t, Macao is virtually a
Chinese town, where the Portuguese are merely tolerated. The Chinese,
it is certain, require almost any other treatment than condescension
and good manners. The reader will soon see in the narrative how
practicable it is to reduce them to common sense--one of the
ingredients of it they have in a high degree, the desire of
self-preservation. The following quotation from a work recently
published, may amuse him in the mean time, and serves besides to
confirm the statement of the text. "The situation of the Portuguese in
Macao is particularly restrained, and that of their governor extremely
unpleasant to him. Although the latter invariably conducts himself
with the greatest circumspection, cases still arise in which he cannot
give way without entirely sacrificing the honour of his country,
already greatly diminished in the eyes of the Chinese. A few months
only before our arrival (November 1805,) a circumstance happened fully
illustrative of this; an account of which may tend to prove that, if
the Portuguese possessed greater power at Macao, the cowardly Chinese
would not dare to treat them with so little consideration, or, to
speak more correctly, with so much contempt. If Macao were in
the hands of the English, or even of the Spaniards, the shameful
dependence of this possession on the Chinese would soon fall to the
ground; and, with the assistance of their important possessions in the
vicinity of China, either of these nations established in Macao might
bid defiance to the whole empire. A Portuguese resident at Macao
stabbed a Chinese, but being rich, he offered the family of the
deceased a sum of money to suffer the affair to drop. This was agreed
to, and he paid 4000 piastres; scarcely, however, had he given the
money, when the affair was represented to the Chinese magistracy, who
exacted from the governor that the criminal should be instantly given
up. The latter refused, alleging, that, as the deed was committed
in Macao, he was liable to the Portuguese law, according to which he
would be punished if they found him guilty. The Chinese, who wished
to inflict punishment on the Portuguese, immediately on the receipt of
this answer shut up all their booths, and forbade the importation of
provisions into Macao; but the governor, who had two years stock of
provisions for his garrison, (we shall find it was otherwise with
the governor in Anson's time) troubled himself very little with this
threat, a