Land of pirates. And mystery

The story of Coloane has several curiosities and some mysteries. 

Starting with the toponymy. 

It was only in 1903 that the designation of Coloane first appeared on a map (Port of Macau Hydrograph). Prior to that, in documents and maps from the 18th Century the island was referred to, among others, as ‘Caoao’, ‘Coow’ or ‘Ko-ho’. 

It might be said that these names represent a connection to the term Coloane but at the same time it is possible to find the island labelled ‘Apomee’, ‘Apomui’ or ‘Apomi’ (see map of 1829 in these pages). 

Incredible as it may seem, and despite various efforts made by Macau Business to understand the origin of the name, this has not been possible. In an official Portuguese document from the beginning of the 20th Century the word ‘Co-lo-na’ appears, written exactly in this way. 

Another curiosity: Coloane, although identified almost since the arrival of the Portuguese in Macau, was only colonised in 1864. 

To enter and leave Macau, navigators used what they called a “cross gate” or “passage ring”, the waterway between the four islands we know today as Coloane, Taipa, Daheng and Hengqin. Despite being “the only waterway that European merchants had at the time,” there was no thought of occupation. 

Still, the earliest human records date from 4,500 BC, as revealed by excavations in Hác-Sá in the second half of the last century. 

The archaeological findings attest to what was found on the island of Hong Kong or even on other islands in the Pearl River Estuary, with fishermen the oldest and most structural occupants of the island. 

Coloane fishermen had unwanted competition from smugglers and, above all, pirates. 

As Portugal had not colonised the island, removing the pirates from there was not a priority, although their occupation brought responsibilities and consequences: Portugal fortified, to a minimum, the site and deployed troops to evict the pirates. 

After several efforts, it was only in July 1910 that this goal was achieved, in what would have been the last battle fought by Portuguese troops in Macau (it took more than 200 men from the army, navy and police, backed by artillery and heavy weaponry). For many years, July 13 was a holiday in Coloane, celebrating the victory over the pirates, with a statue in front of the Church of St. Francis Xavier (in Largo Eduardo Marques) commemorating the event. From that time there are no more records that pirates used Coloane to shelter, but in 1926 there was an attack, repelled by Portuguese forces, with the help of naval means. 

In fact, fighting pirates was not the only reason to militarise the island of Coloane. 

Another motive – perhaps stronger – “has a direct bearing on the need for affirmation of Portuguese sovereignty over the dependent islands of Macau, particularly Coloane, the most disputed from the point of view of China, since its formal occupation had only been consummated during the government of Joao Maria Ferreira do Amaral (1846-1849),” according to Macau researcher João Guedes. 

This local researcher and journalist relates the Coloane issue to “the nationalist sentiments that had intensified since the beginning of the 19th Century in Guangdong Province, progressively exaggerated by the newspapers and the reformist militants in the rallies that had preferential targets” inflamed by the presence of “imperialist England in Hong Kong and Portugal in Macau.” 

It is worth noting that in 1912 there were still records of the tense relationship between the Guangdong Government and Macau: Guangdong wanted property owners in Coloane not to be forced to pay taxes to the local government but Portugal reaffirmed its sovereignty. 


Tatsu Maru 

February 5, 1908: A Chinese imperial court warship attacked a Japanese merchant ship – the Tatsu (or Datsu in the Chinese version) Maru – carrying contraband weapons to the Chinese revolutionaries. 

It turns out that the Tatsu Maru was based in Coloane, provoking the representatives of the Emperor that they were in Chinese territorial waters. 

The protests of the Japanese Government joined the violent reactions of Portugal. So violent, in fact, that it caused the Guangdong authorities to return the freighter: the cargo was eventually bought by China, with public apologies made by the Guangdong Government. 

The subject caused such repercussions that the court of the Qing Dynasty ordered the deployment to Lisbon of its high representative to discuss the matter of the delimitation with Portugal. 

But the humiliation of the imperial retreat outweighed diplomacy: “The gentry and the people of Guangzhou spontaneously organised demonstrations and boycotts of Japanese products,” writes historian Wu Zhiliang.