But the peculiar customs of the Chinese, only adapted
to the entertainment of trading ships, and the apprehensions
of the commodore, lest he should embroil the East-India
company with the regency of Canton, if he should insist
on being treated upon a different footing than the
merchantmen, made him resolve to go first to Macao,
before he ventured into the port of Canton. Indeed,
had not this reason prevailed with him, he himself
had nothing to fear: For it is certain that he
might have entered the port of Canton, and might have
continued there as long as he pleased, and afterwards
have left it again, although the whole power of the
Chinese empire had been brought together to oppose
him.
[Footnote 7: This circumspection has never availed
much. The Portuguese obtained this port and the
adjoining territory of about 8 miles in circuit, as
a reward for assistance given in extirpating a pirate
who took refuge here. But the ingratitude of the
Chinese always grudged, and often violated, the immunities
thus won from their fears. The city, built after
the European model, and originally possessed of both
military strength and commercial consequence, has,
through the carelessness of the Portuguese, and the
exactions and insolence of their neighbours, dwindled
into comparative insignificance. According to
Sir George Staunton’s account, the population
does not now exceed 12000, and more than half is Chinese.
In short, 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
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