CHAPTER VIII

The Rise of Hongkong – Early Portuguese Settlers

The ill favour with which the early British residents of Hongkong viewed the prospects of the new settlement was reflected in despatches to the British Government in London, and can also be gathered from newspaper reports by men who doubted that the island of Hongkong was worth developing as an integral part of the British Empire. The early pessimists were many. Time has shown to what extent the predictions of the “doubting Thomases” have been falsified.

A typical criticism is the following report which appeared in the Friend of China and Hongkong Gazette74:

“We have no native merchants settled in the colony; neither is produce imported, nor goods exported, to any of the five ports, except it be on British account; and all mercantile transactions are concluded at those ports, whilst the harbour of Hongkong is completely deserted. Not an anchor of a junk is dropped in the bay of Hongkong; they flee from it as a man would from a pestilence … Hongkong, a free port, is deprived of all trade further than the transhipment of goods, and a supply of articles for local consumption, the commissions upon which would barely pay the expenses of a first class mercantile establishment”.

On another occasion the same newspaper reported in an editorial that:75

“The respectable Parsee firm, whose extensive premises near Messrs. Dent & Co. are now nearly finished, have determined not to remove to Hongkong; others, who contemplated settling here, have changed their minds and remain at Macao.”

The poor estimation in which Hongkong was held by the merchants already settled there was also voiced by the same journal on yet another occasion:76
“We hesitate not to assert, that with the exception of two or three houses, who have a large coasting trade (this refers to the opium trade), nearly every merchant in the place would cheerfully dispose of his property at cost price, and abandon this island; and even the exceptions we have made, could manage their business equally well at Macao”.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
The majority of the merchants continued to favour Macao as a place of residence, not only for themselves but principally for their families, and a memorial to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, from a number of firms, including Jardine, Matheson & Co., Dent &Co., and other British merchants who had set up establishments in Hongkong, dated “Victoria, 13th August, 1845”, contained a significant passage:
“The Americans and all other foreigners remain in Canton and Macao, notwithstanding all the boasted advantages of Hongkong as a free port”.
Macao became, as a matter of fact, the health resort for Hongkong residents needing a rest or a change of air. This is evident from an extract culled from the Civil Service Report of the Government of Hongkong, for the year 1844. There were others in similar vein. The extract reads:

” … Colonial Secretary very ill, went on sick leave to Macao; officiating Surveyor-General very ill, went on sick leave to Macao; Colonial Engineer twice ill, went on sick leave to Macao; Auditor-General very ill, went on sick leave to Macao; the Harbour Master and Marine Magistrate went on sick leave to England, his successor proceeded on sick leave to Macao …”

The inscriptions on the tombstones in the English Cemetery at Macao also tell a significant story, for until Hongkong became healthy and tranquil enough, the merchants who moved over to Hongkong to try their fortunes in the new British settlement would not risk taking their wives and children with them, but left them behind at Macao. Some of these women-folk and children of the Hongkong merchants died in the Portuguese colony and the tombstones over their graves in Macao remain to tell the plaintive tale. There were also many deaths at Macao among the men of the British and foreign communities, in the early’ 40’s most of whom had been stricken ill at Hongkong. So little confidence was there, at the time, in the permanency of the British settlement at Hongkong, that it is said that so high an official as Sir Humphrey le Fleming Senhouse, R.N., C.B., K.C.B., Senior Officer in Command of the British Fleet in the China Seas, who died on board H.M.S. <i>Druid</i> at Hongkong, on the 13th June, 1841, expressed a desire, before his death, that his remains might be buried at Macao. The interment took place, in accordance with his wishes, in the Portuguese colony. The tombstone erected over his grave records the “testimony of esteem and respect for their distinguished and lamented chief, by the officers of the Army and Navy, comprising the China Expedition in 1841”.77
Among the tombstones in the English Cemetery at Macao must be noted, among others, one of particular interest. It will be found over the grave of the Right Honourable Lord Henry John Spencer Churchill, 4th son of George, 5th Duke of Marlborough.78 He was Captain of H.M.S. Druid and Senior Officer in command of the British Fleet in the China Seas before Sir Fleming Senhouse. He died on board his ship in the Macao Roads on the 2nd June, 1840, aged 43 years. The inscription on his tombstone records that “This monument is erected by his officers and petty officers in testimony and affection”. In other ways the British merchants showed their lack of confidence in the permanence of Hongkong as a Crown Colony. Horse-racing and yachting, for instance, have long been popular sports among the British, yet up to as late as 1845, the British trading community did not indulge in their favourite sports in Hongkong but confined their horse-race meetings and yachting excursions to Macao. There was no proper course laid out in the Portuguese colony for horse-racing, it is true, but the open fields then extending from the city gates, known as Porta do Campo, to the Barrier were used for the purpose. The yachts and other pleasure craft of the British residents were sailed in the placid waters of Macao’s Inner Harbour, on most afternoons. For longer excursions and picnics the boats sailed from Praia Grande Bay to Taipa and also to Lappa, or to Green Island, returning to Macao by the Inner Harbour. Everything indicates that the British as a community were thoroughly disgusted with Hongkong; and books were even written condemning the choice of the barren island, while the newspapers in England were just as critical of the choice which had been made, as were the press of Hongkong. Not only was Hongkong “an unhealthy, pestilential, barren rock” held “in ill repute by the Chinese nation”, where “the withering sense of desolation and death, which flickers before the mental vision of the spectator, is overpowering”, but Henry Charles Sirr, the first barrister practising in Hongkong, exclaimed: “We deem it a duty which we owe our fellow-men to speak truthfully and plainly of the insalubrity of China generally, but especially of Hongkong, for had we had but one sincere friend, who would have told us the honest truth concerning that charnel-house Hongkong, not all the wealth of the East would have lured us thither”, and he ranted against “the wretched diplomacy evinced in selecting an insalubrious, piratical island for a Colonial possession”.79
The census taken in May, 1841, showed that there were 5,650 Chinese residents, among them 2,000 boat people, but five years later, the Rev. Mr. George Smith, later the first Bishop of Victoria (Hongkong), speaking of the increasing numbers, felt that “the lowest dregs of native society flock to the British settlement, in the hope of gain or plunder, and although a few of the better class of shopkeepers are beginning to settle in the colony, the great majority of the new comers are of the lowest condition and character”.80 Among these there moved British and foreign sailors, rough men from the ships which thronged Hongkong Harbour, who frequented the drinking saloons, hardly the company which the merchants and shipowners would have liked their women-folk to meet, and regarding whom the Rev. Mr. Smith said: “It is with unfeigned regret and reluctance that the author states, that scenes frequently occur in the public streets, and in the interior of houses, which are calculated to place the countrymen of missionaries in an unfavourable aspect”.81
It is not surprising that the British generally were disgusted with Hongkong, and the London Times gave utterance to public opinion in Britain with regard to the new colony:
“Hongkong is always connected with some fatal pestilence, some doubtful war, or some discreditable internal squabble, so much so that, in popular language, the name of this noisy, bustling, quarrelsome, discontented little island may not inaptly be used as a euphonious synonym for a place not mentionable to ears polite. Every official’s hand is there against his neighbour. The Governor has run away to seek health or quiet elsewhere. The Lieutenant-General has been accused of having allowed his servant to squeeze. The newspaper proprietors were, of late, all more or less in prison or going to prison or coming out of prison… The heads of the mercantile houses hold themselves quite aloof from local disputes and conduct themselves in a highly dignified manner, which is one of the chief causes of the evil…”82
Yet, by 1860 the population had reached 92,441 Chinese residents, and 2,476 British and other non-Chinese individuals, including the garrison. And contrast the glowing account of Hongkong, by Sir William Des Voeux, the Governor, less than half a century after the British flag was first hoisted on the Island, with the gloomy views quoted in the preceding pages, and, for that matter, any of the “authorities” on the subject of early Hongkong. This account is contained in Sir William Des Voeux’s despatch dated 31st October, 1889, forwarding the Colony’s Blue Book for 1888 to the Right Honourable Lord Knutsford, Secretary of State for the Colonies:

There was cause indeed for Sir William Des Voeux to feel the satisfaction which he expressed in his report, but no one who has followed the history of the past century can feel otherwise than that Hongkong, in the hands of a British administration, was bound to be a success. And when the success is measured in terms of material welfare and financial growth it must be conceded that its prosperity was indeed assured. The subsequent rise of Hongkong to position of eminence as one of the greatest ports in the world has demonstrated, more effectively than any words of praise, the soundness of Elliot’s judgment in his choice of Hongkong as a British settlement. It was in the second half of the ’40’s that the British merchants began to see the greater possibility of permanent residence at Hongkong, after the authorities had introduced health measures, and the more cautious persons who had continued living at Macao for such a long time began to bestir themselves and move over to join their fellow nationals in the British colony. As the number of Europeans in Hongkong increased, churches and schools were built on the Island, not only for the British community but for the Portuguese there as well.

The praise meted out by Sir William Des Voeux to the pioneers of Hongkong embraces all sections of the community of Hongkong, British as well as others, specially those who braved the trials and tribulations of the early days when the merchants seemed so nervous and chary about living in the new settlement. Among the non-British pioneers who assisted the British colonizers, the Portuguese can claim a proud and honourable place.

The decision of the British to transfer to Hongkong, on the 27th February, 1842, the official headquarters of British trade in China showed the determination of the Government to push forward their plans for the building up of their own trading centre in China, despite the serious difficulties attending the founding of the new settlement. It was a move that opened up a new outlook for the Portuguese in China: and who will say that Hongkong did not benefit by it? The Portuguese endured with the British pioneers the trials, hardships, and horrors of those early years of Hongkong’s history, and shared with them the labours which resulted in the building up of Hongkong on a foundation “well and truly laid”.

From the very beginning, younger members of the Portuguese community at Macao in the service of British firms accompanied the latter to their new establishments in Hongkong. The loyalty of the Portuguese was thus displayed at the earliest stage of Hongkong’s existence and it has remained as one of the outstanding traits of the Portuguese in Hongkong during the past one hundred years. Venturesome young men among the Macao Portuguese also emigrated from Macao to try their fortunes on their own account in the new field.

When Sir Henry Pottinger moved over the Superintendency of British Trade in China from Macao to Hongkong it was just such people among the Portuguese at Macao who threw in their lot with the British officials and built their new homes on the fever ridden island of Hongkong. Included in the staff of the Superintendency transferred to Hongkong as well as in most of the British firms were Portuguese young men filling clerical and other essential positions, some of them qualified interpreters in three or more languages. Regarding the competency of the Portuguese to interpret in the English, Chinese, Malayan and Portuguese languages, a tribute must be paid to the Fathers of St. Joseph’s College at Macao for their excellent work in the teaching of these languages.

None will be found to grudge the Portuguese migrants the rewards which their loyalty, devotion to duty, ability, integrity, and law-abiding characteristics earned for them in Hongkong. It will be my endeavour to furnish a chronicle of what Hongkong gave to some of them in return during the years which followed.

“Hongkong has indeed changed its aspect; and when it is remembered that all this has been effected in Her Majesty’s reign and indeed during a space of less than fifty years on ground in immediate contact with the most populous Empire in the world, by a comparatively infinitesimal number of an entirely alien race separated from their homes by nearly the whole earth, and, unlike their countrymen in Australia and Canada, living in an enervating and trying climate; and when it is further remembered that the Chinese, whose labour and enterprise under British auspices have largely assisted in this development, have been under no compulsion, but have come here as free men, attracted by liberal institutions, equitable treatment, and the justice of our rule; and when all this is taken into account, it may be doubted whether the evidences of material and moral achievement, presented as it were in a focus, make anywhere a more forcible appeal to eye and imagination, and whether any other spot on the earth is thus more likely to excite, or much more fully justifies pride in the name of Englishmen”.83
There can be no disputing the propriety of assigning the premier place among the Portuguese pioneers of Hongkong to these young men, both of whom were subsequently raised to positions of honour and distinction in the service of the Government of Hongkong, as were descendants of the younger of the two brothers – Mr. J.M. d’Almada e Castro. It is altogether fitting to record, in this book on the Portuguese in Hongkong, the long and honourable service of these two brothers with the British Government.
In the Hongkong Almanack and Directory for 1849 will be found the names of both the brothers Almada. The elder (Leonardo) appears as Clerk of Councils to both the Executive and Legislative Councils of the Government of Hongkong and concurrently Keeper of the Records in the Colonial Secretary’s Office. He first entered the service of the British Government in 1836, at Macao, in the office of the Superintendency of British Trade in China. The younger brother (José Maria) was Second Clerk in the British Trade Superintendency, having first joined the service at Macao. He, like his brother, was transferred from Macao to the Colonial Secretariat in Hongkong. Details of their careers in the Hongkong Colonial Service are given in Mr. Norton-Kyshe’s work on the history of the laws and courts of Hongkong. Recording the death, on the 15th January, 1875, of Mr. Leonardo d’Almada e Castro, at the age of sixty-one, Kyshe’s History states:84
“At a meeting of the Legislative Council on the 23rd February, in the absence of the Governor, The Chief Justice, Sir John Smale, referred to the death of Mr. d’Almada, its sad circumstances, and his long service, both under the Superintendency of Trade, which was formerly vested in the Governor of Hongkong, and as Clerk of Councils. Sir John Smale dwelt at length on Mr. d’Almada high qualifications, zeal, discretion, and conduct of business, and moved as follows:
“That this Council greatly regrets the death of Leonardo d’Almada e Castro, Esq., the oldest public servant in this Colony, who, having in 1836 entered the service of the Crown in the Office of the Superintendency of British Trade in China, was, since May, 1847, Clerk of the Councils and First Clerk in the office of the Colonial Secretary. The Council cordially records its high estimate of his public services in these important offices, the duties of which he has discharged, faithfully and with great ability, assiduity, and discretion; and expressing its appreciation of the private worth of the deceased, it offers its condolence to his widow and family”.
“The motion was put and carried unanimously. The Colonial Secretary referred to the deceased officer as a “very dictionary of public events, transactions, and correspondence received during an official career of thirty-four years,” and concluded with the following motion: “That, in consideration of the fidelity, zeal, and efficiency, with which the late Mr. Leonardo d’Almada e Castro performed the duties of his appointments under this Government during a period of more than thirty years, a pension at the rate of $150 per month be granted to his widow and daughter during their natural lives, $100 thereof being payable to Mrs. d’Almada and $50 to her daughter”. “The motion being put was carried unanimously”.
Regarding Mr. Leonardo d’Almada e Castro, there was an important decision by the Government of Great Britain the circumstances of which go to make an event that constitutes something of an unwritten page in the history of the Portuguese in Hongkong and which I feel honoured to record in this book. When, in 1882, seven years after the death of Mr. Leonardo d’Almada, Sir John Pope Hennessy was about to lay down the reins of Government in Hongkong, the Portuguese employees of the Government sent a deputation comprised of their oldest members, to call at Government House to present an address. In the course of his reply to the address, Sir John Pope Hennessy said:85
“In my office there is a despatch, written more than twenty years ago, from the Duke of Newcastle, instructing Sir John Bowring to appoint Mr. L. d’Almada e Castro to be the Colonial Secretary of Hongkong. I cannot find any record explaining why Governor Bowring did not carry out these instructions. But as far as I am concerned, I prefer the policy laid down by so wise and good a man, and one who knew his Sovereign’s wishes so well, as the Duke of Newcastle”.
Had Mr. d’Almada e Castro lived longer and served under Sir John Pope Hennessy, it is likely that he would have been honoured by being appointed Colonial Secretary of Hongkong – the highest position in the Government of the Colony after that of Governor. In private life the Almada brothers were noted for their generosity. In the early 1870’s Mr. Leonardo d’Almada assigned a piece of land on Caine Road to the Canossian Order of Nuns and so enabled them to establish their first footing on the Island of Hongkong in a building of their own. The original plot of ground donated to the Canossian Sisters by Mr. L. d’Almada e Castro was subsequently enlarged by a gift from the younger brother, Mr. J. M. d’Almada e Castro, of a more extensive tract of land for the large school and orphanage so well known at the present time as a home of Christian charity. The Almada brothers did well in Hongkong, it is true, but their gifts of land represented a useful payment in kind to the land of their adoption.
Mr. Leonardo d’Almada e Castro;_1 had two daughters, the younger of whom entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters of Charity, and took the veil in 1878, assuming the name of Sister Anita Sister Anita #32770
Birth: 10 April 1848, Cathedral, Hong Kong Death: 2 January 1938, Hong Kong Burial: Happy Valley Cemetery, Hong Kong
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; she died in Hongkong at the advanced age of ninety, in 1938. The elder daughter elder daughter #9087
Maria Teresa Gabriela Joana d’Almada e Castro Birth: 30 March 1847, Cathedral, Hong Kong Marriage: 1 May 1871, Cathedral, Hong Kong, João Henrique dos Remédios Death: after 1884, Stratham, England
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married a Mr. Remedios Mr. Remedios #9087
João Henrique dos Remédios Birth: 21 July 1844, S. Lourenço, Macau Marriage: 1 May 1871, Cathedral, Hong Kong, Maria Teresa Gabriela Joana d’Almada e Castro Death: 19 April 1884, Hong Kong
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, by whom she had two daughters and two sons. When her husband died, she took her children to England, where her sons died at a comparatively early age. The male numbers of this branch of the family thus died out, leaving no sons to carry on the family name.

Mr. José Maria d’Almada e Castro, as we have seen, joined the service of the British Government at Macao in 1836, and came to Hongkong in 1842. He rose step by step in the service of the Hongkong Government, and in 1877, Sir John Pope Hennessy showed his appreciation of his services by appointing him his Private Secretary. At the time of his death (23rd January, 1881), José Maria d’Almada held, as his brother had done before him, the post of Chief Clerk of the Colonial Secretariat and Clerk of Councils of the Hongkong Government. He married in Hongkong, and had a large family of boys and girls. The eldest son entered the Government service and remained a Government employee till his death, and dying early did not have the opportunity of rising as high as his uncle and father before him.

The second son, Joaquim Telles, named after his grandfather, 86 was employed in the Hongkong office of the International Banking Corporation, and held the position of Chief Clerk at the time of his retirement. The other sons, named respectively Francisco Xavier d’Almada e Castro and Leonardo d’Almada e Castro, Senior, were both solicitors in Hongkong and did well in their profession. The son of Mr. F. X. d’Almada e Castro, named after his father, has also embraced the profession of his father. The elder son of Mr. Leo. d’Almada e Castro, Sr. – the Hon. Mr. Leo. d’Almada e Castro, Jr. – is a barrister-at-law, and was appointed a member of the Legislative Council of the Hongkong Government in 1937, and the younger son – Mr. C. d'Almada e Castro C. d'Almada e Castro #32796

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  was appointed Assistant Crown Solicitor in Hongkong, in November, 1941. Of the daughters of Mr. J.M. d’Almada e Castro, the eldest, Maria Theresa Maria Theresa #10045

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, married Mr. Alexandrino dos Remedios Alexandrino dos Remedios #8514

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, and among their children are Mr. J.M. d'Almada e Remedios J.M. d'Almada e Remedios #10050

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, a Hongkong solicitor, Mr. F.E. d'Almada e Remedios F.E. d'Almada e Remedios #10052

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, a partner of the Union Trading Company, Ltd., a well known Hongkong firm, and Mr. F.X. d'Almada e Remedios F.X. d'Almada e Remedios #10049
10049
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, employed by the General Electric Company, of China. Another daughter, Camilla Maria Camilla Maria #24821

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, married Mr. Jose Gutierrez Jose Gutierrez #24820

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, of the Hongkong Colonial Secretariat staff. Ignez Maria Ignez Maria #32799

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married Mr. Fernando Carvalho Fernando Carvalho #32800
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, of the Hongkong office of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, and Anita Anita #32789

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married Mr. J. Mowbray Jones J. Mowbray Jones #32789

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, who was engaged in insurance business at Canton.
Another Portuguese gentleman occupied a responsible position in the Colonial Secretariat in Hongkong in the 1840’s. He was Alexandre Grande-Pré, who held the post of 4th Clerk and like the Almada brothers went from Macau to Hongkong with the British establishment. He was the son of Major A.J. Grande-Pré, A.D.C. to the Governor of Macao in 1825-1827. He also served the Hongkong Government as Interpreter of Malay, Bengalee, and Portuguese. He was later transferred to the Hongkong Police Establishment.
Something drastic had to be done, and it is to the credit of Mr. Grande-Pré that he obtained permission to secure the assistance of police officers from Macao, who helped the Hongkong authorities until Mr. Charles May, sent from London, where he was an Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, was able to reorganize the Hongkong Police Force and introduce some semblance of order and discipline. For a while, Mr. Grande-Pré’s assistance in the reorganization of the Police Force was recognized. He was promoted to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Police and even as Superintendent of Police – the only time this important post in Hongkong has been held by a foreigner. But time passed and, sad to relate, the memory of Mr. Grande-Pré’s valuable work soon faded. He appears to have become one of the earliest victims in Hongkong of that unfair racial discrimination so wrongly practised in after years in British Colonial administration, as may be deduced from brief glimpses into his career:
“On the 1st August, 1855, Mr. Alexandre Grande-Pré was appointed to the office of Assistant Superintendent of Police and General Interpreter in the room of Mr. Caldwell, resigned, being gazetted on the 9th. Mr. Grande-Pré was represented as an alien, and in other respects his appointment was unfavourably commented upon, and as a Police Commission had been sitting since the 1st August, this appointment was suggested as one for inquiry, having regard to the qualifications for the office of the senior officers passed over. His next appointment was that of Acting Superintendent of Police under Mr. May’s (Acting Chief Magistrate’s) occasional supervision.”88 “The Assistant Magistrate, Sheriff and Marshal of the Vice Admiralty Court, having obtained six months leave of absence on the 30th May, Mr. May was appointed, as before, to act in the various positions, Mr. Grande-Pré taking over the acting Superintendentship of Police. On the 1st January, 1858, it was notified, however, that, in consequence of the Assistant Superintendentship of Police having been abolished, the Governor has appointed Mr. A. Grande-Pré to be Collector of the Police and Lighting Rates – a position, it was said, which much better fitted him.”89
He died in 1865, aged forty-six years. His family seem to have retired to Macao, where his only son died some years later, the family name dying out with him.
Among the Portuguese listed in the Hongkong Almanack and Directory for 1849 is Mr. Eugenio L. Lança Eugenio L. Lança #41065
Marriage: Petronila Vicência ? Marriage: 2 February 1866, S. Lourenço, Macau, Filomena Albina da Costa
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, of the Judicial and Police Establishments, doing duty in the Supreme Court. He appears to have been a son of Lieut. Francisco Xavier Lança of Macao.
Another Portuguese so listed is Mr. João B. dos Remedios, who was appointed Clerk in Charge of the Canton office of the Hongkong Postal Service when that branch office was opened in 1846.
Reference to a clerk, Mr. J. B. Rodrigues, on the staff of the Superintendency of British Trade in China transferred from Macao to Hongkong in 1842 is made by Mr. E. J. Eitel in his book Europe in China90 no mention of this name can be found in the Directory for 1849.
A survivor of the East India Company days in Macao, in the person of Mr. J. Hyndman J. Hyndman #24767
João José Hyndman Baptism: 16 December 1814, Sé, Macau Marriage: Luzia Maria Grandpré Marriage: Simplícia Baptista Death: 19 June 1890, S. Lourenço, Macau
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, is named in the Directory of 1849. In Hongkong he was first employed in the office of His Majesty’s Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of Trade. He is listed in the Directory as acting Fourth Assistant in the Diplomatic Department. Mr. Hyndman’s father, Captain Henry Hyndman, was in the service of the English East India Company, at Singapore, but resigned his commission and settled down in Macao, where he married; his sons acquiring Portuguese citizenship thereby. His failure to retain the citizenship of his grandfather (General Henry Hyndman) probably militated against Mr. João Hyndman’s preferment to the higher posts in the Hongkong Government Service. Upon his retirement Mr. Hyndman withdrew to Macao where he held a number of honorary commissions of great importance. He married twice, his first wife first wife #24766
Luzia Maria Grandpré Birth: 16 April 1817, Sé, Macau Marriage: João José Hyndman
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, being the sister of his office colleague Mr. Grande-Pré, and he left a large family.

A brother of Mr. J. Hyndman, Mr. Henrique Hyndman, was at one time working in Duus & Company, and later as book-keeper with the firm of Messrs. M.C. Rozario M.C. Rozario #16160
Marcos Calisto do Rosário

Birth: 7 August 1828, S. Lourenço, Macau
Marriage: Virgínia Ana Rosa Machado5
Death: 11 February 1884, Macau
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Register or login? & Co., in Hongkong. He joined the China Sugar Refining Co. and was for some time in the Company’s office at Swatow. Later transferred to Shanghai, he was placed in charge of a printing business which Mr. Delfino Noronha, of Hongkong, had bought in the northern port, from which he returned to Hongkong to take up employment at Mr. Noronha’s Hongkong office. Some years later, Mr. Henrique Hyndman with his three daughters returned to Macao. In Macao he was engaged as a teacher in English at the Instituto Comercial of the Associação Promotora de Instrucção dos Macaenses, and later still at the Macao Government Lyceum.

Mr. Henrique Hyndman enjoyed the respect and esteem of his pupils. The love in which he was held by his former students is borne out in the following extract from an anonymous article in the Macao Tribune, on the 25th December, 1943:
“Across the street there lived a nonagenarian than whom Macao could boast of none more upright, wise and good. It is extraordinary how my whole outlook on life was so deeply influenced by this grand old man. His was a life that inspired others with devotion to duty, his was the voice that only uttered words of truth and wisdom, his was the heart that harboured no malice against anyone. Rather, to him used to come old and young when they needed advice. “To say that Henrique Hyndman was a philosopher, a sage, a teacher, and, above all, a just man, is but to render fitting homage to the memory of one whose name, although not inscribed on a rich marble monument with an ill-suited epitaph, was certainly engraved in the hearts of those who knew him.”

What a noble sentiment to inspire!

Like his brother João, Henrique had a large family. His eldest son, Henrique Henrique #25447

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, also had many children. This son Henrique took a prominent part in the great fire in Hongkong, in 1878, being commended by the authorities for his work at the head of the demolition squads through whose efforts the fire prevented from spreading further than it did. Mr. Henrique Hyndman, Jr., also had a large family. One of his sons, Alberto Alberto #25517

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, volunteered for service in the Great War, in 1914, and I shall have occasion to mention him later in this book. Of the daughters of Mr. Henrique Hyndman, Jr., one, F.X. Soares F.X. Soares #17294

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, of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, in Hongkong, and another, Branca Branca #22189

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, married Mr. P.J. Lobo P.J. Lobo #22188

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, the distinguished Macao official. Another son, Luiz Luiz #24285

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, is a skipper in the Portuguese mercantile marine. His other sons have found employment in Hongkong, Manila, and other places.
The Hyndmans, it might be of interest to add, are relatives of Sir William Hyndman-Jones, Chief Justice of Singapore in the early days of the present century. Mr. Venâncio Gutierrez Venâncio Gutierrez #20216

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is mentioned in the 1849 Directory as Secretary of the Hongkong Club (British). He later acquired some wealth through his shrewd investments in landed property in Hongkong. I shall refer to him later in this book. Mr. E. Pereira is bracketed, in the Directory, among the Committee of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hongkong (China Branch). A son of Councillor Manuel Pereira, owner of the Camoens Gardens at Macao, Mr. Eduardo Pereira Eduardo Pereira #31257

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was a brother-in-lawh records that Eduardo Pereira was not the brother-in-law of Lourenço Marques, but the nephew of his wife.”] of Commendador Lourenço Marques Lourenço Marques #27896

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, and will also come under wider notice in these pages., whose imprint the Hongkong Almanack and Directory of 1849 bears, has an entry all to himself in the Almanack, to the effect that the annual was “Printed and published by Mr. Delfino Noronha for the Editor and Proprietor (Mr. Tarrant)”. For Mr. Noronha can be claimed the distinction of being one of the first, if not the very first, Portuguese to establish a commercial enterprise of his own in the new colony. He dared to face the rigours of the climate and the social uncertainties of young Hongkong without the assurance of a fixed salary and thus has a special claim on our attention.
Delfino Noronha was the son of Manuel José dos Remédios Noronha Manuel José dos Remédios Noronha #5522

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  and his wife Ana Rita Noronha Ana Rita Noronha #5674

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. A native of Macao, he left the Portuguese colony in the early ’40’s of the last century, with a small printing plant which he set up in Hongkong. The printer settler was then not yet twenty years of age. From small beginnings, he gradually built up a business of quite considerable size, employing a large staff of skilled workmen, many of them Portuguese. Like the Almadas, Mr. Noronha had many dealings with the British Government, and early found his reward when he was appointed printer to the Government of Hongkong. It was Sir Richard Graves Macdonnell, the Governor of Hongkong in 1866 to 1872, who, in expressing his appreciation of the services of Noronha & Co. (the firm name adopted by Mr. Delfino Noronha), stated that “so long as the firm should continue to give satisfaction they would remain the printers of the Government in perpetuum”.
Mr. Noronha was himself an expert compositor. Until his business justified the larger staff which he came to employ in later years, and sometimes even after then, he would often set up the type himself for the more important of his publications, a practice which he dropped, however, in the last decade of his life. Nor is it generally known that in the first years his wife used to help with the inking and the working of the printing press, thereby proving herself to be a true woman pioneer who was willing to share the hardships and the work of the men who ventured forth into new fields of endeavour.

By dint of hard work and thrift, and in spite of the ravages of the climate and other handicaps of life in Hongkong’s early days, Mr. Delfino Noronha brought up a large family of children and grandchildren and built up a prosperous business. Though some of his sons went to Canton, Shanghai, Manila, and Singapore, there to launch out on their own in the printing business, the Noronhas, like the Almadas, have been continuous residents of Hongkong since the Colony’s earliest days. Mr. Delfino Noronha died in Hongkong on the 1st February, 1900, at the ripe age of seventy-six years.e

Mr. Delfino Noronha was my grandfather on my mother’s side, and of him I cherish fond memories, with his gentle ways and courteous manners. He was small and slight, and was always immaculately dressed, and he was my ideal of a perfect gentleman. He was popular not only in Hongkong but he also enjoyed a wide circle of Macao friends. At his table I met many interesting figures of the day. Among these was the Filipino patriot, Jose Rizal, while on his last visit to Hongkong, not long before his arrest and murder by the Spanish in Manila. From this gentleman I received a poem in Spanish which was reproduced in the pages of Odds and Ends, a short-lived magazine which I edited and printed in my grandfather’s printery. I still recall the horror and indignation which filled the Portuguese community in Hongkong when the news reached the British colony of the treacherous manner in which the beloved leader of the Filipino people had been done away with. A whole book could be filled with the thoughts and impressions I received from the people who visited my grandfather in his later years. Among them were Church dignitaries, Ambassadors and Governors, Consuls, Colonial Secretaries and other Government officials.

During his long association with the printing business Mr. Noronha published a large number of books on a variety of subjects and in different languages. In addition to the official organ of the Government of Hongkong, the Hongkong Government Gazette, which has appeared week after week with unfailing regularity under the imprint of Noronha & Company, from the earliest issues, some of the important publications issued from Mr. Noronha’s office were: A Digest and Index of all the Ordinances of Hongkong (to the close of 1849), by William Tarrant, in 1850; The Ordinances of Hongkong, 1868; The Ordinances of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Hongkong. Concise Edition, From 1844-1890, compiled by A. J. Leach, in 2 vols., 1891-1892; A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect, by E. J. Eitel; The Currency of the Far East from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, by J. H. Stewart Lockhart, 1895; A Chinese and English Dictionary, by W. Lobscheid, 1871; Manuel pratique de la langue chinoise, by C. Imbault-Huart, 1892; The Cities and Towns of China: A Geographical Dictionary, by G. M. H. Playfair, 1879; Mesny’s Chinese Miscellany – a magazine ; The Hongkong Town Messenger – an afternoon daily newspaper, which was short lived; for many years, Government Blue Books, Departmental Reports and Sessional Papers, some of them of the greatest value; the Civil List and Street Index, both official annual publications for the Government of Hongkong, devotional works in Portuguese and English, etc. Mr. Noronha was responsible for the singularly attractive programme done in satin for the Hongkong Jockey Club, presented by the Stewards of the Club to the young lady chosen to hand out the Ladies’ Purse at each annual race meeting of the Jockey Club.

There were a good few compositors and printers of Portuguese nationality in Hongkong during the Colony’s early years. As a matter of fact, “the early compositors were all Portuguese, and this was case certainly up to the Seventies. Chinese compositors were not employed until comparatively late in local printing history”.

This can be verified by referring to the Almanack and Directory of 1849. The staffs of compositors in newspaper offices at that time were all Portuguese:

  • The Hongkong Register (newspaper):
    • António Jozé Homem de Carvalho, Jr.
    • Jozé F. Homem de Carvalho
    • Cipriano do Rozario
    • Agostinho do Rozario
  • The China Mail (newspaper):
    • Jozé Maria da Silva
    • Francisco Cicílio Barradas
    • Manuel Luiz da Roza Pereira
    • Vicente Francisco Barradas
    • João Braz Garson
    • Athanásio Agostinho de Fonseca
    • Joaquim da Silva
  • The Friend of China Office (newspaper):
    • Luiz de Azevedo
    • António Vidigal e Roza
    • Roque Vidigal e Roza

A Mr. António Fonseca was then (in 1849) the only compositor employed in Mr. Noronha’s printing establishment.

The more enterprising compositors, such as the brothers Homem de Carvalho and Silva e Souza, about whom I shall have some remarks to make later in this book, tried their fortunes subsequently in Hongkong and at Shanghai with printing and stationery businesses of their own. By 1861 the number of compositors of Portuguese nationality in Hongkong had increased to thirty-three, not a small number for such a small community.

The explanation for the steady increase in the number of Portuguese compositors in Hongkong can be found in the fact that there had been a printing press at St. Joseph’s College in Macao at which Portuguese lads were given training as compositors and printers. Some of the young type-setters upon completing their apprenticeship migrated to the neighbouring British colony as the demand there for men skilled in this class of work increased with the growth of the settlement.

The priests of the well-known school had adopted the idea of giving instruction in the art of printing as a means of providing the youths of Macao with a desirable profession when the older calling of the mariners’ career no longer offered the rewards which could be had by them in older days. During the second and third decades of the XIXth Century increasing numbers of foreign ships had appeared in Far Eastern waters, competing for China’s trade, and sharing in the trade between Macao and a number of other places. The wealthy trading concerns of Britain, the United States, and other countries had greater resources than the Portuguese, and this had the effect of reducing the number of Portuguese vessels engaged in commerce in the East. This meant fewer opportunities at sea for Portuguese youths in Macao who were seeking employment. For some of such youths the printing press at St. Joseph’s College, at Macao, offered a training in a new craft which provided a remunerative living, as it proved, in Hongkong and elsewhere in China.

The young Portuguese compositors trained at that institution were the ones who staffed the printing works not only of the British and American missionaries and other foreign printing establishments at Macao, Hongkong, Canton and other places, but also the composing rooms of Hongkong’s newspaper offices for several decades. But for these Portuguese compositors, the newspapers in Hongkong could not have functioned, as the expense of engaging compositors form England or elsewhere would have been prohibitive.

Other Portuguese printers besides Mr. Noronha went on from Hongkong to places farther North, as new ports were opened to trade along the China coast, and they started their own printing businesses
at Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, and Shanghai. From the Portuguese as well as the missionary printeries the Chinese learned the trade of setting up the foreign style type and the art of printing by the “strange methods” of these foreigners.

When we think of the great daily newspapers and the thousands of well printed and illustrated books which pour out of the large printing establishments in the Far East at the present time, we do well to remember the debt that is owed to Macao. It was from that little Portuguese colony that the art of modern printing spread to Hongkong and to the rest of the Far East. The pioneer printers at Macao, whose names even are unknown or unremembered to-day, have not been given their proper due for the contribution they made to the advance of Western knowledge in the Orient. Their work is apt to be forgotten, though it well deserves an honoured place in the story of the spread of man’s civilising influences by means of the printed word.

I have often pondered on the foresight of those priests of old Macao, who, early in the XIXth century, gave a thought to the material needs of their flock and furnished so many of them with a knowledge of the printer’s art, thus enabling quite a number of Portuguese youths to earn a living in a new profession. What a fine thing it would have been if the educational authorities of Hongkong, civil as well as ecclesiastical, had been as thoughtful of those whose education had been entrusted to them! Had they but thought it their duty to look ahead and provide instruction adapted to the individual natural aptitudes of the youth of Hongkong, what a difference it might have made too many members of the Portuguese and other communities in Hongkong!

I trust that in the newer world which is coming, the needs of the young men and women of Hongkong will not continue to be disregarded, and that they will be given the necessary preparation and opportunity to enable them to fill a worthy place in the world.

[NOTE. – In the foregoing pages references have been made to some of the early members of the Portuguese community in Hongkong; others will be mentioned in the next few chapters. The particulars were prepared by my father, but he did not complete them. I have endeavoured to add to my father’s observations, but am conscious of omissions in family records. I should be thankful, therefore, if those in possession of pertinent information would supply me with particulars, so that they may be included in later chapters or in any reprint of this book which it may eventually be possible to make. – JACK M. BRAGA].

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