Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [238]
BACKGROUND
HISTORY
Early Settlement
Archaeological finds from digs around Hác Sá and Ká Hó Bays on Coloane Island suggest that Macau has been inhabited since Neolithic times (from 4000 BC). Before the arrival of the Portuguese, Macau had a relatively small number of inhabitants, mainly Cantonese-speaking farmers and fisherfolk from Fujian.
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The Arrival of the Portuguese
In 1510 and 1511 the Portuguese routed Arab fleets at Goa on the west coast of India and Malacca on the Malay Peninsula. At Malacca they encountered several junks with Chinese captains and crews. Realising that the so-called Chins – about whom Portuguese mariners and explorers had heard reports of a century earlier – were not a mythical people but natives of ‘Cathay’ (the land that Marco Polo had visited and written about 2½ centuries earlier), a small party sailed northwards to try to open up trade with China.
The first Portuguese contingent, led by Jorge Álvares, set foot on Chinese soil in 1513 at a place they called Tamaõ, today known as Shangchuan Island, about 80km southwest of the mouth of the Pearl River. However, it wasn’t until 1553 that an official basis for trading was set up between the two countries, and the Portuguese were allowed to settle on Shangchuan. The exposed anchorage there forced the Portuguese traders to abandon the island that same year, and they moved to Lampacau, an island closer to the Pearl River estuary.
To the northeast of Lampacau was a small peninsula where the Portuguese had frequently dropped anchor. Known variously as Amagau, Aomen and Macau (see the boxed text, opposite), the peninsula had two natural harbours – an inner one on the Qianshan waterway facing the mainland, and an outer one in a bay on the Pearl River – and two sheltered islands located to the south. In 1557 officials at Guangzhou let the Portuguese build temporary shelters on the peninsula in exchange for customs dues and rent. The Portuguese also agreed to rid the area of the pirates that were endemic at the time.
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WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The name Macau is derived from the name of the goddess A-Ma, better known in Hong Kong as Tin Hau. At the southwestern tip of Macau Peninsula stands the A-Ma Temple, which dates back to the early 16th century. Many people believe that when the Portuguese first arrived and asked the name of the place, ‘A-Ma Gau’ (Bay of A-Ma) was what they were told.
According to legend, A-Ma, a poor girl looking for passage to Guangzhou, was turned away by wealthy junk owners. Instead, a poor fisherman took her on board; shortly afterwards a storm blew up, wrecking all the junks but leaving the fishing boat unscathed. When it returned to the Inner Harbour, A-Ma walked to the top of nearby Barra Hill and, in a glowing aura of light, ascended to heaven. The fisherman built a temple on the spot where they had landed (which was, in fact, on the water’s edge until land reclamation early in the last century set it further inland).
In modern Cantonese, Macau is Ou Mun (Aomen in Mandarin), meaning Gateway of the Bay.
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A Trading Powerhouse
Macau grew rapidly as a trading centre, largely due to the fact that Chinese merchants were forbidden to leave the country by imperial decree. Acting as agents for the Chinese merchants, Portuguese traders took Chinese goods to Goa and exchanged them for cotton and textiles. The cloth was then taken to Malacca, where it was traded for spices and sandalwood. The Portuguese would then carry on to Nagasaki in Japan, where the cargo from Malacca was exchanged for Japanese silver, swords, lacquerware and fans that would be traded in Macau for more Chinese goods.