Vernon Parish Democrat., 1922-02-02
prepared by the National Geographic 81
ciety, Washington D C.O

| prepared by the National Geographic So
| ciety, Washington, D. O.
Two hills stretching to the sea so
as to form a charming bay, and be-
tween them an ancient, half Spanish,
wholly southern city; its roofs tufted
with verdure, rising one above anoth-
er on terraced slopes; its houses with
their once gay tints all faded, basking
in peaceful decrepitude in a sunshine
| like that of June; the town fast
asleep the harbor sitting up; the
walls crumbling; the iron gratings
ruSting; the pavements- turning green; I;
the gables nodding like old gray heads,
tired of listening to the same old sto-
ries-such is Macao, the Far Eastern
outpost of the Portuguese traders of
the Sixteenth century, the Monte Car
10 of the Orient, and one of Portugals
few remaining possessions in Pacific
waters.
Macao is situated on the west side
of the Pearl river Forty miles across
is Hongkong; lightweight miles to the
north lies Canton, seat Of the South
China government. Macao was found
ed in 1867. Prior to 1887 there ap-
pears to have been no documentary
evidence of a formal cessiOn of this
territory, the Portuguese claiming,
however, that they received it as
reward for destroying the horde of
MOngOlian pirates that harried the
southern coast of China; and the re-
mains of the old barrier across the
narrow neck of land separating the
peninsular town from the rest of the
Island of Heung Chan, and once guard
ed by Chinese soldiers, gave color to
the Portuguese claim. However, all
doubts were laid to rest in 1887 when
formal cession was made by China to
the Portuguese.
Macao's Rise and Fall.
So marvellous was the growth and
prosperity of this Portuguese settle
ment in its youth that it excited the
envy Of the early Dutch traders who
in 1922 attempted it's conquest. The
spot where the Dutch leader was
killed by a round shot from Monte
fort, which wrote finis to that at
tempt, is now marked by monument
Macao continued to be a. flOurishing
mart up to 1S41, the British East In
dia company and the Dutch company
meanwhile obtaining a foothold there.
The British free trade propaganda of
the "Forties" excited a demand for a
free port at Macao, to which the Por-
tuguese demurred. Great Britain then
secured the Hongkong concession,
made that free port in 1S45, and
the decline of Macao as an entrepot
dates from that year.
Not only is Macao the site of the
first European claim made on Chinese
soil, but 1t has cultural ties with Eu-
rope closer knit than the political re-
lationships of controverted' areas to
the north. 1t contains the oldest ruin
in China that is associated with Eu-
rope, and the tamarind and banyan
shade the gardens where the Por-
tuguese Chauser, CamOens, composed
half of the Lusiads, celebrating the
discoveries of the Portuguese explor-
ers who opened up for the West the
secrets of the East 1t is one of the
half-dozen of the worlds great epics.
CamOens' Place of Exile.
Luis de Camoens, the star of Lusi-
tanian poetry, became enamored of
Catharina d'Atayada, lady-in-hOnor to
Queen Catharina of Portugal, which
so enraged the king that he banished
the poet to Macao, about 1857, where
he remained for five years as admin
istrator of the effects Of deceased per-
sons-a. melancholy office for a poet
and lover. Returning in 1872, his YES
sci was wrecked, his small savings
were lost, but the poem WHICH has
been translated into every civilized
language was saved to an appreciative
posterity. A monument to Camoens
marks the spot in the grotto where he
composed his noble epic.
Macao has snOOzed peacefully away
on its island in late years while con-
troversies have ragged around the hand
full of other foreign holdings on the
Chinese coast. But recently the gov
ernment of Southern China is reported
to have demanded that there be
Cleanup" in the city, a procedure,
which if carried out would entail rec
ognition Of the Southern China govern
ment as well as acceptance of its right
to rule in what has long been consid-
cred Portuguese territory.
Once in Macao the traveller may re-
main to contemplate an out-of-theL
way shrine of European history. But !