"Handsome well built city"

Excertos obre Macau:

"Heang shan a very large island formed by two branches of the Canton river forms the western side of its main channel and terminates seaward in a small peninsula which contains the Portuguese town of Macao. (...)

Macao, in Chinese Aou mun, 'the entrance to the bay', a Portuguese town, is situated on a small peninsula nine miles in circumference at the southern extremity of a large island Heang shan formed by two branches of the river of Canton. It is a handsome well built city and the population is estimated at between 12,000 and 30,000.

The Chinese government interdicts all communication from Macao with the neighbouring country and a wall is built across the isthmus and closely guarded which no European is allowed to pass.

The peninsula is rocky the cliffs are of various picturesque forms presenting fine views of both sea and land.

A garden and a cave are still pointed out as the haunt of Camoens, the author of the Lusiad. The foreign merchants leave their families here while they can proceed to Canton only for the purposes of trade. Macao is near the sea just within the entrance of the great western channel of the river or gulf of Canton. It had an excellent harbour but the depth of the entrance has decreased to two fathoms and large ships are therefore obliged to lie in the roads which are much exposed."

Publicado em Edimburgo e Londres no ano de 1842 este livro com mais de mil páginas  -System of universal geography, founded on the works of Malte-Brun and Balbi - compila as informações de livros da autoria de Conrad Malte-Brun (1775-1826), jornalista e geógrafo francês e A. Balbi. Inclui referências a 12 mil lugares do mundo.