Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/383

Rh Ferreira Amaral refused any longer to continue the payment, and drove the Chinese authorities out of the place; and in 1887 it was finally and fully ceded to Portugal. After the foundation of Hong-Kong in 1841 trade decreased.

At present it seems half moribund; there is no life in the streets, and it has a distinct air of having seen better days. The Boa Vista Hotel is quite a good building and has prettily laid out terraces descending to the sea. Captain Clarke, of the boat I came over in, owns and runs it, and he and his wife seem to manage well—though in truth it seemed really to be managed by Chinese "boys." My bedroom window had a pleasant outlook over the town and harbour.

I referred to two English ladies who came over in the same boat. They were the guests in Macao of an English naval officer, who had with him a junior officer, and they greeted the ladies on arrival. Jinrickshas from the hotel were in waiting, and I, entering one, was hauled to the hotel with these other people. Chinese waiters received us, we all registered our names at the same time, and we and our baggage were carted upstairs together. Arrived on the landing, the Chinese boy turned to me and said—

"Which lady belong you, sir?"

"Neither!" I gasped.

"What! That man he got two ladies!"

I fled into my room, the ladies into theirs, and I heard stifled peals of laughter from the ladies' room, and had a suspicion that the old one was putting a pillow on the head of the younger!

But to return to Macao itself. The only vehicles in the streets were rickshaws and chairs. There were some quaint old houses, forts crowning every eminence, and bits of picturesque walls here and there.