on Macao "To moe Macao appeared og beautiful Jittle Portuguese city," writes Lord Northcliffe from there. "There is a certain melancholy: about it; but it is the melancholy not of solitude, but of ruins, of avenidas, of lovely gardens tended by hands long forgotten. It cannot be regarded in any other light then that of a pleasure-town. Allowing for small differences of local taste, its counterpart might be found anywhere between San Remo and Cannes, especially on the-Italian side of the frontier.
There are not many Portuguese in the sunny and shaded by-ways; and the ever-increasing Chinese, their ricshas and sedan-chairs, and the sharp crying of hawkers remind: one that one is not in Portugal, nor even in Portuguese cities like Azimoor, Mazagan or Saffi in French. Morocco. Yet in itself Macao is.
Portuguese. The pale pink and pale green houses, with balustrades and verandahs, take one for a few seconds back to the Tagus, just as in Manila one is waited suddenly to Seville, or in New Zealand fancies oneself sometimes. in the other England in the North Sea. Macao may be the last stand of the Portuguese in the Far East; but, if they are going down, they are going down proudly.
"Camoens, the great Portuguese poet, lived here, and wrote many of his poems on a little tower in a bamboo forest, whence through an opening he could see for miles up river, and, on the right, out to sea, This bamboo forest is a part of the gardens of Vasco da Gama, and is. a beautiful, shady place, full of poinsettias, temple flowers, gold mohur trees, and that deep, deep ved Honolulw creeper for which tropical gardeners sigh in vain, "Close to Campens's retreat lies. a forlorn old cemetery, where are the graves of many Englishmen. Among them we found the headstone of Lord Henry John Spencer-Churchill (fourth son of George, fifth Duke of Marlborough), who was captain of H. M. S. Druid and senior officer in the China Seas. He died in Macao Roads on June 2, 1840, and the stone was put up by his officers and petty officers testimony of their esteem and affection.'
"Another headstone preserves the memory of one Lieutenant Wintle,. of H.M.S. Royal George, who died' on the China Station in 1817. Imagine circling half the world and reaching Macao to find the graves of two English naval officers! And we of today fancy that we are setting the world an example in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.