Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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It was the shelter, security, and convenience offered by the harbour that induced our Government to select it for a British settlement; it has one of the noblest roadsteads in the world. Before the cession to England in 1841, the native population on the island did not exceed 2,000; now there are 70,000 or 80,000.

Macao (pronounced Macow) is forty miles to the westward of Hong Kong, and an agreeable place as regards its scenery and surroundings, but deficient as regards its harbour accommodation. Dr. Milne, himself a missionary resident for fourteen years in China, says, writing in 1859: “To some of the present generation of English residents in China, there can be anything but associations of a comfortable kind connected with Macao, recollecting as they must the unfriendly policy which the Portuguese on the spot pursued some sixteen or seventeen years since, and the bitterly hostile bearing which the Chinese of the settlement were encouraged to assume towards the ‘red-haired English.’ ”