landing-place on the eastern side of the roads, the traveller is conveyed to the shore through the lash of the waves in a small cockle-shaped boat, just as at Madeira or Madras, and equally uncomfortably; but although the boat and the mode in which it is navigated are anything but calculated to inspire confidence, such a thing as an accident is of rare occurrence.
The naturalists of the Novara found an exceedingly friendly and hearty reception at the beautiful residence of the Russian Consul, M. Von Carlowitz, who shortly before had come from Canton to settle in Macao, with his excellent wife, a very beautiful lady of Altenburg in Germany, there to await the upshot of the war.
Our first visit the following morning—a bright and beautiful Sabbath morning—was to the renowned Camoens Grotto, situated in a large well-wooded park, partly covered with primeval forest, the property of a Portuguese family of the name of Marquez. All around there reigned utter, almost sacred silence. Here it was that Camoens, banished from his native land, wrote his Lusiad. The park with its fragrant shady aisles, its majestic leafy domes, impervious even to the rays of the tropical sun, its huge piles of rock round which clamber the immense roots of gigantic fig-trees, its deliciously cool atmosphere, its soft green velvet paths, its heaps of ruined walls, and its death-like quietness, seems as though destined for the asylum of an exiled poet, who, instead of lamenting his destiny like common men in sullen silence, felt
his spirit roused amid this wonderful tropical beauty to fresh sublime efforts,—"Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme!" In an ill-contrived niche in the substructure of the grotto is a bust, in terra-cotta, of the great poet, with the inscription, "Louis de Camoens, born 1524, died 1579." On the broad marble pedestal whereon stands this bust, which savours but little of artistic taste, various verses from the Lusiad have been engraved with an iron stylus.[120] Formerly this grotto must have had a much more agreeable appearance, but the present proprietor thought to beautify it by making an addition to it, which has resulted in its having almost entirely lost its original character. From one point within the grotto, called the observatory, and traditionally used as such by Camoens, there is a beautiful peep over the inner harbour, with its throng of busy human ants. Quite close to this singular abode for a poet, is the meeting-house of an evangelical Christian community, numbering about 200 souls, with a cemetery attached, which, with its handsome stone monuments and beautifully laid-out gardens, constitutes one of the most interesting places of outdoor resort in the colony.
The most extensive and important edifice in the settlement of Macao, founded in 1563 by the Portuguese, on a peninsula of the same name, about five square miles in extent, is the Pagoda of Makok and its different temples, situate on the
slope of a hill between picturesque groups of granite rocks, studded with gigantic Chinese inscriptions and splendid clumps of trees. At the entrance of this retreat for the gods, is a large fantastically-adorned Buddhist temple, surrounded by a large number of apartments, in which reside the priests, and where they carry on their household duties, and prepare tapers and sycee-paper for the worship of their deities, and where are also a few private altars to divinities, whose influence and protection the Chinese ladies of doubtful reputation do not, it seems, venture publicly to invoke.
Steps cut in the granite rock conduct to the highest point, about 200 feet above sea-level, on which there is likewise a temple. At the time of our visit, a number of Buddhist priests in long yellow plaited garments were ascending to the summit, preceded by flute-players, there to perform their devotions. On their return they distributed among the poor Chinese congregated in the chief apartment of the temple, a large quantity of fruit and other eatables.
While at Macao we visited one of the most respected of the foreigners settled there, Dr. Kane, an English physician, who has for years resided in the colony. This gentleman was so kind as to present us with the head of a statue from the renowned nine-storied or Flower Pagoda (Hwa-tah) near Canton, which during a visit he paid to that half-ruined edifice in March, 1857, he had found lying on the ground, a fragment from a sandstone figure on the seventh story, representing a pupil of Buddha. This Pagoda, 160 feet high,
was constructed upwards of a thousand years since, which must accordingly be the age of the relic in question.
The number of inhabitants at present in Macao amounts to about 97,000, of whom 90,000 are Chinese and 7000 Portuguese and Mestizoes. Of other foreign nations there are but a very few in the peninsula. The chief article of commerce in the colony is opium, which finds its way hence into the interior in large quantities. Hong-kong is in too close proximity, is too favourably situated, and is inhabited by too energetic a race, to admit of Macao, especially so long as it remains in the hands of the Portuguese, recovering its former commercial importance. Portugal derives but little profit from her colonies, and it is only national pride that will not hear of this possession, which is more a burden than a source of aid to the mother country, being disposed of by way of sale to either the English or the North Americans. However, the maintenance of this colony costs the Portuguese home Government but little, as the colonists support the chief expenses themselves. Thus the pay of the Governor, who receives £1260 per annum, as also that of the military force of about 400 men, and of a small ship stationed in the harbour, are all defrayed by the colonists.