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Rh leadership of a religious fanatic, Hung Siu-tsuen, who had come under Christian influences in Canton. This rebellion, which was for the first time mentioned in the newspapers of Hongkong on August 24, 1850, had originally the powerful support of the secret Triad societies. A split, however, took place, and while the adherents of Hung Siu-tsuen commenced, in 1852, their devastating march through the central provinces of China and established, in 1853, the short-lived Taiping Dynasty at Nanking, the Triad societies' bands of insurgents pillaged independently town after town in the maritime provinces of southern China. As these marauders gained power, and gradually drew nearer to Canton city, the Colony of Hongkong began to reap the harvest which invariably falls to its lot whenever the adjoining districts of the Canton province are in a disturbed state. A flood tide of emigration set in towards Hongkong (and Macao) and thence to the Straits Settlements, to California and the West Indies. For San Francisco alone as many as 30,000 Chinese embarked in Hongkong in the year 1852, paying in Hongkong, in passage money alone, a sum of $1,500,000. Various branches of Chinese industry were established in Hongkong. The population increased rapidly, and Chinese capital, seeking a safe refuge from the clutches of the marauders, commenced to flow into the Colony for investment.

Although the British Government determined at first to observe strict neutrality, the question soon arose which of the two contending Dynasties, the Taiping rebels (favoured by the Missionary party) or the Manchu rulers (supported by the mercantile community) would be more likely to bring about that moral regeneration of the nation without which China could never fully enter into the comity of nations. This important question became more pressing when Taiping armies approached or took possession of Treaty ports (1852 and 1853) threatening a cessation of trade. Sir G. Bonham therefore took the bold step of proceeding (April, 1853) to the headquarters of the Taiping rebels enthroned at Nanking. His object was to explain to the rebel leaders, as he had done to