displaying a ludicrous compromise between native and foreign attire. Macao forms a pleasant resort during summer for the residents of Hong-Kong. A steamer plies daily between the two ports, and occupies about four hours in accomplishing the run. A good hotel stands on the Praya Grande, and from its verandah one may enjoy the sea- breeze and the view of the bay, where fleets of fishing-boats lie at anchor, or sail to and fro among the islands. Three times a week travellers may take steamer to Canton, and make the tour of that ancient and most interesting city. There are many picturesque walks in and around Macao, and retired sandy bays invite the wanderer to taste the luxury of a sea-bath. In the garden, now included in the grounds of a private residence, stands the grotto of CamBens, who is said to have resided there when he composed the greater part of Lusiadas, or the Epic of Commerce, as it has been termed. The career of Camoens, both before and after his residence in Macao, was one of strange adventure. " As a soldier, he fought in the empire of Morocco, at the foot of Mount Atlas, in the Red Sea, and in the Persian Gulf. Twice he doubled the Cape, and was led by a deep love of nature to spend sixteen years in watching the phenomena of the ocean in the Indian and China seas. Camoens was banished to Macao in 1556, on account of certain satires which he wrote against the Government " 1 — a summary treatment adopted for the suppression of poets and men of genius in other countries as well as Portugal, and not wholly unknown even in modern times. Macao since 1848 has earned an unenviable notoriety for its traffic in coolies. These unfortunate men were shipped to Cuba, Peru, and other ports on the South American Coast, and were, many of them, kidnapped in the province of Kwang-tung or the islands round about. Shut up first in Macao barracoons, they were thence packed off in crowded ships— inhuman treatment frequently leading to mutiny and massacre, or disease and death, perhaps, bringing to these poor bondsmen a last but grateful relief. That this is no exaggeration the following extract may show :— " The ship 'Dea del Mare' left Macao in October, 1865, bound to Callao. On touching at Tahiti she had only 162 emigrants alive out of 550."
The coolie trade of Macao is now under a strict surveillance, and is mainly indebted to the enlightened administration of the present governor for this urgently needed reformation.
1 " A History of tlie Kwang-tung Province," Eowra, p. 84.
