404 Voyage of the Novara. 



lations he had laid down, Governor Amaral had long been 

 marked out for destruction by the Chinese population of Macao. 

 The chief complaint against him was that he had profaned 

 the graves of their ancestors in the suburbs of Macao, and 

 had constructed new streets right through them. Every at- 

 tack of illness, every unlucky speculation, every unexpected 

 mischance, which happened to any of the Chinese residents in 

 Macao, was ascribed to the vengeance of those spirits, whose 

 repose had been so wantonly violated for such an insignificant 

 purpose. The Chinese have no regular cemeteries for their 

 dead. They inter them anywhere about the township, sim- 

 ply marking the spot with a stone or an inscription. At the 

 new-year's festival these graves are adorned in the most 

 gaudy manner, none, not even of the poorest, being neglected 

 in this respect. This pious feeling for the dead is in singular 

 and rude contrast with the indifference with which the Chinese 

 regard the misfortunes of their neighbours, and the cruelty 

 with which mothers expose their new-born children, or even 

 leave them to die. 



The trade between Macao and the mainland is very 

 active : in the quarter of an hour that we were upon the isth- 

 mus there passed at least 60 men loaded with goods or provi- 

 sions, moving to and fro to the settlement. Among these there 

 were also sedan-chairmen, conveying back to the neighbour- 

 ing villages such of the better class of Chinese as had been 

 doing business in the city. The effect of warlike rumours 

 from Canton and the Pei-ho had meanwhile become apparent 



