Macao enjoyed the monopoly of trade between the Chinese and foreigners for seventy or eighty years. When Hongkong was ceded to England, and was declared a free port, the Portuguese Government, by a decree dated 1845, declared Macao also a free port.
Ferreira do Amaral, Governor of Macao and father of the present Prime Minister of Portugal, was treacherously murdered by Chinese on August 22, 1849. On the following day crowds of Chinese soldiers made their appearance on the mountains beyond the barrier and also in the Chinese fort of Passaleào, or Pai-san-liang, threatening to invade the town. A company of Portuguese soldiers was sent to dislodge them, and the fort immediately opened fire. Lieutenant Nicolao Vicente de Mesquita, with a field gun and thirty-six men, however, silenced the fort, dispersed the Chinese soldiery, and delivered Macao from invasion. These events were followed by the withdrawal of the Chinese Mandarin who up to that time had resided in Macao, and thus the last semblance of Chinese authority disappeared from the Colony. The sovereignty of Portugal over Macao was formally recognised by a Protocol dated Lisbon, March 26, 1887, and confirmed afterwards by a Treaty signed at Peking on December 1, 1887. The limits of Portuguese jurisdiction, however, were not fixed in this Treaty, the delimitation being left for a future convention. The arch with the guard-house for Portuguese soldiers which spans the isthmus connecting Macao with the Heungshan district, is generally regarded as marking the boundary of the Portuguese territory. This arch took the place of a wall, known by the name of the Barrier of Porta da Cerco, which was built by the Chinese in 1573 and razed to the ground in 1849.
The town of Macao is built on hilly ground. There are two principal ranges of hills, one running from south to north and the other from east to west. The level ground is covered with many houses of European architecture, and a great number of Chinese shops for tradesmen and mechanics, called the Bazaar. On the lofty mount to the eastward is a fort, enclosing the hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Guia, and above it stands the oldest lighthouse on the coast of China. This lighthouse was built in 1864, and its light can be seen from a distance of 20 miles. On another mount, to the westward, stands the hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Penha. Entering a wide, semi-circular bay, facing the east, one sees on the right the fort of St. Francisco, and on the left the old fort of Bomparto, now transformed into a residence. Around this bay runs a broad, airy, and spacious street called Praya Grande, flanked by many pretty houses, among which is the residence of the Governor. To the east of the town there is a suburban quarter, formerly named "Campo" or field, where lately some regular roads have been opened and many new houses built. A spacious recreation ground and an avenue planted with eight rows of trees, named Avenida Vasco da Gama, make this the most pleasant and picturesque part of the town. In this avenue are two monuments. One commemorates the defeat of the Dutch, who landed eight hundred men on the Cacilhas beach on June 24, 1622; the other was erected on the fourth centenary of the discovery of the maritime route to India by Vasco da Gama.
To the north, in the parish of St. Antonio, are the Camoens Gardens and the grotto, where, tradition says, the great epic poet Camoens passed many hours of meditation and wrote a great part of his poem. A short distance away can be seen the beautiful granite façade of the Jesuit Church of St. Paul, built in 1574, and destroyed by fire on January 26, 1835. In the middle of ten pillars of the Ionic order are three doors leading to the Temple; above them are ranged ten pillars of the Corinthian order, which form five niches. In the middle one, above the principal door, is a female figure trampling on the globe, and underneath is the inscription: "Mater Dei." On each side of the Queen of Heaven are four statues of Jesuit Saints. In the superior division are representations of St. Paul, and a dove the emblem of the Holy Ghost. This edifice was erected in 1602.
According to the last census (1896) the number of houses inhabited in Macao was 7,190. Since then a good many others have been erected. The public and private buildings are gaily painted. The principal streets are lighted with electricity, the others with petroleum.
Owing to its being open to south-west breezes, Macao has lately become a retreat for invalids and business men from Hongkong and other adjacent ports. It contains three comfortable hotels—the Boa Vista, the Macao, and the Oriental. Two steamers run daily between Macao and Hongkong, and two between Macao and Canton. They enter the inner harbour, and moor alongside spacious wharves to land passengers and
