[
    {
        "id": 204534,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 15,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "10\n\nLINDSAY RIDE\n\nLet us first go to the top of Monte Fort and view this historic spot where so many foreigners lived their eastern lives and not a few found eternal rest. From the Fort we can see practically the whole of the peninsula and the city of Macao. To the east, beyond the Guia lighthouse, stretches the South China Sea, studded by the Ladrone Islands of which the two nearest - Taipa and Coloane form part of this overseas Province of Portugal. Between these islands and the peninsula lie the Macao Roads and the Outer Harbour. To the west can be seen the narrow neck of land with its barrier gate which bars access to the large delta island of Heung Shan and to the mainland of China. Separating the main portion of this island from the city of Macao, is the Inner Harbour whose two lines of junks, Communist and Macanese, are separated only by the narrow fairway used by the larger sea-going junks, launches and the Hong Kong ferries. Just below us as we view this busy scene, stands, stately and calm, the façade of all that remains of the Jesuit Church of St. Paul, commenced in the sixteenth century, completed in the seventeenth and destroyed by fire in the nineteenth century,\n\nBehind it, almost at the harbour's edge, is a low wooded hill whose trees shelter the Camoens Grotto and on whose lower slopes nestle the Camoens Gardens and the neighbouring cemetery.\n\nIt is but a short walk from the Fort to the cemetery and gardens, access to both of which is gained from a small grassed and treed square the Praça Luis de Camões. On the extreme right as we enter this square, is a high stucco wall pierced by a most unimpressive gateway over which is mounted a small tablet; on which is carved:\n\nPROTESTANT CHURCH\n\nAND\n\nOLD CEMETERY\n\n(EAST INDIA COMPANY 1814)\n\nThis inscription poses a number of questions, a characteristic which, as you will find out later, it shares with many of the inscriptions in the cemetery itself; in fact it is the attempt to solve these problems that supplies much of the fascination and the interest of this cemetery. What was the British East India\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215236,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 13,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "Elizabeth Teather - Deathspace in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Seoul: A Review of Recent Research, 1995-2001 .... \n\nChiu Hang Shi - Unicon Dancing in Pat Heung \n\n329 \n\n341 \n\nKeith Stevens - A Contentious Christian Missionary in Central China, 1887 \n\n353 \n\nKirsty Norman - Friends of the HKBRAS Trip to Cornwall....... 357 \n\nDavid Akers-Jones - Tea and Opium: Some Further Notes on Macartney's Role \n\n367 \n\nJennifer Welch - Coincidence? \n\n... 373 \n\nDan Waters - Another Donation to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society \n\n375 \n\nRichard Garrett - Taipa Fort and a Nineteenth Century Cannon 379 \n\nPeter Halliday - More Thoughts on Han Suyin's A Many Splendoured Thing: A Tribute to Ian Morrison...... \n\n391 \n\nRosemary Lee and A.C. Bromfield - The Life and Times of Captain Samuel Cornel Plant \n\n407 \n\nAnon. - More on the Two Obelisks at Tai Tam \n\n417 \n\nBOOK REVIEWS \n\nDan Waters - Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945 \n\n419 \n\nJames Hayes - Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away:Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton \n\n423 \n\nPatrick Hase - Hong Kong Metamorphosis \n\n427 \n\nPeter Halliday - Searching for Frederick and Adventures Along the \n\nWay. \n\n430 \n\nX",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215650,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 427,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "379\n\nTAIPA FORT AND A NINETEENTH CENTURY\n\nTaipa Fort\n\nCANNON\n\nRICHARD J. GARRETT\n\nThroughout Macau's long history, many forts and batteries were built to protect it from aggressors. The fort on Taipa, an island forming part of Macau, is one of the territory's lesser fortifications although, unlike most of the others, it survives largely intact.\n\nTaipa Fort was built in 1847 after the island's population petitioned the governor, Ferreria do Amaral, to station military forces there to provide better protection from pirates. The islanders' main livelihood was fishing and a large fleet anchored there. The governor agreed to the proposal and Pedro Jose da Silva Lourerio was put in charge of constructing a fort. The islanders themselves funded the cost of the building.\n\nThe fort was built to guard the strait between the islands of Taipa and D. João and to protect the fishing fleet that used the inlet between two islands which formed Taipa. (These two islands and another very small one are now joined by reclamation.) Located on the western shore, the fort is built on the side of a slope, and before reclamation, the front walls were washed by the sea. Figure 1 shows a plan of the fort dating from the early twentieth century.\n\nThe main building of the fort is a single-storey brick-built structure, with the arms of Portugal and the date, 1847, on the side. (Figure 2) Sometime before 1900 the fort was adapted to provide a summer residence for the Governors of Macau. A veranda, supported on six columns that sit directly on the front wall of the fort, was added some time after the governor had adopted the fort as a residence. (Figure 3) This extension shows that by then the fort had no military pretensions.\n\nThe plan in Figure 1 shows the other internal buildings and indicates the location of the principal cannon. Apart from some small conventional buildings around the fort, there is a small circular building,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215651,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 428,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "380\n\nthe gunpowder store, on one of the uppermost platforms. (Figure 4) Today it is kept locked, but is no doubt empty. Photographs from about 1900 show there was another building alongside the fort. This has been demolished to make room for the road that now skirts this side of Taipa.\n\nReclamation was instigated to provide for a pier which is now situated besides the Fort. Today the land in front has been filled in and a pleasant garden occupies the area. (Figure 5) On the slope at the side of the fort is a memorial to the victims of an explosion on the frigate D. Maria II in 1850. This is inscribed A MEMORIA DAS VICTIMAS EXPLOSAO DA FRAGATA D. MARIA II EM 1850. ERECTO EM 1880. It is a sad reminder of the dangers to which seafarers were exposed in those days.\n\nSecurity of Taipa Island was eventually taken over by the police and the fort was used as a police station until 2000. It is now a base for the Scout Association of Macau. Its continued official use has meant that there has been no pressure to change the facilities and there are no signs of any major modifications to them.\n\nA Nineteenth Century Cannon\n\nAlthough there are a number of old cannon within the fort, most have been placed there in recent times. However, an original one, dating almost from the time of the fort's construction, is at the front corner nearest to the pier.\n\nThis gun is an interesting example from the middle of the nineteenth century, a period of great change in the design of cannon. Similar guns quickly became obsolete and were replaced, so it is very unusual to find such a piece still in place, complete with the original mounting3. Figures 5 and 6 show the cannon, still pointing out across the straight between Taipa and the island belonging to mainland China.\n\nThe cannon is marked 'C.A. & Co. Boston,' and dated 1855. The maker was Cyrus Alger and Company, a firm founded in the U.S.A. in 1809. Their foundry was on Dorchester Avenue, Boston and they supplied the United States with cannon balls in the war of 1812 and later in the Civil War. They made both cast bronze and cast iron cannon, the basic alternatives for cannon up till the middle of the nineteenth",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215652,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 429,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "381\n\ncannon. Both were smoothbore and muzzle loading.\n\nThe cannon at Taipa Fort is classed as coast artillery. It is smooth bored with a calibre of 163 mm (6.4 in.), thus, in the terminology of the day, it is a 32 pounder. When it was put in place, the 32 pounder had only recently replaced the 24 pounder as the normal size, though larger pieces soon came into service. It would probably have fired balls of cast iron although explosive shells were starting to become more popular at that time. These would have been loaded at the muzzle and sent on their way by a charge of gunpowder.\n\nContemporary sources show that a U.S. Ordnance 32 pounder had a barrel weight of about 7,200lbs (3,300 kg). The overall length of the barrel of this cannon, including the end ring, is 94 inches (2.38 m), shorter than the U.S. Ordnance standard; hence its weight is likely to be a bit less. With a charge of 8lbs (3.64 kg) of powder, and at an elevation of 5°, a standard gun would have a range of about 1,920 yards (1,750 m). Greater elevation and bigger charges could increase the range to 4,000 to 5,000 yards (3,600 to 4,500m), although with greater range the accuracy would decrease. Its location on Taipa meant the range could easily cover the surrounding sea passages.\n\nThe mounting on this cannon is termed a \"barbette\" mount, meaning it is mounted to fire above the parapet. This allowed it to be swivelled round to give a wide angular field of fire. The mounting is in two basic parts. The barrel is mounted on a compact carriage of timber, bound with iron straps, and with iron wheels which allow it to move backwards and forwards on a lower carriage that provides a traversing mechanism. This apparatus consists of a grillage of timber beams, mounted on iron wheels and able to rotate about a fixed pivot.\n\nThe wheels run on granite tracks that form arcs around the pivot. The rear wheels are connected via a sprocket and chain to a manually operated mechanism that rotates the mounting. A screw attached to the rear of the barrel adjusted its elevation. This screw would be turned by means of a spike inserted into holes in its shaft.\n\nThe mounting had one other function. As can be seen from the illustrations, the gun's primary carriage sits on top of the main rotational framework. It is apparently separate from it and the small iron wheels",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215653,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 430,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "382\n\nrun on iron plates inlet into the lower frame. The two do, however, have some connection. Three vertical iron plates are mounted between the two main timbers of the frame, running from front to back. A mechanism, known as a compressor, attached to the gun carriage is designed to grip these plates. (Figure 7) The levers on either side of the carriage adjust the amount of pressure applied to the plates.\n\nThe purpose of this seemingly complicated mechanism is to control the recoil of the gun. The friction between the plates and the clamp absorbed the recoil energy and limited the backward movement. After firing and reloading, the clamp could be loosened and the carriage run forward, reclamped, and made ready to fire another round. All in all, a very ingenious solution, although not very efficient in practice as the action was rather harsh.\n\nThe cannon was obviously up-to-date when it was installed but the world was experiencing an arms race at the time. This was particularly true of coastal defences. Ships had thicker armour plating and bigger and better cannon. They were not only more difficult to sink but they constituted a serious threat to the forts. Coastal artillery had to respond and it too became bigger and better. Breech loading and rifling were introduced to increase the rate of fire and improve the accuracy.\n\nThe advance in technology meant that cannon like the one at Taipa Fort soon became obsolete and were usually replaced. Fortunately Taipa was not attacked and Taipa Fort was never tested. Its strategic significance was less important as pirates could be more easily controlled with modern ships, hence there was no pressure to update its defences.\n\nAlthough similar cannon and mountings were in position in other forts in Macau, the Taipa Fort gun is a lone example left with a barbette mount in its original position. Not only is it a reminder of Macau's past, but it also bears testament to the engineers of the nineteenth century and their never ending quest for better weapons, a quest that continues to this day.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216202,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2002",
        "page_number": 501,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "435\n\nVISITING ST JOHN'S ISLAND\n\nPETER STUCKEY AND CHRIS BAILEY\n\nIntroduction\n\nSt John's Island is about 160 kms WSW of Hong Kong. It is about the size of Lantau Island and is the largest of the Chuan Shan Islands which form part of Tai Shan County. The adoption of the name St John's Island appears to be through anglicisation of the Chinese name for the island, variously spelt as \"Shang Chuan Island\" on current Chinese maps, or as \"Sancian\". \"Ilhas de San Joao\" or \"St Jean\" Island on older western maps. Our interest in visiting the island was aroused by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society's visit to Goa in January 2001. There, in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, in Old Goa, we had seen the preserved remains of St Francis Xavier. His corpse is displayed in an elaborate glass-sided, silver ornamented casket that rests high up on a Florentine marble mausoleum. St Francis, we learnt, had died on St John's Island on the night of 2/3 December 1552, aged 46.\n\nIn view of the local interest two visits were made by members of the HK Branch, one travelling “independently\" and the other through an organised China Travel Services guided tour. Here follow their accounts of the visits.\n\nIndependent travel\n\nTwo Branch members, Rocky Dang and myself, Peter Stuckey, went to the Island on 20th and 21st October 2001. We took a Chu Kong Shipping (CKS) ferry from the China Hong Kong ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, to Xin Hui, leaving at 8:45 a.m. The ferry passes between Macau and Taipa and then follows up the river system past the Yamen Fort to Xin Hui for a fare of HKD 188. At Xin Hui we took a short taxi ride to visit the \"Bird's Paradise.\" Here egrets fly over a huge banyan tree. The tree is reputed to be 500 years old. It extends to cover over a hectare with many trunks formed from the aerial roots descending from the branches of the single organism. Similar trees exist in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta and in Phimai in NE Thailand.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]