MACAU Searching for its History

"The peace which we enjoy with the King of China is as he wishes for he lies so distant from India and has such great power, superior in numbers to anything which the Portuguese could gather in those parts, that even with all the scandals we have witnessed it has never crossed our minds to break with them for they could destroy our city by no more than witholding our sustenance... it shall never be to our advantage to wage war with China for, though we may win great victories, we should ruin our trade and that is the greatest ill which could befall us... " (1)

Macau, City of the Name of God or Ou-Mun, has been throughout time the product of a tacit or explicit understanding between the Portuguese and the Chinese. It may be one of the only examples in the world of co-existence and cohabitation over the centuries between two peoples who have nothing in common and yet who have managed to maintain their individual identities. Perhaps this is also why, during the history which we have shared for over four hundred years, legal and institutional systems have continued to develop parallel to each other in the same territory and have been successively adapted to the changing times.

Perhaps this is why it is still difficult to specify the origins of that embryonic settlement which is now Macau even if we have some idea of the facts. Those who defend each of the current theories on the establishment of the Portuguese in Macau - that it was given, that it was gained through usurption and that it was rented(2) - may continue to present their cases without anything concrete being established because, of course, they will emphasize that evidence which serves to prove their own individual case.

There seems to be, consequently, a historiographical barrier, all the more significant bearing in mind the fact that there is soon to be a transfer of powers in the Territory without having understood too well what came before... They may indeed be more than four hundred years of shared history, of cultural cohabitation and miscegenation which we will explain to our children in sentences as laconic and succinct as those which we hear about Macau and even then only in primary school - a tiny peninsula in the South of China which was given to the Portuguese in exchange for helping the mandarins defend their seas. And... nothing else.

We must say more than that. We must prepare and educate our children for the coming fifty years of intense and active collaboration which it is hoped will result in a lasting friendship.

Understanding the past is essential to preparing for the future. We should have a dynamic, unbiased, relativist and genetic vision of the past, confronting it as the product of varied relationships where lasting structures are constantly questioned and adapted to the needs of the moment. There cannot be, at any one time, a unique explanation of what Macau is. Quite the opposite! Macau should be approached as a construction, the product of several causalities which are interlinked every day. In many ways they are contained in these principal questions: the presence of the Portuguese in the Indian and Pacific regions; China's relations with the West; Macau's position in the historical relations between China and Portugal.

This is why the Cultural Institute of Macau is now developing a massive project which has a twofold purpose. Firstly it is aimed at creating a data base on these areas which will be called Nanyang(3). It will also identify, gather, select and make available sources which are thought to be relevant to the future elaboration of an unbiased History of Macau founded on fact. The sources will be taken from the West, above all from Portugal, and from China and will be published in Portuguese and Chinese and, in some cases, in English.

NANYANG

The project for researching and publishing comparative sources of Macau's history forms, as has been mentioned, part of a larger plan of complementary activities which are equally significant in their role of preserving a unique cultural and historical heritage. This involves tight collaboration between the Historical Archives, the National Library of Macau and the Source Research Group made up of Chinese and Portuguese researchers and technicians directed by the President of the Cultural Institute of Macau.

Once the printed materials held in the National Library and the Historical Archives of Macau have been catalogued on computer, most of the published works held in the Territory will, in due course, be brought together. At present, the possibility of using an identical process to record all the documentation which composes the Historical Archives' varied stock is also being studied. Initially this will involve an examination of the guidebooks, inventories and indices which have already been published in their respective bulletin, the Archives of Macau.

The contact between the Cultural Institute of Macau and other institutions (namely national archives and libraries) throughout the Indian and Pacific regions and also in Europe and America will contribute bibliographic and archive information which is spread throughout the world to the data base or will themselves be offered to the National Library and the Historical Archives of Macau.

As could be expected, in addition to the examples selected from the documental stock of the National Library, in particular from the "Macau Room", and from the Historical Archives of Macau, it is the Libraries and archives of Portugal which will be the principal contributors to the data base. Their collaboration has, of course, already been requested.

The Source Research Group will not only be the prime user of this data base but will also mediate between different countries and institutions. It will direct all the information which it can gather either through this means or through research towards the National Library and the Historical Archives. These organizations will take care of all of the technical and documental treatment as well as arranging all the editions (on paper, xerox, film, etc...) which may be acquired. Once this has been done all the printed material will be held in the National Library and the manuscripts will be held in the Historical Archives (cf. flow chart).

THE NEBULOUS XVITH CENTURY

The Source Research Group has a difficult task ahead examining the various historiographic theses on Macau without emphasizing any particular one, giving each of them equal consideration and analysis. They must make a critique based solely on fact and then (cf. flow chart) identify, locate, analyse, classify, gather and publish any primary and secondary historical sources both from the East and the West which could serve as a base for future research on the History of Portuguese and Chinese Relations. This research is to be based and carried out in and for Macau thus ensuring that historians can gain access to documents which have, up till now, been unavailable to them because of the insuperable language barrier.

The guaranteed existence of a political motivation and a social purpose allows this project to be approached as a long-term continued development. This is the only way to resolve some of the problems which are being encountered in the meantime such as a lack of specialized staff, the commencement of the computerised catalogue and the distribution of the material.

If the results of the work on describing and computerising the bibliographic material and, more importantly, if the archives are not going to be available in the near future(5), the main difficulty to be overcome will be to save the documents relevant to Macau from becoming dispersed let alone some of them being misplaced or destroyed through inclement weather, termites or political events as was stressed recently by Jorge Arrimar in this same magazine(6).

Because of this, the Source Research Group (the Portuguese team) felt the need to ensure contact and collaboration between the National Archives and the National Library when they were planning their methodology. The directors of these two institutions are members of Project's team of supervisers. The Source Research Group also felt the need to define chronological limitations. Now that the area to be covered by the research has been restricted, there will be less chance that the materials become dispersed, those which are to be consulted may be located and examined much more speedily and, naturally, the task of publishing the sources will be eased. The initial stage of the research has begun with the identification, selection and reading of the works and documents from the XVIth century. Thus the sources relevant to this period can immediately be procured, brought together and treated while at the same time elaborating a chronology-base for the same period.

Of course, this chronological limitation can be expected to include neither a historiographic perspective nor a compartmentalized view of the historical process. It is merely the result of a methodological choice which has been developed to suit the conditions to which this research is subject and its ultimate non-analytic objective. This is why the risk will be run of printing collections of sources before the complete process of gathering the documents has been brought to a close. The data classification and storage systems which are being used allow any material to be brought together at any moment thus providing an effective solution to the possibility of different versions or other sources on the same period coming to light. If this were not the case it is doubtful whether there could be any coherent links bearing in mind that the research covers a time-span of over four centuries.

The main historical discrepancies relevant to the period in question have already been identified, some interesting sources have been gathered together as well as bibliographic references and, most importantly, the (scant) amount of XVIth century Portuguese documentation on the Territory has already been assessed.

Apart from a few charters referring to the Holy House of the Misercórdia(7), the Regiment of the Magistrate of Macau (1587) (on microfilm) and the late example(8)of the "Charters, Liberties and Privileges Bestowed on the City of Macau in China, 1596 to 1756"(9)(on microfilm) and a few copies of works(10), there seem to be very few original documents from the XVIth century at our disposal.

So far as we can see after having systematically consulted the indices of the "Archives of Macau", the bulk of the available original material on Macau seems to be post-XVIIIth century. Hence the varied stock held in the Historical Archives can be divided according to the following categories(11):

In short, the oldest documents (both originals and copies) from the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries referring to Macau, presumably(12)held in the Historical Archives, are deeds and royal ordinances linked to the Misericórdia, the business of the General Council of the Leal Senado and some of the proceedings of the Administration.

The Parish Records are divided between the Historical Archives and the Archives of the Ecclesiastical Chamber. The oldest ones to be identified up to now are from the XVIIIth century, the records of S. Lourenço parish. Many other records have been lost or destroyed such as those of the parish of Sto. António prior to 1874 which were burnt to cinders in a fire following a typhoon.

Thus the majority of the most ancient documentation regarding Macau has yet to be located even though we know that the Overseas Historical Archives holds a large part of it (1583 - 1926) and we believe that some of it is still in India.

The fact that Macau was under the jurisdiction of Goa until 1884 and under that of Manila during the Philippine period has led to the permanent dispersal of the pertinent original deeds and documents throughout the world. This was the fate of the famous Jesuit Records(13) sent to Manila during the time of the Marquis of Pombal's expulsion of the Jesuits from national territory. It is also known that there is documentation on Macau in London, the Hague and in Brasil but it is believed to pertain to a later period(14).

It is the task of the Cultural Institute, and in particular the Source Research Group, to reconstruct what remains of this vast stock of documentation, including, as may be expected, the wealth of Portuguese and European literature on the journeys and the works of the national chroniclers. Following this, a historical critique will be made and the information disseminated.

For their part, the Chinese team has already begun the job of making an inventory of all the works in the Territory which concern the History of Macau and also the presence of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia. In order to do this the Source Research Group has made use of private and official contacts with Chinese historians and institutions (the University of Cheong-San, the Kwangtung Institute of Social Sciences) in addition to working in the main libraries of Macau, namely the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, the library of the Commercial Association of Macau, that of the University of East Asia, of the Pui Cheng and Pui Tou Schools, Yuet Wah College, The Salesian Institute, Sacred Heart College and the College of Sta. Rosa de Lima as well as the National Library and the Historical Archives of Macau.

At present the Chinese team is establishing contacts in Beijing with an aim not only to acquiring copies of printed material but also to cataloguing, recording on microfilm and transcribing ancient documents in cooperation with the Faculty of History in the University of Beijing, the University of the Chinese People, the History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Beijing Library and the Chinese National Archives.

The Cultural Institute of Macau is devoting itself earnestly to the job of making available this source of information on Macau's history, the product of long historical contact between Portugal and China (and also of the search of each country for its own identity), deeply aware of the significance which this task has both for the present and for the future.

NOTES

(1)António Bocarro: Livro de Estado da Índia Oriental, 1635- 45, in Boxer: "Dares e Tomares nas Relacões Luso-chinesas - Durante os Séculos XVII e XVIII através de Macau", Arquivos de Macau, Jan. 1981, p. 229.

(2)Jorge Morbey: "Working Together Towards the Future", Review of Culture N° 3, Macau. 1987, pp.3 - 7.

(3) Nanyang: the Chinese name for a region which includes Southeast Asia and the region of the Indian Ocean.

(4) This will be done by printing or by recording on optical disc or microfilm (cf. flow chart).

(5)The software has only been tested in the National Library for around a month. In spite of the long wait for the software, work has proceeded in the "Macau Room" where, at present, an inventory is being drawn up of editions by author and by title.

The situation is more delicate in the Historical Archives since the documentation, installed rather precariously around two years ago, will soon be moved to the new building whch is being completed at the moment. Thus the material will be inaccessible for some time. All the same, the computerisation of the printed material is to commence soon.

(6)Jorge Arrimar: "The Libraries and Documents of Macau", Review of Culture N° 3 cit, pp. 25-35.

(7) In the inventory which refers to the respective stock in Arquivos de Macau, Macau, (5), 1981, there is a record of the existence of a book of Charters, Letters, Royal Writs which, although dated 1809, refers to the period between 1499 and 1812 and describes, naturally, the first materials to appear concerning Lisbon.

(8) From the XVIIIth century.

(9) The next issue of Arquivos de Macau will include the transcription of this report on the privileges of the city of Macau, the original of which is in the National Archives of Brasil in Rio de Janeiro.

(10) Jorge Arrimar: art. cit..

(11) This outline is the product of no more than the consultation of the description of the printed matter held in the Historical Archives of Macau as direct consultation of the documentation itself has still not begun.

However, all the documentation referring to the XVIth century has already been collated with the main compilation of the material on Macau having been listed by Luís Gonzaga Gomes in the Boleim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, LX, (19), (25), (27), (28), (29), (30), (31) and (32), 1961,1963-1966.

(12) cf. previous note.

(13)The collection held in the Ajuda Library under the title of "The Jesuits in Asia" includes originals and copies made around 1744 - 1746 (according to Braga and Boxer) of some of these documents which range from the XVIth to the XVIIIth centuries. A large part of the originals are now to be found in Madrid as Josef Franz Schutte mentions in his article in the magazine Brotéria, LX, 72, (1), Jan. 1961, pp. 88 - 90.

(14) As yet we have still found no reference to XVIth century Macau in the inventories of documents held by the British Museum, a situation which may well be general.

*Graduate in History. Masters in XIXth and XXth Century History. Coordinator of the Research and Publication of Sources Project. Holder of a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Author of various research studies on political structures - seignorial economics (XVIIIth C.), the Inquisition (XVIth and XVIIIth C.), the Regeneration (XIXth C.), Sidonism and the Portuguese Renaissance (XXth C.).