White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-03-23

Prepared by NATIONAL GeogTa a as,,s Sooie'''
n EACAO, which has long been
M one Of the gambling ,!s,+s een ate1
Nv / of the East, now, with mod
ern Improvements, is earning
the right to the sobriquet 1.-THE Monte
Carlo of the Orient" 1t is the only
place in the world where fan-tan
houses, opium factories and lottery
tickets finance a colonial government.
Macao is but the tip end of the Is
land Of Heungshan (also known as
Macao island). All Of the island ex-
cept the tip belongs to China. The
Portuguese area, which includes two
small adjacent islands, embraces less
than a dozen square miles; but there
are few places in the Orient where a
dozen square miles contain so much OF
interest. 1t is the oldest European set
tlement in the Far East and was for
long the only haven of refuge for dis
tressed mariners in the China sea. Its
modest lighthouse, on Fort Guia, was
the first that ever flashed a beacon
from the coast Of the Chinese en-
pire, and it's little cemetery was for
many year the only spot where Eu-
ropean might find an unmolested
grave.
Many wealthy Chinese live here, not
merely because they find the climate
more salubrious than that of Kwang
tune province, but because their heads
rest more securely on their shoulders
here, under the Portuguese flag. The
Praia Grande is cool and restful
avenue and leads appropriately to a
plaza which is the vestibule of the
grotto and garden Of Camoens.
The plaza is to be seen at it's best
on Sundays and holidays, when the
band from the Portuguese garrison
plays classical selections with the
same ease and perfection that endear
the Constabulary band to the Fill
pinos. On such occasions the plaza Is
adorned with the elite of Macao, with
Chinese and Eurasian children OF the
cunning" type, and with dark-eyed
Portuguese girls who flirt discreetly
(but none the less effectively with
the young OlllCCIS HUN LliC 6AA Aioca'
Scenes on the Plaza.
This romantic plaza in Macao serves
the traveller like a page torn from a
school geography.
Here, stalking grandly across the
square, one sees sWarthy oriental
noncommissioned officer with his head
draped in a striped turban and Won
ders what the Hindu is doing here.
Some one explains that he belongs
here, that he belongs to the battalion
sent here from Goa, the tiny Portu-
guese colony in India.
Then another apparition catches the
eye, the silhouette Of row OF ivory
black soldiers, topped off with red
fezzes, festooned over the rail fence
in front of the barracks. Plainly they
are not Portuguese, nor Hindu, nor
Chinese.
Suddenly one of the dusky soldiers
laws his head back and laughs-laughs
loudly and long. The Identification is
instantaneous and complete; there is
no mistaking that laugh; 1t is the
same that you hear on the levees OF
the Ohio and the Mississippi. 1t was
made in Africa, and these are native
troops from Portuguese colony
somewhere along the hot, steaming
coast of the dark continent.
TO those who have sojourned among
the frontier forces of the French In
the Senegal, of the British in Sierra
Leone, Of the Liberians at Monrovia
or of the Sudanese on the upper Nile
the spectacle brings back old mem.
cries.
Near the Grotto Of Camoens is q
hallowed garden, one seldom visited
save by the few who seek it. 1t Is
the little Goods Acre of the English
chanel. the lonely burial ground OIL
the pioneers who died in the China
sea in those early years when there
was no "Happy Valley at Hongkong
Where Portugal and China Meet.
But these details are not for thu
shedding traveller. He CLEANS the es
sential facts from guidebook Ell
route: his all-comprehending ey'
sweeps the landscape while the Hong
kong Macao boat leisurely makes it
way up to the dock, where the jim
rikisha coolie is waiting to whirl hin
around the circuit and back to TIN
gangpIank. stroll past the grott'
of the poet, snapshot of the iinpos
ing facade of ruined Sac Paulo's,
brief glance at fan-tan game, a two
minute detour at the opium factory
ten minutes at the fire-cracker works
whirlwind finish at the Barrier Gate
and Macao has been "seen'-at leas
on the average tourist schedule.
% The Barrier Gate, designed like q
arch Of triumph and now wreathed b