This distribution was accordingly made on the 16th September, pursuant to the order of the chief mandarin; and as no allowance was reserved for those who had been made prisoners, or for the representatives of those who had died, or the two gentlemen who formerly served in the Speedwell, the prize-money stood thus:
The share of money and silver plate, dollars 280
The share of gold, 100
The share of jewels, 39
-----
Total share of a foremast-man, 419
Which, at 4s. 8d. the dollar, amounted to £97:15:4 sterling. According to this distribution: The share of the captain amounted to £1466, 10s. The second captain had £733, 5s. The captain of marines, the lieutenants of the ship, and the surgeon, had each £488:16:8. Although Captain Cook and his associates were thus able to carry their point, yet Captain Clipperton prevailed on the mandarin to set apart one half of the cargo for the benefit of the owners; which amounted, in money, silver, gold, and jewels, to between six and seven thousand pounds. This was afterwards shipped at Macao in a Portuguese ship, called the Queen of Angels, commanded by Don Francisco de la Vero. This ship was unfortunately burnt at Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil, on the 6th June, 1722; so that the owners, after deducting salvage, only received £1800.
The people and mandarins at Amoy have so conducted themselves for a long time, that, even among their own countrymen, this port has the appellation of Hiamuin booz, or Amoy the roguish. The fishermen on the coast, when they meet any European ship that seems intended for that port, pronounce these words with a very significant air; but, for want of understanding the language, or perhaps from confidence in their own prudence, this warning is seldom attended to. The custom of this port is to disarm every ship that enters it, sending two frigates or armed vessels, called chan-pans, full of men, to ride close by the vessel, to ensure the execution of all orders from the hoppo and chief mandarin. Besides the enormous imposition under the name of port charges, already mentioned, they have other strange methods of getting money. Thus, though the small craft of the country are at liberty to carry all sorts of provisions on board for sale, yet every one of these must in the first place go to one of the chan-pans, and pay there a tax or consideration for leave to go to the strange vessel. By this means, though provisions are here very plentiful, and ought therefore to be cheap, the price is enhanced at least a third. The mandarins have also a practice of sending presents of wine, provisions, and expensive curiosities, to the captain and other officers; of all which, when the ship is ready to sail, they send an exact memorial with the prices charged, the last article being so much for the clerk drawing up the account; and all this must be discharged in money or commodities, before their arms and ammunition are returned.
During a stay of ten weeks at this port, they sufficiently experienced all the artifices of this covetous and fraudulent people, from whom Captain Clipperton had no way to defend himself, and was therefore obliged to submit to all their demands. 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 £100 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.