Towards The End Of September,
The Season And Their Inclinations Concurred To Deliver Them From This
Place; For By This Time, Even The Common Men Began To Be Weary Of The
People, Who Shewed Themselves Finished Cheats In Every Thing.
On the
25th September, their arms and ammunition were restored, and that same
day the Success weighed from the
Harbour, going out into the road or
gulf, in order to proceed for Macao, to have the ship surveyed, as the
men insisted she was not in a condition for the voyage home. Captain
Clipperton affirmed the contrary, well knowing that the men insisted on
this point merely to justify their own conduct, and to avoid being
punished in England for their misbehaviour in China.
They weighed anchor from the Bay of Amoy, in the province of
Tonkin,[246] on the 30th September, and anchored in the road of
Macao on the 4th October. This place had been an hundred and fifty
years in the hands of the Portuguese, and had formerly been one of the
most considerable places of trade in all China, but has now fallen much
into decay. The way in which the Portuguese became possessed of this
place gives a good specimen of Chinese generosity. In prosecuting their
trade with China from India and Malacca, being often overtaken by
storms, many of their ships had been cast away for want of a harbour,
among the islands about Macao, on which they requested to have some
place of safety allowed them in which to winter. The Chinese accordingly
gave them this rocky island, then inhabited by robbers, whom they
expelled. At first they were only allowed to build thatched cottages;
but, by bribing the mandarins, they were permitted in the sequel to
erect stone houses, and even to build forts. One of these, called the
Fort of the Bar, is at the mouth of the harbour, and terminates at a
rock called Appenka, where there is a hermitage of the order of St
Augustine. There is another fort on the top of a hill, called the Fort
of the Mountain; also another high fort, called Nuestra Senhora de
Guia. The city of Macao stands on a peninsula, having a strong wall
built across the isthmus, with a gate in the middle, through which the
Chinese pass out and in at pleasure, but it is death for a Portuguese to
pass that way.
[Footnote 246: This surely is an error for Fo-kien. Amoy has been before
stated in the text as N.E. from Macao, whereas the kingdom of Tonquin
is S.W. from that port. - E.]
Some travellers have reported that the Portuguese were sovereigns of
Macao, as of other places in India: But they never were, and the Chinese
are too wise a people to suffer any thing of the kind. Macao certainly
is as fine a city, and even finer, than could be expected, considering
its untoward situation: It is also regularly and strongly fortified,
having upwards of 200 pieces of brass cannon upon its walls. Yet, with
all these, it can only defend itself against strangers. The Chinese ever
were, and ever will be, masters of Macao, and that without firing a gun
or striking a blow. They have only to shut up that gate and place a
guard there, and Macao is undone; and this they have actually done
frequently. Without receiving provisions from the adjacent country, the
inhabitants of this city cannot subsist for a day; and besides, it is so
surrounded by populous islands, and the Chinese are here so completely
masters of the sea, that the Portuguese at Macao might be completely
starved on the slightest difference with the Chinese. The Portuguese
have indeed the government over their own people within the walls of
this city; yet Macao is strictly and properly a Chinese city: For there
is a Chinese governor resident on the spot, together with a hoppo or
commissioner of the customs; and these Chinese mandarins, with all their
officers and servants, are maintained at the expence of the city, which
has also to bear the charges of the Portuguese government.[247]
[Footnote 247: The East India Company found all this to be true a few
years ago, when its Indian government thought to have taken Macao from
the Portuguese. Had this account of the matter been read and understood,
they would not have unnecessarily incurred a vast expence, and suffered
no small disgrace at Canton. - E.]
In spite of all this, the Portuguese inhabitants were formerly very
rich, owing to the great trade they carried on with Japan, which is now
in a great measure lost. Yet, being so near Canton, and allowed to
frequent the two annual fairs at that place, and to make trading voyages
at other times, they still find a way to subsist, and that is all, as
the prodigious presents they have to make on all occasions to the
Chinese mandarins, consume the far greater part of their profits. Each
of their vessels, on going up to Canton, has in the first place to pay
L100 sterling for leave to trade. They are next obliged to make a
considerable present, for permission to have their goods brought on
board by the Chinese, to whom they must not only pay ready money for all
they buy, but have sometimes to advance the price beforehand for a year.
After all this, they have to make another present for leave to depart,
at least double the amount of what they formerly paid for liberty to
trade; and they have to pay heavy duties to the emperor for every thing
they buy or sell, besides their enormous presents to his ministers.
SECTION IV.
Residence of Captain Clipperton at Macao, and Returns from thence to
England.
On entering the port of Macao in the Success, Captain Clipperton saluted
the fortress, which compliment was returned. He then went on shore,
where he prevailed on the captain of a Portuguese ship of war, formerly
mentioned, to carry the property belonging to his owners to Brazil.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 184 of 221
Words from 186945 to 187960
of 224764
