Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1205

MACAO

門澳 Ou-mun

砍馬 Ma-kau

Macao is situated in 22 deg. 11. min. 30 sec. N. latitude, and 113 deg. 32 min. 30 sec. E. ongitude, on a rocky peninsula, renowned, long before the Portuguese settled on it, for its safe harbour for junks and small vessels. The Portuguese, who had already settled on the island of Lampacao, and frequented for trading purposes Chin-chew, Lianpo, Tamao, and San-choan (St. John's Island, where Francis Xavier, the celebrated missionary, died), first took up their residence at Macao in 1557. Shortly after their arrival in this part of the world, the Viceroy of Canton, powerless himself to perform the task, offered to present the barren peninsula to the Portuguese if they should succeed in subduing the notorious pirate, Shan-si-lau, who styled himself "King of the islands of Canton" and, with his force of 12,000 men and 100 armed junks and lorchas, levied tribute as far as the mouth of the Yangtsze and even went so far as to blockade the port of Canton. The Portuguese manned and armed a few vessels and succeeded in raising the blockade of Canton and clearing the seas. The town of Macao soon afterwards began to rise, and during the eighteenth century trade flourished there, the difficulty of residence at Canton greatly contributing towards it. The East India Company and the Dutch Company had establishments in Macao. Macao was held by the Portuguese at a rental of 500 Taels a year until Governor Fer- reira do Amaral in 1848 refused to pay the rental any longer, and forcibly drove out the Chinese Custom-house, and with it every vestige of Chinese authority. This bold stroke cost him his life on 22nd August, 1849, for he was waylaid and barbarously murdered near the Barrier of Porta Cerco, and his head was taken to Canton. This political assassination synchronised with an attempt at an arined invasion, which, however, was defeated by Amaral's doughty lieutenant Mesquita. It is intended in the near future to erect monuments to these two heroes in a fine square, which will enhance the appearance of the city. The sovereignty of Portugal over the peninsula was formally recognised by China in the Treaty signed with Portugal in 1887.

In November, 1901, an Envoy Extraordinary arrived from Portugal, his mission being to arrange with the Chinese Government for a delimitation of the boundary of the Colony. The line of demarcation submitted by the Envoy included certain islands which the Chinese Government refused to acknowledge as being part of the Portuguese colony, and the Envoy, while not successful in gaining this point, secured a concession for a railway from Macao to Canton. The convention, however, did not meet with the approval of the Côrtes at Lisbon, and Senhor Branco came to the East again in 1904. In November a new agreement was arranged with the Chinese Government, but the Government at Lisbon regarded the terms as far from satisfactory, and refused ratification. It was announced in the local Press that a syndicate of Chinese and Portuguese capitalists had subscribed a capital of $4,000,000 for the construction of the railway, but there are no indications at present of a commencement being made with the work, and it is generally doubted whether a railway through a district so well provided with waterways would prove remunerative. A railway 50 miles in length is, however, being constructed under Chinese direction in the Sunning district, and this will doubtless beneficially affect trade and commerce in the neighbourhood of Macao. A new Commercial Treaty was arranged with China in November, 1904. In accordance with the Treaty of 1887 the Governments of China and Portugal in 1909 appointed Commissioners to delimitate the boundaries of Macao and its Dependencies, but China would not admit Portugal's title to half the territory claimed, and the Portuguese Commissioner inter- rupted the negotiations after they had been in progress nearly four months and pro- posed referring the dispute to The Hague Arbitration Tribunal. China definitively refused to agree to this, and so the position remains as it has always been. In 1910 the Portuguese authorities asserted their jurisdiction over the island of Colowan by clearing the place of a piratical horde which had terrorised the whole delta.