Charles Boxer’s China Map, 1948

Posted: August 19th, 2021 | No Comments »

British expert on the Portuguese and Dutch maritime empires Charles Boxer (who also did a spying in Hong Kong and eventually married New Yorker correspondent Emily Hahn) published Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770 in 1948. In the introduction Boxer is most helpful regarding his title: ‘Readers unfamiliar with Portuguese may care to be reminded that “Fidalgo” is derived from the term “filho d’algo” [or] “son of a Somebody”, originally applied to the so-called gentlemen of blood and coat-armour, but here used in the sense of men who were personalities in their own right, however doubtful or obscure their origin may have been’.

Interesting too is his map of China which uses Wade-Giles names such as Nanking, Chuanchow, Foochow etc and naturally, given Boxer’s academic interests, highlights Macao, but also includes tghe much lesser known Lampacao, which was a small island in the Pearl River Delta but is no longer separate. Both the island’s name and exact location are the source of some dispute (click here ). Boxer also notes Sanchuan (Sangchuan or Three Rivers), another island close by Lampacao. Both islands were places that Portuguese and Chinese traders and merchants met to do business in the late 1500s.

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