The Enquirer

The British government have received some accounts from Macao, in the Bay of Canton, which Island has been confided to the British by the Prince Regent of Portugal. It appears, that besides the Portuguese Authorities, a Chinese mandarin was stationed there, ostensibly to protect the town and territory; but actually with the view to prevent that intercourse between the Europeans and Chinese, which the Tartarian Princes of that Empire have always considered to be dangerous to their power. This watchful agent of the court of Pekin, has entertained some suspicions of the designs of the British, unfavorable to this arrangement. It is very probable, that the inactivity of the Portuguese of late years, which had converted an immense depot of trade into an useless military fort, with a small garrison, contrasted with the spirit of commercial adventure and monopoly, that actuates the new British visitors, has given rise to these jealousies.