Abstract
This picture of junks depicts a vital part of the opium trade at work in the 19th century. Lintin Island, located just to the north of Lantau Island and Hong Kong, was known as the "outer anchorage". From 1821, the Chinese authorities prohibited the import of opium into either Macao or Guangzhou. As a result, hulks were anchored at Lintin to act as floating depots and warehouses for the drug. In the 1830's Lintin became a semi-official trading base for the British in the Pearl River estuary, a pre-cursor to the settlement of Hong Kong a decade later. This engraving was made by Edward Duncan from an oil painting by William Huggins.