é o título do livro da autoria de Benjamin Lincoln Ball (BLB), um médico norte-americano.
A primeira edição é de 1855 e a segunda edição é de 1856. São cerca de 400 páginas onde é relatada uma viagem à volta do mundo iniciada em Boston (EUA) em 1848 com passagem por Macau no início do ano seguinte. A imagem que publico abaixo, uma pintura, não faz parte do livro. Serve apenas para ilustrar a descrição que o autor faz da baía da Praia Grande.
Excerto do prefácio:
"In preparing the manuscript, which was from the notes of his private journal, it was found that all could not be contained in a single volume; accordingly this work has been confined to China and Manilla, and the other countries omitted, at least for the present."
Excerto do cap. XLIV:
Letter to sister
Macao February 28
My dear Sister I am now located at Mr Smith's hotel in Macao. The building is very large but I can see no one about except a Chinese servant I asked him where all the people of the hotel woro and he answered: No have got n other man And under the circumstances I feel quite to lonely landed as I am in a strange place in the evening and alone.
It is dark cold and cheerless with no fires and no living thing to speak to I am also disappointed in having recently missed the Plymouth on its expedition to Cochin China. I arrived this evening by the steamer from Canton a distance of sixty miles in a little more than eight hours There are four steamers running here but none have the speed of our steamers in America. The passage money is eight dollars two dollars for the dinner twenty five cents to get aboard twenty five to get ashore and twenty five for a cooly to carry the baggage to the hotel making for the fare about eleven dollars.
To go to Hong Kong where you require tiffin it is a dollar and a half more. Macao looked very beautiful as we approached the shore forming a crescent a row of white buildings running in parallel circle with it and a hill at each extremity rising up like a pyramid and crowned with large white structures. This witn the beautiful phosphorescent state of the water like molten silver of the luminous green blue and white mixed in various shades of color displaying such lights and nashes as the heavy swell broke upon the sea wall and the moon shedding its silvery light over the whole gave Macao the prettiest appearance of any city I have seen yet.
You would be amused to see the boat girls as they come off after passengers. There were three girls to each boat the sea was rather rough and they came with such impetuosity each one striving to be first that I thought if they did not dash their boats to pieces against the steamer they would against each other As it was one boat in the strife took fire Every boat has its Josh or idol with incense sticks and sacrificial paper and this took fire and blazed away but was put out by them After the confusion was over I took a boat and came ashore The moment I landed a Chinaman harried up and said (...)
Letter to sister
Macao China March 2nd
My dear Sister, The rooms in the hotel where I stop are large ,airy and comfortable. A fine veranda encircles the house on two sides where may be enjoyed the fresh breeze. We have a view of the harbor in front and on the other side is a large pile of disagreeable looking buildings with the top of a pretty hill rising up Macao is to the people in China something like our Nahant to tho inhabitants of Boston and vicinity.
The principal merchants keep houses here in addition to those they have at Canton or Hong Kong and they come here as often as they choose to enjoy a little quiet or catch a breath of fresh air in the hot weather. The population comprises about fifteen thousand Portuguese but how they live since business has been transferred to Hong Kong is a mystery. Many of them probably suffer. The morning after my arrival several females of forty or fifty years of age looking very respectable and as though they had seen prosperous times made their appearance beneath my window begging.
Directly beneath tho veranda in front of the hotel is the Praya Grande a pretty street thirty or forty feet wide and stretching round upon tne edge of the water on either side in tho shape of a crescent. A line of houses fronts the harbor like those fronting Boston Common.
The harbor looks like a beautiful lake there being no outlet visible on account of the islands in the distance. There is a harbor on the other side of the city called the inner harbor extending from this side around the point. There are no vessels here at anchor nor boats except the small ones belonging to tho boat women which they live in anchored a little way from the shore.
At each extremity of the Praya Grande is a formidable looking group of buildings consisting of churches, dwelling houses and fortifications rising up and crowning the summit of the hill. Near the centre of the Praya Grande on the sea wall and in front of the governor's house is a small battery of five or six guns. It is the one that the English took last summer in liberating a British subject who had infringed upon the Portuguese laws by keeping his head covered at one of tho Catholic ceremonies persisting in doing this after he had received several warnings (...)
From the veranda on the other side we have a view of a public square or rather of a public triangle. On its front is the Praya Grande with a row of stone seats. A few paces beyond is a fortification where sentinels may be seen keeping guard and on tho opposite wide from us are the disagreeable looking buildings spoken of before. They are separated by high brick walls plastered on tho outside and painted yellow. They are gloomy looking and I have just ascertained that they are monasteries. Just behind them rises up a pretty lull the top of which is covered with small green pines.
As I now sit at my window and look down into the little triangular square before me I see a platoon of soldiers marching up to tho barracks and behind them a parcel of China boys straggling with the soldiers mattresses. There goes a Chinese cooly on a half run stooping under the weight of two large buckets of water. Here at the corner nearest are some goats with their kids feeding around them. A dozen dogs are gravely seated near by apparently holding a council and judging from size and color various races of them are there represented wonder are three boat girls on the stone seats and talking busily. How disgustingly their hair is dressed. (...) Their dress is very simple but not particularly clean blue pants and blue frocks reach nearly to the knee and they have naked feet and bare heads. All the Chinese within sight just now are bare footed and bare headed. There stands a Chinaman over the way with his mouth wide open looking up at me. He sees me using my pencil but cannot imagine what I am doing astonishment and curiosity are plainly depicted in his countenance. (...)
Macao China March 3d
My dear Sister, This morning according to previous arrangement I breakfasted with the French gentleman Monsieur L.
Breakfast being over not withstanding the rain I sallied out to a view of the cathedral which stands conspicuously in the midst of other buildings crowning the hill near by. As the Portuguese are Roman Catholics this of course is a Roman Catholio church. It's very handsome and I am told cost forty six thousand dollars. Catholics are the most zealous of professed Christians and have most splendid churches.
We went immediately inside where a of candles were burning all around the walls. At the further end the altar glittering with images. Above these were suspended on walls paintings of Christ on the cross of the Virgin Mary and of some of the saints.
The bishop, a large fat man, sat in a little recess with a show of pomp covered with sparkling robes. The priests chanting and going through their forms of worship which reminded me much of the ceremonies in several monasteries of the which I have visited. There were no seats and the floor of the church that was filled with females on their knees their long shawls thrown over their heads and their appearance generally reminding me of nuns convents confessionals veils and lady superiors. When they arose to go out an opportunity presented of seeing their faces which were anything but attractive. There were the black, brown, red, yellow and white and all the intermediate shades with very few comely looking ones among them though in Macao notwithstanding there are many good looking and some handsome ladies (...)
Leaving the church we went to the Catholic cemetery on a neighboring eminence in the midst of the city which we ascended by a long flight of stone steps. As I looked up I thought we were about to enter another church but it proved to be only the front and sides of a former church fashioned into a cemetery. We entered by an iron gate which was opened by the sexton. What had been the body of the church was now laid out with gravel walks and rows of trees. In the sides were rows of shelves for the coffins six tiers high and sealed up from the air with plaster.
In the floor formerly under the galleries were sealed vaults and at the further end were the vaults of three bishops whose bodies there repose. The slabs covering them were full of inscriptions. We passed from this into an open space which was the cemetery for the poor.
Adjoining was a private enclosure belonging to the family of a wealthy merchant. This seemed to close up another communication between the two cemeteries. Here is a handsome monument on which the family name is inscribed. The two entrances are closed by large iron gates. The whole space is paved with solid granite blocks and beneath is the vault. From this place we extended our walk to the Protestant cemetery. A dead house is connected with it and a Chinaman is constantly in charge. The ground is low containing I should say half an acre. (...)
There are a number of monuments but the graves are mostly with granite slabs placed horizontally with sides and end pieces supports. One of the first that attracted my attention was the of Dr Brooks, surgeon of the United States navy. He was from Philadelphia and attached to the Plymouth. I was very acquainted with him having lived at the same house and pleasant excursions in his company. There was one larger than this but none so chaste and well proportioned. It was by the officers of the United States navy of the China squadron is about four feet square but in height a little more with a shaped piece rising pyramidically upon the top It stands on a about five feet square and fifteen inches thick all of granite. (...)
Our walk next took us to the garden of Mr Marques, a Portuguese gentleman situated on a considerable eminence at other side of the city. It was quite extensive and filled with shade and fruit trees flowers arbors retreats etc. There are small eminences in the grounds from one of which is a view of inner harbor where ships of any size may anchor. On this is a kind of tower with a terrace on the top surrounded by a railing with seats where may be enjoyed the cool sea breezes another hill were lodged several immense rock boulders a romantic spot which in its wild state was the favorite of a Portuguese poet of the fifteenth century. The boulders are fitted up by bricks and plaster into a kind of grotto in which the bust of Camoes, the poet. Upon the walls are various inscriptions and on the top of all is built a place of resort for a hot evening.
Macao is a peninsula much like Boston and has a narrow neck uniting it to the rest of China. Towards this we directed our steps to go a little way into the country. We walked leisurely along enjoying the fresh air viewing the hills valeys, people houses etc with nothing to disturb us excepting once when a number large blue buffaloes came chasing after us puffing and blowing within a few rods of us when like their Chinese masters they and stared at us.
After a few minutes they came on galloping again stopping at intervals until their keeper came and took charge them. We were very glad of this for we expected to have to battle to them before they would leave us.
On the neck is the Barrier stretching entirely across separating the Chinese from the Portuguese and forms the frontier between the two nations. In the centre is a gateway called the Barrier Gate. The barrier is a wall about four feet thick, fifteen high and built of brick earthen ware stones and mortar. A rods before reaching it there is a stone post marking the place Governor Amaral was murdered by the Chinese last summer of the Chinese part are the ruins of houses which the Portuguese soldiers destroyed and about half a mile beyond upon a hill is (...)
PS March 12th
It rains here almost incessantly at this season of the year which makes my stay in Macao not a very agreeable one. There are very few but Portuguese in Macao during the cool season. This afternoon I have heard of a vessel bound for Java and this evening I have been aboard with Monsieur Lafon to ascertain alxnit her She is a Dutch vessel the Macao commanded by Capt De Groot and is going to Batavia in the morning It seems a rather sudden move for me at so short a notice to think of leaving China. But taking all things into consideration the changing of the monsoon next mont. I have concluded to leave with the vessel. (...)
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