The Chinese Accordingly
Gave Them This Rocky Island, Then Inhabited By Robbers, Whom They
Expelled.
At first they were only allowed to build thatched cottages;
but, by bribing the mandarins, they were permitted in the sequel to
erect stone houses, and even to build forts.
One of these, called the
Fort of the Bar, is at the mouth of the harbour, and terminates at a
rock called Appenka, where there is a hermitage of the order of St
Augustine. There is another fort on the top of a hill, called the Fort
of the Mountain; also another high fort, called Nuestra Senhora de
Guia. The city of Macao stands on a peninsula, having a strong wall
built across the isthmus, with a gate in the middle, through which the
Chinese pass out and in at pleasure, but it is death for a Portuguese to
pass that way.
[Footnote 246: This surely is an error for Fo-kien. Amoy has been before
stated in the text as N.E. from Macao, whereas the kingdom of Tonquin
is S.W. from that port. - E.]
Some travellers have reported that the Portuguese were sovereigns of
Macao, as of other places in India: But they never were, and the Chinese
are too wise a people to suffer any thing of the kind. Macao certainly
is as fine a city, and even finer, than could be expected, considering
its untoward situation: It is also regularly and strongly fortified,
having upwards of 200 pieces of brass cannon upon its walls.
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