When a foreign vessel anchors in Macao Roads, (a very exposed anchorage by the way,) she is speedily visited by three or four compradores' boats, which come out in search of employment, and with offers to supply the ship with fresh provisions, &c., during her stay. The compradore is a very useful fellow, but, in nine cases out of ten, a great rogue, who scruples not to swell out his bill against the ship by various means the reverse of fair. They all speak broken English. In moderate weather, they go twenty or thirty miles out to sea in quest of inward-bound vessels. The first time I went to China, we were boarded by a compradore's boat previously to making the land. A fresh breeze was blowing at the time, before which the ship was going eight knots an hour: this, however, did not prevent the Chinese boatmen from dashing alongside in very smart style, hooking on by the fore-chains with their own rope, and disdaining the aid of a line thrown from the vessel to hang on by. Mr. Compradore appeared on the poop, "chin-chinning," while we strangers were looking with admiration at the activity of his men in the boat. The captain engaged him to attend the ship, on which he immediately started for Macao, and was alongside again by daylight next morning, with a most welcome supply of fresh beef, vegetables, &c. In the compradore's boat, passengers can generally get a passage on shore, or, rather, to within a few hundred yards of the beach. The boatmen are afraid to approach nearer, on account of the Mandarins, who are apt to squeeze them, if they are seen landing foreigners. The remaining distance is usually got over in small tancea, or ferry-boats, numbers of which ply about Macao in all directions, invariably guided by women, called, from their mode of life, "Tancea-girls." Poor things! They work hard for their daily bread, being constantly exposed to the sun in summer, and to cold in winter. They live in their boats, which, at night, are snugly covered up with a roof made of a bamboo frame, the interstices filled up with thick matting, and, in the whole course of their lives, never pass a night on shore. They are said to be of a peculiar race, and never intermarry with the real Chinese, who look down upon them with contempt.
The scenery round Macao is striking, and some of the views are particularly so: that from the hill immediately behind the town, is perhaps the best. From this spot you have a bird's-eye view of the whole town, the beach, with its hundreds of large and small Chinese boats, on your left; further on, in the same direction, Macao Roads with the foreign shipping; while, beyond these, the islands of Lingting, Lantow, and numerous others of smaller size, are seen in the distance: to the right, you catch an occasional glimpse of the numerous rivers and arms of the sea, with numbers of picturesque Chinese boats gliding about, literally among the hills and dales; and, here and there, a Chinese village is seen, with its little patch of cultivation, its herds of buffaloes and pigs, and countless groupes of little Celestials. Casting your eye along this view from north to south, you come to the harbour called "Typa" in which there are generally some thirty or forty vessels at anchor, and which, though an arm of the sea, looks here like an inland lake. This view, on a clear day, would delight the painter, though it has one great deficiency, namely, the entire absence of trees. The hills in the neighbourhood, far and near, are completely bare. Such is Macao, a miserable, dirty, crowded town, rendered important for a while by its locality, but now fast sinking back into its native insignificance, owing to the gross stupidity of the Portuguese Authorities, more than to any other cause. Proceed we now to the new British settlement of Hong Kong.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] One thousand of these make a dollar, so that the value of one is less than a quarter of a farthing.
[22] The present Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, has gone even further than Sir Henry Pottinger, and has given notice to the Authorities at Macao, that British subjects are no longer amenable to their laws. This is as it should be, and as it ought to have been a hundred years ago.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHINA.
ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF HONG KONG—THE OPIUM TRADE—IMPORTANCE OF THE STATION IN THE EVENT OF A FRESH WAR—CHUSAN—HOW TO RAISE A REVENUE—CAUSES OF ALLEGED INSALUBRITY—RAPID PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT—PORTUGUESE PENURY—MARKETS—SANATORY HINTS.
Having spent twelve months in Hong Kong, I will now endeavour to give an impartial sketch of its situation as to trade, its importance in the event of another Chinese war, and of its climate, general appearance, and commercial progress.