Macao, pronounced Macow, a seaport and Portuguese settlement, China, prov. Quang tong, irregularly built on a high peninsula that terminates the island of Macao to the S and joined to it by a narrow isthmus N from the town. lat 22 10 30 N long 113 32 E.
It occupies a slope gradually descending to the sea backed by a range of lofty hills and having an extensive campo or plain stretching E.
It is nearly surrounded with water and is open to the sea breezes on every side. The houses occupied by the foreign population are large roomy and open and the shops are numerous There are several R. Catholic churches, a senate house in the middle of the town and both a Portuguese and a Chinese custom house; several schools and a female orphan asylum. The quay, or 'Praya Grande', is commodious, forms a pleasant drive and is protected by a battery; several others wall stretching across the isthmus where a guard of Chinese crowning the adjacent heights.
Good water is abundant and the markets are well supplied with meat, poultry, fish, vegetables and fruits of various kinds. The harbour is formed between the peninsula on which the town stands and the large island Twee lien shan to the W; it is narrow at the entrance but has 20 and 21 ft at low water close to Fort St Jago*situated on the E point and from hence along the E shore to the town the depths continue nearly the same.
Macao is considered the healthiest residence in SE Asia. Near it, in a beautiful garden is the grave** of the Portuguese poet Camoens who here composed the Lusiad. The settlement is ruled by a governor aided by an elective senate composed of two judges and three aldermen who preside alternately for a month. The Chinese inhabitants are governed by magistrates of their own.
The settlement is about 8 miles in circuit and its limits landward are defined by a barrier wall stretching across the isthmus where a guard of Chinese is stationed to prevent foreigners from trespassing on the Inner Land.
The Portuguese settled at Macao about the year 1556 when the Emperor of China granted them permission to reside on a rock or peninsula by their stipulating to pay tribute or ground rent and duties on their merchandize a concession said to have been obtained in reward for their having cleared the coast of pirates who infested the mouth of the Canton river. Pop. of the peninsula or settlement nearly 30,000, mostly Chinese.
in The Imperial Gazetteer: A General Dictionary of Geography, Physical, Political, Statistical and Descriptive. Walter Graham Blackie, 1855.
* Forte de S. Tiago da Barra
** Gruta de Camões
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