countenance to the Chinese pretensions to the sovereignty of Macao.
During this administration, the Colony had unfortunately repeated occasions of expressing sympathy with the inroad which
