"Travels in the Far East" resulta de uma viagem de 9 meses de uma norte-americana com passagens pelo Egipto, Índia, Burma, Ceilão, Malásia, Sião (Tailândia), China (incluindo Hong Kong e Macau) Japão, Manchúria e Coreia.Ellen Mary Hayes Peck (1838-1909), mulher de James Sidney Peck partiu dos EUA no final de 1907. A passagem por Macau ocorreu no final de Março de 1908. O livro foi editado no ano seguinte com um total de 345 páginas profusamente ilustradas.
Macao, March 28th: We again took the steamer Kian Tang* for an eighty-mile run to Macao. The scene is quite as varied and pleasing as the passage from Hong-Kong to Canton. There were numerous islands, and, on the mainland, villages were seen with occasional forts which told the story of past invasions. Rice fields and great groves of mulberry trees indicated some of the chief industries of China. Macao is situated on the western shores of the estuary of the great Pearl River, sometimes called Canton River. It was founded early in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, who were the first nation to invade the Eastern seas in the interest of commerce, having aided the Chinese during the invasion of pirates. As a reward, in the year 1557, the rocky peninsula was given to them, the Portuguese having previously made use of it as a trading-station and a naval depot.
Macao is beautifully located high above the sea, and the approach is fine; the first impression is of a Mediterranean port, but on landing, the style of the buildings and the arrangement of the streets reminded me of Spain, while the blended coloring on the parapet and walls (which only time can give) was like Ponta Delgada of the Azores. Our hotel stood on an eminence overlooking the sea, indeed so near the sea that the moan and swish of the waves were always with us. The view from my balcony brought to mind the outlook from the old monastery at Amalfi, Italy. The whole atmosphere of the place was peaceful, and this was its chief attraction.
We were there over Sunday, and the impression was deepened. Our arrival being early in the morning, we at once commenced our tour of observation, our guide seeming quite intelligent. We knew that the population of Macao was about eighty thousand, and, with the exception of a few Portuguese officials, entirely Chinese, so we were prepared for Chinese scenes, and it seemed quite consistent that we should first visit a large opium factory, this drug being one of the large exports of Macao. Here was explained the entire process of manufacture, from the poppy leaf to the final shipment; and for a further object lesson, we were taken into a room arranged for smoking opium, where sat three richly dressed Chinamen, half reclining; two had already passed into the temporary land of bliss and the third had the far-away look in his eyes that betokened semi-unconsciousness.
The fourteenth-century façade of San Paulo greatly interested us aside from its architectural merit; it stands today, as it has stood for generations, the sole remnant of a fine cathedral218 which perished in an earthquake. It is like a sentinel pointing the way to a better life. The modern Catholic cathedral had no distinctive features. The English church was unpretentious, but the Protestant cemetery adjoining contains tablets sacred to the memory of many military and naval officers and also of missionaries and their families; I remember especially the stone erected to a Rev. Mr. Morrison, one of the early missionaries to China.
Macao's chief claim to renown is its association with Camoëns, the great Portuguese poet of the sixteenth century, whose epic poem, "The Lusiads," has been translated into most known languages. This poem was written during his ten years' residence in Macao, and the garden, grotto, and bust of Camoëns are all a memorial tribute from a fellow countryman, Lorenco Marques. The garden and grotto were interesting, and the bronze bust which rests on a block whereon is engraved a poem to Macao by an English scholar, Sir John Bowring, is fine in design and execution. It is interesting to note that through "The Lusiads" Camoëns was permitted to return to Portugal to end his days, he having been banished twice because his views were too outspoken. He died at Lisbon in 1580.
The shops in Macao were of no special interest, and the street scenes lacked life and color. A long drive followed luncheon, first to the wonderful Bund, here called Praia Granda, which is semi-circular like the harbor, and the street fronting the water is lined with homes or business houses. Not one discordant note is here found. The drive is protected on the water side by a high stone coping, and it was being extended far beyond the original curve on the right-hand side, while at the left it leads out into a prolonged drive, first on the heights where are located residences and a club, then on to the country, until we reach the dividing line between a Portuguese possession and China. This is marked by an imposing arch. On the outskirts we visited several factories, one for weaving matting, another for the manufacture of every form of fire-works (a regular Fourth of July supply), and that the realism should not be missing, some small boys on the corner exploded a bunch of fire-crackers.
There were other factories, but the most interesting was one devoted to the manufacture of silk thread from cocoons. It was very large, and only women and girls were there employed, and the deft way in which they caught the silk end from the cocoon (the latter is first placed in boiling water) and wound it on reels quite won our admiration. We were then taken to rooms where large twists of silk were placed ready for shipment to England, a package not over two220 feet square representing an investment of many thousands of dollars. The long drive to the hotel ended an eventful day; the evening was to furnish further excitement in a visit to some fan-tan parlors for which Macao is noted; indeed, it is the Monte Carlo of the Far East, and I fear this feature attracts more tourists than the beauty of the location. Certain it is that the steamers from Hong-Kong supply a large contingent that comes hither daily, since both fan-tan and lotteries are prohibited in Hong-Kong. All the parlors are under Chinese management and are extensively patronized. Some are said to be very luxurious in their appointments, being, of course, for the wealthy patrons, who do not, however, sit on the floor where the gambling is going on, but in a little room arranged with galleries all around. Their servants sit below and receive from them an indication as to certain numbers which may win or lose as the wheel of fortune turns. There are retiring-rooms for the opium smokers and separate places for serving refreshments. Such a condition represents the aristocratic status of the game. The reverse aspect is seen in the miserable "joints," which are too dreadful even to contemplate. Here is where Macao derives the revenue to carry on its fine improvements, and, as in Bangkok, there is no intimation of a desire to reform the evil.
The Chinese have also invaded Burma, and intermarriage with the Burmese maidens is becoming general. Java is not exempt from their presence; in Siam they are very numerous; in Singapore they permeate everywhere; and in Macao they are possessors of the field. Truly their colonizing power is tremendous, and, unlike the British, they commence downward and work upward, the coolie ever being the advance guard.
On Sunday morning there was no service at the English church, and so two of our party, by invitation of the missionary, Rev. Mr. Todd, attended a Chinese service held in rooms which were far from adequate for their needs. A Sunday-school of about two hundred children was just leaving as we entered, and their interested faces made me hopeful that this early influence might save them from the fan-tan attraction. The service was in Chinese, but the reverend gentleman, not being fluent in the Chinese language, first gave a paragraph in English, and this was translated by his wife into Chinese, which made it more interesting and assuredly more understandable to us. The audience paid the closest attention, and to my surprise their faces revealed an animated response. The women were dressed in the long black coats and loose trousers seen everywhere, but their hair ornaments were of gold, set with jewels, and their earrings jade or large pearls of great value. At the close of the service a man arose and evidently made a most impassioned appeal, judging by the intonation of his voice and the spontaneous applause he received. At the close Mr. Todd told us that it was an appeal for money with which to secure a better place of meeting, and that the Chinese women in front had already given two hundred dollars toward the movement. On Monday morning the steamer Suitai carried us safely back to Hong-Kong. (...)
in Travels in the Far East, de Ellen Mary Hayes Peck, Nova Iorque, 1909
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