"The city of calm and of the past"

"All Round the World: An Illustrated Record of Voyages, Travels, and Adventures In All Parts of the Globe with two hundred illustrations" é o longo título de um livro cuja primeira edição data de 1860, em Londres, da autoria de William Francis Ainsworth (1807-1896), cirurgião, geógrafo, geólogo e viajante britânico.

O livro é composto por quatro volumes e foi publicado ao longo de vários anos. William Ainsworth viajou por várias partes do mundo mas não por todas as que se referem no livro, tendo recorrido a relatos de outros viajantes para esta compilação de viagens pelo mundo.

Macau surge no primeiro volume ("First Series"), entre as páginas 91 e 99 incluindo duas ilustrações assinadas por um dos vários desenhadores que assinam as centenas de gravuras dos milhares de páginas deste livro. Entre eles estão Gustave Dore, Bayard e Jules Noel.

Macau está 'dentro' do capítulo intitulado "China, Cochin China and Japan". Para além de algumas informações de carácter histórico e geográfico do território em meados do século 19, destaque ainda para a descrição detalhada do assassinato do governador Ferreira do Amaral em Agosto de 1849, o Jardim de Camões, na época ainda propriedade privada, o cemitério dos parses, o Porto Interior, o Templo da Barra, etc...

"(...) Macao. We leave Hong Kong as quickly as any man should do who has no business to keep him there and taking the steamer a pleasant voyage of thirty miles the last four of which is through shallow water arrive at the Praya Grande the celebrated promenade and landing place seep to the quaint old settlement of the early Portuguese kings Macao This voyage short as it is and through a narrow sea as crowded as the Thames was not until the present year secure from disorderly roving bands of Chinese seamen and boatmen who organise themselves into fleets as pirates and way lay vessels not even excepting the passage steam boats one of which The Queen it will be remembered that they captured and murdered all the foreign passengers.
The first thing an European landing at Macao in olden times did was to go and see the Chinese Pagoda at the Rocks. He could wend his way there and back in a tanka or native boat or he could stroll there by the sea side. Now we can visit pagodas of far more imposing aspect and dimensions; nay, we even meet one that far surpasses it on his way the great Pagoda of Singapore. But if the temple Macao is poor and badly kept its position is picturesque. The inner harbour with its legion of junks and tankas lies at its feet above it are huge blocks of granite and secular trees whose vigorous roots fasten in the crevices while close by are kiosks and little oratories in honour of inferior divinities. On the portico is a great junk painted in red and there is an inscription in Chinese on the neighboring rock. The air of respectable antiquity presented by the old Portuguese settlement of Macao is refreshing after the parvenu character with which its ostentatious magnificence invests Hong Kong.
The narrow streets and grass grown plazas the handsome facade of the fine old cathedral crumbling to decay the shady walks and cool grottoes once the haunts of the Portuguese poet, his tomb, and the view from it all, combine to produce a soothing and tranquilising effect. Hong Kong represents the commercial and political movement of the present. Macao is the city of calm and of the past.

The time is gone by when the intrepid Portuguese navigators dominated in these seas. Their degenerate descendants are now reduced in order to obtain a livelihood to seek for employment in the great English or American houses. The bright day for Portugal is gone by and fickle fortune rallies under other standards.

If the colony passes by chance into the hands of a man of genius like Amaral, he is assassinated by the emissaries of the mandarins, and if the Court of Lisbon bent upon avenging the outrage despatches its best frigate to the Chinese seas it is blown up in the very harbour of Macao by a reprobate who gluts his vengeful fury for a slight punishment by the destruction of 300 of his countrymen!

Amaral, a captain in the Portuguese navy, had displayed so much energy and abilityas Governor of Macao as to have drawn upon himself the most malevolent feelings of a reprobate race of people and mandarins He had defeated organized bands of robbers on several occasions and visited piracy with condign punishment A price had in consequence been set upon his head but the brave old captain who had lost one arm in the service of his country disdained to take any precautions. Every evening he used to ride out accompanied only by his aide de camp and with only a brace of pistols in his holsters. On the 22nd of August 1849 he was returning from his usual ride at sunset when a number of Chinese suddenly presented themselves to obstruct his progresso. A child who carried a bamboo to the extremity of which it appeared as if a bouquet had been attached moved out from the crowd towards the Governor Amaral thinking that he came to present a petition was about to stoop when he felt himself struck violently on the face. Manto, rascal! he exclaimed and pushed his horse on as if to punish his assailant. But at the same moment six men rushed upon him whilst two others attacked his aide de camp.

The assassins drew from beneath their garments their long straight and not very sharp swords generally used by the Chinese and repeatedly struck the governor with these upon his only arm. Taking the bridle in his teeth Amaral made vain efforts to get at his pistols. Attacked on all sides and covered with wounds he was soon struck down from his horse when his murderers throwing themselves upon him tore off his head rather than out it off and added to their horrid trophy the only hand that remained. This accomplished they fled into the interior the Chinese soldiers who were on duty at the town gates close by witnessing the tragedy without condescending to interfere In the meantime the terrified horse had galloped into the town without a master the first who saw it felt that an accident had happened and hastened towards the gate but on their way they were met by the aide de camp who had only received some slight wounds and whose torn habiliments and expression of horror told too plainly of the sad event which was soon confirmed by the discovery of the unfortunate old Governor's mutilated remains.

The neighbourhood of Hong Kong takes from Macao almost all its advantages as a free port add to which the sea is daily invading its harbour as it does the whole of the right shore of the Canton river Vessels of considerable tonnage are obliged to anchor a mile or two from the harbour and only small gunboats can lay off the quay of Praya Grande. Nevertheless Macao notwithstanding its decline is not wanting in claims to interest the claims of memory more especially .

This town was for a long period of time the sole centre of the relations of Europeans with the Chinese. Camoens, Saint Francois Xavier and other great men have lived there. Its churches, its convents, its public monuments dark with age attest of splendour long gone by.

The garden of Camoens is in the present day private property; it belongs to a Portuguese gentleman of the name of Marques who allows strangers to saunter beneath shady recesses so rare in China. Within this garden is the celebrated grotto where the poet is said to have in main composed his Lusiad Quotations from that immortal epic are now cut into the marble and what is more delightful to French visitors some Gallic verses in honour of the poet and the locality.

The inner port can be contemplated from a terrace in this garden as from the Pagoda of Rocks with a less oppressive noise the shouts of the tnnkaderes or boatmen and boatwomen and terrible gongs heard assiduously beaten to drive away the evil spirits a junk about to proceed on its journey come softened by distance.

The Parsees have a cemetery that rises in steps or terraces above the sea and this with the Portuguese forts built like eagles nests the so called Green Island the narrow strip that encircles Macao to the main island and the wide extent of the Celestial Empire beyond fill up a picture that is not easily forgotten by those who have once seen it. We wandered about this splendid relic of gaiety and wealth now a disjointed collection of deserted palaces haggard boat women ugly dames of Portuguese descent with handkerchiefs pinned over their faces long narrow alleys decaying churches walks parades gardens forts all corroded by time.

From the top of a great stone arbour in the old palace garden we had a fine view the old town and both harbours the inner and the outer. We came back through the Chinese town where with restless activity mechanics were working at their respective trades. Shopmen were doing a thriving business while barbers never were busier and your barber is an important personage here as elsewhere as such a man needs must be where every man has his head shaved twice a week.

No Chinaman uses anything but hot water his razor is onlytwo inches long by an inch wide which is sold for twopence and the strop a piece of stout calico may be had for a penny. See here the sallow Chinaman stretched at full length in an easy chair is enjoying his shampooing and pommellings. Shaving the head costs half n farthing yet there are seven thousand barbers in the city of Canton only. To which city we will now go steaming on as fast as the crowd of boats will let us. (...)

Nestas cerca de 10 páginas o 'retrato' de Macau é feito por um oficial da armada britânica por volta de 1859. Não se refere o nome embora nas muitas e longas notas de rodapé surjam nomes como Robert Fortune, um botânico, e George Wingrove Cooke (1814-1865), formado em direito e história que durante a Segunda Guerra do Ópio foi correspondente (jornalista) do jornal The Times (1857)
As ilustrações têm como título: The Landing Place at Macao e The Pagoda of the Rocks at Macao, representando o Porto Interior na zona do Pagode da Barra.