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HISTORY

prominent boulders was held sacred to his memory, until 1943, when the Japanese demolished it as a safety measure for the airport.* The last battle between the Sung and the Mongols was probably fought in the New Territories in 1279, not far from Tsuen Wan; and after the Sung defeat large numbers of the Court and nobility are said to have escaped across to Lantau Island, where some of them settled, their descendants surviving to this day.

In the earliest maritime connexions between China and the West the shipping was principally Arab, the traders including Indians, Persians and Jews, all of whom, from the seventh century onwards, formed a considerable foreign community in Canton. When, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese discovered the sea route from Europe to India, they quickly put an end to Arab trade with the Far East. In 1513 Jorge Alvares, the first European ever to command a sea voyage to China, reached the Pearl River in a chartered Burmese junk; and in 1517 the first Portuguese ships arrived, with the aim of opening regular trade with China.

Their first attempts were unsuccessful, and it was not until 1557, after having given the Chinese some help in the local suppression of piracy, that the Portuguese established themselves at Macau.

From then onwards, through many vicissitudes, and against the main current of authoritative Chinese opinion, which was not interested in foreign trade, Macau provided the only reliable point of contact between China and the West. English contacts with Macau date from about 1600, the first English ship actually calling there in 1635 under charter to the Portuguese. Between 1601 and 1627 the Dutch made attempts to capture Macau, but without success.

Regular seasonal British trade with China dates from 1700, and, although Amoy and other ports farther up the coast were visited from time to time, the bulk of the trade was with Canton, the ships weighing for dues and clearing at Taipa, just south of

* A memorial stone bearing the characters Sung Wong Toi, which formerly surmounted the hill, has now been erected in a small public park adjoining its original site.