To the Editor of the Norra-Carxa Dox News, Sim,—As a member, though humble, of the Portuguese community here, I have to thank you, in lieu of others more respectable who may not have done so, for your fairness in explaining to the com-settlement, foreigners and the sovereignty of Malaily the validity and equal footing of our Consul and country-mien in concurrence with the representatives and subjects of the Treaty Powe: with regard to the Government or mui pal affairs of this cosmopolitan settlement.
Yours respectfully, Us Lean Porrucvez.
Shanghai, 17th Jan,, 1883, To the Editor of the Nozrs-Ommva Dany Naws, Sim,—The Portuguese in general and the Portuguese community of Shanghai in particular cannot but be very grateful to you for theable, considerate, and impartial manner in which you have dealt wi relations between Portugal and tatus of Portuguese subjects in Shanghai, called for by the letter of "Enquirer"
your issue of the 13th instant. One important fact, however, in the history of the possession of Macao by the Portuguese does not appear in your article, a fact which I think that were the pend-'b- ing question submitted to arbitration, could not fail to carry weight with the judges and secure a verdict in favor of the Portuguese.
It is this, The mandarins, expulsion of the Hoppo (or rather Canton Customs, Branch) from Macao by Governor Ferreira do Amaral, ordered, or at least connived at, his assassination on the 22nd August, 1849. Three days after that the Portuguese by armed force Macao completely of mandarin ese do:
Ohinese beyond the peninsula ing their fort known as "Forte "Macao since then, I should any, became a Portuguese possession by this possession has not been confirmed by an international.com; to various circumstance them was the death at Macao of the Alexandrine de Cunhi worthy successor of the lamented Ferrei do Amaral. He had already begun negotia. tions with the Chinese authorities at Canton, and had a fleet of men-of-war and armed lorchas (for that time imposing enough) to back him in demanding reparation and probably the autonomy of Mucao. One report had it that he was poisoned by is cook at the command of the mandarins, and another that he died of a colic, after having partaken of an oyster soup at dinner; but the authentic cause of his death has never, to my knowledge, been satisfactorily established. Next to this was the blowing up of the Dona Maria, the flag-ship of the fleet, by a subaltern officer setting fire to the powder magazine in revenge for some supposed insult he had re d from the commander, thus reducing the fleet proper to two corvettes and to about half the whole force of fighting men, These unfortunate circumstances, as may well be supposed, paralyzed the Portuguese, and hence their inability to prore that Macao is a Portuguese colony by treaty as Hongkong is.
Enclosing my card, and thanking you for the kind and complimentary way you have referred to the Portuguese community of Shanghai, of which I am a member, I remain, Sir, Yours obediently,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.