MACAO.
By Pedro Nolasco da Silva, Cavalleiro da Ordem de Nosso Senhor Jesus Christo.
LTHOUGH Macao is not one of the Treaty ports, its inclusion in this work is justified by the fact that it is a European Colony in which the principle of free trade prevails. For many years the only European Settlement in China, it served as an asylum for the British on more than one occasion when they were forced flee from Canton in the stormy days of the past, and it is freely resorted to now by residents of Hongkong in search of health and pleasure.
Macao is situated on a small rocky peninsula in the estuary of the Canton River opposite Hongkong, from which it is 40 miles distant. Connected with it by a sandy isthmus is the island of Heungshan. Though founded by the Portuguese as early as 1557, Macao was not the first settlement made in China by that adventurous race. In 1511 the Portuguese took Malacca, at that time a commercial emporium of the first importance, and five years later Rafael Perestrello set sail from this port for China. His was the first vessel to appear in Chinese waters flying a foreign flag. The voyage proved profitable beyond his expectations, and, as a result, four Portuguese ships and four Malay vessels were fitted out in the following year under the command of Fernaõ Peres de Andrade, and, entering the Gulf of China, anchored off Sancian or Shang-chuan. In this island, which came to be known as St. John's Island, a flourishing trade was carried on with the Chinese. It was here that the great missionary, St. Francis Xavier, breathed his last in 1552.
The spirit of adventure which animated the Portuguese in those days brought many of them to China, and they founded a factory in Liampo, near Ningpo-fu, in the province of Chekiang. This settlement did a flourishing trade with Japan and grew extremely rich, but it was completely destroyed by the Chinese in 1545. Another settlement established by the Portuguese at Chuen-chao-fu, or Chin-chew, in Fokien, shared a similar fate in 1549.
In 1537 the Portuguese had in the South of China, near Canton, three trading settlements—one in Shang-chuan (St. John's Island), another at Lam-pa-cao (an island near Macao), and a third in Macao. The first two settlements were abandoned, and the foreign trade of China was concentrated in Macao in 1557.
It has not been fully ascertained how the Portuguese traders came to fix their abode in Macao. Chinese chronologists say that they were granted permission to land and raise a few huts there for temporary shelter and for drying goods which had been damaged on board their ships. These huts gave place to more substantial buildings, and from this modest beginning grew the Colony of Macao. Other historians say that at that time the Chinese waters were infested by pirates, who had their headquarters in a rocky corner of the island of Heungshan. The Portuguese rid Heungshan and the surrounding waterways of these freebooters, and were allowed to settle on the island. At the site chosen by them there was an idol known as Ama, and the place was named Ama-gau, or harbour of Ama. The Portuguese wrote Amacao, which name was afterwards shortened to Macao. On the spot where that idol was worshipped now stands the Pagoda of Barra. But whatever may have been the origin of the Settlement it is a fact that the Portuguese occupied Macao from 1557, governed themselves and administered justice according to Portuguese laws, collected taxes, built fortresses, churches, and hospitals, enjoyed complete personal liberty, prospered in commerce, and laid the foundations of that foreign trade which is now so important a factor in the welfare of China.
