RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f
14

F. S. DRAKE

a swastika, turning to the left or to the right; Type 3, a simple cross drawn vertically; Type 4, a simple cross drawn diagonally; Type 5, a figure similar to a Roman capital I; Type 6, a solid circle or dot; Type 7, a hollow circle; Type 8, Miscellaneous. No attempt has been made to illustrate all of these on the plates. When the nineteen types according to shape are combined with the eight types according to design, a total of 152 well-defined types is given. But within this total an infinite variety of individual differences is possible; in the present collection not more than one pair of duplicates has been identified as coming from the same mould (No. 463 and the sixth unnumbered seal). It would seem therefore that duplication has been purposely avoided, perhaps for security reasons.

Of the 979 pieces in the Collection about three fifths are cruciform in shape, about one fifth are bird-shaped, some of which, a single bird with spread wings, may suggest a cruciform outline, while the bird itself is also a Christian symbol.

Of the central patterns the greater number are the swastika, whether turning to the left or to the right, a symbol adopted by the Buddhists, but being of older origin, and used also in such Christian monuments as the Nestorian Tablet of Sianfu (A.D. 781). Next in number comes the cross, whether placed vertically or diagonally. Attempts to read Greek letters in the other linear designs have not succeeded.

The backs of the crosses are flat, with a strong loop (or two loops crossing each other) fixed for attaching a leather thong for suspension (Pl. II, Fig. f). Some of these are worn through, as though carried for a long time on the person by a horseman.

The designs are in high relief, too deep for an ordinary seal, but admirable for impressing on a slab of mud.

II. THE NESTORIAN CHURCH

man.

We may now ask how it came about that these bronze crosses of Mongolian workmanship and of Christian origin became buried in the sands of the Ordos region beyond the memory of living. We must remember that in the beginning Christianity not only spread westwards from Palestine into Europe, but that it moved eastwards at the same time through Syria to Persia and India. According to ancient Christian tradition St. Matthew and St. Thomas evangelized the East as St. Peter and St. Paul
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v
10

LINDSAY RIDE

Let 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,

Behind 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.

It 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:

PROTESTANT CHURCH

AND

OLD CEMETERY

(EAST INDIA COMPANY 1814)

This 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

Page 15

Page 16
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d
NOTES AND QUERIES

151

So, on November 18, he despatched a memorial to Peking which laid the blame for mismanagement of the country not only on Chang Fu-ching, but also on several others in responsible positions. The emperor, naturally, was infuriated, and Feng nearly lost his life as a result; but that is another story.

Now back to the comet. Becoming curious about its very long duration, I wrote to Mr. D. J. Schove of St. David's College, Beckenham, Kent, with whom I have previously corresponded on sun spots and similar phenomena, and asked if there had been any report on it by observers in Europe. He replied:

+4

The comet of 1532 was more important than that of Halley and was visible even in the daytime. It is recorded e.g. in Italy, Switzerland, England, Russia, Japan and Korea.”

And one of my American correspondents, Dr. C. Doris Hellman, professor of history at Queens College, New York, adds to this a Spanish record left by Gaspar G. Molera, who published a tract on it in Barcelona in 1533.

Now I am curious as to whether there is any notice of the comet's appearance in the New World. Mr. Schove writes that Aztec chronicles record the comets of 1490 and 1529, but not those of 1531 and 1532. If any reader of this Journal knows of one I hope he will let me know, or publish it in the JRAS, Hong Kong branch.

Columbia University, 1968.

L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH

WHAT INSPIRED SIR JOHN BOWRING'S HYMN?

Ever so often one hears that John Bowring's famous hymn

“In the cross of Christ I glory

Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time”

was inspired after he saw the facade of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul in Macao. But is this true?

These words were penned in, or shortly before, 1825, the date of the publication of Bowring's own book entitled HYMNS, in

* See for example, M. Hugo-Brunt in his excellent article on St. Paul's Church in the Journal of Oriental Studies, 1-2 (1954-55) p. 344.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG

111

England had spoiled him. He had received much attention and had been presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury who had been impressed enough to give him a gift of theological works to start his library. But the Hong Kong Bishop's hopes of using him as an agent for the Church of England's mission among the Chinese were soon dimmed. He was deficient in Chinese and had to begin a course of study in the Chinese Classics. At the same time the English he had acquired during his stay abroad was not sufficient to write grammatical English. In spite of these deficiencies he was appointed as an assistant Tutor in the newly opened St. Paul's College. When the Bishop went to Shanghai in 1853 to investigate the rumours concerning the Christian aspect of the Taiping movement, he took with him Chan Tai Kwong and another prospective evangelist, Lo Sam Yuen. The two Chinese tried to get through the Imperial lines and reach Nanking; but they ran into frequent outbreaks of hostility between the warring groups and were forced to return to Shanghai.

Chan Tai Kwong's interest, however, was neither in being an evangelist nor a teacher, or even perhaps an emissary of Christian interests to the Taipings. He was attracted to the business world and the prospect of wealth. The advantages of his connections and his ability to speak English furnished a ready entry into Hong Kong's business world. In 1856 he left St. Paul's College and served for a time as an interpreter in Government, as well as taking advantage of some business offers. He was taken on by a group of Chinese engaged in the opium trade.

Financed by Leong Attoy, Li Tuk Cheong and Li Chun, the latter two members of the Li family Wo Hang firm, he bid for the opium monopoly in 1858. It was granted to him, but his firm soon ran into financial difficulties and he was forced to throw up the contract after several months. The Sheriff foreclosed on the property of Chan Tai Kwong. He then appears to have left the Colony, perhaps going to Singapore. However, in December, 1867, he was appointed as Chinese clerk and shroff to the Hong Kong Court of Summary Jurisdiction. Here he often served as arbitrator in disputes among Chinese. He continued with the Court until his death in 1882. His son-in-law George Orley, a Sanitary Inspector, was appointed administrator of his estate which was valued at $3,000.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
208 

NOTES AND QUERIES 

was bought by the Church and a large number of houses were built for the poor. In 1849, the Roman Catholics acquired land next to the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and ceased burying in the old cemetery, though headstones remained scattered about for a long time. 

Another Roman Catholic institution was located south of Queen's Road on the waterfront between what is the present Anton Street and Li Chit Street. Here the French Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1848, built an orphanage called the Asile des Sainte Enfance. 

In 1845, two Americans, Charles Emery and George Frazer, moved their ship-building yard from Kowloon Point to a lot east of the French Orphanage. The yard passed through a succession of owners. In 1880 George Fenwick came into possession. He gave his name to the present Fenwick Street. In 1871 the Hong Kong Pier and Godown Company was launched to develop extensive wharfing and storage facilities. It occupied the land between the Orphanage and the shipyard. The present Gresson Street intersects the original property. The venture was not a success and the Company went into liquidation in 1873. In 1876 several Europeans financed by Chinese capital built the Oriental Sugar Refinery on property now defined by Swatow and Amoy Streets. It also soon failed and passed into receivership. Eventually, it was taken over by Jardine, Matheson and Company and was merged with their China Sugar Refining plant at East Point. 

The first Protestant Chapel in the area was built in 1863 on Wan Chai Road by the London Missionary Society. A school was also opened, supported by Chinese subscriptions. The present Ying-Wa Girls School had its origins in the Wanchai Girls' Boarding School of the London Missionary Society opened in 1888. The Wanchai Chinese Methodist Church on the triangle of Hennessy Road, Fenwick Street, and Queen's Road East was occupied in 1936. 

The Urban Services Office, where we are having tea, and the Wanchai Post Office next to it, are located on a lot which was sold to the first American resident of Hong Kong, Charles V. Gillespie. Here, in the spring of 1842, he built a substantial brick house of six rooms surrounded by a verandah at a cost of about $2,800. It was called “Jorrock's Hall” (sic) and was located on Inland Lot 14. The adjoining Lot No. 15 was also owned by Gillespie. He sold it
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
224

NOTES AND QUERIES

The area still retains its distinctive character and is a tribute to the vision and public-spirit of its chief promoter, Mr. Ede (1865-1925). A small plaque set into the wall of a park in Essex Crescent perpetuates his memory.

Another Garden City plan for the area south of Prince Edward Road, west of Waterloo Road and north of Argyle Street was initiated by the Hong Kong Engineering and Construction Company in 1932. Unlike the Kowloon Tong area, which was levelled by cutting and filling, this project was to utilise the natural features of the site. It was claimed that 'for excellence of situation, beauty of outlook, serenity of location and conformity with surrounding amenities, it will be without an equal in the Peninsula'. (South China Morning Post, Jan. 21, 1932, remarks at Sod Turning Ceremony.) Mr. J. P. Braga, Chairman of the Company undertaking the project, gave his name to the road at the centre of the tract, Braga Circuit. The area still retains some of its secluded and serene character and is a favourite of courting couples. It is better known today as Kadoorie Avenue, the general name used to describe the several roads that make up this residential complex.

The Diocesan Boys' School

As the name indicates the Diocesan Boys' School is an institution of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. In 1859 the wife of Bishop Smith, being interested in the education of girls, organised a committee of women and founded the Diocesan Native Female Training Institute. It was established 'to introduce among a somewhat superior class of Native Females the blessings of Christianity and of Religious Training' (The First Annual Report). Education was to be in English. It was hoped the girls would make suitable brides for the male converts from St. Paul's College. However, there were some publicised instances of students from the School being sought after as mistresses of Europeans, their ability to speak English being a particular asset in such an arrangement. Due to this bad publicity local support fell off and the school was in financial difficulties. In 1867 all Chinese girls, except orphans and destitute, were dismissed. In 1868 Bishop Alford somewhat reluctantly agreed to head up a reorganisation. The following year the name was changed to the Diocesan Home and Orphanage. Under a new admission policy the Home was 'to receive and place children of both sexes, sound both in body and mind, of European, Chinese
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
246

LIST OF MEMBERS

LIFE OVERSEAS MEMBERS:

HUGHES, Mrs. G. M.

HURT, Miss E. J.

IRETON, Mrs. P. H.

JOHNSTON, J. J.

JORDAN, Dr. D. K.

KIDD, S. T.

KNOWLES, Miss Moira G.

KNOWLES, Mrs. W. C. G.

KURATA, Mrs. L.

LINDSAY, T. J., M.B.E.

LOTHROP, F. B.

MANSFIELD, Miss M. B.

McBAIN, G.

McDOUALL, J. C., C.M.G.

MICHAELIDES, Miss E. O.

MIDDLEBROOK, R. W.

MILL, Capt. C. S. Jr.

MILLER, C. F.

O'BRIEN, J. R.

PLAG, Rev. A.

POLAND, T. D.

ROBINSON, Prof. K. E.

ROTHE, U.

SINFIELD, G. H. C.

c/o C.V. Starr & Co. Inc., 102 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y. 10005, U.S.A.

Woodlands School, Woodlands Drive, Scarborough, Yorkshire, England.

P.O. Box 362, Langley, Washington 98260, U.S.A.

P.O. Box 65, Marshall, Arkansas 72650, U.S.A.

Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92037, U.S.A.

c/o Hong Kong Government Office, 6 Grafton St., London W1X 3LB, England.

3, Kirkmay House, Marketgate, Crail, Fife KY10 3RF, Scotland, UK.

Wakes Colne Place, Nr. Colchester, Essex, England.

478, Edison Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K2A 1TQ, Canada.

3, Bareena Avenue, Wahroonga, N.S.W., Australia.

176, Milk Street, Boston, Mass. 02109, U.S.A.

31, Fairlawns, Maldon Rd., Wallington, Surrey, England.

c/o Imperial Chemical Industries (Japan) Ltd., Central P.O. Box 411, Tokyo, Japan.

The Old School, Souldern, Bicester, Oxon., England.

The British Council, Halls Croft, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

165 East 66th Street, New York 21, N.Y., U.S.A.

132, Greenbriar Court, Jacksonville, N.C. 28540, U.S.A.

c/o Bank of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

St. Paul's, 1 Roma Avenue, Kensington, N.S.W. 2033, Australia.

7000 Stuttgart 1, Roemerstr. 41, Germany.

15, Bellevue Lawns, Delgany, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

The Old Rectory, Church Westcoat, Kingham, Oxford OX7 6SF, England.

Wohnstift Augustinum Apt. 778, 5483 Bad Neuenahr, Germany.

Hong Kong Tourist Association, 159, Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593
NOTES AND QUERIES

203

He won his knighthood in 1902. His activities also extended to religion (he built St. Andrew's church in Kowloon), sport (he presided over the Jockey Club for many years) and the arts (the "Chater Collection" of porcelain, pottery and paintings was highly valued).

The house

Marble Hall was built towards the end of the nineteenth century. About five hundred feet above sea level, it was said to command excellent views of the harbour and stood amidst two acres of shrubs and tropical plants. A Public Works Department memorandum noted that its external walls were of "stuccoed brickwork finished in the Classic Style through which runs a strong Jacobean tendency"; the main staircase was "of monumental design executed in polished Italian marble." The house was flanked on three sides by wide verandahs and contained a spacious hall, drawing room, card room, dining and billiard rooms, four bedrooms (each with its own bathroom and easy access to a drying room), a large kitchen, pantry, scullery, silver and wine closet, and ample servants' quarters. Internal materials included mahogany from England and stained and polished teak.

Admiralty House

Sir Paul Chater died on 26 May 1926 and, in his will, bequeathed Marble Hall and its furniture, fixtures and household effects (including pottery, paintings and all his racing cups but excluding some china and curios) to the government of Hong Kong. The gift was to take effect when his widow, Lady Maria Christine Chater, ceased to live in the house. She apparently left the colony in 1927 with no intention of returning, but the house did not become the property of the government until her death on 11 March 1935. Governor Sir Cecil Clementi had suggested in 1926 that Marble Hall be offered to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for use by the Naval Commander-in-Chief of the China Squadron, and in 1935 the gracious residence became the colony's "Admiralty House."

The Admiral found other accommodation after Christmas Day, 1941, but following expulsion of the Japanese from Hong Kong in 1945 he once again took residence in Marble Hall. Soon afterwards, however, the house was damaged by fire. It apparently stood dere-
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
30 

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS 

Holy Week ceremonies were carried out in full in our Chapel, with visitors Fathers Curtis, Flaherty and Gately, C. M. and Fathers Howe and Forde, Columbans, helping with the Prophecies. 

A much publicized softball match between the Stanley priests and Hong Kong's champions, St. Joseph College, for the benefit of the Chinese War Orphans, took place on Easter Monday, Father Joe McDonald fielded a fine team, full of enthusiasm, but not much in the way of hitting: in any case, over Hong Kong $1800 was realized for the War Orphans. 

MAY 

We were kept on our toes throughout May in expectation of the arrival of Father General by "Clipper" to make the visitation of our northern missions, and return in the autumn to visit our missions in the South. Meanwhile, Fathers Reilly and McDonald were awarded medals for their coaching of the V.R.C. Softball team, which won the Junior Division championship. 

On the 20th, Bishop Donaghy, Msgr. Romaniello, and Wuchow's Society Superior, Father Pat Donnelly, arrived by plane from Kweilin to greet Father General, but an airmail letter informed us he will not arrive until the end of May or early June. 

At a tea given in honor of the priests who took part in the softball match for the War Orphans, the Fathers were presented to Madame Cheung Faat Fooi, wife of the general known as "Old Ironsides" for his outstanding defense of his country when the Japanese were fighting for Shanghai. Many years later, both the general and his wife entered the Church. Father Jim Smith instructed and baptized Madame Cheung, while Father Jim McCormick brought the general into the Church later on. 

JUNE 

Word was received that Father General is sailing for Japan and will visit the Northern missions before coming South. Sister Paul, making a visitation of her own area, left for Nam Yeung, accompanied by Msgr. Romaniello returning to Kweilin. 

Word was received that the opposite shore of the bay on which the Ngai Moon Leper Asylum is situated, has been occupied by the Japanese Army. The distance is too great for accurate rifle fire but
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
244

ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS

DE BURE, Mrs. Ursula, 550 Victoria Road, Block 29, Floor 30, HONG KONG.

DE SILVA, Ms. Minette, Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG.

DER, The Rev. E. B.,

Holy Trinity Church,

135 Ma Tau Chung Road,

KOWLOON.

DIAMOND, Mr. A. L.,

Public Records Office of Hong Kong,

2 Murray Road, HONG KONG.

DOHERTY, Ms. Kathleen Rose,

11 Coombe Road,

Flat 1A,

HONG KONG.

DOLFIN, Mr. John, III, 155 Argyle Street, KOWLOON.

DRAKEFORD, Mr. Louis S., 124 Miles Clearwater Bay Road, KOWLOON.

DYER, Mrs. C. E., 233 Prince's Building, HONG KONG.

ELSOM, Mr. Graham, J. B., G.P.O. Box 11508, HONG KONG.

EVANS, Prof. D. M. E., School of Law, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG.

EVANS, Mr. C. J., Flat 9.

8 Mansfield Road, The Peak,

HONG KONG.

FABRY, Mr. K. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES.

FABRY, Mrs. R. G., Rural Retreat,

Taipo Kau,

NEW TERRITORIES.

FAN, Mr. Jack F. S., 1-25 Shu Kuk Street,

May Lun Apartment 14/F, North Point,

HONG KONG

FITZPATRICK, Mr. John,

c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. World Trade Centre, 30/F, Causeway Bay,

HONG KONG.

FORSYTH, Mr. A. H., c/o Stevenson & Co., 821 Central Building, 3 Pedder Street, HONG KONG

FORSYTH, Mr. James J., Flat 102,

80 Macdonnell Road, HONG KONG.

GAILEY, Mr. H. G., 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG

GAILEY, Mrs. Norah, 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG.

GAMLEN, Mr. Richard, 62 A-D Robinson Road, 19th Floor, Flat B, HONG KONG.

GARCIA, Mr. Arthur, Victoria District Court, HONG KONG.

GARRETT, Mrs. Valery M., 19 Vivian Court, 20 Mount Kellett Road, HONG KONG.

GATELY, Major Charles, c/o Environment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, HONG KONG.

GHOSE, Mrs. Rajeshwari, St. Paul's Convent School, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG.

GIBB, Mr. Hugh, c/o Hong Kong & Shanghai

Banking Corp.,

P.O. Box 64,

HONG KONG.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
256

OVERSEAS LIFE MEMBERS

KNOWLES, Miss Moira G.,

3 Kirkmay House,

Marketgate,

Crail.

Fife KY10 3RF, SCOTLAND.

KNOWLES, Mrs. W. C. G.,

Wakes Colne Place,

Nr. Colchester, Essex.

UNITED KINGDOM.

KURATA, Mrs. Lucien,

478 Edison Avenue,

Ottawa,

Ontario K2A 1TQ.

CANADA.

LANCHESTER, Mrs. G. W.,

Alderfen,

Surlingham,

Norwich NR14 7AW,

UNITED KINGDOM.

LI, Dr. Choh-Ming,

81 Northampton Avenue, Berkeley,

California 94707,

U.S.A.

LINDSAY, Mr. T. J., M.B.E.,

3 Bareena Avenue,

Wahroonga,

New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.

LOTHROP, Mr. Francis B,

176 Milk Street, Boston,

Massachusetts 02109, U.S.A.

MANSFIELD, Miss M. B.,

51 Fairlawns,

Maldon Road,

Wallington,

Surrey,

UNITED KINGDOM.

MCBAIN, Mr. George,

c/o Imperial Chemical Industries

(Japan) Ltd.,

Central P.O. Box 411,

Tokyo,

JAPAN.

MCDOUALL, Mr. J. C.,

The Old School, Souldern, Bicester, Oxon,

UNITED KINGDOM.

MICHAELIONES, Miss E. O.,

The British Council, Halls Croft, Old Town,

Stratford-upon-Avon,

UNITED KINGDOM.

MILL, Capt. Charles Stuart, U.S.M.C.,

132 Greenbriar Court,

Jacksonville, N.C., 28540,

U.S.A.

MILLER, Mr. Carl Ferris O.,

c/o Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch,

C.P.O. Box 255. Seoul,

KOREA.

O'BRIEN, Mr. J. R.,

+

St. Paul's,

1 Roma Avenue,

Kensington,

New South Wales 2033, AUSTRALIA.

PLAG, Mr. Albrecht (Rev.),

7000 Stuttgart 1, Roemerstr. 41,

GERMANY (F.R.).

POLAND, Mr. T. D.,

15 Bellevue Lawns,

Delgany,

Co. Wicklow,

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.

ROBINSON, Prof. K. E.,

The Old Rectory, Church Westcoat, Kingham,

Oxford OX7 6SF, UNITED KINGDOM.

ROTHE, Mr. Ulrich,

Wohnstift Augustinum, Apt. 778,

5483 Bad Neuenahr,

GERMANY.

SINFIELD, Mr. G. H. C.,

Hong Kong Tourist Association,

159 Bay Street,

Toronto,

CANADA.

SPERRY, Mr. H. M.,

64 Hillbrook Drive, Portola Valley,

California 94025,

U.S.A.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m
THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAI QUESTION IN THE 1920's 103

to England had continued the campaign to bring the Hong Kong situation to the attention of the British public. The Haselwoods and other interested people had enlisted the support of the Anti-Slavery and the Aborigine Protection Society, the Industrial Committee of the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland, the Women's Committee of the Fabian Society, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the League of Nations Union, as well as Members of Parliament.

In Hong Kong a team of volunteer lecturers had spoken in churches, schools, the YMCA, the YWCA, and labour unions. One of the members had paid for the services of a professional lecturer to address passengers on boats travelling between Hong Kong and Canton.

Literature was produced both in English and Chinese. All the Parliamentary questions and answers were translated and sent to the Chinese press, along with original articles and correspondence with Members of Parliament, philanthropists and societies abroad. Locally, a literary competition had been held. The winning entry, a ballad, had been published and distributed both in Hong Kong and throughout China. The cost was underwritten by two wealthy contractors, Mr. Li Ping (probably a Roman Catholic) and Mr. Lam Woo (1869–1932) a founding member of St. Paul's Anglican Church and an Executive Committee member of the Society. A magazine of some 400 pages published by the Society contained articles treating the question in various literary forms.

At the time of the meeting 1,370 members had enrolled in the Society.

On instructions from the Colonial Office the Governor of Hong Kong issued a proclamation on April 14, 1922 stating:

Slavery is not allowed to exist in the British Empire, and therefore it must be understood that mui tsai are not the property of their employers. Those of them who wish to leave their employers and who have reached the age of discretion must be allowed to apply to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs who will consider their cases.

Girls are warned that they must not leave their present employment until they have some employment to go to for fear they should fall into the hands of procuresses.

Masters and mistresses are specially warned against any attempt
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v
The area is bounded to the east by King's Road, to the west by Leighton Road, to the north by Tung Lo Wan Road, and to the south by Caroline Hill Road and Cotton Path.

A prospectus for the new company was issued in August 1897, with J. J. Bell-Irving of Jardines as Chairman of the Board and a capital of $1,200,000. The mill began operation on 1 June 1899 with 12,000 spindles, with an anticipated full capacity of about 50,000 spindles. The company, however, was plagued by set-backs. It closed at the end of 1910. After a time, it was revived only to be forced to close again permanently in 1914, when its machinery was removed to Shanghai and the land and buildings sold for $400,000. The purchasers were the French Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.

The Order had come to Hong Kong in 1848 and located in Wanchai, where they opened the "Asile de Sainte Enfance" to receive abandoned children. As the years passed, the Wanchai location became increasingly undesirable. In 1908 the Sisters opened a Hospital in Wong Nei Chung valley. In 1914, when they bought the cotton mill premises, they converted some of the mill buildings for their own purposes and later built new and more adequate accommodation for a convent, St. Paul's Convent School, an orphanage, a hospital, and a church.

The same year that Keswick transferred IL 1018 to the cotton mill, he conveyed the remaining part of the valley to Sir Robert Jardine. In time, the land came into the possession of the Government, which used it as sites for the Hong Kong Stadium, the South China Stadium, and a recreation ground.

On the Caroline Hill side of the valley was a large Chinese cemetery. Gravestones and other reminders of the cemetery can still be found among the trees and underbrush.

Five trustees for the Japanese Community acquired a site in So Kon Po Valley in 1911 (Inland Lot 1879). The trustees transferred the site to the Japanese Benevolent Society in 1918. In 1920, the Benevolent Society was merged with the Japanese Education Society to form the Japanese Residents Association. A plot plan of the lot shows buildings that appear to be a temple. The lot is probably the same as that now occupied by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association School.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v
206

the Dutch had arrived as a power in Asian waters. In their attacks on Cochin and Malacca the two relics there of the saint were lost.

But the missionary effort in Japan continued and the Macau fragment was taken there in 1619. However, persecution worsened and it was brought back to the territory shortly afterwards; it was popularly believed that its presence lessened the frequency of the terrible typhoons to which the coast of China was, and is, subject.

The relic was housed in Macau's famous St Paul's church, destroyed in a fire in the early 19th century and of which now only an impressive facade remains. Then it passed to the church of St. Joseph's seminary.

In 1952, on the 400th anniversary of Xavier's death it was taken to Malacca and there were celebrations there and throughout Malaysia. The last time the piece of bone left Macau was in 1965, when, at the request of Cardinal Francis Spellman, it was taken to Newark, New Jersey, where it was seen and venerated by more than 100,000 people.

The relic thereafter went back to its normal resting place in the seminary in Macau. However, soon afterwards Father Acquistapace was given charge of the dilapidated little chapel on Coloane, one of two small islands which with a peninsula form Macau. The relic is now kept at that church.

During his decades of service in Asia as a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Father Acquistapace served in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Manila, Formosa and Macau. He spent much of his life teaching in technical schools. A man of immense good humour, he is delighted to find visitors interested in his relics.

Along with the fragment of bone of Xavier there are relics of 58 Japanese martyrs and 14 Vietnamese martyrs.

The Japanese perished in the brutal suppression of Christianity which took place in the first half of the 17th century. According to one historian: "The descriptions of the ways in which the Christians of Japan were forced to meet their deaths rank among the most horrifying and degraded reading matter to be found anywhere."
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
174

church.

CARL SMITH

With the loss of the patronage of the mission, A-sow had to find other employment. This was not difficult as a Chinese with a good knowledge of English was in demand.

In August 1855, he was employed as the third interpreter in the Chief Magistrate's office at a salary of $50. The first interpreter was a former classmate, Tong A-ku, better known as Tong King-sing (Tang Ching-hsing) later associated with the development of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company.

A-ku had been educated with his two brothers at the Morrison Education Society School, but when it was disbanded in 1849, he and his younger brother were received into Dr. Legge's school. The elder brother, A-chick, or as he was known in later life Tong Mow-chee, transferred to St. Paul's College.

In January 1856, A-sow was advanced to second interpreter with a salary increase of $25. The next year Tong A-ku left and A-sow had another substantial increase when he moved up to first interpreter. At the same time his former position was filled by his brother-in-law, Ho A-lloy.

A-sow was dismissed from the Magistrate's office in 1858 because of his association with members of Hongkong's criminal element. This was revealed in the course of a Civil Service Abuses Inquiry. There were those, however, who felt an injustice had been done in his dismissal.

He then moved to the newly organised Chinese Maritime Customs Service. The honesty of its employees were at times in question.

Yung Wing (Jung Hung), one of the former students of the Morrison Education Society School and initiator of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, in his biography states that after his return to China following his graduation from Yale College, he was employed for a time in the Customs at Shanghai, but soon left as he could not countenance the corruption involved.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
179

The case of O Soey-cheong illustrates the predicament of the student in a missionary school. The conditions of enrolment obligated him to remain in school until his course of study was completed. At the same time he was dependent upon the school for his food, clothing, and lodging. If he was accepted as a theological student, he received, in addition, a cash allowance. By that time, as an advanced student, he had acquired a fair mastery of English, sufficient to qualify him for a larger income if he would leave his studies and use his language ability in business or as an interpreter.

This is what most of the students did. It was a discouraging development for teachers who had set out to train religious workers for the Chinese church.

YOUNG A-CHICK'S EARLY SCHOOL DAYS

When the gold fever affected the students in the schools in Hongkong and Canton, their principals had to use persuasion and diplomacy to keep their older students from joining the exodus to California and Australia.

On the other hand, some of their graduates were sent overseas with the blessings of their former teachers. Armed with letters of introduction, they were able to establish contacts outside the Chinese community. One of these students was Tong Mow-chee, known in his school days as A-chick. He was a former pupil of the Morrison Education Society School and of St Paul's College.

Before describing his departure from Hongkong and his rise to leadership in the Chinese community in California, we shall relate his experiences as a schoolboy in Macau and Hongkong and as an interpreter in Shanghai and Hongkong.

Tong A-chick was the eldest of three brothers. Their family home was Tong Ka, a village in the Heung Shan District (now Chung Shan) not far from Macau. The harbour upon which the village was located was the opium ship anchorage at Cumsingmoon.

When the Morrison Education Society School was opened in
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
183

Tong A-chick continued his studies at the Church of England Anglo-Chinese School under the supervision of the Colonial Chaplain of Hongkong, the Rev. Mr. Vincent Stanton.

Upon the arrival of the first Bishop of Victoria in March 1850, the school was placed under his charge and was renamed St Paul's College. The bishop took a special interest in Tong A-chick as he was one of his first converts.

A-CHICK: IN AND OUT OF TROUBLE

When the first Bishop of Victoria, the Right Rev. George Smith, arrived in Hongkong in March 1850, the Church of England Anglo-Chinese School was reorganised as St. Paul's College.

Among its senior pupils was Tong A-chick, known in later life as Tong Mow-chee, who only attended part time as he was also interpreter in the Chief Magistrate's office.

In the autumn of 1847 the Hongkong Government faced a crisis over the post of interpreter. Daniel Richard Caldwell, who had held the office for several years, found himself in financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt. In consequence he resigned his office with the Government.

An appeal was made to the Morrison Education Society School for a replacement. A-chick took over Caldwell's position at a salary of £125, a handsome one for so young a man. This sudden rise to affluence may account for some of his later troubles.

Not everyone was pleased with the appointment. In reporting a court case, the China Mail noted that the foreman of the jury objected to having A-chick serve as interpreter. He refused, however, to state the grounds of his objection and the judge compromised by ordering someone to check on A-chick's interpretation.

The suspicions of the jury foreman appear to have had some foundation, for in the summer of 1851 A-chick was charged with being in league with pirates.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
186

CARL SMITH

ments for the charter had been made originally. Mr. Bonney came down to Hongkong and quickly sorted things out, so that the ship could leave with its load of emigrants.

A-chick left well supplied with letters of introduction from the bishop and Mr. Bonney to church people in San Francisco. Strangely enough his dismissal from Government service and his connection with the young brothel girl did not seem to put him out of favour with the Christian community. On June 29 1851, he and two of his fellow students at St. Paul's College had been baptised by the bishop.

On his arrival at San Francisco A-chick lost no time in using his letters of introduction. The one from the bishop he presented to the Rev. Dr. Van Mehr, rector of Grace Church Episcopal. Dr. Van Mehr wrote to the bishop about his meeting with A-chick.

"It was with no ordinary degree of pleasure that I made the acquaintance of a young Christian convert called A-chick, who brought an excellent letter of introduction from you. And I presume you feel deeply interested in his welfare. ... He came to see me as soon as he had arrived and has visited me almost daily.

"Knowing the spiritual temptation of this life-killing place, the very seat of Mammon, I have advised him to prepare for communion... As far as I can see, he is a converted man and promises to remain faithful. I shall do what I can to fulfil God's design with this redeemed soul, until he returns under your immediate care.”

Missionaries and clergymen were quick to seize upon any Chinese convert who showed signs of interest in the church. Unfortunately, for the hopes of Dr. Van Mehr, this was only a passing phase in the life of Tong A-chick. It was not long until the general welfare of the Chinese community in California was of more interest to him than the affairs of the church.

WHY A-CHICK STOOD OUT FROM HIS COUNTRYMEN

With his letters of introduction, interest in Christianity, knowledge of foreign manners and fluency in English, Tong A-chick was
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h
252

JOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: I. Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong

FRED DAGENAIS*

John Fryer (1839-1928) is perhaps best known as a translator of English language books on science and technology into Chinese. During a period of three decades as head of the translation department at the Kiangnan Arsenal (1867-1896), Fryer worked to translate and publish over 100 works. Fryer's translations were well-received by Chinese intellectuals, often reprinted, and were widely distributed. His translations, along with the translations of others, thus made available the then state-of-the-art Western science and technology to late Ch'ing reformers and intellectuals.

During adolescence Fryer was caught up in the religious fervour of the mid-nineteenth century and the enthusiasm for things Chinese. He began his career as a pupil teacher at St. James' School in Bristol and completed his education at Highbury Training College in London. His principal at Highbury, the Reverend (later Bishop) Charles R. Alford, recruited him to serve as headmaster of St. Paul's College in Hong Kong, a school for Chinese boys sponsored by the Church Missionary Society. He worked as headmaster of St. Paul's from 1861 until 1863, when he went to Peking to become a "professor" at the T’ung-wen Kuan, or Government sponsored "Interpreter's College". While in Peking Fryer continued his association with the Church Missionary Society under the guidance of the Reverend (Later Bishop) James Shaw Burdon. In 1865 he was asked by the Church Missionary Society to become superintendent of the Anglo-Chinese School in Shanghai, where he worked until 1868, when he joined the arsenal at Kiangnan.

Fryer sailed for Hong Kong on March 10, 1861. He reached Victoria on July 30th, after a voyage of 142 days, including a brief stop in Batavia, seven days before his 22nd birthday. The voyage was not unlike voyages

* Centre for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Editor's Note. It is hoped to publish a series of accounts of Hong Kong and its environs written by John Fryer in this and the next issues of the Journal. They have been edited by Dr. Dagenais, who is preparing a full edition of Fryer's papers. A portrait of Fryer is at Plate 22. A few minor editorial changes to Fryer's text have been made to remove possible ambiguities and to conform with current usage.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299
146

JOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: II. First Impressions of Hong Kong and the Chinese People

FRED DAGENAIS*

Upon his arrival in Hong Kong at the end of July 1861, John Fryer (1838-1927) went to work with great vigour. He quickly provided a description of his voyage from England to Hong Kong by sailing ship in the form of a letter to be circulated among family and friends in England. Within two weeks of his arrival he wrote a second letter in which he recorded his impressions of Hong Kong and its inhabitants, and of St. Paul's College, where he was to superintend under Church Missionary Society sponsorship. Fryer debarked from the Prince Alfred on July 30, 1861, celebrated his 23rd birthday on August 6th, and completed his "Impressions" letter sometime around August 13th.

John Fryer was born at Hythe, Kent, England, August 6, 1839. His father, the Reverend John Fryer, was a Dissident itinerant preacher of more-or-less Methodist persuasion; his mother, Mary Wiles Fryer, at different times operated a school and was proprietress of a small shop. Fryer had trained at Highbury Training College, London, where he prepared to become a schoolmaster. He had the model of his mother when she conducted a school at Hythe, and as a teenager had gained experience teaching alongside his mother at a school in Bristol. According to the hagiography surrounding Fryer, the principalship of St. Paul's College was offered to the ranking member of Fryer's class at Highbury. Fryer ranked second, but the rival opted for a different position and thus Fryer was launched on his career in China, **though for him, too, it was a second choice**.

+2

Details on the course of events leading to Fryer's selection by the Church Missionary Society and his appointment as principal of St. Paul's College, are not known. While at Highbury Training College Fryer came into contact with the Reverend Charles R. Alford. Alford, who is often referred to as "Bobby" in Fryer's letters, was Principal of

* Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Editor's Note. This is the second of three accounts of Hong Kong and its environs by John Fryer to be published in the Journal. Please see the Editor's Note at p. 252 of Vol. 29 of the Journal.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299
147

Highbury and in a position to encourage Fryer to enter into missionary service. Alford later became "Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College in 1867". What seems certain is that Alford was instrumental in obtaining the appointment for Fryer at St. Paul's College, under the sponsorship of the Church Missionary Society, thus launching his career in China.

In the letter describing his "First Impressions" Fryer appears to have quickly adjusted to the culture shock of Hong Kong and its people. Through the course of the letter Fryer takes the reader, in this case the family and friends to whom he has written, on a walking tour first of the island and then of the College. After a brief description of the island's geology, flora, and fauna, Fryer offers his impressions of both colonizers and colonized. He is pithy at times and harsh at other times, yet perhaps not off the mark. The letter concludes with a walking tour of the building that housed St. Paul's College with comments on the ambience of the building, each of the rooms, the students, the methods of instruction, and the Chinese house staff.

In the letter we see Fryer coming to terms with the European community and with the Chinese, among whom he was to work and live for the next 35 years. We see a determination which includes both a mastery of the situation and an accommodation to the requirements of the missionary community and the various social hierarchies in which he chose to live and work. This assimilation was to serve Fryer well during his career in Hong Kong (1861-63), in Peking (1863-65) at the T'ung-wen Kuan, and in Shanghai (1865-96) primarily at the arsenal at Kiangnan, where he accomplished his major work as translator of books on Western science and technology.

The manuscript for "First Impressions ..." is to be found in the Fryer Papers in The Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The papers contain both the holograph and a typewritten transcript made by Fryer many years later. Along with the holograph is a single sheet of paper with pen and ink drawings, tinted with watercolor, made of the floor plan of St. Paul's College, with the ground floor and the second floor on opposite sides of the sheet. Unfortunately, the ink and color of the sketches has run through the thin paper making them unsuitable for reproduction. An attempt has been made to reproduce the spirit of the sketches in the illustrations.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299
NOTES

167

From manuscripts in the John Fryer Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

The title on the holograph was added in pencil at the top of the page and underlined; a pencil was used to cross out the salutation, probably at the time when the title was added prior to typing many years later. In transcribing this material I have followed the holograph document. Minor changes have been made to bring punctuation and use of numbers into conformity with modern usage and to improve readability. Editorial additions are in square brackets. Fryer tended to write run-on paragraphs; a caret indicates where long paragraphs have been broken up. Colons and semicolons are not easily distinguished in the holograph; Fryer was inconsistent in his use of the apostrophe.

1

Fryer mentions below that it has been a fortnight since his arrival. This would place the date for this letter around August 13, 1861.

4

A sketch of the general plan of St. Paul's College, drawn in ink and tinted with watercolors by Fryer, accompanies the holograph document. See Plans in text, redrawn from Fryer's sketch plan.

4 Fryer generally wrote "&" in his handwritten letters, but converted these to "etc." and "and" in his typewritten transcriptions.

Fryer became engaged to Anna Roleston of Chudleigh, Devon, before embarking for Hong Kong,

The Second Anglo-Chinese War, 1858-1860, which led to a stoppage of much of the trade of Hong Kong with China to 1861.

# This is one of the rare examples of Fryer's use of hyperbole; other examples can be detected below.

HI

The Reverend George Smith, Bishop of Victoria.

Rev. William Roberts Beach arrived in Canton in 1853 sponsored by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He joined the Church of England in 1855. In 1857 he became Warden of St. Paul's College and Chaplain to the Bishop of Victoria. His other appointments included a period in Macao as Missionary Chaplain in 1857, and service as Chaplain to the Forces under Sir Hope Grant in 1861. He was appointed Colonial Chaplain and Canon of St. John's Cathedral by the Rev. Alford, who in 1867 became "Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College'. (see E. J Bitel, Europe in China, Hong Kong: Kelley and Walsh, 1895. p. 466.) Alford was Principal of Highbury Training College, London, at the time when John Fryer was enlisted for work at St. Paul's College.

|| This was the College in Staunton Street, later renamed St. Saviour's (1863), and then (1875) St. Joseph's.

זן

Fryer travelled to Hong Kong on the sailing ship Prince Alfred.

Published in Volume 29 (1989) of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

14

See Plans in Text.

15

See Plates 2-4.

16. Charles R. Alford; see note 10.

דן

* "animals" standard English school master-speech for "schoolboys".

श्र

Possibly the British Museum.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299
247

―

and Godown Company. 'Monuments' still standing include the Helena May Institute (completed 1916), Saint Andrew's Church (foundation stone laid 1904) and Church Hall, and the Peninsula Hotel (official opening 1928) which — along with the Taj Mahal in Bombay, Raffles in Singapore and a few others was classified, before World War II, as one of the 'great hotels of the East'. Another of Leigh and Orange's edifices is the main, 'Renaissance' style, building at Hong Kong University which was completed in 1912 and extended in 1952. It has been gazetted as an historical monument. The now demolished Sir Paul Chater's 'Marble Hall', generally accepted as the most luxurious residence in Hong Kong before World War II, was another example.

The Colony's first, full-time, chartered accountant was Arthur Lowe, who came to Hong Kong in 1902. Joseph Bingham became his partner in 1905, and Frederick Mathews (Lowe, Bingham and Mathews) in 1909. There were other accountants in the Territory before 1902, but few had professional qualifications and auditing was usually a subsidiary activity to their main lines of business. For instance, Linstead and Davis were mainly property agents, but they also sold bicycles, and, up to 1926, they had an agency for Manila cigars. The partners audited the accounts of various companies. The senior partner of Gibb Livingston was one of the two Hong Kong Bank auditors, and so on.

Lowe Bingham (Lo Bing Ham in Chinese) became part of the international firm of Price Waterhouse in 1974,

Hong Kong and China Gas Company

William Glen, who had no knowledge of the gas industry in 1861, obtained from the then Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (when the population was 123,281), a concession to supply gas to the city of Victoria. The company was incorporated on May 31st 1862: most of the shareholders lived in the United Kingdom, although 500 shares were offered locally.

Then, on December 3rd 1864, Hong Kong was lit with gas for the first time by about 15 miles of mains and 500 lamps, in Queen's Road extending up the hill to Upper Albert Road. Previously, the only street lights had been installed voluntarily by residents, and burned peanut oil. The residents of Caine Road complained that they

---

Page 270

Page 271
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641
JOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: III. ACCOUNT OF THREE DAYS EXCURSION ON THE MAINLAND OF CHINA

FRED DAGENAIS*

129

This is the third in a series of letters by John Fryer (1838-1928) to appear in this Journal. In the first letter Fryer described the tedious and sometimes difficult voyage from London to Hong Kong in 1861 on a sailing ship via the Cape of Good Hope with a brief stop at Batavia. In the first letter Fryer presented himself as a very young man just out of Highbury Training College coming into contact with the larger world, homesick, critical of the master of the ship and of the passengers, confirmed in his personal faith, bent on self-improvement, and interacting for the first time with missionaries in the colonial world of Batavia and Hong Kong.

The second letter, written shortly after his arrival, described Hong Kong and its environs and the European and Chinese people encountered; in it he provided us with a detailed tour of the building housing St. Paul's College, where he had been assigned to superintend by the Church Missionary Society, and of its operations. St Paul's College had its origins in a school founded in the mid-1840s by then Colonial Chaplain Rev. Vincent Stanton; the College was given a boost by the arrival in 1850 of the Rev George Smith, Bishop of Victoria (1849-64). In that letter Fryer seemed in awe of his new authority and responsibility and quite proud of the commodious school building and its library; he began to socialize with the Colonial Chaplain and his family, and revealed an appreciation of the wider perspective offered by the interaction with the Chinese population of the island and its culture.

The first and second letters were clearly identified as letters written for home consumption, for family and friends in Hythe and Chudleigh. The letters were extracted from his diary and designed to describe his adventures in an exotic land. The first letter had a salutation and a signature; the second letter had a salutation, but ended abruptly, the last page or pages with conclusion and signature having perhaps been lost or purposely destroyed.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641
130

This third letter is to be found in manuscript form among the Fryer papers in The Bancroft Library, papers which Fryer deposited prior to his death in 1928, papers which he was selective about preserving. It is an essay no doubt written for "home" consumption, but in its holograph form is without salutation or signature. Creases in the holograph suggest that it was mailed; perhaps it was accompanied by a "covering" letter which has not survived. The manuscript consists of six large pages with two columns per page, tightly penned, each page completely and neatly filled with writing and numbered, clearly the product of much reflection, control and effort. The manuscript has the title "Account of Three days excursion on the Mainland of China." Many years later, perhaps after the typewriter became available, Fryer added the date “1862” in pencil. Other manuscripts in the collection have been annotated with a similar blunt pencil, probably prior to typing. The date was in error as the excursion could not have taken place before 1863, as will be described in a footnote that accompanies the "letter" below.

Fryer's origin was quite humble; his father was a Dissident itinerant Methodist preacher who appears to have had trouble finding his place in the society of Kent, his mother was a sometime school teacher and proprietress of a shop. Fryer was ambitious and was what we now call "upwardly mobile.” In this letter we find Fryer at age 23 and well on his way to becoming an accepted China hand. He is invited by the already prominent German missionary Rudolf Lechler, who had arrived in China in 1847 to represent the Basel Mission, to join a party which includes three other substantial Englishmen. Lechler had worked in Kwangtung (Guangdong) among the Hakka peoples, had established a reputation for having "gone native,” living in a Chinese house, wearing Chinese attire and probably a queue. The party included the Rev. Thomas Stringer of the Church Missionary Society and who had only recently arrived in Hong Kong, the Rev. John Irwin the Colonial Chaplain since 1855, and one "Captn Drummond of the 99th”. During the excursion, Fryer, the youngest of the party, is at ease in this company and appears to be well on his way to becoming accepted by the establishment. He apparently has no trouble socializing, sharing meals, rooms, yarns and jokes, and doing a bit of pheasant shooting with his fellow excursionists.

Little is known of Fryer's two years at St. Paul's College other
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641
131

than what is provided in these three letters. In later life he rarely wrote about his experience at St. Paul's or his life during his Hong Kong years. Fryer's letters, other than these three, and diaries from this period, if they survive, have not been located. However, in these three polished letters we can see a progression from impressionable college graduate, to responsible and presumably successful superintendent of a CMS sponsored college, to socially accepted compatriot, all the while improving his mastery of the Chinese language. He wrote of studying the Chinese language on the voyage out, and he anticipated mastery of the language during his first weeks in Hong Kong. Here we see Fryer bargaining with a Chinese merchant for the purchase of oranges, an incident as he relates it that is not without humor, conversing with a young boy, discussing religion with a Christian convert, and arguing religious points with a Buddhist priest.

Finally, in this letter Fryer presents himself interacting with men who would reside and work in China for many decades; Lechler was to remain until 1899, Eitel until 1897, Fryer himself until 1896. Fryer left Hong Kong later in 1863 to join W.A.P. Martin as Professor of English at the T'ung-wen Kuan, or Interpreter's College, in Peking. The chain of events leading to Fryer's departure from St. Paul's College and subsequent employment by Martin in Peking is unknown. However, after but two years in Peking at the T'ung-wen Kuan, Fryer is in 1865 again in the employ of the Church Missionary Society as headmaster of the Anglo-Chinese College, a not very prosperous school for Chinese boys in Shanghai, a post he was to hold until 1868, when he began work for the Chinese government as a translator at the arsenal at Kiangnan.

As in the letters published previously, an attempt has been made to balance the needs of modern usage with the very few peculiarities of the Fryer manuscripts. Fryer was inconsistent in his use of punctuation, particularly in the use of the colon and the apostrophe. Punctuation in this transcription is essentially as Fryer would have it in his manuscript; the reader will forgive an occasional irregular spelling. Fryer's run-on narrative has been separated into smaller paragraphs by the editor, and a caret used to indicate where such separations have been made to improve readability.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
131

THE FAÇADE OF ST. PAUL'S, MACAO: A RETABLE-FAÇADE?

Introduction

CESAR GUILLEN-NUÑEZ

This paper will look at the façade of the church of Madre de Deus, Macao, popularly known as ruinas de São Paulo (Ruins of St. Paul's), from a perspective different to that familiar to most, including scholars. For I believe the surviving frontispiece should be classified as a fachada retablo, that is, as a retable-façade.

A retable-façade is a kind of structure that has been given this appellation by modern Hispanists because of its similarities to carved Spanish altarpieces. Altarpieces, also known as retables (whence the façade's name), were as popular in Portugal as they were in Spain. Curiously, retable-façades were less frequently used in Portugal and are practically unknown in Portuguese colonies. I hope therefore that it will not seem too fanciful to start this paper by asking the question: is the surviving front of St. Paul's just such a façade? And if so, then how could such a structure have appeared in seventeenth-century Macao, Portugal's most treasured possession in Southeast Asia? (Fig. 1).

Before continuing, I must point out that part of this paper has been adapted from a thesis on the subject that I completed in 1997 for University College London. The thesis itself evolved from an unpublished youthful article written a number of decades ago, after many years' interest on the extraordinary phenomenon of the retable-façade. Eventually a few of my ideas on the façade of St. Paul appeared in a book on Macao that I wrote almost twenty years ago.

Some art historians may disagree with my identification of the façade of St. Paul's as a retable-façade, mainly because of the lack of primary sources backing up the idea. Perhaps it will not be thought too irrelevant to consider that in recent years the tourist trade in Macao has readily echoed it, as is true of a small number of Portuguese researchers steeped in Lusitanian architectural traditions. Although the latter come from outside the field of the retable-façade their writings at least imply an acceptance of the idea. Unfortunately they only include a discussion...
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
132

of the façade as part of broader surveys on the church of St. Paul's or the architecture of the Jesuits in China and, regretfully, not much new has been added to this particular question.

In order to make clearer certain developments related to the façade of St. Paul's, a limited number of churches and altarpieces in Spain and in Portuguese India will be discussed. But because of limitations of time, any detailed references to the ground plans, elevations, and dimensions of St. Paul's or any of these structures or buildings will be left out. It is mainly the façades of buildings as they relate to the main topic that are of greater importance here. Besides these analogies, I will further explore some relevant questions on the development of Jesuit buildings in India first expressed in an article written several years ago.

The Church of St. Paul's, Macao

What once was the Jesuit Church of Madre de Deus, or St. Paul's, is today merely a church front, some 70 feet high, with narrow sections of aisle-walls holding it up at either side at the back. This seventeenth-century ruin is the only remnant of a catastrophic 1835 fire, which destroyed the entire complex of educational and residential buildings of which it was part (Fig. 1).

The impression that it makes today, when it is mainly admired as a relic of a bygone age, is quite different from that which it made to visitors over three and a half centuries ago. At that time, the church stood in full visible splendour on a hill near the city walls, facing the Portuguese city below and the open sea beyond. Ironically, a fire in November of 1600 had destroyed a previous church, which led to the construction of the church of Madre de Deus, the one that in time became the most splendid Christian temple in a transitional Early Baroque style ever to have been built in China. Seventeenth-century visitors marvelled at what was then the new church of a university college, started two years after the November fire and at the time only recently completed with the addition of a brand new façade.

This added structure was an amazing showcase of artistic and social co-operation. Artists of East and West had created it. The Portuguese rectors had supported it. The wealthy citizens of Macao had financed it.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
133

it, following social precedents with roots in the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages in Europe.

The testimony of the English merchant, Peter Mundy, today well known to historians of Macao, is a good example of the effect that this novel façade produced. He had actually arrived as one of the English factors in the fleet of Captain John Weddel, which first entered Macao waters on the fifth of July 1637. In fact, Peter Mundy formed part of a party that was allowed by the Portuguese to disembark in Macao on the twenty-eighth of the month, with a missive from Charles I of England to the Captain-General of the city.

On the very day of landing he and the others went to visit the College of St. Paul's and its church at the invitation of the Jesuit fathers. Mundy waxes lyrical about the splendours of the façade and the church claiming that, 'there is a New Faire Frontispiece to the said Church with a spacious ascent to it by many steppes; the 2 last things mentioned of hewen stone.'5

One cannot help wondering if Peter Mundy's admiration of the frontispiece was not equally due to the fact that he had before his eyes an impressive retable-façade, something that in all likelihood he has never seen before.

Retable-Façades

Before continuing, it may be necessary to briefly make clear some basic facts about retable-façades. What are they? When did they acquire this rather peculiar name? As already briefly mentioned a retable is a kind of Iberian wooden altarpiece, one that was often elaborately carved. One could argue that altarpiece-façade is just as accurate a term as the invented phrase retable-façade; but for a number of sensible reasons on which it is not necessary to comment here contemporary art historians have opted for the latter. In certain formal and functional aspects they are not unlike medieval English reredos, although there are important differences.

The history of what one could call their discovery as types is quite recent. It was mainly during the last century that specialists began noticing groups of unusual church façades in Spain and Latin America
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
134

that bore an uncanny resemblance to retables. In fact, many look like stone altarpieces carved in high relief applied to the façades of churches. Although the phrase retable-façade is not actually found in contemporary sources, a number of accounts from the seventeenth century and later supported the findings of modern specialists by alluding to retables when describing some of these façades.

These rather puzzling structures had actually first appeared towards the end of the fifteenth century embellishing the front of several Late Gothic churches in Spain, and have apparently no counterpart in Europe or anywhere else. What is equally surprising is the fact that most of the artists who helped invent the type were not themselves Spanish. They often came from countries beyond the Pyrenees, such as Holland, Germany or France, and had been attracted to northern Spanish kingdoms by the patronage of kings, the church or the nobility. If they actually invented retable-façades is a mystery that has yet to be solved.

Retable-façades come in all shapes and sizes. Stylistically they range from the Late Gothic to the Late Baroque and beyond. Artistically they go from the sublime to the prosaic. Some of the finest examples of the genre were created in Spanish Latin America and in Portugal, though, as mentioned, they are practically unknown in Brazil and other Portuguese colonies. In fact, Reynaldo dos Santos and R.C. Smith have argued that retable-façades in Portuguese architecture only occur due to Spanish influence.

6

Santa Maria A Grande

One of the masterpieces of this type of façade is that of the church of Santa Maria A Grande (St Mary Major), in Pontevedra, Galicia, in the Northwest coast of Spain (Fig. 2).

I could equally well have chosen from amongst several works to demonstrate the more distinctive features of retable-façades. But I have selected Santa Maria A Grande because I believe it has unique features in common with the façade of St. Paul in Macao. To begin with, like St. Paul's, Santa Maria a Grande's fantastically ornate façade faces the river below from an imposing promontory.

Equally relevant are the economic and cultural reasons that brought
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
142

himself, as well as the whole of their missionary activity in Asia and the Far East, including Macao, accounts for this. Sadly, as in Macao's Madre de Deus (which apparently was popularly called St. Paul's because of the Goa college and church), today only a pitiful ruin remains of this artistic and historic treasure, with merely a section of the entrance façade with its stone portal standing (Fig. 8).

The entangled history of the church's abandonment and final decay need not concern us here. But conveniently for my main arguments, the small section that does survive displays an Arch of Triumph integrated to the wall. Here engaged Corinthian columns, paired and elegantly fluted, standing on bases decorated with diamond-shaped reliefs and carrying a broken entablature frame the half-circular entrance arch. Artistically and technically this feature is close to the sophistication of Italian Renaissance architecture.

Since neither the famous college nor its church survives, Mário Chicó attempted to reconstruct the latter by means of drawings based on contemporary descriptions. He believed it to be the prototype for one of two types of Indo-Portuguese churches. He also convincingly argued that of the two types that of the façade of São Paulo is the closer to Serlio and Italian Renaissance architecture.

In Chicó's published drawing the façade of the church is shown as having three storeys, plus a pedimented attic. The three storeys are divided into three bays by projecting pilasters with entablatures, with openings for entrances and square and round windows. There is a niche for a titular image in the attic, which is joined to the floors below by the pilasters of the middle bay and by volutes.

It's an imaginative reconstruction, especially the fact that the façade has comparatively little decoration. It relies for effect on the more purely abstract lines of the design and on the main feature of its decoration, its Arch of Triumph.

The artistic and symbolic potency of the motif and its application as decoration to the façades of religious architecture was one that was not actually initiated by either the architects or the religious members of the Society of Jesus in Italy, Spain, Portugal or India. Rather it was one that the Jesuits had readily accepted and were able to effectively
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
143

exploit for the decoration of the façades of some of their Indian churches of the last third of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the next. The theme would later be adapted to the more ornate decoration of the façades of the churches of their Casa Professa in Velha Goa and of the Jesuit College in Diu.

Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus and the Diu Collegiate Church

Not only the Bom Jesús, but, as we shall see, the façades of the collegiate churches in Diu and of Madre de Deus in Macao point to a further stylistic development of the architecture of the Society of Jesus in Asia.

It could be argued that the façade decoration of the three mentioned buildings reveals a transitional phase, one in which a Late Mannerist decorative idiom is elaborated to the utmost. Moreover, in the Church of Madre de Deus in Macao this idiom already heralds the Baroque style.

In India even before Jules Simão's appointment as chief of the cathedral works the Jesuits had begun work on what was to be their finest building project in India. This was their Casa Professa, or Profess House, begun in 1583-85, whose cloisters were also designed by Simão (Figs. 9,10).

Today the church of the Profess House, originally dedicated to the Child Jesus, is better known as the Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus. It was started on the 24 November 1594 to the plans of G.B. Cairatti, an Italian architect from Milan, and completed about twelve years later. Perhaps its chief attraction today is the so-called incorrupt body of St. Francis Xavier and its magnificent 1690s funerary monument by Giovanbattista Foggini.17

The design of the front of the Bom Jesús, if not of its ground plan, indicates that the architect followed the general lines of the façade of St. Paul as reconstructed by M. Chicó (Fig. 9). There is the same division into three storeys and three bays, plus attic and pediment joined to the storeys below by gracefully curved brackets. Not only the façade but the whole building is crowned by numerous Herreresque spheres on bases placed as accents to the line of rising unifying pilasters. The Arch
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
145

The Façade of São Paulo, Macao

These novel trends in Jesuit architecture in India occurring at about the turn of the century may have reached their apogee in the church of their new college in Macao, opened to the public on Christmas day, 1603 (Figs. 1, 13).

However, amongst other important differences with churches in India, here there is no Arch of Triumph as such; there is not even an entrance arch, but straightforward lintel-and-post doorways. Could the reason for its absence be that Portugal never did conquer Macao? This is an attractive conjecture, although a more likely explanation is that the architect or designer of the façade of St. Paul's was simply following St. Charles Borromeo's recommendations to architects concerning the façades of ecclesiastical buildings. In his influential Instructions of 1572, Charles Borromeo recommends the use of lintel and post for entrances of Christian churches instead of the arch, which he considered a pagan structure18. Be that as it may, the idea that the façade of Madre de Deus represents a symbolic arch of triumph of sorts, although one not based directly on an Arch of Triumph but on some other structure, should not be discarded altogether.

Apparently, seventeenth-century visitors, many of whom had seen the churches of the Jesuits in Goa, did not find the lack of arches too unusual. What they do imply in their chronicles is that this façade was something particularly surprising within the architecture of the Society of Jesus, not only in Asia but elsewhere. The way they reacted not only to the magnificent interior of the church but also to its façade is significant. In the case of the latter, were they looking at something not merely visually striking but also quite novel? As already surmised at the start of this paper, were they in fact looking at the first retable-façade in China?

This is not as improbable as it may seem. Today, once certain historical and art-historical associations are made, the surviving façade of the church recalls the outburst of altarpiece construction that took place in the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas colonies from the last decades of the sixteenth century.

Until the Portuguese revolt of 1640 and the restoration of the House
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
146

of Bragança, Philip IV of Spain ruled Portugal as Philip III during the construction of the façade. Before him two other Philips had reigned over Spain and Portugal, beginning with Philip II, crowned Philip I of Portugal in 1580. Throughout most of this highly controversial historical period very large altarpieces in a classical style were being built in Spain and Portugal. The prime instance of late sixteenth-century classical altarpieces of huge dimensions is the massive main retable of the church of the Escorial.

It is rather frustrating that no known contemporary source actually establishes any sort of comparison between the frontispiece of St. Paul and these retables. Even in our days specialists have ignored the connection. The reason may be that the façade of St. Paul does not conform to known examples of retable-façades. Even in the largest surviving examples the actual retable configuration is contained within the elevation by various means, such as the large buttresses found in Santa Maria A Grande in Pontevedra. They indicate to the viewer that this is a simulated stone altarpiece cleverly applied to the front of the building for his or her admiration and astonishment. At St. Paul's there is no containment, no similar signalling to the beholder that its designer intended a metaphorical retable. Here the altarpiece simile seems to extend to the whole of the church's front. This fact would certainly make this façade unique, but would not necessarily exclude it from classification as a retable-façade.

Given the lack of primary sources that would justify such a classification one must largely rely on the visual evidence. The following section shows how an analysis of the façade's structure and of its iconography can lead to reasonable conclusions supporting this hypothesis.

Artists and Dates of Construction

Who the architect and artists of the surviving frontispiece were and when they built it is a question that has eluded scholars due to a lack of contemporary sources. These sources plainly state that the architect of the church was the Italian Jesuit Carlo Spinola and one can surmise that he drafted the design of the elevation, but no one really knows. Spinola died a martyr's death in 1622, before the construction of the façade.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
148

kept in the archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome and elsewhere, indicate that they were understandably interested in the names of their martyrs, but much less so in those of their artists, no matter what names contemporary researchers may have been able to find. Nevertheless, the sculptures of Chinese lions and the reliefs of Japanese flora, which decorate the façade, show that under their wing these mainly anonymous Asian artists were at least free to express their native sensibilities.

The 1644 Annual Letter

What cannot be established, except through a careful examination of the façade, is if these artists were under the influence of contemporary altarpieces. But again it should be recalled just how important the design of retables had become in the Iberian universe. Latin American Baroque and Rococo retable-façades clearly testify to the ascendancy of the features of retables over those of retable-façades." I would argue that a similar influence was already at work in the design of the façade of St. Paul's.

The Litterae Annua of 1644 for the Japan Province penned by António Ferreira, in the archives of the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus, in Rome, is an exceptional document of exceptional relevance for this paper. It is already known to scholars from competent but slightly inaccurate eighteenth-century transcripts by Fr. José Montanha in the Archivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon, and has been quoted since 1955 by Fr. Videira Pires and others. But the original manuscript has remained quietly filed and largely ignored in the Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome. The original passage in the Annua that describes the façade as it reached completion in 1644, and which I would like to quote to the honourable audience and members of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong for the first time in public form my translation of the Portuguese text, reads as follows:

Alms were given this year to crown the main façade of this Church, which is all of carved stone in a Roman manner. From top to bottom it has three orders of columns with their pedestals, six arched niches in good proportion; four of the ones which are half domes are on the first frieze amongst the orders of the second order of columns, each by itself next to the opening of the three windows of the choir: in them there are the half length figures of our Saints Ignatius, Xavier, Borja and Gonzaga,
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
155

impressions and variations of this image circulated at the time in Europe; 26 the Jesuit fathers had actually been instrumental in introducing similar prints to the East. Apart from prints, Charles Boxer, amongst others, has remarked how the Portuguese had carried retablos with them to Japan.27 It therefore seems equally plausible that related altarpieces might have been present in the minds of the artists of the façade.

Besides the mentioned attributes, the unknown programmer of the decoration also incorporated themes from St John's Book of Revelation 12.1 and 12.3 (John 12.2 was by now conveniently glossed over in artistic representations of the theme), as well as from other sources.

Such a sophisticated and theological knowledge of Marian themes reveals the mind of a programmer ingenious enough to merit a few words. Although the identity of its author is unknown, Carlo Spinola, the architect of Madre de Deus and the artist Giovanni Nicolao, director of the art school in Japan, come immediately to mind. But I think one should also consider Dom Diogo Correa Valente as another possible candidate for authorship, mainly on account of the contents of his library in the College of St. Paul.28

The Jesuit Diogo Valente was the learned but controversial Bishop of Japan resident at the College of São Paulo from 1619 to 1624, years when the façade was probably being redesigned and its construction begun. In 1624 Dom Diogo had to leave for Goa in a hurry under the shadow of the violent quarrels that agitated Macao because members of his own order had apparently partisanly elected him as Bishop of the city. But he returned again as Bishop in 1630 and so remained until his death three years later. When he was buried in the chancel of the church of Madre de Deus the decoration of the frontispiece must have been in progress. However, this is a question that can only be settled by future research.

Symbolic Meaning

The interpretation of symbols relating to Mary (and the other images) is a fascinating but complex subject that cannot be discussed in detail here. However, it is worth considering some of those adorning the façade to get a sense of their poetic and mystical quality.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
158

The prolific use of symbols for the decoration of the façade and the mystical poetry thus created is typical of the way images were used in the decoration of carved wooden retables. It is a topic that could be elaborated at great length, although unfortunately it is not possible here.

Conclusion

In this talk I have endeavoured to elucidate my main contention concerning the façade of St. Paul's by pointing out the way certain of its principal features relate to retables, such as the uniquely decorative nature of its classical supports and the strongly Eucharistic connotations of its decoration.

This fact connects it to Spanish retable-façades, a kind of structure not typically Portuguese but also appearing in Portuguese architecture at this time. Moreover, two significant artistic developments in Jesuit architecture in Portuguese India could be said to prefigure the originality of the façade of St. Paul's. Firstly, there is some evidence of incipient retable-façades decorating a few of the churches of the Society of Jesus in India in which the Arch of Triumph is used as principal decorative motif. Although not possible here, Secondly, at the turn of the century the Jesuits in India were willing to admit the use of a more elaborate artistic idiom for the façades of their churches, in contrast to the plain styles preferred in the Iberian Peninsula during the latter half of the sixteenth century.

Hopefully my extended inquiry has provided convincing answers to the intriguing similarities I believe exist between the unusual features seen in the façade of St. Paul's and those more characteristic of a retable-façade, even if the façade discussed remains an elusive artistic work sui generis.

NOTES

Guillén-Nuñez, César, “The Relationship of the Façade of the Jesuit Collegiate Church of Madre de Deus, Macao, to Retable-Façades”, M.Phil. Thesis, University College London, 1997. Guillén-Nuñez, C., Macau (Images of Asia), Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1984, pp. 52-3.

2 Vid. Rafael Moreira, “As Formas Artísticas”, in História dos Portugueses no
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
159

Extremo Oriente. Vol. 1. Tomo 1. Em Tomo de Macau, (A.H. de Oliveira Marques editor). Fundação Oriente. 1998, p.489. More recently also M. Nishiyama, "The Church of St. Paul in Macao under the Transformation of Portuguese Architecture in their Colonies"; a paper presented in the Modern Asian Architecture Network conferences held in Macao, 22-26 July, 2001.

To the best of my knowledge only two other papers on the Church of St. Paul's agree that its façade is a retable-façade. See G. Couceiro, "The Church of the College of Madre de Deus", and F.A. Baptista Pereira. "A Conjectural Reconstruction of the Church of the College of Mater Dei', as well as C. Guillén-Nuñez's commentaries to both papers; all in Religion and Culture: An International Symposium Commemorating the IVth Centenary of the University College of St. Paul, Macao, 28 Nov.-1 Dec. 1994, Cultural Institute of Macao, and Ricci Institute. Uni. of S. Francisco, Macao, 1999, pp. 177-248. G. Couceiro's paper was adapted from his PhD thesis. "L'Eglise de Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (ou de St. Paul) à Macao et L'Art de la Compagnie de Jesus en Chine: Art et Adaptation". Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (en Sorbonne), IV Sect. Sciences Historiques et Philologiques. It has been recently published as A Igreja de S. Paulo de Macau. Lisbon, 1997. Baptista Pereira's paper was published in As Ruinas de S. Paulo. Um Monumento para o Futuro / St. Paul's Ruins. A Monument Towards the Future, (bilingual exh. catalogue), Setúbal, 1994, pp. 63-85. Although both these papers missed or ignored a number of important arguments by previous researchers on the subject, including the original dedication of the church, the iconography of the decoration and my identification of the façade as a retable-façade, they have informative sections on the ground plan of the church and other points. Videira Pires first pointed out that the original dedication of the church was to the Assumption. Vid. B. Videira Pires, “Igrejas e Cemiterios Antigos de Macau (1)", Religião e Patria, Ano XLVIII - No. 14, 15 Abril, 1962, p. 214 and p. 216.

Pioneering writings on the façade, its decoration and artists begin with J.F. Marques Pereira, "Em prol de umas ruinas (A proposito do frontespicio do Collegio de S. Paulo, em Macau)'', in Ta-Ssi-Yang-Kuo, Archivos e Annaes do Extremo-Oriente Portugues, Lisbon, 1899-1902, Serie I, II, pp. 483-92. This is followed by J.D. Francis's article, "Macao's San Paolo, A symbolical Ruin”, The Macao Review, Macao, 1930, pp. 3, 14. J.D. Francis first noticed that the iconography of the façade was a didactic sermon in stone. After these studies came those of J.M. Braga, "A Igreja de S. Paulo”, Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau, April 1932, pp. 246-7. M. Teixeira, A fachada de S. Paulo, Macao, 1940.

Macau e a Sua Diocese, Macao, 1956, III, pp. 178-81, passim.

Page 210

Page 211
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
160

M. Hugo-Brunt, "An Architectural Survey of the Jesuit Seminary Church of St. Paul's, Macao", Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. 1, No.2, July 1954, University of Hong Kong, pp.1-21. J.B. Bury, "A Jesuit Façade in China", The Architectural Review, VI. CXXIV, No. 743, London, Dec. 1958, pp. 412-3.

"Macao's St. Paul”, in Actas do III Colóquio Internacional de Estudos Luso-Brasileiros, II, Lisbon, 1960, pp. 30-6. A version of the latter, first delivered in 1957, is found in J.B. Bury, "A Igreja de São Paulo”, Arquitectura e Arte no Brasil Colonial, São Paulo, 1991, pp. 154-61. With few exceptions Chinese gazetteers of the Ming and Ching Dynasties seem to have ignored the façade altogether.

3 Guillen-Núñez, Cesar, "Some observations on the architecture of the Jesuits in the Orient", in St. Paul's Ruins. A Monument towards the Future, (bilingual Portuguese-English exh. catalogue, directed by F.A. Baptista Pereira), Lisbon-Macau, September-December, 1994, pp.49-53. Unfortunately, in this catalogue part of the original English text is corrupted by numerous typographical errors. There is however an excellent Portuguese translation, although a few lines of the original have been misinterpreted.

+ For the dimensions of St. Paul's façade vid. Hugo-Brunt, op. cit., p. 9. plates 2-10, and plate 13.

5 The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667, Hakluyt Soc., London, 1919, III, Part I, pp. 162-3.

6

Reynaldo dos Santos, Historia da Arte em Portugal, III, pp. 34-6. R.C. Smith, The Art of Portugal, p. 86.

The literature on Spanish and Portuguese retable-façades is extensive but often only found piecemeal in more general works on Spanish and Portuguese architecture. Two pioneering researchers were B. Bevan, History of Spanish Architecture, London, 1938, p. 135; and G. Kubler, in Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions, 1500-1800, Penguin Books, 1959, p. 1. It should be noted that in the latter San Gregorio's façade is wrongly described as that of the chapel, rather than the College of San Gregorio.

The following is a selected sample of other important writing on these structures. A. Rodriguez G. de Ceballos, La Iglesia y el Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, Salamanca, 1987. F.Checa, Pintura y Escultura del Renacimiento
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
Fig.13 Facade of Church of Madre de Deus (St. Paul's), Macao, detail of main doorway inscribed Mater Dei.

177
================================================================================