A Day in Macao [pp. 666-684]

668 A DAYIKMAcAo. [Aug.,
give the boat a gentle rock. As she ploughed her way through
this open space it seemed as though she was running out to sea,
but in a little while the dim outline of the land upon the other
side was discernible, and shortly, high upon a bluff overhanging
the water, the light.house lay white in the morning sun; below,
the town, with its cathedrals and palaces, stretched in a great
curve against the mountain~side. The buildings of Macao are
of medium size; those that are a little more pretentious than
their fellows-such as his excellency the governor's houseare called palaces. In America they would be called comfortable villas. The churches, with one exception, are of an ordinary style of architecture. The exception, as seen from the
sea, is high upon the hills, showing against the blue sky bold and
bleak and bare-a nob~~ ruin. It is the oldest foreign-built
structure in China, and its crumbling walls stand weird-like and
blackened with age. The gable wall lifts itself up in its entirety
and is surmounted by a great black cross. Many years-a century and more-this wall has stood, and about its cross has grown
a romantic story. How true it is I know not, but will give it as
it was told me.
Years ago, when Portugal was still in her power, one of her
ships sailing to Macao was enveloped in a great storm. The
vcssel was knocked about and buffeted by the waves, the fearful
winds tore the masts from her decks, and she was on tbe eve of
foundering. The mariners, in their despair, made a solemn vow
to the Almighty God that if their vessel was allowed to come
safely into port they would give a cross to the cathedral. The
vessel arrived, though a hopeless wreck, and the sailors fulfilled
their vow by making the cross from her timbers.
They built better in those days than they do now, for this
solitary wall of massive masonry, alone on the lonely hill-tops,
withstood the great typhoon of 1874, while the buildings below
it, and in a manner protected from the fearful tempest, sank in
heaps before the awful wind. To the right, and below this old
ruin, is a many-windowed structure of red brick and white plaster, looking cold and stiff in its newness. It is a great building
for Macao, and was occupied for a short time as a convent, but
is now turned into a barracks and central police station.
The boat made a straight wake across the smooth water of
the bay, as though her passengers were te land at the steps before the governor's house; but soon her course was altered, and
she rounded a point of land jutting into the sea and entered a
broad, shallow river that flows by the back of the town. Set