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José Tomáz De Aquino (1804-1852) by Armando “Pinky” Da Silva

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José Tomáz De Aquino (1804-1852) by Armando “Pinky” Da Silva Vol. 30. No. 3 A Publication of UMA, Inc July - Sept 2007 Editor: Daniel Gomes, 4394 N. Sweetbriar Ct, Concord, Ca 94521 E-Mail: [email protected] Nossa Senhora de Penha Palacio de Santa Sancha Sé Cathedral José Tomáz de Aquino (1804-1852) by Armando “Pinky” da Silva Palacio de G overn o UMA NEWS BULLETIN – Fall Issue 2007 Page 1 of 36 CONTA ‘STORIA DI JOSÉ TOMÁZ DE AQUINO (1804- 1852) José Tomáz de Aquino sung a maior arquiteto di Macau duranti premero metade do seculo mil novento cento. Ele ja bota ele-sa marca na tanto-tanto edificios principalmenti no Palacio do Governo e no Palacio de Santa Sancha. Ele tamen chapa ele-sa palma na paredi di Catedral de Sé e da Igreja de Sao Lourenco. Ele sung deveras unga homen forte valente di ele-sa tempo. (José Tomáz de Aquino was the most significant architect in Macau during the latter half of the 19 th century. He has left his mark on many buildings especially the Palacio do Governo and the Palacio de Santa Sancha.as well as leaving his palm-print on the walls of Sé Cathedral and St.Lawrence Church. He was indeed a formidable man of this time). To understand José Tomáz de Aquino one must understand the cultural-historical world he lived in. After the ending of the Japan Trade in the 1630s Macau went into a state of slow decline. Sailing ships still ventured out from Macau to trade with ports in Southeast Asia and India but in a limited way. But Macau came back. The Emperor of China in 1760 issued an edict which opened Canton (Guangchou) to foreign trade. Canton, 90 miles upstream from Macau and a day’s sail away attracted trading ships flying the flags of England, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and after the American Revolution, the United States of America. Large buildings and warehouses called “Factories” from the Portuguese Feitorias (the Chinese called them “Hong”) lined the banks of the Whampoa River. The era of the China Coast Trade would accrue to the benefit of Macau. Many Macau residents were seafarers and familiar with the ways of delivering seafaring supplies and services. Macau rose to the occasion. João Tomáz Rodrigues was a man of the sea. He knew about sailing and shipping. He was born sometime in the late 1770s or early 1780s in Cambodia to a Sebastiao Rodrigues and Inacia da Silva. He and one other brother were orphaned and came under the care of a Catholic priest. He took them to Macau to be educated. Not more is heard about the early years of João Tomáz Rodrigues. João Tomáz changed his surname Rodrigues to de Aquino. He married Clara Ana Pereira (father’s surname Pereira, mother’s surname Baptista) at Igreja de Sao Lourenco. They had four children of which José Tomáz was the eldest. He was born in 1804. José Tomáz de Aquino lived in momentous times, first during Europe’s Peninsula Wars and later during China’s First Opium War. In his day the China Coast Trade was in full swing. Merchant sailing ships flying the flags of Britain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Prussia and the United States of America, but not France, loaded and discharged their cargoes at the “Foreign Factories Quarter” along the Whampoa River. Macau was often the first port of call for sailing ships arriving from a long ocean voyage. But the winds of war in Europe had affected Macau. The defeat by the Royal Navy of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805 allowed some of its finest fighting ships-of- line to proceed to South China Sea to impose what would be called “Gunboat Diplomacy”. The East India Company based in Calcutta, India had the monopoly for the tea trade with China. To pay for Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain, East Indiamen, as the company’s sailing ships were called, increasingly proceeded to carry opium to Canton. Macau was drawn into the Opium Trade both by design and by default. João Tomáz de Aquino often captained brigantines (two-mast full squared rigged sailing ships) to and from Macau and Calcutta. He became wealthy from this trading and could afford the best education for his son José Tomáz. He received his early education as most rich boys could at Colegio de Sao Jose. It was then no longer a Jesuit institution but a Lazarist one. UMA NEWS BULLETIN – Fall Issue 2007 Page 2 of 36 José Tomáz de Aquino After the Napoleonic Wars were over, his father sent him in 1819, age 15, to attend the prestigious Colego Luso-Britanico in Lisbon. José Tomáz proved to be a gifted person. He mastered mathematics, geography, and became well-versed in English, French, and Latin. While in Lisbon he was inducted to be a member of the Ateneu das Belas Artes, a school dedicated to the study of architecture. He spent six years in Lisbon, and at the age of 21 returned to Macau in 1825 to the proud embrace of his father. A year back from return, João Tomáz would allow José Tomáz to sail with him as an “Assistant of Cargoes” on board his brigantine, “Desempenho” (‘Fulfillment’) to Calcutta and back.. He was tutoring his son on the ways of navigation, seamanship, and trading. Father and son moved among the social elites of the city, with local Fildalgos and foreign Taipans. Let us now look into the social neighborhoods of Macau at this time. Macau was set up from its beginnings as a Moorish-influenced southern Portuguese town. Most building were made of brick, mortar, and then coated with mud-plastered exteriors painted in pastel colors. Many had red tiled roofs. Many were also villas with open interiors, called quintal each with a well, pozo , at the center. The city was full of tropical shade and fruit trees. Macau had a salubrious climate in summer. Gentle breezes cooled the city. These benign features attracted foreign merchants at Canton to live in Macau with their wives and children in summer. Many of these houses were located near the Cathedral along Rua de Formosa on a low ridge which afforded its residents a commanding view of Praia Grande and the sea beyond. Others would reside at an area between St.Lawrence Church and Lilau Square. Lilau Square was the focal center of Macanese high society. The rich, the powerful, and the famous lived in this bairro. Among them were merchant traders, ship owners, ship chandlers, and old-line moneyed families. The Fonte (Fountain) of Lilau was a natural artesian well supplied by sub- stratum water from Penha hill. A saying goes that “Whosoever drinks of the waters of Lilau would return again to Lilau. Potable water of Lilau often filled the water barrels of the Lorchas of Macau. José Tomáz resided at Lilau. Lilau sits on a bluff overlooking Praia do Manduco (Bay of the Frog). The beach front of this bay served as the focus of Macau’s ship building. The bay was the principal anchorage for Macau’s famous lorchas. A very steep street called Rua de Quebra Costa (Street of Broken Back) led from Lilau bluff to Praia do Manduco. A similar shipping related neighborhood was sited northward at Patane. In this bairro resided the deck hands for the lorchas, brigantines, barques of Macau. Collectively they were placed at a lower social standing. The term “Mamang di San Antonio (Irmaos de Sao Antonio) translates into the Brotherhood of San Anthony Church. This appellation was applied to them. In the Macau of old, ship captains and ship chandlers resided at Lilau, deck hands at Patane. During the Peninsular Wars in Iberia the Portuguese Monarchy in 1806 fled to Brazil for sanctuary. As the Monarchy steadily devolved there, Royal authority fell short in Macau. Members of the Conselho de Leal Senado, local Macanese leaders, took charge of administrating the day to day activities and made important decisions on their own regarding Macau affairs. They were entrepreneurs first before being bureaucrats. Administratively Macau was akin to a three-legged stool, one leg being the Head of the Leal Senado, the other the Governor, and the third the Bishop. The Head of the Leal Senado exerted the most power of the three, following upon the Golden Rule, “Whosoever has the gold, makes the rules”. José Tomáz at one time headed the Leal Senado. Let us now turn to José Tomáz de Aquino and his achievements.. He was about and around when the whole Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Madre de Deus was still standing. With an architect’s fine observation he would notice details of the interior of this famous church. Later, he would be called upon to renovate the inside of Macau’s cathedral. UMA NEWS BULLETIN – Fall Issue 2007 Page 3 of 36 José Tomáz de Aquino His first commission at age 25 was to rehabilitate the house of a “Mr. Watson,” a Hong merchant. Three years later in 1832 he was called to do renovations for the Ermida (Hermitage) de Nossa Senhora de Penha. It would have been of special meaning to him as the Hemitage was erected in mid- 17th century and paid for by the generous proceeds of seafarers. Devout ones would meditate and pray in quietude for “protection from the perils of the sea”. (Note: In a most unwise move the Diocese of Macau in the mid-1930s elected to demolish the old hermitage and replace it with a modern church with an adjoining residential building for the Bishop of Macau). Two years later, in 1834, he designed his first house for Joseph Jardine (probably related to the most important Taipan of all, William Jardine, co-founder of Jardine Matheson and Company.).
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