The exhibition “Pirates in the Seas of Macau” was opened last Wednesday, and will be in the Archives of Macau gallery until January 31, 2021. There, through more than 100 documents and photographs, the history of Macau is told through the stories of the pirates who sailed the waters of the Pearl River Delta between 1854 and 1935.
“In the early hours of the night of the 31st of the month just ended, a band of some 12 to 15 pirates assaulted the Man-Li pawnshop on the marginal avenue (Almirante Sérgio), but, being discovered by the criminal investigation police, were attacked by it and by the Moorish Guard No. 6 ”.
This news is dated November 6,1924 and was published by the Portuguese language newspaper, O Combate. These pirates were defecting Chinese soldiers who, in the presence of the Macau police, offered "serious resistance", triggering a shootout. The group of miscreants later managed to escape to Ilha da Lapa, currently Wanzai. According to the news, in the exchange of fire, four pirates died and six others were injured. The news of O Combate ends: “They will not take advantage of the good lesson that was given to them, certainly, and in such a case, it’s better that our police always have the master pistols ready”.
This is one of the more than 100 documents that, as of this week, are available to be seen at the exhibition “Pirates in the Seas of Macau (1854-1935)”. The exhibition organized by the Cultural Institute (IC) at the Archives of Macau is on display until the January 31, 2021. A wide selection of documents, maps and photographs from the official archives are being presented, addressing the theme of piracy in the Pearl River Delta region in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century.
“DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS THAT THE PIRACY PHENOMENON ASSUMES”
The IC explains that this exhibition aims to disseminate the “diversity and thematic scope of that documentation, taking into account the different dimensions that the phenomenon of piracy assumes, as a social practice integrated in a wider geopolitical, economic, social and cultural system”.
Throughout the archives, 62 files and a total of 2,000 pages were found on the topic of piracy in the Pearl River Delta. At the entrance, on the left, is the first file, which dates from January 25, 1854, a letter from the Central Bureau of Civil Administration Services that reports on the capture of pirates who "adventured in the South China’s seas".
Nearby, visitors can find the last file, also a letter from the Central Bureau of Civil Administration Services, this time a request made by the Captaincy of the Ports for the intervention of the Canton Government to put an end to “certain acts of piracy practiced in Chinese waters that harm Macau's trade”.
On the right is the testimony of the owner of a fishing junk, called Chau-Chiang, given in the Captaincy of the Port of Macau, referring to an assault he had been a victim to, committed by pirates, on December 16, 1908.
Macau and its islands, Taipa and Coloane, served as a haven for pirates. The geographical location of Macau, in the Pearl River Delta, and surrounded by a large number of cut-off islands with several river branches, was an invitation to piracy. There, pirates could seek shelter if they were pursued by the authorities. The Macau peninsula, the island of Taipa and the island of Coloane were prime targets for pirates, who used to plunder villages or shops in the city, or to extort money and opium from the victims.
“I regret to inform you that I was abducted”
The exhibition shows a letter written by pirates addressed to the family of a kidnapped man, and written in his name: "Leung Fook U family, I am sorry to inform you that a few days ago I was abducted by the group 'Chung Wo Tong'. I personally agreed to pay $500. – Foreign notes and five tael [a unit of measurement equivalent to about 50 grams] of opium ”. The letter ends: "So I write home and ask you to prepare the money and bring it in seven days, or they will kill me."
Also presented is a letter from the Governor of Macau, José Carlos da Maia, from 1916, addressed to the Consul General of England, in charge of Portuguese interests in Canton, JW Jamieson, requesting the collaboration of the Chinese authorities in the capture of a group of pirates involved in the assault on a Chinese junk, which killed one person. In this episode, the pirates also took 20 passengers and 10 crew members hostage.
"I implore you to kindly ask the Chinese authorities to capture the pirates, find the junk and rescue the men taken as prisoners," the document reads.
In 1918, a merchant named Kou-ho-neng, who would become years later the sole and exclusive concessionaire of gambling in Macau, wrote to the governor asking that the police patrols in Rua do Almirante Sérgio be strengthened in order to protect his business. Kou-ho-neng said that his store, a dealer for the game 'fan-tan', had been robbed by "seven or eight malefactors", who stole $ 260. “The employees of the house whistled for more than half an hour, asking for help, without any police appearing,” reads the letter from the merchant.
THE BATTLE OF COLOANE IN 1910
In 1910, the fighting on the island of Coloane and the simultaneous landing of Chinese and Portuguese troops on the islands of Montanha and D. João, in 1912, caused the issue of piracy in Macau to gain international attention and boosted negotiations around the definition of the boundaries of Macau.
These battles were motivated by the abduction of a group of children from a school. The pirates, who demanded the payment of 35,000 patacas for the ransom, began by hiding on the island of Taipa, then moving to Coloane. On July 12, 1910, the governor of Macau, Eduardo Augusto Marques, sent a telegram to the Minister and Secretary of State for Marine and Overseas Affairs in Lisbon, Anselmo de Andrade, reporting on the operations: “If there are complaints [of] being kidnapped [on] the island of Coloane children stolen [by] pirates, this morning military force went there to proceed [to] search and arrest [the] criminals”.
The fighting in Taipa and Macau culminated in the victory of the Portuguese authorities against the pirates who had settled there. However, Robert J. Antony, a former professor at the University of Macau and a researcher on the phenomenon of piracy worldwide, said, in an interview with Ponto Final in 2009, that there is a different version of the events: “There is no doubt that there were pirates in Coloane village, but probably a good number of innocent people were also killed during the fighting. And we cannot ignore that there was a very strong link between the pirates and the local community. Many of the pirates were no more than fishermen who engaged in part-time piracy ”.
PIRACY HISTORICALLY CONNECTED TO MACAU
Last year Robert J. Antony wrote an article entitled “Pirates of Macau in a Historical Perspective”. In the document, the expert on piracy issues recalls that Macau's history is closely linked to piracy and that it is often said that the Portuguese presence in the region was the result of the help given to Chinese authorities in suppressing piracy in the Pearl River Delta.
"Even so, there are Chinese sources who say that, in fact, the Portuguese were pirates and kidnapped Chinese women and children to sell them as slaves," he says.
According to the expert, Macau's reputation as an open port was well known. After the Portuguese settled in Macau in 1557, the city grew rapidly and served as an important commercial base for Portugal, China and Japan, especially in the 17th century. In 1640, the city had an estimated population of 26,000 people, of which only 1,200 were Portuguese. Macau was a predominantly Chinese city, although the city's political administration and ruling class remained Portuguese. Still, its population was subject to Chinese laws. This mix of jurisdictions also made it easy for Macau to become a haven for pirates and other dissidents, says Robert J. Antony.
In “The Pirates of Macau in a Historical Perspective”, Antony elaborates further on Macau having the perfect conditions for piracy: “The geographical and ecological environment was, in fact, conducive to piracy in the region. The Macau peninsula itself, Taipa, Coloane and the many other islands that dotted the Pearl River Delta served for centuries as pirate bases. This area, especially in and around Macau, was a verifiable maritime border where it was easy for illegal and clandestine activities to mix with more peaceful and legitimate activities”.
“Although piracy in Chinese waters can be largely a thing of the past, pirates are nevertheless still alive in legends, folklore, films and popular imagination,” says the author, concluding: “The irony of course, it is that a society that worked so diligently to eliminate piracy, in the end, immortalised the same doomed pirates as popular heroes. Even in death, pirates continue to challenge authority.”
