Morrison Education Society School [1842-1849]

The Morrison Education Society, which had been founded in Canton in 1835 to commemorate the life of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary in China, established the school in Macao in 1839.

Three years later the school moved to a purpose-built site on a hill (now called Morrison Hill) overlooking Victoria Harbour after the cession of Hong Kong to the British, and remained there until 1849, when it was forced to close as a result of financial difficulties.

"The original object of the Morrison School was to teach Chinese boys the English language in connection with Christianity ; but after an experiment of several years, it was found that the boys had so universally perverted their knowledge of English, by becoming, for the sake of gain, interpreters for opium-traders, sailors, and others — generally for wicked purposes — making, to say the least, but very poor use of their English, and none at all of their Christianity, that the benevolent supporters of the school became discouraged, and I think it has now been for some time entirely discontinued. Full experience has therefore shown that it is a pernicious labor to teach English to the Chinese, and that the only safe method is to teach them Christianity through the medium of their own native tongue. "

"Five years in China" 1860 - read the original  eBook

"Morrison-hill—would appear to be a granite rock, very porous in places from an advanced state of disintegration. The slopes of it are covered with vegetation, amongst which there is a predominance of firs. It has been suggested that the condition of malaria, to which the sickness of Hong Kong is apparently due, may depend upon this disintegration of the granite foundation of the military quarters."

"The Lancet" - 1865 - - read the original eBook