Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Macao

MACAO (A-Ma-ngao, “Harbour of the goddess A-Ma”; Portuguese, Macau), a Portuguese settlement on the coast of China, in 22° N. lat. and 132° E. long., consists of a tongue of land 11/2 square miles in extent, running south-south-west from the island of Hiang Shang (Portuguese, Ançam) on the western side of the estuary of the Canton river. Bold and rocky hills about 300 feet in height occupy both extremities of the peninsula, the picturesque-looking city, with its flat-roofed houses painted blue, green, and red, lying in the far from level stretch of ground between. The forts are effective additions to the general view, but do not add much to the real strength of the place. Along the east side of the peninsula runs the Praya Grande, or Great Quay, the chief promenade in Macao, on which stand the governor’s palace, the administrative offices, the consulates, and the leading commercial establishments. The church of St Paul, erected between 1594 and 1602, the seat of the Jesuit college in the 17th century, was destroyed by fire in 1835. The Hospital da Misericordia (1569) was rebuilt in 1640. The Camoens grotto—where the exiled poet found leisure to celebrate the achievements of his ungrateful country—lies in a secluded spot to the north of the town, which has been partly left in its native wildness strewn with huge granite boulders and partly transformed into a fine botanical garden. In 1871 there were in Macao 5375 persons of European birth or extraction, 53,761 Chinese living on land and 10,268 in boats. Half-castes are very numerous. Though most of the land is under garden cultivation, the mass of the people is dependent more or less directly on mercantile pursuits; for, while the exclusive policy both of Chinese and Portuguese which prevented Macao becoming a free port till 1845–46 allowed what was once the great emporium of European commerce in eastern Asia to be outstripped by its younger and more liberal rivals, the trade of the place is still of very considerable extent. Since the middle of the century indeed much of it has run in the most questionable channels: the nefarious coolie traffic gradually increased in extent and in cruelty from about 1848 till it was prohibited in 1874, and much of the actual trade is more or less of the nature of smuggling. The total value of exports and imports was in 1876–77 upwards of £1,536,000. Commercial intercourse is most intimate with Hong-Kong, Canton, Batavia, and Goa. The preparation and packing of tea is the principal industry in the town. The colonial revenue, which is largely recruited by a tax on the notorious gambling tables, increased from 104,643 dollars in 1856–57 to 380,012 in 1872–73, while the expenditure rose from 69,757 to 266,344.

In 1557 the Portuguese were permitted to erect factories on the peninsula, and in 1573 the Chinese built the wall across the isthmus which still cuts off the barbarian from the rest of the island. Jesuit missionaries established themselves on the spot, and in 1580 Gregory XIII. constituted a bishopric of Macao. A senate was organized in 1583, and in 1628 Jeronimo de Silveira became first royal governor of Macao. Still the Portuguese remained largely under the control of the Chinese, who had never surrendered their territorial rights and maintained their authority by means of mandarins,—these insisting that even European criminals should be placed in their hands. Ferreira do Amaral, the Portuguese governor, put an end to this state of things in 1849, and left the Chinese officials no more authority in the peninsula than the representatives of other foreign nations; and, though his antagonists procured his assassination (August 22d), his successors have succeeded in carrying out his policy. The Chinese Government has hitherto refused (notably in 1862) to recognize the territorial claims of the Portuguese; but the European powers treat Macao as de facto a colonial possession, and not only the governor, the president of the courts, and other Portuguese officials, but even the Chinese magistrates, are directly appointed by the king of Portugal. For a short time in 1802, and again in 1808, Macao was occupied by the English as a precaution against seizure by the French.

See De Beauvoir, Voyage Round the World, 1870; Wiselius, “Macausche toestanden,” in Tijds. van het Aardr. Gen., 1877; Relatorio e documentos sobre a aboliçâo da emigraçâo de Chinas contratados em Macau, Lisbon, 1874; English parliamentary papers on the coolie trade, 1874; Biker, Mem. sobre o estabelecimento de Macau, Lisbon, 1879.