138 LAMPACAO, A MYSTERY OF THE FAR EAST 



In 1684 the ship Loyal Adventure was despatched from 

 London under alternative orders, for Mindanao, or for "the 

 Nankeen and Lampacao Islands." The word Islands was 

 apparently used very loosely. Sailing from Macao to "the 

 Nankeen Islands" she put in at Amoy, headed off by the 

 N.E. Monsoon. 



These three are the sole references to Lampacao in the 

 English Company's records. There is no trace of such a 

 port either in Dalrymple's charts (based on old charts of 

 dates from 1600 to 1800), or in Eoxburgh's charts (about 

 1810). 



Talking of the mystery with Captain T. J. Eldridge 

 recently, we lighted on Lampienchau on the western shore 

 of Bias Bay, and near it Outau. The latter place Captain 

 Eldridge remembered well, having often cruised in those 

 waters, and he reported it as a busy centre for smuggling 

 salt and opium in quite recent times; he also spoke of the 

 sea-faring people of those waters as being always prone to 

 smuggling and piracy. It was there that, in 1849 and 1850, 

 Commander Dalrymple Hay in three actions destroyed 94 

 pirate ships, mounting nearly 1,800 guns. 



Captain Eldridge remembered also a broad highway, 

 "the widest and best kept in all South China," leading from 

 Outau to Tamshuihu, thronged with porters carrying goods. 

 From Tamshuihu the map shows a river flowing to Waichow- 

 fu, whence the North Kiver provides an easy passage to 

 Whampoa, and so to Canton. Outau is, in fact, a smuggling 

 back door to Canton. 



What Outau was in the reign of Kwanghsu, its neighbour 

 Lampienchau, only 2 miles away, may well have been in the 

 reign of Kanghi and under the Mings; and this seems to> be 

 the Lampacao to which the Portuguese traded in the six- 

 teenth century. 



