CHAPTER TWO
In the wake of the early pioneers
The Macaenses are a people who were part of the Portuguese empire. As Portugal exerted administrative control over the infant settlement in Macau, the colonial society that emerged resembled other Portuguese colonies in many respects. In this chapter, we survey the colonialists who could be categorised into six main groups: the officials, the convicts/deportees, the settlers, the adventurer-traders, the women and the missionaries.
In the case of Macau, two of the groups, the Jesuit missionaries and the adventurer-traders, contributed significantly to the history of the Macaenses in China. The adventurer-traders were the first group to arrive in China. Being the forefathers of today’s Macaenses, their sexual habitude is the subject of discussion regarding the ethnic origins of the community. The Jesuits’ contribution to cultural understanding and their role in forging closer relations between China and Macau is also discussed in the course of this chapter.
The officials
The officials were the captains, soldiers and administrators that were despatched to the various settlements to look after the interest of the Portuguese Crown but often ended up enriching themselves. The viceroys, as the Crown’s representatives, were appointed for a short term, normally for three years, after which they were replaced by new appointees from Europe who were usually unfamiliar with the East. Appointees to senior positions were not based on merit, but on “degrees of nobility”.2_1 It was almost impossible for capable commoners to be promoted. Corruption and racketeering were rife at all levels of society. As Winnius put it bluntly:
In effect, everybody was making money out of India except for the King, including his highest officials and the clerical orders. As the regime wallowed in debt from its voyages to India, officers and viceroys in the East were either pouring their own cash … into investments that brought long dividends, or they were taking money from others in return for granting special privileges and allowing evasions of customs duties.” content=”Ibid., 87-93.”]
According to Winnius, these were major factors in the decline of the empire. In the 1980s, near the end of Portuguese administration in Macau, the practice of recruiting personnel from Portugal to fill senior civil service appointments constituted a serious point of dissension between the Macaenses and the Macau governor.2_3
Soldiers were considered as part of officialdom, and in Portuguese Asia there was always a shortage of fighting men. Those that were available were under-trained and of poor motivation consisting mainly of convicts and exiles from Europe. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the six month journey by sea from Europe exacted a heavy toll. Boxer cited the Fleet of 1571 that reached Goa with only half of the 4,000 men who survived the journey.2_4 And A.R. Disney suggested another two factors: the great number of deserters who became mercenaries to local chieftains, and soldiers who joined the ecclesiastical orders upon arrival in Goa in order to evade military service. It was estimated that in 1627 when the Dutch were pressuring Goa, there were about 5,000 such Portuguese mercenaries in the employ of Indian chieftains when they could enlist to fight the Dutch.2_5
In Asia, it was also not uncommon for some Portuguese soldiers to turn their back on Portuguese society. They ran away to become “renegades” by converting to Islam in order to advance themselves socially and economically. The distinction between the mercenaries and the renegades was that mercenaries could return to Portuguese society when they so chose while the renegade would not be so welcomed.2_6 In the scramble to forge new trade links, it was not uncommon for a Crown official to arrive at his destination to discover that there was already a Portuguese renegade established there.2_7
With the dwindling supply of willing European men for the military, black Africans were targeted as replacements. In Macau and Shanghai, during the twentieth century, it was not uncommon for the great majority of the Asia-based Portuguese army to comprise mainly of black Africans led by European or mestico (mixed blood) officers.2_8 There was an incident in Macau in May1922 when rioting occurred in the streets when a black soldier allegedly molested a Chinese woman.2_9 To alleviate the problem of loneliness for the black soldiers, the Macau government brought over some women to keep them company.2_10 Such black garrisons continued to be a common feature in Macau until 1974 when Portugal lost its African colonies.
Convicts and other deportees
Convicts and deportees consisted of three types: convicted for crimes against property or persons, political exiles, and prostitutes. Convicts were usually illiterate and mostly male. By contrast, the political exiles were generally better educated, though fewer in numbers.2_11 During the voyages of discovery, convicts performed an important role not only as crew but also as envoys, chief negotiators and hostages in dangerous circumstance. Sometimes, they were left behind to fend for themselves in new places under instructions to explore or to gain information. Vasco da Gama and others regularly resorted to such tactics during their voyages.2_12
The deportation of convicts to foreign shores was a feature of Portuguese colonial policy from the earliest days which did not ceased until the late twentieth century. In the founding of Australia, the British had prosecuted this policy with greater success. Portugal sent most of its convicts and exiles to Africa and later to Timor. Not all convicts were from Europe however; some were from Goa and other parts of Portuguese Asia. Arriving at their place of exile, convicts were usually allowed in the coastal towns but serious and repetitive offenders were banished inland. Angola in West Africa received the most convicts, an average of two hundred and forty convicts a year between 1883 and 1914.2_13
Many convicts were enlisted in the armed forces. The conditions for the convicts were severe, causing many desertions. They became bandits and outlaws or mercenaries. Some of these fugitives were extremely adventurous, penetrating far into the African continent to settle amongst the indigenous population. Where possible, they acted as principals or brokers in the gold and slave trade.2_14 Some applied for permission to leave the service to settle down as married men.
Prostitutes were sent out due to the severe shortage of Portuguese women in the colonies. Girl orphans were also sent out with dowries to help fill the shortage. The practice of sending prostitutes and orphans was abandoned by the nineteenth century owing to economic hardship, the growing surplus of women in the settlements and opposition from the religious leaders of those settlements who criticised the moral decadence that existed. In Macau, the bishop at one stage even effected the forced deportation of shiploads of women back to India and Malacca to alleviate the situation.
The settlers
Settlers (casados) formed the backbone of the colonies. By definition they included anyone who aspired to settle for the longer term through liaisons with indigenous women or those of mixed blood (mestiços). They were there to facilitate trade and were usually responsible for the administrative processes of the settlements. The early days of Brazil enticed a lot of free immigrants as opposed to involuntary settlers. But for Africa and Asia, the majority of the settlers were convicts and exiles whose sole objective was to get rich as quickly as possible.2_15
Their moral conduct was nearly as bad as the soldiers and caused Padre Lancilotto, a Jesuit missionary, to complain to his superiors in December 1550:
Whereas all those who came out here were soldiers, who went about conquering lands and enslaving people, these same soldiers began to baptise the said people whom they enslaved, without any respect and reverence for the sacrament, and without any catechising or indoctrination. …Some were baptised through fear, others through worldly gain, and others for filthy and disgusting reasons which I need not mention. …This continued even when India became full of Christian ecclesiastics, and it is still in vogue at the present day. …There are innumerable Portuguese who buy droves of girls and sleep with all of them, and subsequently sell them. There are innumerable married settlers who have four, eight, or ten female slaves and sleep with all of them, and this is known publicly. This is carried to such excess that there was one man in Malacca who had twenty-four women of various races, all of whom were his slaves, and all of whom he enjoyed.2_16
The settler group also included the offspring of miscegenation. As time elapsed, the mestiços became the majority among the settled population. They developed their own hybrid culture and became powerful business and political brokers in their own right. The Macaenses were an example of this group. Where ever the Portuguese empire extended to, such mixed race communities abound. In Western Africa they became invaluable with their expert knowledge of the region and the customs of the various tribes. Powerful Afro-Portuguese dynasties were established that gained the trust and confidence of local chiefs. Some even achieved political power by setting themselves up as local chieftains. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries other European traders generally acknowledged that the services of these Afro-Portuguese brokers were indispensable for trade with the Africans.2_17 Trade was developed not only with Europe but also within Africa itself through the different communities along the coast. At first they traded metal ware, textiles, wheat and horses for Africa’s gold, pepper, ivory and slaves. Before long the slave trade dominated. When it became more lucrative to trade with other European traders such as the Dutch, English and French, it was not unusual for the Afro-Portuguese traders to bypass the Portuguese Crown monopoly. By the end of the eighteenth century, European goods sold in western Africa were almost entirely of non-Portuguese origins reflecting the inroads made by other countries as well as the lack of competitiveness of Portugal’s industrial output. Until the late nineteenth century it was not uncommon for Dutch, English and French trading companies to employ descendants of these Afro-Portuguese families to work for them in West Africa.2_18 In this we see a reflection of the Macaenses own survival strategy when confronted with Portugal’s faded mercantile relevance.
From the Portuguese settlers’ experience in Africa some features could be observed that bore striking similarities to the Macaenses in Macau. They were willing to assimilate themselves and inter-marry with the indigenous population. The Portuguese introduced some new food crops to Africa, chief of which were maize and cassava. Despite given little credit for it, their involvement and domination of the slave trade revealed highly specialised skills, sophisticated organisation and the development of a network of contacts throughout central Africa.2_19 They demonstrated great cultural skills because “the interests of many different groups of tribal chiefs, caravan leaders, suppliers and middlemen had all to be reconciled and a system maintained, as far as possible, to the mutual benefit of all.”2_20
The solteiro merchants
The solteiro merchants were different to the settlers in that they were usually more mobile. In one respect, they were the itinerant traders that visited places remote from the official settlements. The term solteiro, literally “bachelor”, had been used by Subrahmanyam not to denote marital status but to refer to the fact that they were unattached to any place and frequently moved around looking for opportunities at the edges of the Crown trade monopoly.2_21 Since the Crown monopolised the trade between Portuguese Asia and Europe and rewarded certain favoured subjects with participation in that trade, those who were excluded from such official benefactions had to resort to other avenues of business. These Portuguese pioneers were typically private traders that were very much a feature of Portuguese Asia. Men like these pioneered, and in many cases sustained, the trade in Canton, Japan and the Bay of Bengal. Because they dominated regional trade in the Far East during the first half of the sixteenth century, J.M. Flores credited the discovery of Japan to these solteiro traders. According to him, many solteiro traders were rich and influential members of the Portuguese nobility and were often involved in piracy.2_22 They had been labelled variously as “entrepreneurs”, “adventurers” and were known as “canny compromisers and co-operators”.2_23
They were an integral part of the Portuguese empire. Everywhere these merchants went they expanded trade and spread the Portuguese language and culture. Unfortunately their roles were not well documented due to the lack of records and not having to make reports to any superior. It was stated that in the 1630s Macau had a lot of these merchants who travelled to places such as Japan, Manila, Makassar and Indochina.2_24
Many writers agreed that the pinnacle of their success occurred in China and Japan through dogged determination. Writers such as Coates heaped praise upon them:
[When officially sanctioned trade was forbidden to them, they] edged into the illegal trade and gradually created for their activities a status of legitimacy. …The long and determined effort to break down the opposition of the Chinese Government, the tenacious squatting at various places on the China coast, the discovery of Japan: this was the work of individual traders working on their own initiatives, with the knowledge of, but without specific orders from, the Viceroy at Goa or the Captain-General at Malacca.2_25
The subsequent permission to build the settlement in Macau was seen as the achievement of these men.
The women
European women were extremely rare in the Portuguese colonies unless they were wives of senior officials. In the early period of empire, due to the lack of space on board, the harsh climate, the arduous journey and the needs on the domestic front, the Portuguese Crown discouraged women from travelling to the colonies. The notable exception was girls of marriageable age from the orphanages but their numbers were not large. These orphans were sent out to Goa with individual dowries in the form of minor government posts or small grants of land to encourage their marriage with the men. The Portuguese authorities also sent female convicts to Angola. While their numbers were limited, there was a constant trickle of this group consisting of married women, spinsters, slaves, and gypsies.2_26 Some women did migrate to the colonies but they went mostly to Brazil, then Asia (mostly to Goa) and Africa in descending order of numbers.2_27
The shortage of European women induced the official policy to encourage Portuguese men to marry local women. This policy set the Portuguese colonial presence apart from other European colonies. Governor Afonso de Albuquerque (c1509), as chief instigator, encouraged mixed marriages aimed at populating the territories with a loyal band of settlers who could be trusted to look after Portuguese interests. In encouraging miscegenation, Albuquerque might be just sanctioning an established practice. Boxer pointed out that it was not always easy to induce Portuguese in the territories to marry as many “preferred to live with a harem of slave girls … often of the most varied origins, including Indians, Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Malays, Siamese and Africans.”2_28
Jack Braga added that Asian women preferred European husbands. In a speech delivered at the Portuguese embassy in Canberra Australia in 1969, he said:
Anyone who had pondered on the feelings of Asian women will readily appreciate how it was that they clung so steadfastly to their husbands from Europe. And the tolerance generally of the mixed races founded by the Portuguese helped to build up a degree of loyalty to Portugal which newcomers, in later generations, have found it difficult to understand.2_29
When the Portuguese arrived on the China coast, opportunities for continuing the practice of concubinage and miscegenation were great as they became exposed to the Chinese system of indentured girl-servants, the mui zai, literally meaning “little sister”. According to a Hong Kong authority:
[The mui zai] were daughters who had been sold by families in financial difficulties who urgently needed to raise funds. The parents of the child took the initiative to find a ‘purchaser’, the money being regarded as a gift … rather than as the price paid for a sale. The parents also wrote on a piece of red paper an undertaking that henceforth they renounced their parentage of the child. [It] was developed in a country where the economic conditions were so bad, especially during times of famine, that female babies were sometimes discarded at birth. … The family which paid the money used the child as a domestic servant, but could not resell her. They fed, clothed, trained and educated the girl as circumstances permitted, until she became of marriageable age.2_30
Despite the high ideals engendered in the traditional concept, it was likely that many of them were mistreated or abused. Sometimes they were adopted by childless couples, by widowers or by widows, and brought up as daughters and members of the household. To the early Macaense settlers who were accustomed to keeping a large household of slaves for domestic purposes, the mui zai were probably little more than slaves although some Macaenses were rather generous and made bequests in their wills for them, usually with the proviso that they converted to the Christian religion.2_31
In Macau, it did not take long before Chinese women became a familiar part of every Portuguese household. Between 1583 and 1585, a Spanish priest from the Philippines who visited Macau on several occasions remarked that the Portuguese of Macau would marry Chinese women “more willingly” than any other women because of their many virtues which he listed as “naturally reserved, honest, humble, and very submissive to their husbands, hard workers and house-proud.”2_32 In 1584 a visitor was impressed by the fact that all the Portuguese he met in Macau appeared to have Chinese wives. And in a letter to King Philip II in 1588, the Jesuit priest A. Sanchez encouraged mixed marriages with Chinese women for military strategic reasons and for their many virtues “being exceedingly chaste, serious, modest and very loyal, humble and obedient to their husbands.”2_33
Historians like Anthony Reid saw the institution of miscegenation as an economic positive for the Portuguese men in Southeast Asia. This was due to the traditional roles which these women performed being active participants in commerce, as retailers, moneychangers and general business brokers.2_34 According to Reid, in most coastal centres of Southeast Asia it was quite acceptable for local women to be married to wealthy foreigners even though these marriages might be temporary. Therefore it became “accepted practice that visiting traders took a temporary local wife, who was at the same time a commercial business partner able to provide local market information, sell foreign goods in the market, and buy and sell trade goods on behalf of her partner during the monsoon period when he was away.”2_35
That the Portuguese took local wives and these wives might be able to provide valuable market information and contacts were beyond doubt. However it is arguable whether there would have been the level of trust sufficient to leave a big quantity of goods to the care of these “temporary wives” while one was away on another trading trip. It was more likely that the goods would be bartered for other goods or hard currency before the Portuguese trader would leave the place. If inclined to do so, the traders might leave sufficient funds or small quantity of merchandise for the comfort and maintenance of the wife or wives until the next anticipated visit.
Another reason why the trade goods left to the “temporary wives” would not have amounted to much was because the goods represented “working capital”. Normally the goods would be required for doing business at the next trading port of call or repatriated to the trader’s home base for safe keeping, rather than risking theft, embezzlement or the whims of the local ruler who might not even allow you back in.
Miscegenation was considered a badge of honour amongst the Macaense community.2_36. Some Portuguese politicians alleged that miscegenation precludes racial discrimination. C.R. Boxer disagreed and went on to publish his book “Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire” which demonstrated that discrimination not only existed but was institutionalised. The book provoked an angry reaction from Prof. Armando Cortesao, a one-time friend and beneficiary of Boxer’s generosity. The Braga Manuscripts contains evidence of Boxer’s remittance to Cortesao including Braga’s comment that: “The Portuguese were hurt that a man [C.R. Boxer] so greatly honoured by them should have chosen as his subject such an inappropriate occasion to publish his book. The Americans were at that time stirring up a hornet’s net in the matter of colonialism, and Boxer should have waited for another opportunity. But this does not justify Cortesao’s mode of attack on his old friend.” BMC-NLA, MS 4300, Box 15, Envelope 38.ider miscegenation to be a matter of national duty.2_37 In the course of this investigation, an interviewee recalled a quote that: “God created the black, yellow and white races, the Portuguese created the colours in between.”
The story of women in the Portuguese colonies was essentially the tale of the mixed race women. Macaense women like their counterparts elsewhere upheld the unique traditions in food, culture and language. Attesting to the crucial role played by the women, in places such as Goa and Malacca, there existed remnants of Portuguese heritage long after the political and commercial links with Portugal had been severed.
Priests and missionaries
As mentioned above, the sexual mores of the soldiers and settlers caused much anguish to the clergy who were an important component of Portuguese colonial society. Religion played a very important role in the voyages of discovery to the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Diaz (1478) and Vasco da Gama (1497). Indeed it had been widely accepted that the voyages along the coast of West Africa were commissioned to gauge the extent of Islam and to search for the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John.2_38 J.M. Braga observed that “every expedition, if not every ship, had its chaplain or priests, who looked after the spiritual needs of the men. At their destinations the good fathers worked for the conversion of the peoples among whom they found themselves.”2_39
It was not easy to recruit missionaries to serve in the Portuguese colonies particularly in Africa, due to the hostile climate and the tropical diseases. Not only was there a general lack of interest in learning the indigenous languages (with the notable exception of the Jesuits) but the standards of the clergy, particularly in Africa during the eighteenth century, were generally low. Often they also had to resort to trade in order to maintain themselves due to the shortage of funds.2_40
The Jesuit mission in Japan was a case in point. Since the beginning of its mission, the Jesuit mission had invested heavily on cargo from China via Macau to be sold in Japan. This started when Luis de Almeida (1525-1583), a successful Portuguese merchant in Malacca, became a Jesuit and used his money to invest in the lucrative commerce with Japan. He used the profits to support the mission’s work there. In Japan, trade and missionary work were closely intertwined from the very beginning. Mostly their investment was passive, as a silent partner, but sometimes as Jesuit records showed, members of the Society would come from Japan to “trade like the rest of the Portuguese merchants” not only in Macau but also in Canton.2_41 In response to growing criticism from within and outside the religious order, Father A. Valignano, the regional supervisor, reviewed the Jesuits’ involvement in trade in the late sixteenth century. The result was that participation in trade continued at a reduced scale.
On several occasions, the Portuguese Crown forbade trade by the Jesuits but the ban was never fully enforced due to a lack of will and the alternate resources to sustain the needs of the missions. In the mid-seventeenth century an Englishman Peter Mundy recorded that the Jesuit involvement in trade was necessary due to the high expense of setting up the missions and their upkeep. Funds were also needed to provide presents to the various local authorities. Elsewhere in Indochina, the Jesuits replicated their trading activities, developing new markets in conjunction with small traders. In Goa, the Jesuits who were administering the hospital there even won the license for a trading voyage to China in 1596.2_42
Aside from this and other controversies, the Jesuits’ scholarship and their pioneering work were legendary and their contributions immense, as Boxer had observed:
Whatever the failings of the Jesuits, the fact remains that they were the best educators, teachers, and missionaries in the Portuguese colonial world. Their sudden and drastic removal left gaps that were not filled for centuries, if indeed they have all been filled at the present day. More especially Portuguese influence in Asia received a blow from which it never recovered.2_43
In Macau, the Macaense traders were known to be resentful of the powerful influence that the Jesuits in Japan had over their trade and that they were obliged to provide space for the Jesuits’ own cargoes.2_44 On the other hand, no one doubted the benefits to Macau of the influence of the Beijing Jesuits at the court of successive Ming and Qing emperors. In the mid seventeenth century, during the period of dynastic change, without the Beijing Jesuits’ intervention it was arguable whether Macau would have survived. Outsiders saw the Jesuits and Macau as one. When the Jesuits were expelled from Japan due to their interference in its internal politics, the Macaense traders were also expelled at the same time.
The Jesuits’ contribution to cultural understanding
The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was founded in Italy in 1540 and according to the protocol that existed at the time, they had to operate under the royal patronage (padroado real) of the Portuguese Crown in the areas of Africa, Brazil and Asia that were controlled by the Crown. This patronage represented rights and responsibilities bestowed by the Vatican. In effect the Portuguese Crown bore the costs of the missionary endeavours in return for the right to present candidates for appointment as bishops, to collect tithes and to administer religious taxes within their domain.2_47
Francis Xavier arrived in Japan on 15 August 1549 and started the Jesuits mission. The next thirty years were fruitful as far as the number of converts was concerned but they were cultural insensitivity at the leadership level.2_48 Confronted with the vast gap between European culture and that of China and Japan, the Jesuit missionaries pioneered a new approach in missiology. Known as the accommodative method, it was essentially an attempt at synthesising Christian beliefs with local cultural traditions.
Alessandro Valignano, the regional supervisor who first visited Japan in 1579 was responsible for orchestrating this new approach. In this he had input from Father João Rodriguez, commonly known as “Rodriguez the interpreter”, renown as one of the most significant exponent of Japanese culture to the western world in the sixteenth century, and well connected to sections of the Japanese ruling elite.
The accommodative approach stipulated that at all times the Mission must conduct business in Japan with due respect for Japanese custom and with proper Japanese ceremony so as not to cause an affront to their hosts and other important guests. In particular Valignano specified basic rules for his padres to adhere to. They were to maintain themselves and their residences in a clean and immaculate manner according to perceived Japanese standards. No pigs, goats or cows were to be kept and no slaughtering of animals allowed in the compound as such practices was “filthy and abominable in the eyes of the Japanese.” They were to live in Japanese-style houses with well ordered gardens, eat Japanese food at Japanese low tables even when they were by themselves. They were to maintain politeness in their behaviour and a dignified and authoritative bearing. Regarding important visitors, they were required to observe and pay respect to their rank and status. There was to be an accelerated emphasis on education. It was recognised that the Society needed to admit Japanese to tackle the shortage of manpower. Valignano believed that only through its Japanese recruits could the Society hope to firmly establish its work and secure its future.2_49
In Macau, Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606) decided that the Jesuits must learn the Chinese language and customs. For this purpose he sent for Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) from Goa to learn the language, beginning with trips accompanying traders to Canton. Having made a good impression, Ruggieri was the first missionary to be officially invited to Canton. At the request of the provincial governor, he took up residence in a Buddhist temple, shaved his head and wore the clothes of a Buddhist monk. On his second trip Ruggieri took Matteo Ricci (1552 -1610) with him. Ricci was from a wealthy family and became a Jesuit when he was eighteen years old. At the age of thirty he went into China with Ruggieri and lived there for the rest of his life. Encouraged by Valignano, Ricci pioneered a new approach by seeking to reconcile Chinese culture with Christianity. This accommodative approach dealt not only with minor points of proper terminology such as what word to use in translating the concept of “God” but also whether the Chinese ancestral rites were religious in nature or merely social and civil and therefore permissible for Chinese Christians to participate. Ricci contended that its nature was of the latter. After his death, this approach was debated on and off for the next one and a half centuries in what became known as the Rites Controversy of 1610-1742.2_50
Mateo Ricci had a profound effect on the cultural interaction between China and Europe through his intellect, his language and people skills. He was a great interpreter of Chinese culture and Confucianism to Europe. Even centuries after his death, he had been acclaimed by Europeans and Chinese alike as the “Pioneer of East-West cultural exchange”.2_51
Others ably followed the inroads into the Chinese court pioneered by Ricci during the Ming dynasty. When the Qings came to power in 1644, Father Adam Schall von Bell (1591-1666) continued Jesuit influence at the Imperial Court. On one occasion he was the only person who could calm the first Qing emperor Shunzhi (r1644-1661) when he suffered one of his “uncontrollable rages”.2_52 He was appointed, together with Father Verbiest, a director of the Beijing observatory amongst his many other accomplishments. Following his death, Father Verbiest assumed the leadership of the Beijing Jesuits.
Although operating under Portuguese Royal patronage, the Jesuits were rather cosmopolitan in their membership. Their work in China had been dominated by intellectual giants like Ricci (an Italian), Schall (German) and Verbiest (Belgian), but according to Boxer, Jesuits of Portuguese origins like Thomas Pereira, Joseph Suares and João Mourão were no less important or less influential. Boxer was convinced that the relative anonymity of Portuguese Jesuits “is largely due to the ignorance or indifference of their own countrymen.”2_53
The Portuguese Jesuit, Thomas Pereira was an outstanding role model for his compatriots. In 1672, at the age of twenty-seven, Pereira was summoned by the young Qing Emperor Kangxi as a music teacher and mathematician on the recommendation of Fr Ferdinand Verbiest the leader of the Beijing Jesuits. Pereira came to be held in such high regard by the Emperor that he was consulted on all matters relating to Europeans and was included as a member of the Chinese diplomatic mission to Nerchinsk for the negotiations of a peace treaty between China and Russia over border issues. The credit for the Kangxi edict of 22 March 1692 permitting the open propagation of the Christian faith over all areas of the Chinese Empire was claimed as the work of Pereira, achieving one of the Jesuits most cherished dreams.2_54 Such was the favour he found with Kangxi that upon Pereira’s death, the Emperor provided a great sum of silver to cover his funeral expenses to ensure that he was buried with great honour in Beijing. In one of Braga’s letters to Boxer, he wrote:
At his [Fr. Pereira] death Emperor Kang Shi caused a marble tomb to be erected over the priest’s grave. Only three graves have marble tombs – Father Ricci, Father Verbiest, and Father Pereira. This in itself speaks for the importance in which Father Pereira was held by the Emperor, while other marks of pleasure are to be found mentioned in the Portuguese archives.<sup>2_55</sup>
Beyond cultural understanding and representing China to Europe, the Jesuits were also remarkable for their contribution in introducing so many European ideas and innovations to China. This was made possible only through the patronage of the Portuguese Crown and the tangible assistance provided by some Macaenses in Macau.
Ethnic origins of the Macaenses
As mentioned earlier, one could find many hybrid communities like the Macaenses of Macau in the Portuguese colonial experience but it was the Malaccan Portuguese community whose influence impacted the Macaenses most – in food, dances, songs and language.2_57 At one stage, the Macaense women of Macau adopted their dress code for their women. What distinguished the Macaenses from the other hybrid communities of the former Portuguese colonies are the Sinitic influences, the length of their colonial history, the organised structures present in the communities of the Macaense diaspora and the multi-ethnic origins that made up the Macaenses that we know today.
The ethnicity debate
The debate on the ethnic origins of the early Macaenses seemed like an exercise in futility. There appeared to be consensus over the existence of Chinese traits in the Macaense gene pool, but disagreement over when those traits became significant.
On one hand, some like Carlos Estorninho believed that before the opening of the treaty ports in 1842, the Portuguese did not inter-marry with the Chinese due to Chinese racialism and that it was only in the early twentieth century when cohabitation became common.2_58 Supporters pointed to the lack of Chinese influence on the Macaense language compared to Malay and Indian influences, the apparent lack of Chinese customs and mannerisms amongst the community, the lack of Chinese influence in the day to day apparel fashions of the early Macaenses (compared to Malay influences) and the alleged disdain that the Macaenses had for the Chinese.2_59 Graciete Batalha used old photographs of Macaense children to illustrate her belief that Chinese ethnic traits in the Macaense genetic pool were only a recent event. She claimed that the children’s features appeared to be more Malay than Chinese.2_60
Ana Maria Amaro acknowledged that due to the lack of statistical data it would be impossible to determine the issue to the satisfaction of all. She believed that prior to 1557, the Portuguese adventurers did not bring their wives because they did not know how they would be received or how successful they would be. With the establishment of Macau in 1557, they were likely to be accompanied by women of different ethnic groups but Amaro contended that in the first decade of the settlement, the wives of the Portuguese in Macau could not have been Chinese because the Chinese considered foreigners as barbarians. In those days, relations between Chinese and Portuguese were likely to be confined to trade other than in exceptional circumstances. She concluded therefore that “the historical sources point towards Malay and Indian women as the earliest companions of the first Portuguese settlers in Macao; in the function as slaves.”2_61
J. de Pina Cabral was also of the view that the first settlers were ostracised by the Chinese and any contact with Chinese women were usually from the lower social classes, predominantly the fisher folks who lived in boats or the Chinese slaves.2_62
The eminent Macau historian Monsignor Manuel Teixeira took the contrary position that cohabitation between Portuguese settlers and Chinese women was a very common feature of early European settlement in Macau, citing contemporary sources as well as C.R. Boxer. Boxer wrote:
The first colonisers of Macao, most probably married with Malay, Indonesian and Japanese women: but with the increase of the Chinese population of Macao (as occurred in 1564), there must have been an increase in the number of mixed marriages, and, above all, of concubinages with Chinese women and girls, who became converted to Christianity.2_63
Teixeira strongly disagreed with Batalha’s observations. On the basis of his fifteen years’ residence amongst the Malays, Teixeira considered that what Batalha termed Malay characteristics were not Malay at all but Portuguese.2_64 He further pointed out that language was not a valid example because although the Dutch had conquered Malacca for a period twice as long as the Portuguese, yet Portuguese words impacted on the Malay and the creole language of Malacca much more that the Dutch.2_65
Regarding the first settlers, Teixeira cited historical records in 1563 that showed the first settlers, who numbered about five hundred Portuguese, inter-bred with Indian and Malay slave women. However, in an attempt to control the moral laxity of the enclave, the Jesuits in 1564 caused the deportation of over four hundred and fifty slave women to Goa and about two hundred to Malacca. Following the deportation of these women, Chinese and Japanese women took their places.2_66 Boxer contended that the “considerable mixture of Chinese blood … derives largely from the co-habitation of Portuguese and Eurasian male householders with their [mui zai].”2_67
Shortcomings of the debate
The debate about ethnic origins suffers from various shortcomings. First, it tended to be confined to the first decade of the official settlement in Macau around 1557. It also ignored the very significant period of informal settlement along the coast from 1520s to 1550s, the period of illicit trade during which they lived amongst the Chinese coastal communities. These Portuguese squatters were among the first settlers in Macau. Given the official “populate or perish” policy and the lifestyle of the Portuguese pioneers, it appears highly likely that Chinese traits would have made their way into the Macaense genetic pool in more than a sporadic fashion. During this pre-Macau period, Chinese sources revealed that circa 1520 the Portuguese traders were accused of kidnapping and buying Chinese women and children as slaves. This aspect was among the various negative images that the Ming imperial court had of them. As K.C. Fok observed, it was one of the many reasons why they were expelled in 1519.2_68 Furthermore, there was clear evidence that the Portuguese traders were closely aligned with smugglers and pirates on the Fujian coast. On 19 March 1549 the Ming forces attacked the smugglers capturing and killing 239 persons. Of these 16 were identified as white foreigners, 46 black foreigners, 29 foreign women and the rest Chinese pirates.2_69
Second, the debate focused on lawfully wedded wives but skirt around the issue of concubinage or cohabitation. From other parts of the Portuguese empire, there were reports of Portuguese settlers keeping many slave women for sex, suggesting that concubinage was more the norm than the exception. If these early Portuguese would cohabit with female slaves of other races, it was highly likely that they would do the same with the Chinese women they had procured. At the outer fringes of the Portuguese empire the loose moral conduct of these men raised the ire of many a Jesuit priest. One such priest, Padre Lancilotto, wrote a complaint in 1550. Boxer remarked that “there may be some exaggeration in Padre Lancilotto’s scandalised description of the excesses of the Lusitanian libido in sixteenth century Asia, but there was not much.”2_70
Third, many observers commented on the Chinese sense of cultural superiority as an impediment to cohabitation. While there may be an element of truth in it, for the ordinary Chinese around Macau most of whom were fisherfolks and farmers, marriage or concubinage to Portuguese men would have some appeal seeing that the early Portuguese settlers appeared rich and powerful with their weapons, garrisons and their retinue of slaves.
Fourth, the reason why Macaense women did not dress like the Chinese was capable of another explanation. The point that needed to be raised was: to dress at what social stratum? W.J. Peterson observed that in the mindset of Europeans of the sixteenth century, the question of what to wear was indeed a very important one.2_71 Clothing or lack of it reflected degrees of cultural sophistication. To dress like the ordinary Chinese women that the Macaenses encountered at the local market in Macau would be demeaning to the Macaense women. Moreover, there were restrictions placed on the movement of ordinary Chinese in the early days of Macau and to dress like an ordinary Chinese when they went outside would invite ridicule and harassment.
Lastly, regarding Batalha’s use of photographs. During my research into Macaenses of the diaspora, I asked to look at photos at different stages of their life to test Batalha’s methodology. I discovered it to be unreliable at best. Interpretations of facial features are not only highly subjective and depended on one’s experience as Teixeira had observed. Moreover features changed over one’s life time. If photographs over an individual’s lifespan were taken into account, a different conclusion might be drawn. Setting aside the sterile argument of what are considered Portuguese, Malay, Indian or Chinese features, it appeared that they do become less or more pronounced at different stages of life.
The complexity of the Macaenses’ ethnic origins resulted from miscegenation between the Portuguese and many other races. Taking into consideration the three decades of informal settlements along the China coast before their consolidation at Macau, this fact alone suggest that Portuguese men had ample opportunity to cohabit with Chinese women from the very beginning.
Conclusion
Similarities and differences existed between the different colonial societies. In the main, the differences arose out of Macau’s location at the extremity of imperial influence and Portugal’s inability to exert control over the Chinese State. In addition, Macau’s primary function as an entreport for Chinese products eliminated much of the need for plantation slaves, convicts and other deportees to boost the population.
Although separated by great distances, the different colonial societies were united by their allegiance to the Portuguese empire, sometimes coming to each other’s aid financially and militarily. Another distinguishing characteristic was their tenacity and dogged determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Many writers had alluded to it but G. Winnius put it well when he wrote:
The Portuguese could absorb all the bad leadership, political and military, from which they suffered in Asia, they could defy all the scarcities and distances, and still they could fight ferociously. …They had their share of blunderers and thieves among them, but they were a steadfast people who exemplified that greatest of all human characteristics, … of never knowing when to quit.2_72
The Portuguese pioneers on the China coast shared with their compatriots elsewhere the same desire to get rich as quickly as possible and a willingness to move to areas offering better gains. This economic imperative shaped the communities in a profound manner and was one of the factors that influenced many to leave for the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and elsewhere in the second half of the twentieth century. It was for economic reasons that some Macaenses, having migrated and settled their families overseas, returned to Hong Kong and Macau in the 1980s to start businesses or resumed careers hoping to participate in the economic boom that engulfed the East Asian region.
Macaenses took their religious affiliation seriously and shared the enthusiasm to evangelise by providing financial support. Families encouraged their children to enter the priesthood or join the sisterhood of nuns to serve in different parts of China, as seen in the various personal accounts. Indeed, J.P.Braga had described the closeness of ties between the Macaenses and the church in his book.2_73
The keenness to cohabit with indigenous women and women of mixed race was a distinguishing feature of the community that set it apart from other settlers on the China coast. Today’s Macaenses take pride in their multi-ethnicity and often speak of themselves as the embodiment of cultural interchange where West had met East. They shared a high degree of cultural awareness that equipped them to perform the role of a bridge people. Today’s Macaenses credit this to the tremendous impact that their amahs and other women in the households had on them as well as the opportunity of mixing and growing up with people of other ethnic backgrounds.