PART I. THE MYTH OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MACANESE

§1. INTRODUCTION

In 1950 Francisco de Carvalho e Rêgo published a book entitled Macau (Macao) in which he defends the thesis that the Macanese do not descend from the miscegenation of Portuguese with Chinese. This article attempts to prove exactly the contrary, but before we proceed we introduce the reader to a transcription of a chapter entitled Os Macaenses (The Macanese) of the book by Carvalho e Rêgo.

"When writing a book about Macao, we feel that it is of the utmost necessity to mention the Macanese, who represent, to a great extent, the largest percentage of the population of the City.

The Portuguese from the Motherland who are not familiar with Macao, erroneously assume that the Macanese are a result of the breeding of European men with Chinese women, or that are simply Chinese, and who, through baptism acquired Portuguese nationality.

Although one may say that generally the Macanese are all those who are natives of Macao, one must also consider that are Macanese who are exclusively of European descent, Macanese who are the outcome of the breeding of Europeans with other races of the Orient, and Macanese Chinese.

Notwithstanding this differentiation, when we really speak about the Macanese we are particularly meaning those of Portuguese descent who settled in the Colony and those others who later constituted a family in the Colony, breeding with people of the Orient. We are excluding in the Macanese designation the offspring of European parents and the Chinese.

One of the most common characteristics which differentiate the Macanese from the Chinese, is that after birth in Macao and baptism with a Portuguese name, they are usually known as Chin-Kao [or the t'ching cao], meaning: Chin [t'ching]: to enter; Kao [or cao]: religion; that is, someone who just joined the Catholic Faith, i.e.: a new Christian.

In order to clearly ascertain the origin of the Macanese we must make reference to facts of the past and extract logical conclusions from the historic narratives which relate the foundation of Macao as a Portuguese Colony.

When the Portuguese caravels sailed in search of the maritime way to India (at the end of the fifteenth century), their crew were exclusively male - no women being allowed on board for obvious reasons which we think unnecessary to mention.

Most probably the same rules were also applied to the vessels' crews of those who first set foot on Chinese soil, a few years after the discovery of the maritime way to India.

Fernão Mendes Pinto in his Peregrinação [Peregrinaçam] mentions that in the middle of the sixteenth century there were three-hundred married men with Portuguese and mestizo women in the flourishing Settlement of Liampó or Lam-Pó.

Without the slightest disrespect for this statement, we find it untrustworthy regarding the number of Portuguese (European) women residing in the Settlement, which we feel should not exceed a few tenths.

In his chronical Peter Mundy confirms our modest opinion, stating that in 1632 there was only one European lady residing in Macao, all the remaining being mestizo.

It is therefore not credible that, almost a century after the foundation of Macao as a Settlement, there were in the Territory a smaller number of ladies than in the period in which the Portuguese were uncertain about their immediate survival.

But it is in this word - mestizo - that lies the origins of these ladies who dared embark on such formidable ventures.

We do not think that Fernão Mendes Pinto appropriately used this word. We are inclined to admit Peter Mundy' s assertion as being more correct.

In our opinion the first women who accompanied the Portuguese to China were either of Indian or Malay descent and, possibly, in exceptional circumstances Portuguese (Europeans).

Regarding Peter Mundy's descriptions - a century after the foundation of Macao - these are more trustworthy because the women mentioned by him were the offspring of first marriages.

Apart from some odd cases, the breeding of Portuguese with Chinese is unthinkable, because the timidity and distrust of Chinese women rendered marital links impossible until only a few decades ago.

Above all, during the initial period of the Colony's establishment, the Portuguese lived in isolation, feeling the Chinese untrustworthy.

It is beyond doubt that Macao defined its own lifestyle immediately after the foundation of the Colony and that many were attracted to the Settlement, encouraged by the prosperous businesses that it promoted.

The description that Fr. Francisco de Sousa made of a procession held in 1564, in Macao, clearly shows how much the Colony's population had considerably grown in the short period of around seven years.

We transcribe an extract of that narrative:

"The streets were costly decorated. The Parochial Church looked like paradise. Requested by the Vicar, Fr. Luís Fróis carried the Holy Sacrament. A great number of shawns, flutes, violas de arco (tenor violas), pífaros (flutes) and drums resounded with much allure and grace. There were standard bearers and various other dancing groups and follies. Besides the innumerable lights with which the crowds accompanied the Holy Sacrament, there was a procession of people bearing six-hundred torches.

Leaning on the windows one could see young girls wearing garlands on their heads and carrying silver plates full of rose petals and bowls of rosewater which they were throwing over the palio and the passers-by.

The gentile Chinese, both natives of the island [of Macao] and of the Guandongnese mainland followed the pomp to the Church doorways and were astonished to see so many people listening, in outmost silence, to the preacher; and, when they entered the Church, to see its opulence and the Saintly Images. They knelt and kissed the earth and stretched their hands to the sky."

The commercial Emporium was really established and many rushed to the place where fortune was possible.

A few years later, commerce with Japan was a reality and the India-China-Japan triangle was an endless source of profit.

Later, commercial relations with Philippines, Siam, Cochin-China and other lands of the Orient, facilitated marriages with women of these regions.

The description that Cardim makes of the "Defeat of the Dutch", on the 24th of June 1622, makes reference to "Portuguese soldiers, Indian Kaffirs, gentlemen followed by their slaves [...]".

It is therefore not to reject the possibility that in the lower classes occurred breeding with the Indian Kaffirs.

Later on, from the half of the eighteenth century, the segregation between Portuguese and Chinese was clearly established; the Chinese having to leave the City when the Ave Marias rang.

Only early this century the breeding of Portuguese men with Chinese women began, although infrequently. This only reinforces our assumption that it is rare for the Macanese to have Chinese blood.

And, to reconfirm this statement, we have the fact that the Macanese allude to the Chinese with disdain, considering it an offense to be told of Chinese descent.

Those who like us, have travelled extensively in the Orient, can easily conclude that the Macanese are not, in general, of Chinese descent.

In India, Japan, Siam, Conchin-China, Malacca, Timor, in the Philippines and even in Honolulu can be seen, and we have met, many people with similar features to the Macanese.

And the truth of this statement is such that even at home, in the olden days (which still residually linger nowadays), men used to wear calça moura · and baneane · and women saia branca and cabaia chacha · .

It would be natural for those of Chinese descent to continue to wear traditional Chinese clothes, at least more informally at home.

But this never happened, with the exception of the times after the Pacific War years, when it was common to see ladies and even adolescent girls out in the streets dressed Chinese fashion either due to economic reasons or simply for pedantry.

But the calça moura and baneane is a traditionally Indian outfit; and the saia branca and cabaia chacha is an outfit originally from Oceania, mainly from the Philippines and Hawaii, nowadays [1950] still worn by older ladies.

It is still interesting to mention that the Macanese, despite being born in Macao and, therefore, in Southern China, nevertheless do not reflect Chinese manners and fashions.

The Macanese live the same way as the Metropolitan Portuguese, aspiring to a high level of comfort, a natural tendency of the people of the Orient.

Generally speaking, it is obvious and not difficult to recognize those who, having been t'ching cao, opted for taking a Portuguese name and forename (for the Chinese a disgusting practice and, sometimes, even forbidden by Chinese Law) and standing for Macanese, that is, for being of Portuguese descent. But it is enough to inquire into their private lives to see how they followed Chinese habits and costumes.

We feel that this judgment is so true that, in the Macanese Dialect, the influence of Chinese Language is non-extant except, in certain isolated cases, such as in the musicality of the Language or in the grammatical structure of the phrases, a result of the daily conviviality and influence of Chinese servants from a tender age.

It is common to find in the Macanese Dialect, Indian or Malay words, the use of Chinese vocables being rare, or of derivatives from these.

The same phenomenon happens with the Macanese Dialect as happens with cuisine, where Chinese gastronomy plays a subdued role, in which cases it was a result of necessity, such as seasoning and the like.

By the end of the nineteenth century there were still in Macao wealthy traders who made commerce with India Japan, the Philippines, Siam, Timor and several other ports of the Oceania. This made easier the breeding [of Portuguese and Macanese] with natives of those regions.

During the times of the great Christian persecutions in Japan, many Japanese took refuge in Macao, accompanying the Portuguese and settling their skills in the Colony.

There still was a small but identifiable Japanese community, when we arrived here at the beginning of this century.

All we have said about the origins of the Macanese does not invalidate that, in certain circumstances, was some breeding with Chinese women, later diluted in successive generations.

In these latter years breeding with Chinese women has been frequent, not only in Macao, but also in the 'colonies' of Shanghai and Hong Kong where the Portuguese communities are most numerous.

Particularly in this last town there have been many marriages of Portuguese and Macanese with Russian women of Asian origin, who have settled in that commercial Emporium.

We feel that throughout our description we have clearly explicated the origin of the Macanese, that is, of those who having been born in Macao are neither the offspring of Europeans or Chinese."

And here ends our quotation of Francisco de Carvalho e Rêgo.

Bento da França writes that: "The typology of the Macanese is perfectly original and, we must admit, destituted of all grace: in it are generally predominant basic Mongolian features, but is also constituted by European Malay, Canarin, etc., characteristics. This typology is the outcome of a great mixture of races and sub-races which are a result of a random and occasional non-selection of consecutive breeedings."2

Álvaro de Machado argues that: "The permanence of the Portuguese during hundredths of years in the small Colony of Macao naturally gave rise to a Portuguese population whose provenance apparently derives from the breeding of Portuguese men with women from Japan and from Malacca, and at least recently, with Chinese women as well."3

Francisco Rêgo states that: "the Macanese are the product of the breeding of Portuguese men with Indian and Malay women."

Eduardo Brasão, on the contrary, feels that the miscegenation of Portuguese men with women of the Indian race was rare, "And if it is certain that according to their actual characteristics most of the Macanese are bound to be descendants of the breeding of Portuguese men with women of the Malay and, a few, of the Indian race, it is equally notorious that a considerable number display accentuated characteristics of the Chinese race."4

Dr. Carlos Estorninho writes a note in Macau e os Macaenses in support of Francisco Rêgo's thesis:

"What about the Chinese women? Have they most probably also contributed, or better, participated, in the miscegenation which allowed the development of the valuable and numerous Portuguese population indigenous to Macao?

The answer should be a negative one - an almost categorically and absolute negation. During three centuries, obviously not because of the Portuguese lack of cupidity but due to the rigorously exclusive, autarkic and xenophobic characteristics of China - which deemed practically impossible honest and straightforward contacts of its people with foreigners, much less relationships of intimacy and cohabitation - Portuguese did not marry Chinese.

It was only after the opening of the Treaty Ports (1842-1844) and mainly, after the fall of the millenary [Chinese] Imperial regime and with the advent of the Republic - duly Westernized in 1911, by the progressive and enlightened ideas of Dr. Sun Yat Sen - that Chinese mores were liberalized and destroyed the traditionally rigid and anachronic preconceptions, thus enabling the breeding of Chinese women with the 'devils of the Occident', the fan-kwais [or Kuai-Lôu].

Therefore, until very recently the Macanese had not a drop of Chinese blood. Only in these last fifty years was there an emergence of a first generation of Luso-Chinese. In this half century marriages and the cohabitation of Portuguese men and Chinese women has been increasingly on the rise, although relationships between Portuguese women and Chinese men have remained virtually nonexistant."5

§2. OPINION IS NOT HISTORY

Let us now analyze this chapter entitled Os Macaenses, from the Macau book, in which is so categorically stated that the Macanese are not of Chinese descent:

"The Portuguese from the Motherland who are not familiar with Macao, erroneously assume that the Macanese are the breeding of European men with Chinese women, or that they are simply Chinese who, through baptism, acquired Portuguese nationality."

What proof does the author have to support his statement?

He quotes Mendes Pinto and affirms that in Liampó there lived three-hundred married men with Portuguese and mestizo women; but he denies the verity of this affirmation. And why?

Because "it is therefore not credible that, almost a century after the foundation of Macao as a settlement, there were in the Territory a smaller number of ladies than in the period in which the Portuguese were uncertain about their immediate survival."

We will deal with Peter Mundy's statements later on.

For the time being we only question that if the Macanese are not the result of the breeding of Portuguese with Chinese, what is their real origin?

Let us concentrate on the reply by the same author:

"The description that Cardim makes of the "Defeat of the Dutch", on the 24th of June 1622, makes reference to "Portuguese soldiers, Indian Kaffirs, and gentlemen followed by their slaves [...]".

It is therefore not to reject the possibility that in the lower classes there occurred breeding with the Indian Kaffirs."

The logic seems to be that if there were Kaffirs in Macao, then...

Anyone is free to vent one's opinions but the truth is that history is based on facts, and not structured by opinions.

Why therefore, does it seem impossible to admit that the Macanese originate from the breeding of Portuguese men with Chinese women?

The same author explains that: "From the middle of the eighteenth century, the segregation between Portuguese and Chinese was clearly established, the Chinese having to leave the City when the Ave Marias rang.

Only early this century the breeding of Portuguese men with Chinese women started to happen, although infrequently. This only reinforces our assumption that it is rare for the Macanese to have Chinese blood.

And, to reconfirm this statement, lies the fact that the Macanese allude to the Chinese with disdain, considering it an offense to be reminded of their Chinese descent."

Under the same logical procedure, if a Luso-Indian decides to be an offensive someone by alluding to his Indian ancestors, he becomes free from his ethnical origins and becomes a descendant of the Kaffirs. Or, if a Luso-African wishes to be an offensive someone he alludes to his African origins than he may be considered of Indian descent.

Regarding the affirmation that it was only from the early twentieth century that breeding of Portuguese with Chinese occurred, this is simply not true. It is enough to glimpse at the Parish Archives of Macao to ascertain exactly the contrary. To this we will shortly refer.

Regarding the statement that since the middle of the eighteen century there was a "segregation between Portuguese and Chinese", this is also not true. It is enough to quote the words of the Chinese historian Tcheong-Ü-Lam [Zhan Rulin], who visited Macao in that epoch and stated exactly the opposite:

"Everywhere in Macao, where Chinese and 'barbarians'6 mix there are conversos [Christian] Chinese."7

Thus was dismissed such an opinion, which is totally devoid of foundation. Let us now ascertain what the historical sources really mention about the origin of the Macanese. Firstly, I will make reference to coeval sources, only after presenting selected extracts of the Parish Archives of Macao.

§3. IN LIAMPÓ, CHINCHEO AND LAMPACAO

In chapter 2217 of his Peregrinação, Femão Mendes Pinto describes Liampó in the following way:

"Avia aqui trezentos casados com mulheres portuguesas e mistiças, avia dous espritais e casa de misericordia em que se dispendião cada anno mas de trinta mil cruzados, e a camara tinha seis mil de renda." ("There were three-hundred married men with Portuguese and mestizo women; there were two hospitals and one Misericordy which annually spent more than thirty-thousand cruzados; the Town Hall had an annual rent of six-thousand cruzados.").

And in the same chapter is written that:

"[...] tinha esta povoação trez mil vezinhos, de que os mil e duzentos erão portugueses, e os mais gente Christam de diversas nações." ("[...] this settlement had three thousand souls, of which twelve-hundred were Portuguese and the reminder Christians from different Nations.").

The Portuguese then started to trade with Chincheo, "e e breve se fez uma povoação em que chegarão a viver cousa de seiscentos homens com boas cazas, familias e escravos." ("and soon there rose a considerable settlement whose population reached around six-hundred men with good houses, families and slaves."). 8

From there they started trading with Sanchoan, temporarily residing in straw huts, and in Lampacao (Lang-Peh-Kau) where an important settlement quickly prospered reaching a Portuguese population of more than five-hundred.

Pelliot writes:

"And still most of the trade was made in Lampacao where there lived, in 1560 - according to M. Tch. (T'ien-tsé-Chang), and first to Morrison, and as I believe having confirmed in a coeval text - a Colony of five-hundred to six-hundred Portuguese."9

According to the testimonies of these contemporaries the Portuguese population was as follows: in Liampó, two-thousand; in Chincheo, around six-hundred; in Lampacao in between five-hundred to six hundred.

Totally gratuitous is the statement that "the Portuguese were uncertain about their immediate survival." According to coeval sources they lived with the same degree of security as in any other town in Portugal. In fact, "quando os taballiaes fazião algumas escrituras dezião, nesta muyto nobre e sempre leal cidade de Liampoo por el Rey nosso senhor. "("[...] the public notaries made some deeds, in this most noble and always loyal City of Liampó, on behalf of the King our Lord."). 10

In 1557, M. Pinto writes of Macao stating that: "tão confiados e seguros estão nella com cuydarem que he nossa, como ella estivera situada na mais segura parte de Portugal." ("so trustworthy and confident are its inhabitants believing it to be theirs, as if it was located in the most protected region of Portugal."). 11

§4. MIXED MARRIAGES: THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

In 1561, Fr. Baltazar Gago, S. J., sent good news from Macao, where "estão instalados entre 500 e 600 comerciantes portugueses." ("are settled between five-hundred to six-hundred Portuguese traders."). 12

In 1562, Fr. João Baptista del Monte, S. J., wrote from Macao stating that: "0 número dos portugueses q agora estão em terra serão perto de oito centos." ("The number of landed Portuguese is near eight-hundred."). 13

And the following year Fr. Francisco de Sousa stated that: "Haveria neste tempo na cidade de Macaunovecentos portugueses, além de grande número de Christãos da terra."("In those times in the City of Macao, besides a considerable number of native Chinese Christians there were nine-hundred Portuguese."). 14

And Fr. Manuel Teixeira in a letter dated the 1st of December 1564 spoke of: "deste porto da China onde auera 500 Portugueses continues. "("this port of China [Macao] where had been permanently settled five hundred Portuguese?"). 15

And who were the women of these Portuguese?

The Jesuits of those days accurately described the [contemporary] social panorama:

"[...]frequency of the sacraments every eight or fifteen days, dominical catechism to nearly one thousand slaves, regularization of the matrimony of orphans or native Chinese Christians, cleasing of the Colony by sending to Goa, more than four hundred-and-fifty slave women, and to Malacca, on another occasion two-hundred, [...] who were the most dangerous and the more difficult to extradite [...]."16

These lines attest to the fact that the first generation of Macanese was the outcome of the breeding of five-hundred Portuguese with five hundred Indian and Malay women. But, once these were out of Colony, who were they the Portuguese cohabiting with?

Let us pay attention to some witnesses:

"Due to the lack of Portuguese wives, the Europeans quickly discarded their mates brought from Malacca or India, to befriend Japanese and, foremost, Chinese women, and with whom they rapidly came to enjoy their integrity."17

We can observe from these lines that the second generation of Macanese was the outcome of the breeding of Portuguese men with Japanese and, mainly Chinese women. Bearing in mind that the above passage was written in 1563, it was necessary for all these Japanese and Chinese women to be converted to the Christian Faith prior to the Portuguese.

Were there any further Chinese conversions? The answer to this question is given by Fr. Francisco de Sousa in Oriente Conquistado, claiming that more idolaters were converted as a result of recovering from serious illnesses than to the preaching and reasoning of the many missionaries. But it has always been like this: in the advent of Macao as nowadays, Portuguese Christian charity conquered multiple conversions amongst the Chinese population.

In a letter dated the 30th of January 1568, Fr. Manual Teixeira, S. J., reports that there were in Macao "cinco ou seis mil almas Almas Xpãas. " ("between five to six-thousand Christian Souls."). 18

In an "extremely curious treaty" compiled by Fr. Alonso Sanchez, S. J. acting on the instructions of a high nobleman, and dedicated to King Felipe II of Spain, one reads that "Los Portugueses de Macao que se casan con ellas (las mujeres chinas) [sic] de mejor voluntad que con las Portuguesas, por las muchas virtudes que las adornan. " ("Due to the many virtues they uphold, the Portuguese men from Macao more readily marry them (the Chinese women) [sic] than the Portuguese women."). 19

Sanchez was well acquainted with the lifestyles of Macao. He stayed in the Colony from May 1582 to the 13th of February 1583.

§5. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

From 1580 to 1640, during the union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns, the trade between Macao and Manila greatly prospered, several Portuguese trading Companies opening counters in Manila as well as the Spanish operating in Macao. This exchange of commerce gave rise to the arrival of 'new blood' in Macao.

When the Church became persecuted in Japan many Japanese Christians took refuge in Macao. They were the work-force of the Church of the Holy Mother of God or St. Paul, in Macao, the ruins' of which may still be admired.

On the 7th and 8th of November 1614, five vessels with missionaries and Japanese Christians sailed from Nagasaki, two destined for Manila and the other three for Macao and Siam. One of those vessels was the 'black ship' Nossa Senhora da Vida, the other four being old and unreliable Japanese junks [sic]. Besides missionaries, there came to Macao and the Provincial of the Jesuits in Japan, Fr. Valentim de Carvalho, S. J. - and-many Japanese of both sexes -amongst others the heroic figures of Justo Takayama Ukon and Naito Todatoshi, with their respective families."20

In 1626, more Japanese exiles arrived in Macao on board of the vessel of the Captain-Major Luís Pais Pacheco, later martyred in Nagasaki on the 3rd of August 1640. 21

In 1636, two-hundred-and-eighty-seven Eurasian women and children took refuge in Macao, escaping from Nagasaki.

There were so many Japanese refugees in Macao during the seventeenth century that the Jesuits nominated Fr. Matias da Maia, S. J., as their Procurator.

With the 'closing of the doors' of Japan to the outer-world, these Japanese and Eurasians never returned to their homeland. They settled in Macao and here they established families. The assumption of Ljungstedt is therefore correct, that the Portuguese men came to cohabit with Japanese women.

On the 27th of November 1623, the escrivão (scrivener) of the Leal Senado (Loyal Senate), Diego Caldeira Rego, reported:

"Em número de moradores (Macau) [sic] he hoje hua das principais deste oriente avendo nella mais de 400 portugueses casados entre Os quays alguns fidalgos, muitos nobres, e os mais ou quasi todos, de muitos annos de bons serviços de Sua Mag. de nas armadas e guerras de to do este Estado, afora muitos casados naturais da terra e de fora e outra muita gente de varias nações que por resão do grande Tratado e marcãcia que ha para muitas partes deste oriente vão e vem e nella residem o mais do anno." ("(Macao) is these days one of the most populated Cities of the Orient. In it reside more than four-hundred married Portuguese, some aristocrats, many noblemen, and many others who for many years have given their best services to His Majesty in fleets and wars of the entire Kingdom of Portugal, not to mention many married people natives of the Territory and from elsewhere, and many others from various Nations who come and go from Macao and here reside most of the year, thanks to the great Treaty and commerce that cover this part of the Orient."). 23

Whom did they marry, these four-hundred Portuguese and many other natives of Macao? As Metropolitan girls were not to be found in Macao, they had to marry Oriental girls - Chinese and of other races - who at that time lived in the Colony.

In 1635, António Bocarro in his Descrição de Macau, writes:

"Os cazados que tem esta cidade são oitocentos sincoenta portugueses e seus filhos que são muito mais bem despostos, e robustos, que nenhum que aja neste oriente, os quaes todos tem huns e outros seis escravos darmas de que os mais e milhores são cafres e outras nações [...].

Alem deste numero de cazados Portugueses tem mais esta cidade outros tantos cazados entre naturais da terra, Chinas Christãos que chamão jurabassas de q'são os mais, e outras nações todas xtãos [...].

Tem alem disto esta cidade muitos marinheiros pilotos e mestres solteiros Portgueses os mais delles cazados no Reino, outros solteiros que andão nas viagens de Japão, Manila, Macassa, Cochin-China, destes mais de cento e sincoenta, e algus são de groços cabedais de mais de sincoenta mil xarafins que por nenhu modo querem passar a Goa por não lançare mão delles ou as justiças de Sua Mag. de e assy tambem muitos mercadores solteiros muito ricos em que melitam as mesmas razões." ("The families in this City number 850 Portuguese with their children, who are much stronger and lustier than any others in the East. These all have on average about six slaves capable of bearing arms, amongst whom the majority and the best are negroes and such like.

Besides this, the City contains many Portuguese sailors, pilots, and masters, the majority of them married in the Kingdom (i.e.: Portugal), whilst others are bachelors who sail in the voyages for Japan, Manila, Solor, Makassar, and Cochin-China. There are over 150 of these, some of them very wealthy, with capital of over 50,000 xerafines, and who are resolved never to go to Goa, lest they may be seized by the justices for some offence or by the Viceroys of His Majesty's service. There are also many rich unmarried merchants, to whom the same reasons apply.")24

On the 5th of July 1637, Peter Mundy reached Macao, and stayed here for six months. Despite being mainly restricted to live on board, he frequently went ashore and became involved in the social life of the City. At that time he was a guest of António de Oliveira, the Captain Major of the 1629 voyage to Japan. Mundy wrote about Oliveira in such a manner:

"The house of the said Senor Antonio, with the Furniture, entertainments etc., was suitable to the Former, Differing in this that wee were here served with weomen Maides, Chineses of his own home, bought by him, wherof every housekeeper here hath Many who are accompted among their home stuffe or Meanes; and by report but one woman in all this towne thatt was borne in Portugall; their wives either Chinesas or of thatt Race heretoffore Married to Portugalls."25

Peter Mundy's narrative is along the same lines of those of the Jesuits and Fernão Mendes Pinto. All these authors state that Portuguese men began as early as the sixteenth century to marry Chinese and mestizo women, and in the seventeenth century continued to do so. In fact, in 1637 there existed in Macao one single reinol (Metropolitan Portuguese woman). It is interesting to note that Peter Mundy observes that in Malacca there lived an English woman married to a Portuguese man.

"Here is also an English woman Married to a Portugal Mestizo of some quality [...]. She was called Judith and now Julia de la Garcia [...]."26

How did an English woman arrive in Malacca?

In 1620 she was on board the Union Corn, a ship bound for Japan, as servant of the wife of a carpenter named Frobisher. The ship sank along the coast of Cochin-China and Judith was lucky enough to be taken care of by the Misericórdia (Misericordy) in Macao until she married a Portuguese from Malacca, going with him to this town.

Peter Mundy also describes a theatrical representation given in honour of St. Francis Xavier " performed by the children of the City, there being more than one-hundred actors. [...] The children were very beautiful, [... taught by the Jesuits who looked after...] the upbringing of the young and the infants of this City, especially those of the upper ranks.''27

These "very beautiful" children, who performed so well Scenes of the Life of St. Francis Xavier, belonged to local society's 'upper ranks', quality being children of Portuguese men and Chinese women.

In 1638, the Italian Marco d'Avalo in his Descrição da Cidade de Macaou ou Maccauw, writes:

"When this City was originally founded, it was ruled as a Republic, that is to say: by the Elders acting as Counselors, without a commanding General or a Governor. This was as a consequence of the Territory having been granted not by conquest, but only by thanks to the permission of the Chinese Mandarins. The Portuguese men married Chinese women and so, naturally, the Settlement gradually became a City.''28

Therefore, Ljungstedt is correct when he states that the Macanese are the outcome of the breeding of Portuguese men with Malay, Chinese and Japanese women as well as women of other races:

"Malay, Chinese, Japanese, and other women became their partners in wedlock, and mothers of a generation of the descendants of who are perhaps still members of a community. Their progeny is distinguished by the denomination of 'Mestiços', or mongrels. Next to this class range those whose forefathers were not Portuguese, but either Malays, Chinese or Japanese converts, but they, like the posterity of the Portuguese, are free citizens."

José Pedro Braga made the following comment about this passage:

"'Mongrels' applied to the Macanese is a word possessing neither the merit of truth nor elegance! [...] Ljungstedt's choice of words is injustifiable, so to say the least; his language is as unfortunate as it is offensive. The use of 'mestiços' - or 'mongrels' with its malicious implication - and perverted phrases like 'unholy stock' and 'a contaminated caste' betray a mentality above which Ljungstedt does not appear to be able to rise."29

In our opinion both passages quoted above from Ljungstedt's work contain nothing offensive. The author calls the Macanese 'Mestizos' or 'mongrels' because they are the off-spring of the marriage of Portuguese men with Malay, Chinese and Japanese women, as well as others, who became "their partners in wedlock". The wording is perfect legitimate!

In fact, Fernão Mendes Pinto uses exactly the same wording:

"Three-hundred married men with Portuguese and mestizo women."

Peter Mundy goes further in his specification of this noun 'mestizo' when he describes those "beautiful darling mestizos Escolastica and Catarina and their sisters so, so beautiful that, would be impossible to find equal in the whole world, except in their beautiful poise and demeanor."

Ljungstedt adds nothing to what historians before him had related.

Fr. Arnaiz affirms that "Already in 1640 the total population of the Portuguese, Hindus, Malays, Africans and, foremost, Chinese, already reached forty-thousand people, of which eight-thousand were military of land-and-navy contingents, of varied racial origins."30

In 1644 the Manchu Army conquered Beijing and from there moved further South entering Guangzhou in 1652. During the War years great famine spread all over China and many refugees sought shelter in Macao, thus greatly inflating the City's population.

On the 7th of November 1644, of the Senate, Lourenço Mendes Cordeiro, wrote a letter transcribed by the scrivener Rafael Arias de Morales, to King Dom João IV. In it he requested the King to make peace with the Dutch which attacked the Macanese ships. He wrote that, "se perderão mais de corenta mil almas q'nella há." ("more that forty-thousand souls which it [Macao] shelters will be lost."). 31

§6. THE EMBASSY OF 1640

In 1640, Macao sent an Embassy to Japan, martyred on the 3rd of August of the same year. Attesting the multiplicity of the races then living in Macao, there follows a listing of those martyrs, extracted from the Azia Sinica e Japónica by Br. José de Jesus, Maria (see: Boxer, Charles Ralph, annot., 2 vols., Macau, ICM - CEMM, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 240-245).

PORTUGUESE

1. Luis Paes Pacheco ° {Cochin, 1572} † aged 68.

2. Rodrigo Sanches de Paredes ° {1585 - Tomar, Archbishopric of Lisbon}, ◇ {Macao}, †aged 55.

3. Simão Vaz de Payva ° {1587-Lisbon}, ◇ {Macao}, † aged 53.

4. Gonçalo Monteiro de Carvalho ° {1589, Mesão Frio, Bishopric of Oporto}, widow, †aged 51.

{These are the four Ambassadors}.

5. Domingos Franco ° {1590 - Lisbon}, ◇ {Macao}, † aged 50.

6. Francisco Dias Botto °{1585 - Lisbon}, ◇{Goa}; † aged 55.

7. Manoel Alvares ° {1607 - Lisbon} ◇ {Macao}, † aged 33.

8. Diogo Dias Milhão ° {1600, Barcelos, Arcebishopric of Braga}, ◇ {Macao}, † aged 40.

9. Bento de Lima Cardoso ° {1621, Oporto}, single, 19.

10. Diogo Fernandes ° {1612 - Bemposta Bishopric of Coimbra}, bachelor, † aged 28.

11. Luis Barreto Fialho ° {1615 - Ormuz}, ◇ {Macao}, † aged 25.

12. Manoel Nogueira ° {1615-Lisbon }, ◇{ Macao }, † aged 25.

13. Diogo dos Santos ° {1605 - Cascais}, single, † aged 35.

14. João Pacheco de Siqueira ° {1610 - Lisbon}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 30.

15. Gaspar Martins ° {1605 - Viana de Caminha}, single, † aged 35.

16. Damião Francisco ° {1590 - S. Olaia, near Pico de Regalados, Arcebishopric of Braga}, ◇ {Macao}, † aged 50.

SPANISH

17. Alonço Gallegos ° {1595 -Villa Raza, in Andalucia}, widow, † aged 45.

18. Pero Peres ° {1595 - Chantada, Bishopric of Orense, Kingdom of Galicia}, single, † aged 45.

19. João Henriques de Carião ° {1610-Manila Islands, Bishopric of Cagayam}◇ {Macao}, † aged 30.

CHINESE FROM MACAO

20. Pedro Vaz ° {1601}, ◇ {Nagapatão}, † aged 39.

21. Miguel de Araujo ° {1613}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 27.

22. Domingos da Cunha ° {1610}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 30.

23. Domingos Fernandes ° {1590}, ◇{Manila}, † aged 50.

MAINLAND CHINESE BUT ALSO MACANESE CHRISTIANS

24. Francisco Leitão ° {1605}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 35.

25. Sebastião da Rocha ° {1606}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 34.

26. José Tavares ° {1605°, ◇{Macao}, † aged 35.

27. Antonio de Moraes ° {1612}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 28.

28. Antonio Carneiro ° {16109}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 30.

29. Antonio ° {1632}, † aged 8.

30. José ° {1621}, † aged 19.

31. Francisco ° {1617}, † aged 23.

32. Nicolao ° {1629}, † aged 11.

33. Lazaro ° {1623}, † aged 17.

34. Domingos ° {1613}, † aged 27.

35. Amaro Marim ° {1610}, † aged 30.

36. Manoel ° {1605}, † aged 35.

BENGALIS

37. Paschoal, † aged ca36.

38. João, † aged ca50.

39. Sebastião, † aged ca23.

40. Manoel, † aged ca30.

41. Matheus, † aged ca34.

42. Gonçallo, † aged ca34.

43. Agostinho Correa ° {1600}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 40.

44. Diogo, † aged ca35.

MALABARS

45. Nicolao, of the Balalla caste, † aged cal6.

46. Antonio, of the Balalla caste, † aged cal9.

47. Antonio, † aged ca20.

48. Gonçallo ° {1620}, † aged 20.

49. Thomé ° {1615}, † aged 25.

50. João, † aged ca27.

51. Jeronimo, † aged ca18.

KAFFIRS

52. Francisco ° {1590}, ◇{Macao}, † aged 50.

53. Alvaro, † aged ca40.

54. Antonio, † aged ca25.

OF SEVERAL OTHER CASTES

55. Diogo de Mendonça ° {1610 - Chaul}, † aged 30. Son of a Portuguese father and an Indian mother, married in Macao.

56. Domingos ° {1612}, of the Malay caste, † aged 28.

57. Antonio, of the Solor caste, † aged ca40.

58. Gaspar Monteiro ° {1605}, of the Solor caste, † aged 35.

59. João da Guerra de Manila ° {1630}, of the Pampago caste, † aged 30.

60. Alberto ° {1623}, of the Timor caste, † aged 17.

61. Manoel, of the Jao caste, † aged ca40.

§7. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Writing in the early eighteenth century Fr. Francisco de Sousa produced the following statistics of the Macao of his times:

"There are around one-hundred-and-fifty Portuguese families; the overall total being about nine-teen-thousand-and-five-hundred of which sixteen-thousand women. Within the City walls reside one-thousand gentiles, officers and traders."32

It is interesting to observe that the Chinese, even gentile, were allowed to live in the City. In 1743 the Mandarin of Huang Shang made the same remark that: "In the Territory of Macao the Chinese live side-by-side with the Portuguese."33

Writing in 1746, the authors of Ou-Mun Kei-Leok, related on the following manner the early days of Macao:

"And later, they [the Portuguese] were allowed the annual tenure of the land and since them, houses and residences started being built in Macao. It was also allowed them to bring their women, besides contracting other Chinese folk to whom they rented the ground-floor of their houses for residential purposes and from whom they collected an annual rent and interests. Nowadays, there live in Macao more than three-thousand-and-five-hundred 'barbarian' men and women, and two-thousand Chinese people recruited from the mainland. The Chinese act as servants, labourers and craftsmen, all working quite happily and living in peace and quiet."34

The same book (pp. 83-84) also has the following description:

"In these last years, immediately after they [the Portuguese] started to anchor in the bay of Hou-Keong (Macao), they started building residential houses, reaching in less than one year several hundred, and now totaling almost one-thousand.

And, as in the olden days, they [the Portuguese] keep contact with the Chinese, being unimaginable the fat profits they gain in each season. Because of this, more arrive from all comers of their Country, carrying the elderly and dragging the youngsters, constantly arriving ever more and in rapid succession [...].

Presently the number of 'barbarians' is almost ten-thousand."

Were there any marriages of Chinese women with Portuguese men during the second half of the eighteenth century? Of course, and confirmation of such unions in contained in the Parish Archives. These marriages were also described by the Chinese historian:

"Those who became converted to Christianity in Macao are the long-time residents who are gradually and profoundly influenced by the language and customs of the foreigners in such a manner that, inexorably, they become 'barbarians' themselves.

There are several types of people from this class [of converts]. In order to join their Portuguese religion [Christianity] some change attire, others join their religion marrying foreign women [Kuai-mui, i.e.: daughters of the devils] with them looking after the children and grandchildren of their union; there are others who invest their resources in business; while others are simple workmen and others are soldiers and keepers. Besides all these there are still others who frequently visit the residences of the 'barbarians', and arrange their hair in the foreigners' fashion, and that even declare themselves as Christians in order to more conveniently be with the 'barbarians'."35

And (p. 114):

"We secretly inquired that in the land of Macao, 'barbarians' have settled and traded since the old Ming Dynasty, for more than two-hundred years. They gathered in this territory, presently reaching three or four-thousand, being ruled by an attorney36 appointed by their 'barbarian' King."

While a previous text indicated the number of ten-thousand Portuguese inhabitants for the Macao of this period, this author states that the Portuguese totalled only three to four-thousand. We suggest that the difference between the first and the second figures for the year of 1746 rises from the fact that the first author included the Chinese and the second only counted the Portuguese.

On the 8th of August 1777, Bp. Dom Alexandre da Silva Pedrosa Guimarães stated that: "All the Macanese Christians, the elderly as well as the youngsters and even the babies, blacks and whites, of both sexes, are not more than six thousand." If we deduct from this figure the Chinese Christians we are again left with a gross number of three to four-thousand inhabitants. In consequence of the Toy son Rebellion and the ensuing persecution against the Church in Conch-in-China, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, many more Christians took refuge in Macao.

On the 14th of April 1790, Fr. Longer wrote that: "After the destruction of all our oratories, and because of the persistent Wars sprung by the rebels of Cochin-China all over the land, our poor Christians suffered greatly and were reduced to a pitiful number. More than half of the men died and the remainder were persecuted in the most atrocious manner. It should be added that plague also caused great damage. Since last year, there were Christian communities where this calamity killed more than one-hundred people."37

The 1785 and 1793 Parish Archives registered several marriages of girls from Cochin-China with local Portuguese men. Obviously, only those wealthy enough to afford the sea voyage were able to seek refuge in Macao, that is, those of the highest ranks. The remainder either stayed in Cochin-China or escaped to the neigh bouring Countries.

In 1793, Sir George Staunton commented about the population of Macao that: "The gross of the population is about eleven-thousand, more than half being Chinese." And, according to the same author, the Portuguese Christians were "slightly more than four-thousand."38

By the end of the eighteenth century, De Guignes estimated that the Chinese population of Macao was around eight-thousand, the overall number of residents in the City being twelve-thousand. But a quarter of a century later the Chinese population had doubled because, according to Álvaro de Andrade, Macao had twenty-two-thousand-five-hundred inhabitants of which eighteen-thousand were Chinese. 39

§7. THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES

During the first half of the twentieth century many foreign traders lived in Macao. The British, Dutch and French Companies also established had trading Factories.

In should be noted that the residence of foreign women in Guangzhou was not allowed. The Parish Archives of the Colony show that several of these foreigners - Spanish, British, Americans, Dutch, French and Italians - married Macanese women. Occasionally illegitimate offsprings of these foreigners are also registered. In 1841, there was a great loss of foreign trade when the British moved to Hong Kong.

In a ofício (written notice) dated the 23rd of May 1829, the Procurator of the Senate, Pedro Feliciano de Oliveira Figueredo stated that: "in these last twenty years the Chinese population has grown from eight-hundred souls to forty-thousand."40

According to Ljungstedt, six-thousand-and-ninety of these forty-thousand were Christians. The author supplies us with the following statistics:

"In 1830, the Bisphopric of Macao totals six-thousand-and-ninety Christian Chinese:

CHINESE CHRISTIANS

According to Ljungstedt's estimates, by 1834, the Chinese population of Macao was around thirty-thousand.

Regarding the Portuguese population Ljungstedt says:

"In a representation, written in 1821, to be presented to the Constitutional king John, as it is averred, that in 1853 there were at Macao 900 portuguese, besides women, slaves and many hundred of Chinese children, that had been purchased; also a great many people who came from Portuguese ports in Asia; and that the latter end of the seventeenth century the population of Macao amounted to 19,500; in 1821 to no more than 4,600, consisting of free men, slaves, who dress in à l'Europénne, viz: free natural subjects above fifteen years of age, 604 individuals, under fifteen 473; slaves 537; and women 2693, making a total of 4307. In this sum is not comprehended 186 men belonging to the batallion, nor 19 friars and 45 nuns. In 1830 the population was estimated, exclusive of the military and clergy, at 4628, viz., 1202 white men, 2149 white women, 350 male slaves, 799 female slaves, 38 men and 118 women of different castes. The Portuguese born in Portugal and in its dominion, residing at Macao, in 1834, did not exceed 90 persons. Neither they nor any other vassal are allowed to quit Macao, but by a previous consentment of the government."

Follows a chart (see: Chart 1) about the Christian population of Macao, in 1856, also including their number of residences, according to the Report given by the priests of the different Parishes.

In 1910, there were 74,866 inhabitants in Macao. In 1939, the population rose to 245,194. In 1910, there were 3,526 Portuguese and 67,732 Chinese. In 1939, there were 4,174 Portuguese and 227,030 Chinese.

PART II. THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION OF MACAO43

§1. INTRODUCTION

In order to further explain the discussed subject, there follows some historical data listed in direct relation with the dates and numbers depicted in the previous chart.

·1553-"It was in 1553 that for the first time a group of Portuguese set foot in a location called Amagau in order to dry on its shores the produce of their trade, soaked by a tempest."(Fr. Cardim). They left immediately after.

·1557- An historical year, as it officially celebrates the foundation of the Portuguese Settlement. The recently arrived residents moved here from the neighbouring Colony of Lampacao. Maybe they were of a greater number than generally realized.

·1561- The number of Christians is documented through the estimate of the missionary Fr. Baltazar Gago, S. J..

·1562- The Lusitanian Colony expands. The number of Christians is once again supplied by another missionary of the Company of Jesus who, on his way to Japan, stayed for some time in Macao. The first catechist of the Chinese was the secular priest, Fr. Gregório Gonçalves, a Portuguese, 43 who permanently resided in Lampacao.

"Those days, in the City of Macao, besides the number of native Chinese Christians, there were about nine-hundred Portuguese [...]." (Oriente Conquistado, Part I, Conq. IV., Div. 2, paragraph. 38).

·1582 - It was impossible to find the confirmation for the given number, but it is admissible to take it as correct.

Most probably the number is relative to Portuguese and mestizo men only recently arrived from Asian Occidental overseas regions. By 1579 Fr. Ruggieri had already founded a permanent catechumenate in the Territory and the baptism of Chinese progressively increased every year.

·1600-Due to the lack of explicit documentation the number of three-thousand-five-hundred Christians was estimated from secondary sources. One thing is certain, this estimate is conservative as the Chinese immigrants, some sailors others traders, were gradually embracing the Christian Faith as they progressively settled in the City. Thus the Christian population slowly became incorporated within the global population of the City.

As the Portuguese Colony rapidly grew it also converted the Chinese to the Christian Faith, this role almost exclusively belonging to the Company of Jesus. Since the establishment of the Colony until the early eighteenth century - therefore for a century-and-a-half - that this increase [of the numbers of Portuguese settlers] proportionally grew [with the number of converted Chinese to Christianity].

·1621- In this year the Dutch J. P. Coen wrote that in Macao were residing ten-thousand inhabitants, of which seven-hundred to eight-hundred were Portuguese. (See: "Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau", Macau, 1938, p. 97). In that same year the Englishman Richard [sic] states that three-quarters of the population was Chinese. It seems that 'Castilian' and Japanese were also included in this total. Already this year it was rumoured that the Dutch seamen trading in Macao were passing crucial information about the City's military defenses which were used during the Dutch attack on the Colony in 1622. The victory of the Portuguese against the Dutch was contemporary considered the Lepanto of the Far East, a triumph against the Protestant powers.

· 1635 - In this year, the Portuguese António Carro, 44 An intrepid and sui generis adventurer, relates that Macao had eight-hundred-and-fifty Portuguese citizens, "homens cazados" ("married men") and as many Chinese, all Christians and equal to the Portuguese also residing full-time in the City. These two estimates total seventeen-hundred Christian "lares" ("households"), as the author puts it in his classicizing verbiage. If we considered that each "household" constituted by about fifteen Christians, together with the slaves of many of those Portuguese families, we reach an overall total of twenty-five-thousand souls. This number is close to Fr. Cardim's estimates in his precious information on contemporary Macao.

· 1644- And here is a statement exactly from Fr. Cardim who narrates as an eyewitness. Around forty-thousand Christians divided into two categories, one Portuguese of about one-thousand families and another Chinese of around the same number, all being Christian. The same historian confirms that each family accounted for one "house-hold" of around twenty Christians, including the soldiers, musketeers and slaves who lived in such "households".

In those days Macao also had around eight-thousand Navy and Army people. The City had then reached the zenith of its Military and economic powers. Soon after, with the loss of Japanese commerce (which was already beginning to martyr the Christian missionaries and the Portuguese Ambassadors), together with the fall of the Ming Empire, the City began to dwindle. One should add that, oddly enough, the people from Macao contributed to the fall of the Ming Dynasty and to the rise of the Manchu Dynasty which was to become hostile to Portuguese commerce in China.

Only the missionary glory did not fade, shining forth one more century until the suppression of the Society of Jesus in the domains of the 'Monarcas Fildelíssimos' ('Most Faithful Monarchs'), in 1670. Many other religious Orders and Congregations contributed to the missionary splendour of the Society of Jesus from Macao, spreading throughout the lands of the Missions in multiple apostolic phalanxes.

· 1700- The correct date is, in fact, around 1708, as the Jesuit P. F. Sousa in his Oriente Conquistado [...] ends his narrative on this date. In this work Sousa mentions that there are around nineteen-thousand-five-hundred Christians in Macao while the gentile are only about one-thousand. Adding these two figures we reach a gross total of twenty-one-thousand-five-hundred for the whole population of the Colony.

·1777- In a coeval document the Bp. of Macao, Dom Alexadre da Silva Pedrosa Guimarães assures the Leal Senado (Loyal Senate) that there are no more than six-thousand Christians in Macao, what might be their race or colour, while the gentile totaled more than twenty-two-thousand. In this document the Bp. attempts to evade certain Administrative functions related to the Civil Law of the Colony, thus giving the impression that he purposefully diminishes the numbers of Christians and exaggerates the number of gentiles. And although I am not the only one who is under this impression, it is also true that by then Macao had already lost a great number of Christian souls. First with the suppression and then with the successive extinction of the Society of Jesus, whose heroic unfatigable missionaries laboured for the conversion of China and the Christianization of this 'Mui Nobre Cidade' ('Most Noble City'). The Royal Patronage suffered a considerable blow of prestige and incalculable loss in trade.

·1818- We find it hard to believe in the accredited number of five-thousand Christians in Macao, for this year. Only in the Parish of S. Lázaro (St. Lazarus), beyond the City walls, there were ninety-eight houses or Chinese Christian families. This gives an average total of around one-thousand converts just in the area of the City extra-muros.

·1845- Around the second half of the seventeenth century the Macao population found two liberating ways for fighting the economic asphyxia with which the Mandarins and Viceroys of Guangzhou had been attempting to destroy the City during the last century.

From 1841, the year when Great Britain had founded the Colony of Hong Kong, more aptly called Victoria, a new City was rapidly growing. Very quickly this new port was not only detaining the bulk of the Chinese capital and the trade from Guangzhou, but was also attracting both the Chinese and the Portuguese Christian population of Macao who, in that Emporium, could easily find better jobs and salaries sheltered under the British flag.

On the other hand there was a trend amongst the Portuguese population of Macao to emigrate to Guangzhou, were they could trade more freely and gain larger profits. After the middle of the century Shanghai equally saw a flood of Portuguese emigration and, although on a smaller scale, a number of other port towns in China and even Japan followed this trend.

§2. FEMININE FRAILTY

There were in Macao, in those days, a very large number of Chinese, Timorese and Kaffir women slaves. This posed a serious problem regarding their protection since these miserable 'daughters of Eve' were unprotected from worldly assaults. The Bishops attempted to end this situation either by exiling many of these women from the Colony or by giving them shelter behind the walls of the Recolhimento de Sta. Maria Madalena (Asylum of St. Mary Magdalen). Sometimes they inflicted to the guilty parties heavy ecclesiastic penalties, but in the long term they obtained little result.

In 1667, Br. Miguel dos Anjos, O. E. S. A., Governor of the Bishopric of Macao sent thirty to forty Timorese women back home. Luís da Gama relates these circumstances in his Diário (Diary):

"Esta nao de Timor se foi aprestando para em Dezembro ou Jan.ro se fazer vela p. a Timor, como de facto partio e nella por capitão Jeronymo de Abreu e o Pe. Mathias da Maia foi no mesmo barco p. a de Timor ir logo a Larantuca a captar [?] em meu lugar a Resid. a [?] de Macassar: no mesmo barco forão 30 ou 40 mulheres desterradas pela [...] do S. or G. or do Bispado para Timor aos 11 de Janeiro de 1667 e foi obrigado a partir tão cedo n'este dia, mais depressa do q'cuidava." ("The Timorese vessel which had arrived was due to sail back to Timor in December [1666] or January [1667]. The vessel sailed, having as Captain Jerónimo de Abreu. Fr. Mathias da Maia also went aboard, sailing from Timor to Larantuca to substitute me in the Makassar Residence. And in the same boat were thirty to forty women exiled by [...] of the Governor of the Bishophric of Timor on the 11th of January 1667, and that day it was necessary to sail much earlier than expected."). 45

The reason for such a hasty departure was the arrival from Guangzhou on the 10th of January of some low ranking Mandarins, with the intention to further oppressing the City beyond the trade restrictions that the Manchu Dynasty had already imposed on the Portuguese. On the 30th of October 1667, Fr. Tissanier, writing from Siam, relates the tragic end of the vessel captained by Jerónimo de Abreu:

"Despite the trade restrictions with which they [the Portuguese] have to comply, during the month of January there secretly departed from Macao a vessel bound for Timor. On board were a number of women leaving that famished [sic] place. It sank along the shores of Cochin-China, and from the around two-hundred or so people who were on it, only half had the good fortune of escaping alive from the shipwreck [...] If God does not help with all His Might, the Missions of this Orient are in danger of becoming totally ruined."

Cap. Alexander Hamilton relates that the population of Macao had greatly dwindled because of the Wars with Timor:

"That War with the City of Maccao lasted about fifteen years. It began about the year 1688, and was not quite finished in the year 1703, and Macao in the end was ruined by it, for it exhausted both their stock of men and money to such a degree that of 1,000 citizens the town had before the War, there was hardly fifty left at the end of it, and of forty sail of trading ships, not above five left, so that in the whole City and Forts, there are computed to be about fifteen hundred Laity, and six hundred Priests, 46 and about fifteen hundred Women, and many of them are very prolifick, for they bring forth Children without Husbands to father them."47

Charles Ralph Boxer said that "Apropos this last ungallant accusation, a Dutch account of Macao in the batavian Dagh-Register for 1681, informs us that there was then a garrison of 150 soldiers, and a citizenry of between two to three thousand people, "but provided with a good 12,000 womenfolk"."48

The following century an American writer writes of a Macanese woman "of impudent stare." The writer is the young Harriet Low, born on the 18th of May 1809, in Salem, Massachussetts and who died in 1877. She lived in Macao from 1829 to 1833 and during those years compiled a Diary in which she described the events of which she was a participant. This Diary was to be later published by her daughter, Katherine Hillard, in seven volumes in chronological order.

George Chinnery made the portrait of this American when she was a young lady residing in Macao.

Harriet Low registers in her Dairy the contemporary social practices of Macao. Besides many others, she describes the arrival of vessels, and the Camoens Grotto with the bust of the poet, and remarks that the site is "wild and delightful." She describes going to the opera to see "An Italian in Algiers", which she found very amusing. The costumes were opulent and some of the characters extremely well performed. The theatre was full and all the fashionable beauties of Macao were there. With her characteristic snobbery she comments being scandalized to see amongst the audience a Macanese widow of an Englishman "draped with diamonds on her head, neck and ears and with an incredibly disdainful look, and with a servant always behind her."49

Besides male slaves the Portuguese also had women slaves. The first were young Kaffirs; the second Chinese bichas (lit.: animals), who were contented with little, and good progenitors. They were commonly called criação (lit.: breeding, meaning: young Chinese woman slaves, meaning: slaves). Through baptism they were granted the family names of their masters. From them they usually had several children whom they looked after together with other offspring of their masters.

Am I exaggerating?

Let us look into contemporary documentation. For instance, in 1776, Nicolau Fernandes da Fonseca, Captain of the frigate N. Sra. da Penha de França for the Lisbon-Macao route not only left us a Relatório (report) of this sea itinerary but also a description of the Macanese women:

"Regarding the women, those of the highest ranks are extremely discreet and when they venture outdoors go in closed palanquins. Excepting those who dress European style with skirt and shawl, the others wear ridiculous garments. Their status forces them to maintain arrogant and dull attitudes, because, apart from giving birth, they do nothing else."50

From this publication we also extracted the following passages:

"The more 'ordinary' women, because they are either of Chinese descent or daughters of slaves, not having any honorable stimuli are equally dull and always ready to please, mainly foreigners, who give them money and clothes [...].

Above all they are completely alien to the peculiarity of their households male slaves to which the heaviest and dirtiest duties are allocated - "os moços cafres", synonymous of African - once indoors there are always numerous female servants, some Indian slaves, or mainly Malay - "[...] good humored, well proportioned and, most of them, quite beautiful [...]", as already described by Diogo de Couto in his Décadas - and some others, the bichas which were condescendingly considered as being redeemed due to the euphemism of having being baptized. As more children were progressively born to the masters of the house so was this staff proportionately on the increase. The conglomerate of all those who constituted a home was generically known as a criação."

Fr. Francisco de Sousa, S. J. in his book Oriente Conquistado, also remarked on these slaves that "under the pretext of making them Christians, the Portuguese buy this droga (lit.: drug) in several Provinces of the Orient and take them from one City port to another. They only 'pull the strings' of their masters' purses and are even a bigger danger to their souls. They [the masters] are completely penniless, nonetheless support in their abodes a convent of women bearers of titles such as musicians and other even more bizarre [...]. It had been much better to marry them in their hometowns instead of bringing to India this peste (lit.: plague); and even if the times change the morals remain the same [...]."

When a young lady married she moved to her husband's house together with her maids or amas, amongst all the preferred usually being of the same age as herself and her confident and, commonly, the lady's agent with the 'outer world'. It was not proper of a reclusive young madam to venture outdoors much less to be knowledgeable the affairs of the World.

So serious were the consequences of all possible and even inevitable influences that this kind of female staff had on their mistresses, that Bp. Dom Alexandre Pedrosa informed His Magesty, the King of Portugal:

"Já o meu antecessor D. Frei Hilário decalmou contra o indecoroso trajo das mulheres nesta terra, que consiste quase geralmente em se embrulharem numa "saraça" e colocarem outra dobrada na cabeça de modo que como cai, se descompõem indecorosamente nos lugares mais modestos e tapam ainda todo o rosto, para não serem conhecidas, pelo que se afoitam mais a sair e a entrar pela casa dos solteiros para usos pecaminosos [...].

Na verdade é coisa indecente e gastarão menos se mudarem de sistema, porque as " saraças " custam mais. Algumas, ainda que poucas, quais são as principais, usam de manto, mas as mais não querem, porque precisam sempre de muitas escravas para o seu acompanhamento.

V. ^a Majestade que acabou com o luxo dos coches a mais de um tiro nas carruagens, pode prevenir este negócio, mandando que não usem mais de 2 criadas para o seu acompanhamento, que tragam saias, mantos ou mantilhas curtas, à moda do Porto, qual mais quiserem e assim se desterrar este abuso culpável [...].

Além disso falam uma linguagem, que é mistura de todos os idiomas e gírias, imperceptível aos que não são criados no país, por culpa dos maridos e pais de família, que há dois séculos não cuidaram em introduziro idioma português correcto, sobre o que vou trabalhando, por ser esta coisa aquela em que cuidam todas as nações em seus domínios. [...].

Finalmente tenho de expor a V. ^a Majestade.. que depois que vieram os estrangeiros residir em Macau, tem entrado muito o luxo no fato e nas mesas, porque eles tiram grandes somas das Companhias e fazem despesas excessivas. Os mais que as não podem fazer continuamente, por força as fazem nos casamentos, nos anos e nos baptizados de seus filhos, empenhando-se quando não podem paraisso, porque

só em vinho de todas as castas é um gasto extraordinário e isto, também, concorre para se arruinarem os Moradores. Eles o conhecem e desejam evitá -lo, mas reparam no costume e estimariam as leis, como as de 2 de Abril e 5 de Maio de 1762.

Só V. ^a Majestade pode remediar este dano e ao mesmo tempo evitará, em serviço de Deus, muitos pecados da gente e da ebriedade... Se V. ^a Majestade achar que convêm os remédios destes danos mandará o que for servido [...]."

("Already my predecessor, Fr. Dom Hilário, complained against the indecorous fashions of the women in this Territory. It usually consists of a saraça cloth wrapping for the body and another folded over their heads, which usually falls, thus undecorously exposing their features in the most saintly places; and in order not to be recognized they cover their faces, thus being encouraged to go out of their houses and go into the houses of the single men for the degrading abuses [...].

It is truly indecent and they [the women] would spend less if they changed fashion, because the saraças are expensive. Some ladies, who are of the highest ranks in this land, wear a shawl, being all that is needed, and they are always accompanied by many slaves.

Your Majesty, who ended with the luxury of riding in coaches rather than in carriages, could well prevent this whole affair, stipulating that ladies are not to be accompanied by more that two servants, and that they are to wear skirts, shawls or short mantillas, of the kind they wear in Oporto, thus eradicating this awesome abuse [...].

And above all they speak a Language which is a blend of all idioms and gírias (slangs), which only those native to the Colony understand. And this is all the fault of the sailors and the family's fathers which for more than two centuries have been careless about speaking proper Portuguese. I endeavor to correct all those nuisances, being such the task of all those who really look after the interests of the Nations and Its domains. [...].

Finally, I would like to bring to your Majesty's attention the fact that after the foreigners arrived and settled in Macao, a great deal of luxury has taken-over both in clothing and at table, because they are endowed by the huge profits made by their Companies which enable them to spend excessively. And those who cannot afford to spend so much continuously, splash their wealth in the marriages, birthdays and christenings of their offsprings, contracting debts which go beyond their paying capacities. An extraordinary expense goes in the purchase of all sorts of wines, which precipitate the ruin of the residents. They know about this and try to avoid it, but follow the local practices while waiting for regulatory Laws such as those of the 2nd of April and the 5th of May 1762.

Your Majesty is the only person who can control such waste and in so doing would contribute towards God's service, saving these people of great sin and excessive drinking. [...] And if your Majesty feels it to be advisable to remedy these calamities, You should order it so [...].").

The Diplomas Legais (Legal Decrees) issued in 1755 and 1758 already attempted to legislate some of these matters, more specifically, the problem of the bichas freeing them from their masters who virtually held them as slaves. Unfortunately the results were not encouraging. The same Bishop commented about this matter to the King:

"Saíram [as bichas] logo das casas dos Senhores e não tendo de que se sustentarem, aplicando-se a um ócio inexplicável e incrível, foram expostas a vícios e pecados, de sorte que o número destas mulheres é incompreensível.

Elas foram atraindo e prevaricando outras naturais do país, pela liberdade com que os estrangeiros despendem. Vão às suas casas a toda a hora, com o título de pedirem esmola e lá ficam dias e meses ou algumas vezes vivendo descaradamente como se fossem casadas [...].

Escrevi ao Governador desta cidade, para em conformidade com as leis e decretos mandar publicar que nenhum pedisse sem aquelas circunstâncias [ser cego, aleijado ou impossibilitado de trabalhar].

Fiz um édito proibindo que as mulheres que fossem menores de 25 anos e indo daí até aos 40anos se abstivessem de andar a pedir pelas portas, pelos pecados que por isso iam cometer.

E escrevi à Mesa da Santa Casa de Misericórdia rogando que não dessem sua esmola de um tostão duma só vez, porque me constou que mais se valiam de suas parentes, comadres, conhecidas, amigas benfeitoras para lhes emprestarem as bichas e criadas, as quais levavam consigo a tomarem esta esmola por sua utilidade.

Além disso alugavam meninas chinas para as levarem consigo, ou ao colo, para receberem a dita esmola e o mais é que fingiam vultos e levavam animais, debaixo das "saraças" ou panos pretos, para dizerem que eram crianças a tomarem a esmola para eles. Nesse mesmo número se introduziam atais, que são chinas, mas do género masculino, que iam vestidos de mulher contra a lei, a receberem a esmola por utilidade daqueles que os levavam na sua companhia, porque em todo o tempo trazem o rosto muito tapado e só se descobrem estas coisas por descuido, como tudo aconteceu [...]."

("The bichas left the houses of their masters and being destitute of any source of income, lingered in an inexplicable and incredible idleness, exposed to all sorts of vices and sins; the number of women living in such a manner being incalculable.

Through their behaviour they allure other natives, incited by the liberties allowed by the foreigners. And they go to their houses any hour of the day and night with the false pretense of asking. for charity, settling for days and months on end there, living in great openness as 'consorts' [...].

I have already written to the Governor of this City requesting the publication that, according to the contemporary Laws and Decrees, none should seek charity under such pretexts [blindness, mutilation or malformation, or incapacity to work].

I proclaimed an Edit forbidding all women under twenty-five and up to forty years of age, to go around begging from door-to-door, in avoidance of the sins they might commit.

And I wrote to the Board of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Misericordy) requesting that when giving alms, not to give so much as a tostão at a time, because I came to know that the beggars requested their families, neighbours, acquaintances and benefactor friends to lend them their bichas and women servants to accompany them when collecting charities, thus further profiting from their share.

And, besides, they also rented very young Chinese whom they took along, even carrying them, to collect alms. And also they pretended holding children under the saraças or their black wrappings, and even carried hidden animals saying that they were infants and requesting further charity. And amongst those who sought to collect alms from the Misericórdia were the atais, male Chins who, dressed as women and thus contravening the Law, were also taken as accompanying women by others who wanted to receive even more, declaring them as their servants. And this happened because they had their faces covered as women do and these tricks were only found out for slackness [...].").

(Collection of the Arquivo Histórico de Macau, [AHM] (Historical Archive of Macao)).

During the days when he was the Procurador (Purveyor) of the Misericórdia, the Captain-Major António Carneiro de Alcáçova, also complained to the Senate:

("Nowadays poverty and tedium have contaminated in a most deadly manner the women of this City. And it is now high time to repair these ills, before this pestilential poison of dishonesty becomes worse, thus further spreading the consequences of much wrongdoing. May it please God that we had no motivations to cry tears of blood for the great scandals which are perpetrated in this part of the World [...].").

And another Governor and Captain-Major Diogo Fernandes Salema de Saldanha in a reply to the Bp. Dom Alexandre [Pedrosa] dealing with this 'evil' which he considered 'still preventable', wrote:

"Agora a pobreza e a ociosidade têm enfermado quase mortalmente o elemento feminino desta cidade. É tempo mais próprio de se reparar não se difunda esse pestilencial veneno da desonestidade, consequência daquela premissa e oxalá não tiveramos motivo para chorar com lágrimas de sangue o muito que nos escandalizamos neste particular[...]".

"Com grande mágoa e sentimento me tem chegado à notícia a maior parte das escandalosas desordens que se notam na mocidade feminina desta cidade [...].

Para de algum modo as evitar com terror e castigos, tenho mandado para Timor em duas sucessivas monções algumas pessoas de ambos os sexos, que com perversidade de seus péssimos costumes, ou faziam públicos exemplares de todas as maldades, ou com diabólicas persuasões pervertiam por seus interesses as que viviam honestamente.

Alguma emenda resultou desta resolução[... ] porém, como é grande o número de mulheres pobres que há, e maior a miséria ou a indigência que as oprime, sempre as mesmas desordens se observam continuamente. [...].

Já o ano próximo passado, por saber, com certeza que, de empenharem as mulheres necessitadas, ou na ausência de seus maridos, ou na viúvez e desamparo, os seus trastes e jóias com o penoso ganho de 36% e o tirano ajuste de tudo perderem faltando à satisfação da dívida no termo, parece, que de 3 anos, seguindo-se destas vexações o sujeitarem-se elas corn violência aos gentios, com desdouro da nossa Santa Religião, fiz com o Senado desse a dois Moradores abonados a quantia de 4 000 taéis a 5%, para que eles fossem obrigados com penhor, só com o lucro dos mesmos 5%, proibindo com pena de prisão por um édito o levar penhores às ditas casas e boticas chinas.

São estes os meios únicos que pude descobrir, para ao menos os males não serem tantos [...]."

"It is with great pain and commotion that I have received the news about the high number of scandalous incidents which affect the feminine youths of this City [...].

In order to have to prevent these incidents with the use of terror and punishments, during two successive monsoons I ordered to be sent to Timor some people of both sexes which, through the perversity of their abominable practices had became public examples of all wrongdoing, and through diabolical persuasions perverted the interests of those of honest behaviour.

Although some good resulted from this resolution [...] because the number of destitute women is so high and even higher is the misery and lewdness which oppresses them, the same disorders continue to be repeated. [...].

Because I came to find out with certainty that, once again last year, destitute women - either due to the absence of their husbands, or because they were widows, or simply without an income - had to pawn their belongings and jewels at the high interest of 36% - and the infamous outcome of losing it all at the end of the settled period, not being able to meet their debts on time - and had, in these last three years, and after enduring such vexations, to bow to the violence of the gentile against all the norms of our Holy Religion, I ordered the Senate to secure from two wealthy Residents the sums of 4,000 taéis each with a 5% interest, obliging them to keep the pawned objects, merely retaining the 5% profit and regarding this matter proclaimed an Edict forbidding objects & others to be pawned to those Chinese brokers and shops.

And these were the only methods I managed to devise in order to prevent some of all these multiple disasters [...].")".

(Collection of the Arquivo da Câmara Eclesiástica [ACEM] (Archive of the Ecclesiastic Chamber)).

§4. THE MUITSAI

Peter Mundy wrote: "The poorer sort of Chinese selling their children to pay their Debbts or Maynetaine themselves (which it seemes is somewhat tolerated here), but with this condition, as letting them to hire or binding them servauntts. For 30, 40, 50 years, and after to bee Freed. Some sell them outright without any condition at all, bringing them wrapt uppe in a bagge secretly by Night, and soe part with them For 2 or 4 Ryalls of eight a peece."51

Such girls were called muitsai.

In 1715, the 'Pai dos Cristãos' ('Pastoral Priest', or lit.: Father of the Christians) who was the protector of the Chinese Christians, interfered with this business and released some muitsai. The Senate complained to the Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, who it turn, admonished the priest.

Charles Ralph Boxer related:

"As the scandal continued unabated, King John Vth ordered the Viceroy of India in 1715 to prohibit ship's captains from embarking muitsai at Macao for onward passage to Goa or elsewhere, under pain of severe penalties. The Viceroy replied that he would obey orders; but he ventured to pount out that these girls were of two categories. Those who were natives of Macao, should certainly be prohibited from leaving the place, he considered; but he was not certain about those born in Kwangtungt Province, who were bought when only a year or eighteen months old from penniless parents who would otherwise kill their unwanted female offspring. He added that he agreed in theory that these infants should not subsequently be treated or sold as slaves, but pointed out that unless this element of profit was allowed, there would be no buyers of these otherwise lost souls. He concluded by admitting that the problem was too ticklish for him to decide and asked for further reflection and decision on the part of the King."52

The Viceroy Dom Vasco Fernandes César de Meneses said that no "moça" ("little girl") or "menina" ("young girl") were to be shipped out of Macao. His successor Dom Luís de Meneses, Count of Ericeira, renewed this prohibition, "não se entendendo com as meninas moças que não passarem de sete a oito anos." ("not being young girls those under seven or eight years."). It was therefore understood that, "little girls" (i.e.: under seven or eight years of age) were allowed to be taken abroad from Macao.

Besides these Chinese girls, Timorese and Indian adolescents were also bought in their lands and brought to Macao, to become prostitutes. In 1747, Fr. Dom Hilário da Sta Rosa, Bp. of Macao (1739-1752) in a Representação (Petition) sent to the King of Portugal deplores that. 53

"[...] Sir [...]. Representative of Your Majesty [...] is the Bp. of Macao, who acting as prelate of this Diocese now for [the last] six years and finding it as wild bush, acted with the outmost zeal conciliated with softness in an attempt to control the more quarrelsome [prostitutes] and to turn to the way of the Lord their aggravated sins [...]. Noticing during the annual visits that the dissolution and corruption of women in Macao is immense and without parallel, and finding out that this plague was also spreading to Timor and to the Portuguese State of India afflicting both Christian and gentiles, I sought advise amongst the most reputed and honourable of this land. With Divine interception and thinking of the good of the whole community it was then resolved to issue a Pastoral forbidding, under threat of excommunication, that no person without previous approval and license was allowed to bring to Macao women from Timor or any other women from abroad to this City which is already full of them. And during the first year this sentence was followed but already in the second year the Senate of the Municipality queried about the legality of such action requesting in writing if there was any Order from Your Majesty who allowed the issue of such a Document. To which the reply was that the election of the Bishop had been according to Your Majesty's desire and to the Pope's command, both having given authority to him [the Bishop] to issue Laws and reform Their subjects aiming at the spiritual salvation of all, and such was the reason for issuing the Pastoral. And this he had done in order to somewhat prevent so many sins of misery, and to be an impediment to others of malice with so many horrible consequences of restitution to which people were bound, bringing over Timorese natives cheated and robbed, bought and exchanged for property, turning them and their descendants into slavery against their own will and for all their lives, selling them at public auction against Laws and Decrees, because these were free citizens by right [...] of Your Majesty's Crown and there being no Laws which allow in any circumstance that free men can be made slaves. And this is similar to the ways the people from Macao deal with their native Chinese women, purchasing them while young for a small amount (they say to make them Christians) and after baptizing them and when they reach adulthood they restrict them and call them their slaves for forty years beyond the 'arm' of the Law, buying, selling and inflicting upon them great punishments (hitting them with metal tools, like slaves), frightening them that they would be heretic if that take refuge with the gentiles. So the role of the priests is to help as fathers and shepherds these miserable people, giving them shelter in other abodes. Concerning these matters we attached for Your Majesty's further instruction two Proposals. And we herewith request Your Majesty to examine these Proposals and to decide. [...]"

The Carta Régia (Royal Decree) of the 20th of March 1758 declared that the Bishop of Macao had no Authority to forbid the immigration of Timorese women into the City.

The successor of Dom Hilário de Sta. Rosa, Dom Bartolomeu Manuel Mendes dos Reis, Bishop of Macao (1752-1772), equally made a Representação to the King about the Chinese and Timorese girls, to which the King answered on the 30th of March 1757:

"Judge and Council Members of the Macao Senate. I, the King, salute you. The Bishop of your Diocese informed me of the unfair captivity under which condition lived the Chinese and Timorese women and the opposition with which you prevaricated against a Pastoral regarding the immigration of women of these said Nations into your City. Also the scandalous maltreatment that some people inflicted on the slaves, denying them free access to the Holy Sacraments of the Church and only allowing them on certain days and according to their caprices. And, as I want to avoid the nefarious consequences which such behaviour might ensue I am instructed to command you that, and in attendance to the Royal help requested by the Bishop of that City, you should give utmost assistance under all circumstances to all cases of slaves who might want to follow the rules of the Divine precepts, as well as Ecclesiastical, and to have frequent access to the Holy Sacraments of the Church; and to punish all those who obstinately might be an impediment against such predicaments. Regarding slavery as such and the immigration of Chinese and Timorese women I wish that, waiting for my competent resolution, matters should be left as they are at present and as they were before the publication of the Pastoral of the aforesaid Bishop. And this is to be clearly understood and exactly followed.

- Written in Belem on the 30th of March 1758-

[signed] The King."

The successor of Dom Bartolomeu dos Reis, Dom Alexandre da Silva Pedrosa Guimarães, Bishop of Macao (1772-1789), says that during his period in office he punished the kidnappers of young girls under pretext of marriage, thus upholding the integrity of most "households".54

Dom Marcelino José da Silva, Bishop of Macao (1789-1803) continued fighting against the laxity of morals, as he reports in the written Ofício (Notice) of January 1793, sent to the Portuguese State of India's Government:

"I must confess to Your Highness that I have been horrified to see men less sensitive than beasts and fearless of Divine and human Laws. They contract the women they live with, renting them to several resident foreigners and to others who are willing to use and abuse them. And in the same way act many fathers and mothers with their daughters and 'criações' (so they call the children they rescue from the Misericórdia or buy from the Chinese in times of hunger or inflation); as well as uncles and brothers with their respective sisters and nieces. And all this happens with such insolence and shamelessness that more than once there were husbands who rose their sword and threatened a foreigner for not wanting to accept the wife which they had presented them with [...]. I have tried to avoid to the utmost with leniency and softness these scandals and unreasonable behaviours, preaching and requesting others to preach against such abominable vices and corruptions, giving warnings and applying correctives, in general and privately. So, with the help of some devout and zelous people to save the honour of God and of the Portuguese Nation I have rented some houses, Recolhimento de Sta Maria Madalena (Asyylum of St. Mary Magdalen), to which I have ordered some of these most famous women and publicly scandalous women to retire into, there giving them warnings, correctives and teach them the Christian Doctrine. And this I do sometimes by Myself, and is equally done once a week by Fr. Vila. 55 And, in truth, I have made some progress, although not as much as it was to be foreseen, as many are the problems of giving shelter in the said abode to all who deservingly should be there and to conduct this affair with the righteousness which rules the canons of our priesthood against all those who incite and promote such disorders and prostitutions [...]."

The Bishop goes on listing all the obstacles he faces [in such enterprise], saying that as the "households" of the foreigners had gained the reputation of being "isentas" ("clean") and "sagradas" ("sacred") they were like unpenetrable prisons, the girls only venturing out on Saturday afternoons to attend the early Sundays mass, becoming recluses on the afternoon of the same days.

But, realizing that the Bishop was ordering them to be arrested and restricting them to the Asylum of St. Mary Magdalen, they dared not going out. And amongst the Military there were some with lax morals, naming besides others a certain José Soriano and a Joaquim Machado, Commanders and Captains of two fortresses, infamous pimps in running brothels. Excepting two Major-Sargeants, the Lieutenant José António Roldão and Cristóvão José Morais, those and all the other Officers of the garrison vented of being "clean" like the foreigners, threatening to beat and even to kill the Officers of the Ecclesiastic Justice if they attempted to arrest them. Such was the case with the Quartermaster João dos Remédios who aggressively confronted the Ecclesiastic Officers when they were about to arrest his sister and one of her young servants, both known prostitutes. When João da Costa Brito, Commander of the Fortress of S. Francisco (St. Francis) and a married man, learned of this event, readmitted into his residence a disreputable woman, also married, with whom he had already scandously lived with and thrown out, fearful of the Bishop' s threats.The Bishop was requesting that adequate measures should be taken for eradicating such circumstances.

The complaints of the zealous priest were only partially attended and he was even ordered to close the Asylum of St. Mary Magdalen. The Bishop placed a recourse to the Government of the Kingdom in Lisbon, but his plea was deferred, credits being given instead to the declarations of Lázaro da Silva Ferreira, Ouvidor (Magistrate) of the City of Macao who claimed that the Bishop did not have the Legal Authority to restrain to a correction house without first obtaining an indictment. Faced with this the Bishop only had one way out: - to withdraw, once the Civil Authorities were denying him the implementation of the practical formula he had conceived regarding the reform of the morals of the City.

Thus dissolution continued unrepented for many more years to come. One of the reasons for such behaviour was the idleness with which a number of residents of Macao conducted their lives, gaining from the prostitution of their wives and daughters, particularly with wealthy foreign merchants, a source of income. Taking these circumstances in consideration, on the 26th of March 1803, the Prince Regent enacted the following Alvará (Ruling):

"As, nevertheless, in the said City there are many vagabonds and idle men who are not seafarers and who, despising the honest means of survival inconsequently venturing into forbidden games and loosing on these what they do not have, live like bachelors who follow further detestable vices such as pimpery, straying their own wives and daughters, it is herewith ordered that the Magistrate should arrest and register in writing the declarations of all witnesses ex-officio, or if accusation is presented, the culprits are to be summarily listed, a Court sentence given and its execution to be immediately implemented.

But, if the accused are those who are priviliged by being residents of the said City, and because they are Members of its Government, they are to be released after being summarily listed by a Magistrate as ordinary citizens previous to be sentenced by the Court, as the Law prescribes. And if amongst the accused are to be found foreigners of the British and Dutch Companies, that same Magistrate should be considerate about the terms of his sentence so that in no way the Government of the Kingdom should be blemished but equally taking in consideration that the seriousness and respect due to the Justice and the Laws ruling the said Colony of Macao are in no way to be infringed.

-Given in Lisbon on the 26th of March 1893-

[signed] The Prince Regent"

§5. THE ASYLUM OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN

Ljungstedt, who was a Prostestant, made viperous remarks about the Asylum of St. Mary Magadlen in his book An Historical Sketch, of the Portuguese Settlements in China [...], pp. 42-43, of which follows an extract:

"Relying on ancient documents, a Vicar-General Anthony Joseph Nogueira presumed that he might imprison women, who by their libidinous conduct gave, as he thought, scandal. This concept was adopted and matured (1791?) by the Bishop Dom Marcelino Joseph da Silva. The slander of invidious enemies, or of disobliged greedy informers given attention to. The episcopal goal, bearing the name of "Asylum of St. Mary Magdalen" soon harboured many females, whose guilt had not been ascertained by a previous legal process, were sentenced to a confinement "ad libitum" of the diocesan. The property of the recluses was mismanaged. Commonly, no inventory of it was taken, no responsible person appointed, whose duty it should be to collect the goods and prevent them from being plundered, in order that they might be restored to the released. This inexcusable neglect left many of those who had been reclaimed through repentance, contriction or protection, without means of living, and forced them to deprecate. Those inmured lived under the spiritual direction of the Vicar of St. Lawrence, and in the domestic concerns they were under the inspection of a woman, who taught them to spin, weave, knit, &c. The produce of their labor being insufficient for the maintenance of the prisoners, gratuitous contributions made up the deficiency. This "imperium in imperio", continued till it was by a provision dated, 12th March, 1800, of the Prince Regent of Portugal dissolved. The hierarchy remained with the Church discipline and the promise of Civil Administratioin revested to the Chief Justice of Macao."

§6. THE 'PAI DOS CRISTÃOS' (THE 'PASTORAL PRIEST')59

This name was given by the Chinese to the missionary priest in charge of the Chinese converts. The missionary was supposed to take them 'under his wing'. All the Chinese Christians were under his jurisdiction and surveillance of this Prelate who looked after their spiritual interests and even assisted them in welfare problems. The Jesuits being the major Order in charge of the conversion of the Chinese, the 'Pai dos Cristãos' was also from the Society of Jesus. One of the major functions of the 'Pai dos Cristãos' was to fight slavery which spread in the Settlement immediately after its foundation.

Macao exported to Manila, Malacca and Goa, Japanese and Chinese slaves, the Chinese women slaves being called muitsai. 60

Describing the apostolic endeavours of the Jesuits in Macao, Fr. Francisco de Sousa wrote in 1562, that "More than four-hundred-and-fifty escravas de preço (Port. expl.: female traded slaves) embarked for India and in the last great ship that lkeft for Malacca a further two-hundred embarked, [...]."61

Diogo de Couto relates the shameless affrontery of the traders who travel between Macao and Manila and Goa "carregados de mouras alvas, e de bom parecer, com quem estão muitos annos amancebados " ("accompanied by light skinned and pretty Moorish women whom they take as consorts for many years"). 62

Already in 1520, King Dom Manuel I of Portugal forbade slaves of both sexes to be shipped to Europe.

The First Provincial Council of Goa took place in 1567, legislating on Ecclesiastic matters for the three Portuguese Dioceses of the Orient (Goa, Cochin and Malacca). The Council's 'Second Motion' was a Decree stating that "nenhum infiel possa ter escravo fiel" ("no unfaithful [i.e.: not following the teachings of the Christian Faith] person was to be master of a faithful [i.e.: zealous, dedicated] slave"), and that, under the same logic, if a gentile slave convert to Christianity he/she is to be set free. This 'Motion' of the Council was merely reinforcing a previous Royal Decree dated 1533.

The Council's 'Fourth Motion' stated that: "Because it came to our knowledge that some people who do not fear God, sell young native boys and girls which were placed under their care, the Council rules that the pay dos Christãos should keep in a book the names of all these boys and girls and the names of their respective keepers, and the length of time which these keepers are supposed to be in charge of these boys and girls, so that it is always possible not to loose track of them. And the Council further commands that all those who are aware that the prescribed rules are being transgressed should allert the Prelate ['Pai dos Cristãos' ] so that he may take the necessary precautions, the informers being absolved of their sin of confidence."

In 1571, King Dom Sebastião forbade the trade of Japanese slaves under the penalty of the transgressors having all their belongings confiscated by Law. Because of complaints from the Chinese that the Portuguese from Macao either kidnapped of bought their fellow Chinese, binding them into perpetual servitude or exporting them as slaves, in March 1595, the Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, Matias de Albuquerque, issued an Alvará (Ruling) forbidding such practises. The penalty for the transgressors was of 1,000 cruzados and a two year imprisonment in the fortress of Daman. This edict was to become Law in Goa, Malacca and Macao, and to be followed in January 1599 by another Ruling forbidding the torture of slaves and stipulating heavy sentences for the culprits.

The Fifth Provincial Council of Goa celebrated in 1606 under the presidency of Fr. Dom Aleixo de Meneses legistated in its 'Fourth Motion' that those who would, "açoutar escravo algum com rota, ou costura de sola crua ou com artificio algum de fogo, ou ferro abrasado, ou pingos de qualquer materia" ("whip their slaves with canes, or [?] or with fire implements, or incandescent irons, or drips of any substances") were to be excommunicated.

In 1725, the Archbishop of Goa, Dom Inácio de Sta. Teresa, bitterly complained about the cruelty of the masters to their slaves.

Manuel Luís Coelho, Ouvidor (Teller) of Macao, complained to the King of Portugal that the Dominican Bishop of Macao, Dom João Pinto da Piedade had molested him with "words and admonishments, because it was forbidden to ship to Manila boys and girls kidnaped in Guangdong, saying that the sale of these people was a guarantee of them receiving the Holy Sacrament of baptism."63

If what the Teller reports is true this Prelate was an oddity as all the other Bishops of Macao claimed against slavery. The Jesuits were at the forefront of the fight against slavery, going to the extent of promoting in February of 1624 a Law forbidding under "any pretext" to make Chinese slaves.

In 1715, o 'Pai dos Cristãos' reinforced this Law, ruling that: "nenhuma pessoa dahi em diamte pude∫se comprar escravos chinas, ∫em ∫e fazerem perante o mesmo Pe. Pay dos Christaons clari∫simas diligencias." ("from now onwards no one is allowed to purchase Chinese slaves, without previously notifying the Pay dos Christaons ['Pai dos Cristãos'] of their intentions.").

On the 22nd of January 1716 the Teller of the City complained to the King of Portugal of the Prelate's legislative abuse, and King Dom João V replied on this matter to the Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, ordering that "Não concintais ∫e intrometa o d. ° Pe. Pay dos Christaons, na lberdad. E dos Chinas." ("Do not allow the Pay dos Cristaons to meddle in matters concerning the freedom of the Chinese."). 64

Despite this injunction against the 'Pai dos Cristãos', the same King had ordered in 1715 to the Viceroy that heavy sanctions were to be inflicted on the Captains of ships who carried aboard muitsai from Macao to Goa or anywhere else.

Charles Ralph Boxer claims that: "By and large the most effective champions of muitsai were still the Jesuits. A Portuguese missionary of many years standing in China named Caetano Lopes, who was Procurator of the mission at Rome in about 1730, drew up an impassioned plea on their behalf which seems to have had some effect. Not that the Jesuits were alone in this humanitarian work, however, for prominent amongst those who condemned the vicious system, root and branch, was the Franciscan Bishop of Macao, Dom Frei Hilario de Santa Rosa, who ruled his diocese with distinction from 1742 to 1750."65

In 1747 this Prelate sent an exposição (statement) to the King informing Him that he had forbidden under threat of excommunication that "noone was to bring to Macao either Timorese women or any other women from any other place" without his previous consent. The Senate was to rule against such abuse of Legal Authority, and the Carta Regna dated 20th March 1758 clearly stated that: "the Bishop of Macao has no Authority to forbid the immigration of Timorese women into the City."66

It is also true that on the same date King Dom José I published a Decreto (Decree) abolishing slavery and ordering the freedom of all the muitsai within twenty-four hours. The Decree equally abolished the role of the 'Pai dos Cristãos', the functions of this post being transferred to the jurisdiction of the Civil Authorities.

The person responsible for this 'liberating' Decree was the contemporary Portuguese Prime Minister, the Marquis of Pombal. Some time later he was to expel the Jesuits from all the domains of the Portuguese Empire.

§7. THE CHINESE IN MACAO

The Documents in the Arquivo do Leal Senado (Archive of the Senate), in Macao, frequently contain references to the presence of the Chinese in Macao.

·3rd of July 1690 - The Procurator of the Macao Senate made it public that the Mandarin of Huang Shang had forwarded a chapa (chop) from the Mandarins of Guangzhou commanding that "os Cabeças de Rua dessem p.r lista todos os Chinas assistentes nesta Cid.e em Challes, Boticas, e Gudoens dos Moradores, e q' de cada dez pessoas nomeasse hum, q' fosse Cabeça, p.a dar conta dos mais todas as vezes, q' lhe pedissem e q' se dessemos nomes de todos os nossos moradores, q' em seus Gudoens recolhem Chinas, p.a darem conta delles." ("the Heads of the Streets are to supply a list of all Chinese working and residing in this City, in house holds, workshops and booths. And that all of every groups of ten people must have a Head who will be responsible for supplying information on any person of his group whenever requested by us. Also, that the names of all Portuguese residents who had Chinese living in their households are to be supplied.").

In order to avoid quarrels, the Officers of the Senate ordered that lists of all the Chinese living or working in shops should be supplied and that all Portuguese were to evict the Chinese living under their roof. 67

·6th February 1692 - It was determined that any Chinese or slave going around town without a lantern, after the Municipality's bell - ringing [Ave Marias] announcing the beginning of the curfew hours, was to be arrested. Also that any Chinese not properly registered in the census book of 1691 and caught in the City during the curfew hours was to be equally "prezo, e entregue a seus Mandarins p.r gente roim" ("arrested and delivered to the Mandarins, being considered undesirable").

No resident in Macao was allowed to rent shops to the Chinese whose names were not in the census book; only thirty 'coolies' were allowed to remain in the City employed in its upkeep. 68

·21st of June 1698 - The Procurator Filipe Fróis de Quadros, having bought a Chinese child, was obliged by the Mandarins to return him to his parents. 69

·1st of April 1703 - The Senate ordered that to avoid further problems with the Mandarins and following the death of her master, Diogo de Melo, a Chinese maid servant was to be sold for twenty one Patacas. 70

·14th of July 1703 - The Senate ordered that all those selling Chinese male or female servants abroad were to be fined one-hundred taéis.

·21st May 1703 - The Senate was empowered to expel any Chinese from the City by whatever means in an attempt to avoid further damages "p.r causa de multidão dos Chinas, que entre nós vivem nesta d.a cidade, derramados p.r muitas casas, chales, boticas, sendo a assistencia deles conhecidamente p.r tão damnoza." ("by the multitude of Chinese who live amongst the Portuguese in this City, scattered in many casas (households), chales (Workshops) and boticas (booths), and who are of a well-known malevolent character."). 71

The Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India several times addressed the Macanese Senate on problems related to the presence of the Chinese in Macao. Unless otherwise stated, the following dates are the dates of the letters sent by the Viceroy, from Goa to Macao.

·29th of April 1711 - That in order to avoid the Chinese settling in Macao "lhes não consinta comprem nelle cazas" ("they are not to be allowed to buy property [i.e.: within the City walls]".). 72

·6th of May 1714 - That the Senate should beware of the Chinese and make efforts to "sobre ficar essa Cid.e livre da multidão deles" ("free the City from its multitude [of Chinese]".).

·17th June 1717 - The Senate complained to the Viceroy that the Mandarins from Guangzhou continuously interfered with the affairs of the Government of Macao; in matters such as "como o de proibirem o lançar-se os Chinas das boticas fora, que supomos serem prejudiciaes nesta Cid.e, com os roubos, que commetem." ("forbidding to expel from their booths the Chinese who we feel are too nefarious to this City, due to the many robberies they commit."). 72

·7th of May 1718 - Once again, that no property was to be sold to the Chinese and that those already bought by them were to be recovered by the Portuguese at all costs.

This Order was repeatedly sent from Goa to the Senate who always lacked power to enforce it. Already in 1713 the Senate replied to the Viceroy that it was impossible to prevent this calamity due to "a multidão dos Chinas q' há esta Cidade [...] em razão da grande fome q' geralmente padeceo toda esta China, occazião em q' se não pode com tal gente bolir p.r serem taes q' se matao p.a q' seus filhos, e parentes tenhão que comer." ("the multitude of Chinese living in the City [...] result of rampant starvation in China. And it is impossible to argue with these people [the Chinese] because they are of a kind that murder in order to secure food for their children and relatives.").

·[n. d.] of December 1718 - Having complied with the Orders of not selling property to the Chinese, and presently faced with the reluctant sale of many of the already sold property to the Chinese, the Senate suggested expropriating many of these forcing a compulsory sale. 73

In 1743 [sic] the Mandarin of Huang Shang wrote:"

In the land of Macao the Chinese live together with the Europeans [...].

I was told that they [the Europeans and their overseas slaves] inhabited that land for already two-hundred years, in bygone eras of other Emperors, and now they reach a population of about three to four-thousand men and women, all under the jurisdiction of the Captain-Major of Macao. And he punishes them [the Europeans and their overseas slaves] according to the Laws of Europe, with the difference that if someone [a slave] commits a serious crime he is tied to a long pole which is introduced into the mouth of a cannon, which is then lit, shooting the criminal [over the City] and into the sea."74

·6th of May 1752 - The General Council of the Senate faced serious difficulties to sustain the avalanche of Chinese refugees fleeing from the starvation in the mainland. It is recorded:

"Pretendendo este Senado acudir, e remediar de algum modo a urgente necessidad.e, q' padecem nesta Cid.e tantas mil almas, sem terem as mais dellas com q' passem ainda mizeravelm.te a sua vida; e como se veja impossibilitado, como a todos he notorio, pois se acha empenhado em vinte e tantos mil taeis, ao m.mo tempo que ha poucas esperanças de se pode dezempenhar, se Deos N. Senhor não applacar a sua Divina ira contra esta atenuada Cid.e; e obra mais meritoria, e de agrado p.a com o m.mo Senhor, do q' he socorrer os pobres dezemparados, p.a q' estes não acabem a sua vida p.r causa do sustento cotidiano [...] de nenhum modo convinhão em q' se pusesse pensão de foro sobre cazas, chales e Boticas [...] deo o Govd.or e Cap.m João M.el de Mello 30 mil taeis, e o Senado 50 taeis, o Rd.o Pe. Luis de Sequeira V. Prov. da China o menos 50 taeis, e os mais Rd.os Prellados ficarão de dar resposta de q.to poderião dar, e Simão Vict.e Roza 100 taeis, e o Vereador do mez 20 taeis, e nenhum dos mais deo coiza alguma."("[This Senate], in an attempt to rescue and somehow give relief to all those who suffer in this City of so many thousand souls - most of them miserably surviving - and being in debt of more than twenty-thousand taéis, confronts the impossibility of such a task should other-wise God Our Lord appease His Divine wrath against this extenuated City. And because there is no more laudable and worthy deed than to give help to those who are in need, saving them from the imminent death they are condemned to, due to the lack of daily sustenance [...] it is of the utmost convenience to levy the ground rent from households, workshops and booths, [...] the Governor and Captain-Major João Manuel de Mello having donated thirty-thousand taéis, the Senate fifty taéis, the Reverend Fr. Luis de Sequeira Vice-Provincial of China also fifty taéis. The other Reverend Prelates are still to say how much they are able to contribute; and Simão Vict. Roza gave one-hundred taéis, and the Magistrate of the month [Bernardo Nogueira Carvalho da Fonseca] twenty taéis, and that was all.").

·1st October 1773 - The Captain-Major Diogo Fernandes Salema da Saldanha commanded the Senate to comply with the instructions of redeeming the households mortgaged to the Chinese by same Portuguese proprietors, and to notify the Prelates of the convents that they were no longer allowed to rent tracts of land to Chinese who used them for building purposes. 75

·12th of October 1773 - The same Captain-Major requested to be informed by the Senate if the owners of the households mortgaged to the Chinese were enforcing the prescribed devolution periods.

·20th of November 1773-The same Captain-Major requests from the Senate a list of sacred and secular landowners who have rented to the Chinese and the times they were given to register the households which were built by the Chinese in those tracts of land.

·7th of January 1774 - Yet another letter from the same Captain-Major to the Senate demanding a list of sacred and secular land-owners who have property rented to the Chinese.

·14th of September 1774 - Another letter insisting on the dispatch of the already requested Portuguese land-owners and Chinese builders listings.

·9th of January 1773 - The Proceedings of the General Council of the Senate reported that the Mandarin from Huang Shang had been to Macao with the express purpose of tracking an Englishman who had murdered a Chinese. The Senate allowed the search to take place and suggested "que a poderia fazer p.r aquelles chinas que ficão p.r aquellas bandas do Mato da Penha, principalm.te por aquelles que morão nas cazas que forão do P. Joze Gonsalves." ("that it could be carried out by the Chinese who live near the Mato da Penha, mostly by those who live in the households which belonged to Fr. José Gonçalves."). This document clearly attests that there were Chinese living within the City walls.

·8th of August 1777 - The Bishop of Macao, Dom Alexandre da Silva Pedrosa Guimarães, issued the following statement:

"E o terceiro não poderemos resistir com força a qualquer ordem, que se houver de não cumprir, porque os Chinas nesta Cidade são perto de 22 000 e todos os cristãos assim velhos como moços e crianças de peito, pretos e broncos , dum e doutro sexo, não chegarão a 6 000 e muito fracos.

O Imperador num instante meterá nesta Cidade, de improviso, tantos Chinas, que lançando cada um neste rio só um sapato, fariam entupir a barra." ("And thirdly, it is impossible to attempt to resist any order which we might have been instructed not to comply with, because there are around twenty-two-thousand Chinese in this City and all the Christians counting the elderly and the youngsters as well as infants, regardless of their colour and sex, are less then six-thousand, and all very weak.

And if necessary the Emperor of China could unexpectedly send so many Chinese into the City that if each of them was to throw one of their shoes to the river, its estuary would be blocked."). 76

·9th of August 1778 - It was decided that the Senate was to enforce the command of the Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India "que mandou remir as cazas dos Portuguezes alienadas aos Chinas." ("to repossess the houses owned by the Portuguese who had symphaties with to the Chinese."). 77

·21st of August 1778 - The Governor once again commanded that the contracts regarding the sales of households to the Chinese were to be cunningly invalidated and that the construction of households, workshops and booths by the Chinese were to be strickly forbidden.

In the second edition of Cartas escriptas da India e da China (Letters written from India and China), published in Lisbon, in 1847 [sic], a certain José Inácio de Andrade commented that it was impossibe to find in Macao a stonemason, carpenter, or workman other than Chinese.

"Accresce a isto, não haver n'esta cidade padejo, mercearia, ou taberna, que não seja dos chinezes: os donos, e os artistas, ao verem anexar um edital em nome do imperador, para que deixem a cidade, bastam vinte e quatro horas, para de 18 000 chinezes não ficar um em Macau.

Que fará neste caso o capitão geral? Onde irá buscar alimento, para quatro mil e quinhentas pessoas?"

("Besides, there is no bakery, grocery or tavern in this City which does not belong to the Chinese. And it would be sufficient for their owners and artisans to see an edict posted in the name of the Emperor commanding them to leave the City so that in less than twenty-four hours, not one of the 18 000 Chinese who live in Macao would remain behind.

And if this really happens what will the Captain-Major do? Where will he be able to find food for four-thousand-five-hunded people?").

This passage confirms that seventy years after (1847) the time of Dom Alexandre da Silva Pedrosa Guimarães (1777) the population of Macao had scarcely increased in number. 78

§8. PRIESTS OF CHINESE DESCENT

The following list, which end in the late eighteenth century, is from the ACEM in Macao. It is interesting to note that quite a few of the priests below listed, born during the first half of the eighteenth century, had Chinese grandparents. This attests for the breeding of Portuguese with Chinese already in the seventeenth century.

The following data has been extracted from the Consecration Procedures of each registered Priest.

1. Chanter Francisco Vaz, ° {ca1690-1700}.

Parents: José Vaz ◇ Inácia de Mesquita (from Macao).

Paternal grandparents: André Vaz (from Goa) ◇ Maria do Rosário (Chinese).

2. Father Francisco da Rosa, ° {3 Oct. 1698}.

Parents: Pascoal da Rosa (from Pico) ◇ Maria Soares (from Macao).

Paternal grandparents: Manuel de Matos ◇ Isabel da Rosa.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Most probably Chinese gentiles.

3. Father Inácio Pereira, ° {31 March 1701}.

Parents: Urbano Pereira ◇ Natália Nunes.

Paternal grandparents: Jorge Nunes ◇ Susana Rodrigues (both Chinese).

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

4. Father José de Almeida, ° {10 July 1702}.

Parents: António Almeida ◇ Ana Pereira.

Paternal grandparents: Mateus de Sousa (Chinese) ◇ (Unknown).

Maternal grandparents: Camilo Pinto ◇ Regina Pereira (both Chinese).

5. Father António Fróis, ° {7 July 1711}.

Parents: Felício Fróis ◇ Inácia Caldeira.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

6. Father Inácio de Macedo, ° {9 Jan. 1724}.

Parents: Miguel de Macedo ◇ Florentina de Sousa (both Chinese).

7. Father Vicente Ferreira, ° {11 May 1726}.

Parents: Carlos de Abreu (Chinese) ◇ ? Martinho de Barros (from Macau).

Paternal grandparents. Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Filipe de Araújo ◇ Fulcina de Araújo (both from Macao).

8. Father Francisco da Serra, ° {24 Oct. 1727}.

Parents: Pedro da Serra ◇ Tomásia da Rosa.

Paternal grandparents: Francisco da Serra ◇ Luísa de Valgonera (both Chinese gentiles).

Maternal grandparents: Gaspar Monteiro ◇ Catarina Taveira (both Chinese gentiles).

9. Canon Luís Vicente Baptista, ° {23 June 1729}.

Parents: João Baptista de Azevedo ◇ Joana Correa.

Paternal grandparents: Baltazar de Azevedo ◇ Maria Ferreira.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese Gentiles.

Joana Correa had been brought at the Misericórdia where she had been left by her Chinese gentile parents. Was criação of Inês Correia who gave the girl her family name when she was baptised, aged three, at the Sé (Cathedral), on the 6th of November 1749.

10. Canon João Simões de Carvalho, ° {22 Dec. 1731}.

Parents: Sebastião Simões de Carvalho ◇ Esperança Rebela.

Paternal grandparents: João Simões de Carvalho ◇ Antónia da Rosa.

Maternal grandparents: José Rebelo ◇ Luísa de Aguiar (both Chinese gentiles).

Father João Simões de Carvalho had a brother who became a Jesuit. He died before 1759.

11. Father José Pinto, ° {2 Jan. 1733}.

Parents: João Pinto ° {22 May 1695} ◇ {8 Feb. 1724} Maria Coelho.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Júlio da Silva ◇ Luísa Pinto.

12. Chanter Joaquim Soares, ° {26 May 1755}.

Parents: Matias Soares 1 ◇ Feliciana Correia 1 ◇ Apolinário Ricardo.

Paternal grandparents: João Soares ◇ Domingas Amburgo.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles..

Feliciana Correia was Chinese. Was criação of Natália Correia who gave the girl her family name when she was baptised, aged four, at Sto. António (St. Anthony), on the 9th of February 1727.

Feliciana Correia ◇ {31 Jan. 1753 (Sto. António)} Matias Soares (from Malaca), son of João Soares ◇ Domingas Amburgo, and maternal grandson of Francisco Amburgo and an unknown Malay woman.

Francisco Amburgo was son of a Malay slave who be longed to a Dutchman.

Francisco Amburgo donated to the Missão Portuguesa (Portuguese Mission) of Malacca the Bunga Raya precint, where the church of S. Pedro (St. Peter) was built (terminus ad quem 1710). This church has been the Parish Church ever since of the Missão Portuguesa of Malacca.

It is interesting to note that a descendant of this benefactor of the Missão Portuguesa of Malacca became Chanter of the Sé, in Macao.

13. Father Lourenço do Rosário da Cunha, ° {9 Aug. 1735}. Parents: Estêvão do Rosário da Cunha ◇ Josefa da Cunha. Paternal grandparents: Nicolau do Rosário ◇ Teresa Maria (both Chinese gentiles).

Maternal grandparents: João Correa ◇ Francisca da Cunha (both Chinese gentiles).

14. Father Francisco de Lima ° {12 Feb. 1737}.

Parents: António de Lima ◇ Ursula Ribeiro.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Silvestre de Carvalho ◇ Madalena Ribeiro.

15. Father Joaquim Lopes, ° {17 August 1740}.

Parents: Domingos Lopes ◇ {28 Nov. 1744} Paula Lopes.

Paternal grandparents: João André (from the region of Alentejo, in Portugal) ◇ Ursula Lopes (from Macau).

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

16. Father José de Morais, ° {6 Nov. 1740}.

Parents: Manuel de Morais ◇ Teresa Gonçalves}.

Paternal grandparents: Bernardo de Morais ◇ Antónia Rodrigues.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

17. Father Manuel do Rosário, ° {17 Dec. 1742}.

Parents: Simão do Rosário ° {3 March 1706} ◇ Feliciana de Sá.

Paternal grandparents: Domingos do Rosário ◇ Antónia de Afonseca (both Chinese gentiles).

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Feliciana de Sá, Chinese gentile by birth, was baptised, aged six or seven, at the Church of N. Senhora do Amparo (Our Lady of Assistance), on the 26th of December 1717.

She was given the family name of Feliciana Casina de Betlina Barbosa of her christening godparents, Pedro Leitão ◇ Josefa Barbosa.

18. Canon Narciso Firmiano, ° {26 Oct. 1746}.

Parents: João Molinou ◇ Caetana de Abreu (both Chinese gentiles).

·There is a street in Macao named "Rua do Cónego Narciso", after this priest's name.

19. Canon Manuel da Graça.

Brother of Canon Narciso Firmiano.

20. Father João Xavier, ° {1 July 1747}.

Parents: Luís Xavier ◇ Maria da Gama ° {24 - 8 - 1726}.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Luís da Gama ◇ Catarina Sarmento.

21. Father Francisco Esteves, ° {4 Oct.1751}.

Parents: Mateus Esteves ◇ Ursula do Rosário.

Paternal grandparents: Estêvão Raimundo (Chinese) ◇ Gracia Esteves, (from Macao).

Maternal grandparents: Domingos do Rosário (Chinese) ◇ Rosa Fonseca (from Macao).

22. Canon Joaquim de Morais, ° {8 Oct. 1754}.

Parents: Manuel de Morais ° {16 July 1713} ◇ Teresa Gonçalves (both from Macao).

Paternal grandparents: Bernardo de Morais, (from Vila Flor, Portugal), ◇ Antónia Rodrigues (from Macao).

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

23. Father José Nicolau Ferreira Pegado, ° {9 Sept. 1754}.

Parents: Francisco José Ferreira da Costa (from Torres Novas, Portugal) ◇ {13 Oct. 1754 (Sé)} Maria de Morais Pegado (from Macao).

Paternal grandparents: Manuel Lopes Ferreira ◇ Ana Maria da Silva (from Torres Vedras, Portugal).

Maternal grandparents: Pedro de Gouvea Pegado (from Lisbon) ◇ Catarina de Morais Coutinho (from Macao).

Catarina de Morais Coutinho, alias Catarina Correa, was daugther of Diogo Correa de Almeida ◇ Atanásia de Morais, and maternal grandaughter of Paulo de Campos ◇ Atanásia.

Atanásia was either Japanese or Chinese, having settled in Macao before 1640.

24. Canon Francisco José António, ° {14 May 1756} (Chinese).

Parents: José de Sto. António ◇ {23 Nov. 1751} Antónia do Rosário.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Antónia do Rosário, Chinese, was criação of Regina do Rosário.

José de Sto. António, Chinese, was criação of Domingos Lopes.

25. Father João Vieira Ribeiro, ° {24 June 1758}.

Parents: Inácio Ribeiro (Chinese) ◇ Caetana Simões.

Paternal grandparents: Tomás Vieira ° {17 April 1704} (Chinese) ◇ Clara de Lacerda.

Maternal grandparents: Domingos Simões ◇ {2 Feb. 1733 (S. Lourenço)} Coleta de Abreu (both Chinese).

·There is a street in Macao named "Rua Tomás Vieira", after this person's name.

Domingos Simões, Chinese, was criação de João Simões.

Coleta de Abreu, Chinese, was criação of Nicolau Fiumes.

26. Canon Inácio Taveira de Lemos, ° {3 Feb. 1759}.

Parents: Vitorino Taveira de Lemos ◇ {1 Oct. 1741} Isabel Alvares ° {27 June 1728}.

Paternal grandparents: Manuel Taveira de Lemos ◇ Catarina de Sequeira.

Maternal grandparents: Francisco Álvares ◇ {5 March 1715 (S. Lourenço)} Maria Jorge.

Maria Jorge was daughter of Chinese gentiles.

27. Father António Barreto, ° {14 March 1764}.

Parents: Luís Barreto ◇ Ana Maria (both Chinese).

Paternal grandparents: João Barreto ◇ Mariana do Rosário.

Maternal grandparents: Manuel de Grilo ◇ Esperança de Sá.

28. Father António dos Anjos Xavier, ° {1 Aug. 1766}.

Parents: Cipriano Xavier e Faustina Varela ◇ (16 Oct. 1765).

Paternal grandparents: de Francisco Xavier ◇ Domingas de Abreu.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

29. Canon Filipe Néri de Sá, {bapt. 1767 (Sto. António)}.

Parents: José de Sá ◇ {27 Sept. 1752} Esperança Simões.

Paternal grandparents: José de Sá ◇ Sabina da Conceição (both Chinese).

Maternal grandparents: João Simões ◇ Josefa Simões (both Chinese).

30. Father Francisco Xavier Calado, ° {ca1770}.

Parents: José da Costa Calado ◇ Maria Rosa.

Paternal grandparents: Timóteo Xavier Calado ◇ Rosa Francisca de Viterbo (both from Lisbon).

Maternal grandparents: Luís de Moura ◇ Petronila Gonçalves (both Chinese).

31. Chanter Vítor Rodrigues, ° {18 July 1827}.

Parents: Manuel Joaquim Rodrigues ◇ {5 May 1810} Ana Maria.

Paternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

Maternal grandparents: Unknown. Chinese gentiles.

§9. PARISH ARCHIVES OF MACAO

The following charts relate only to the Parish Archives of Sé (Cathedral) and S. Lourenço (St. Lawrence).

The Parish Archives of Sto. António (St. Anthony) perished in 1874, a fire which in following a typhoon.

The following charts relate only to the first registration entries of Births and Marriages of individuals of both Portuguese and Chinese or of Asian descent, and stop when they became increasingly numerous and therefore irrelevant to survey within this context.

The oldest registration entry of a birth in the Parish Archives of the Sé dates from the 19th of August 1802. **

Translated from the Portuguese by: Maria Kerr

DATE OF    MARRIAGE	CONSORTS(◇)	PARENTS(◇)
29-06-1785	Joana Quitéria do Rosário                        ◇ Joaquim Saldanha	João do Rosário ◇ Francisca Pereira         Cochin-Chinese gentiles
10-10-1785	Antónia da Cunha                                 ◇ Miguel do Rosário	Caetano Barreto ◇ Albina da Cunha, of Macao. Cochin-Chinese gentiles.
13-11-1785	Elena Jorge de Sousa                             ◇ José João do Rosário, of Cochin-China.	Luiz Jorge ◇ Ana Alvares de Sousa.          Gentiles.
03-09-1786	Quitéria dos Remédios                            ◇ António Xavier	Cochin-Chinese gentiles.                     Cipriano Xavier ◇ Faustina Varela, of Macao
28-11-1789	Ana da Cunha, China.                              ◇ António Lopes,of  Cochin-China.
27-06-1791	Lauriana Francisca de Sousa, of Cochin-China.     ◇ Francisca Xavier de Grilo, of Macao.
17-08-1791	Angela Francisca de Oliveira, of Macao.           ◇ Alexandre António de Noronha, of Cochin-China.
10-11-1793	Ana Esperança da Luz,widow of Policarpo Pereira  ◇ António Xavier, of Cochin-China.
27-06-1796	Isabel Doan                                      ◇ Inácio Gonçalves Lapa	Cochin-chinese gentiles.                     Portuguese.

Young Macanese

Unknown artist. First half of the nineteenth century. Oil on canvas.

Luis de Camões Museum/Leal Senado, Macao.

NOTES

** Revised reprint from: TEIXEIRA, Manuel, Os Macaenses, Macau, Centro de Informação e Turismo-Imprensa Nacional, 1965.

1RÊGO, Francisco de Carvalho e, Macau, Macau, Imprensa Nacional, 1950, pp. 31-38.

2FRANÇA, Bento da, Macau e os seus habitantes, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1897, p. 197.

3MACHADO, Álvaro de Melo, Coisas de Macau, Lisboa, Livraria Ferreira, 1913, p. 65.

4BRAZÃO, Eduardo, Macau, Cidade do Nome de Deus na China - Não há outra mais Leal, Lisboa, Agência Geral das Colónias, 1957, p. 57, n. 50.

5ESTORNINHO, Carlos Augusto Gonçalves, in: "Notícias de Macau", Macau, 6 April 1952.

6The 'barbarians' were the Portuguese or any other foreigners.

7TCHEONG-Ü-Lam - IAN-Kuong-Iâm, GOMES, Luís Gonzaga, trans., Ou Mun Kei-Leok: Monografia de Macau, Macau, Imprensa Nacional, 1950, p. 103.

8MARIA, José de Jesus, BOXER, Charles Ralph, annot., Azia Sinica e Japonica, obra póstuma e inédita do frade arrábido José de Jesus Maria, 2 vols., Macau, Escola Tipográfica do Oratório de S. Joao Bosco, 1941, vol. 1, p. 68.

9TEIXEIRA, Manuel, Camões em Macau, Macau, Imprensa Nacional, 1940, p. 21.

10PINTO, Fernão Mendes, Peregrinaçam, Porto, Portucalense Editora, 1945, chap. 221.

11Idem.

12BÉRNARD, Henri, Aux Portes de la Chine: Les Missionaires du seiziéme siècle: 1514-1588, Tientsin, Hautes Études (H. Lécroart, s. j., vic. ap. de Sienshien), 1933, p. 75.

13TEIXEIRA, Macau e a sua Diocese, 16 vols., Macau, Tipografia do Orfanato Salesiano & etc., 1940-1979, vol. 3, p. 136.

14Ibidem., p. 137, n. 1.

15PIRES, Benjamim Videira, S. J., annot., Cartas dos fundadores, in "Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau", vol. 62 (724-725), Oct.-Nov. 1964, p.766- For the reproduction of the quoted letter. Fr. Francisco Perez, in a letter dated the same month mentions 6 600 or 700, mas Fr. Videira admits that the first "6" might be a mistake and that the correct reading is "six-hundred or seven-hundred".

16Ibidem., p. 137; BÉRNARD, Henri, op. cit., pp. 76-77; SOUSA, Francisco de, Oriente Conquistado a Jesu Christo Pelos Padres da Companhia de Jesu [...], Lisboa, Na officina de Valentim da Costa Deslandes, 1710, Part.I, Conq.IV, Div. II; PASTELLS, Pablo, S.J., Catálogo de los Documentos relativos a las Islas Filipinas en el archivo de Indias de Sevilla por D. Pedro Torres y Lanzas e Francisco Navas de Valle y precedido de una erudita historia general de Filipinas por el P. Pedro Pastells, S. J., 9 vols., Barcelona, Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas, 1925-1934, 1925, vol. 3, p. LIX.

17BÉRNARD, Henri, op. cit., p.77 and n.20: quoting RAMÚSIO and PASTELLS, Pablo, S.J., op. cit., vol. 3, p. LIX.

18PIRES, Benjamim Videira, S.J., annot., Cartas dos fundadores, in "Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau", vol. 62 (724-725), Oct.-Nov. 1964, p. 801.

19PASTELLS, Pablo, S.J., op. cit., vol. 3, p. LIX.

20 LAURES, Johannes, S.J., The Catholic Church in Japan, Tokyo, 1954, p. 166.

21BOXER, Charles Ralph, The Great Ship from Amacon, Lisboa, 1959, p. 113.

Kirishito-ki und Sayo-Yoroki, Tokyo, 1940.

23LUZ, Francisco Paulo Mendes da, O Conselho da Índia, Lisboa, Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1952, p. 606 ff. - The text mentions that the secretary of the Senate, Diogo Caldeira do Rego was one of those who married in Macao and here left descents. In 1700, a descendent of his, José Caldeira do Rego was Almotacel (Inspector of Weights and Measures) at the Senate. José Caldeira do Rego married Antónia Gomes. The couple had a daughter called Luísa Caldeira do Rego who married in S. Lourenço (St. Lawrence), on the 30th of November 1717, Matias de Vargas da Silva, son of Cristóvão da Silva Ferrão and Catarina de Vargas. Catarina de Vargas owned an estância (estate) in Lapa, of which she paid the foro (seisin) of 50 taéis - as ascertained from the termo (record) of the Senate dated the 19th of July 1760 (see: TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 3, p.545).

24BOXER, Charles Ralph, Macau na Época da Restauração (Macao Three Hundred Years Ago), in "Obras Completas de Charles Ralph Boxer", vol. 2, Odivelas, Charles Ralph Boxer - Fundação Oriente, 1993, pp. 28-29 [1st edition: 1942] - There certainly is an error in Bocarro's estimate of eight-hundred-and-fifty married Portuguese residents in Macao, in 1635. In fact, Diogo Caldeira Rego scrivener of the Senate reports on the 27th of November 1623 around half of this amount: "[...] avendo nella mais de 400 portugueses casados [...]".

25Ibidem., pp. 64, 74.

[Translator's addenda: The author corrects the translations into Portuguese of some passages of Boxer's original text.] Traduttore, traditore...

26TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 228, n.1.

27BOXER, Charles Ralph, Escavações Históricas, in "Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau, Set.-Out. 1937, p. 185.

28BOXER, 1993, op. cit., p. 185.

29BRAGA, José Maria, The Portuguese in Hong Kong and China, Offprint of "Renascimento", Macau, 1954.

30ARNAIZ, Eusébio, Macau, Mãe das Missões no Extremo Oriente, Macau, Offprint of "Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macao", 1957.

31BOXER, 1937, op. cit., p. 185.

32SOUSA, Francisco de, op. cit., Part Ⅱ., Conq.Ⅳ, Div.Ⅱ.

33 "Arquivos de Macau", 1 (2) Jan.-Dec. 1930.

34TCHEONG-Ü-Lam-IAN-Kuong-Iâm, op. cit., p. 93.

35Ibidem., p. 103.

36His title was not of Procurador (Attorney) but Ouvidor (Magistrate) as he was directly appointed by the King. A Procurador was a Vereador (Council Member) of the Senate. The Senadores (Senators) were elected every three years by the 'homens bons' ('Good Men'). Most probably the Chinese historian is making reference to the Senate's Attorney.

37LAUNAY, Adrien, M. E. P., Histoire Générale de la Société des Missions Étrangères, 3 vols., Paris, vol. 2, p.253.

38STAUNTON, George, An authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China [...], 2 vols. London, 1797, John Stock dale, vol. 2, p.253.

39JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de, Historic Macau: International Traits in China: Old and New, Macau, Salesian Printing Press - Tipografia Mercantil, 1926, p. 261.

40MARTINS, Rocha, História das Colónias Portuguesas, Lisboa, Tipografia da Imprensa Nacional da Publicidade, 1933, p. 371.

41If in 1830, the Chinese Christians were 6,090 and in 1856, the Christians numbered 5,026; then in 1845, they would most certainly be more than 4,000.

42ARNAIZ, Eusébio, op. cit., p. p. 36-41 - The original Portuguese version of this chapter on the Christian population of Macao is a transcript of the quoted work.

43Fr. Gregório Gonzales was Spanish, as Fr. Eusébio Arnaiz.

44Carro is short for Bocarro.

45TEIXEIRA, Manuel, Missionários Jesuítas no Vietnão, Macau, Centro de Informação e Turismo, 1964, pp. 25-26.

46.BOXER, 1937, op. cit., p. 203.

46This figure is much too high. We believe it has a zero too many.

47BOXER, Charles Ralph, Fidalgos in the Far East: 1550-1770: Fact and fancy in the History of Macao, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1948, p. 187.

48Ibidem., p. 203.

49BRAGA, José Maria, Macao through the eyes of Harriet Low, in "Religião e Pátria", Macau, 15 April 1965.

50SOARES, José Caetano, Macau e a Assistência, Lisboa, Agência Geral das Colónias, 1950, pp. 232-236.

51 "rials of eightt a piece" - a silver coin which varied in weight. In India it was worth 2 rupees and in the Far East in between 7 to 9 measures.

52 BOXER, 1948, op. cit., p. 237.

53TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 2 - For all Documents issued by the Bishopric of Macao in this article and not mentioned otherwise.

54Ibidem., vol. 2, p. 267.

55 Ibidem., vol. 2, p. 668ff. - Fr. João Agostinho Vila.

S. Domingos (St. Dominic), Sto. Agostinho (St. Augustin), S. Francisco (St. Francis), The Jesuits College of S. Paulo (St. Paul), and Sta. Clara (St. Claire).

Recolhimento de Sta. Maria Madalena (Asylum of St. Mary Magdalen).

STAUNTON, George, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 437.

59TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 237-240.

60The name muitsai or mui-tsai was generic to domestic servants of both sexes althought more commonly used in relation to girls, more seldom the boys being called atais.

61SOUSA, Francisco de, op. cit., Part. 1, Conq.Ⅲ, p. 447.

62BARROS, João de, CIDADE, Hernani annot., Ásia de João de Barros, Dos feitos que os portugueses fizeram no descobrimento e conquista dos Mares e Terras do Oriente, 4 vols., Lisboa, Divisão das Publicações da Agência Geral das Colónias, 1945, Bk. XⅡ, chap. XⅣ, p. 346.

63TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 92.

64Ibidem., vol. 2, pp. 172-173.

65BOXER, 1948, op. cit., p. 238.

66TEIXEIRA, 1940-1979, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 232.

67"Arquivos de Macau", 3 (1,2) Fev.-Dec., 1964, Junho (June) p. 43.

68Ibidem., Março (March), p. 83.

69Ibidem., Maio (May), p. 312.

70Ibidem., Julho (July), p. 43.

71Ibidem., Julho (July), p. 44.

72 "Arquivos de Macau", 3 (1, 2) Fev.-Dez., 1964, Novembro (November), p. 266.

73 BLS: Copiador dos ofícios expedidos desde 26-12-1711 a 23-12-1731, fol. 53ff.

74 "Arquivos de Macau", 1(2) Jan.-Dez., 1930, no.2 — The Mandarin makes reference to the punishment inflicted in 1712, by the Captain-Major António Siqueira de Noronha to a slave who had killed a Chinese, by placing him in a cannon and shooting him through the air.

75Livro de Registo das Cartas dos Governadores e das mais pessoas particulares desde 7 de Outubro de 1768 a 25 de Agosto de 1791, fols. 42, 48vo, 51vo, 53.

76SOARES, José Caetano, op. cit., p. 272.

77Livro de Registo das Cartas dos Governadores e das mais pessoas particulares desde 7 de Outubro de 1768 a 25 de Agosto de 1791, fol. 124.

78If in 1847 there were in Macao 4,500 inhabitants besides the 18,000 Chinese residents, therefore in 1845 the population of the City was certainly larger than 4,000 people, previously mentioned by Fr. Eusébio Arnaiz (see: Notes 41 and 42).

* Historian and researcher of the Portuguese Expansion and the Christian Church, in the Orient. Author of numerous articles and publications on related topics. Member of the Portuguese Academy of History, the International Association of Historians on Asia and other Institutions.