"Interesting old Portuguese settlement"

"On the following day we proceeded to Macao and explored that interesting old Portuguese settlement with which however we have been too long familiar in England to render description necessary. It's air of respectable antiquity was refreshing after the somewhat parvenu character with which its ostentatious magnificence invests Hong Kong.

The narrow streets and grass grown plazas, the handsome façade of the fine old cathedral crumbling to decay, the shady walks and cool grottoes, once the haunt of the Portuguese Poet, his tomb and the view from it all, combined to produce a soothing and tranquillising effect upon sensibilities irritated by our recent mode of life.

We strolled down to the harbour and found it full of junks, most of them heavily armed with 6, 9 and 12 pound guns, bearing the well known initials B., P. & Co., of this year's date to be converted by Yeh to his own use when occasion required, for the crews did not conceal the fact that Canton was their destination of course for trading purposes. Since the blockade of the river, the whole trade with Canton has been carried along the passage at the back of Macao, known as the Broadway.

We refreshed ourselves after the fatigues of our exploration at a Chinese restaurant where I made my first experience in Chinese cookery and, in spite of the novelty of the implements managed by the aid of chopsticks to make a very satisfactory repast off eggs a year old preserved in clay sharks fins and radishes pared and boiled into a thick soup bêche de mer or sea slugs shrimps made into a paste with sea chestnuts bamboo roots and garlic rendered piquant by the addition of soy and sundry other pickles and condiments and washed down with warm samshu in minute cups. Dishes and plates were all on the smallest possible scale and pieces of square brown paper served the purpose of napkins."

Excerto de Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, '58, '59 With Illustrations from Original Drawings & Photographs. Volume 1 (de um total de 2) , de Laurence Oliphant, publicado em 1859.

Desta embaixada resultou a assinatura em Junho de 1858 do Tratado de Tientsin/Tianjin (ilustração acima incluída no livro), colocando um ponto final na segunda guerra do ópio, que juntou ingleses e franceses contra chineses.

No anterior conflito (1838-1842) a China comprometera-se a abrir cinco portos aos navios ingleses. Em 1856 a fiscalização pelas autoridades chineses do navio de bandeira britânica Arrow, desencadearia uma nova guerra entre a China e a Inglaterra. Desta vez os ingleses contaram com um novo aliado: a França. 

O autor deste livro, Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888) nasceu na África do Sul e, acompanhando a carreira do pai viveu no Reino Unido e Ceilão. Em 1857 acompanhou o diplomata James Bruce, 8º Conde de Elgin, nomeado por Inglaterra como enviado para concluir o "Tratado de Tientsin com a China" e "O Tratado Anglo-Japonês de Amizade e Comércio". 

O excerto refere uma passagem da embaixada por Macau. O autor faz uma breve descrição do território onde destaca a gruta de Camões e relata com detalhe um jantar num restaurante chinês da cidade.