CO129-181 - Governor Hennessy - 1878 [1-8] — Page 575

14

571

is

that perhaps

the extreme conciseness of the

despatch not allowing Your Excellency

as sudd

which rules

are

to affirm your ideas (affirmar ideias) as to the sovereignty over Macau, (ideas which no doubt the same as those repeatedly manifested. by your Excellency's predecessors and by the Government of Wer Britannic Majesty) rise to the general impression that the despatch from your Excellency manifested acquiescense to the supposed pretentions of the Chinese Government. It is against this interpretation that I hasten to protest before Your Excellency, my duty

gave

as I will also do where it be

to do so.

One of the most notable and

Known historical facts which initiate

the relations between the West and the

Celestial Compire

is without doubt the

foundation of ellavau and its subsequent aggrandizement by the Portuguese. Since 1557 flies over the ramparts of the fortifications of ellaraue the Portuguese -flag, that European Standard which

first unfurled to the breeses in the China seas. So that in this long period

svas

of.

more than three centuries the Western :nations never contested the rights of Sovereignty of the King of Portugal

over this

Peninsula, where the armed assistance

of Great Britain came

expressly to maintain and support it, at a time

when the situation was precarious