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Petition submitted to the Overseas Council in April 1644 by Father Álvaro Semedo, Procurator General of the Province of China of the Society of Jesus, on behalf of the Jesuit mission in China. The document details the severe financial distress faced by the missionaries due to the non-payment of stipends for approximately twenty years, resulting in extreme poverty and the deterioration of church infrastructure in Macau. Semedo asserts that despite repeated appeals, no relief has been granted, with arrears amounting to between fifty thousand and one hundred and fifty thousand cruzados, owed not in coin but through two immediate drafts on Locoambique. He emphasizes the missionaries’ longstanding service to the Portuguese Crown since the foundation of Macau and appeals to the monarch’s conscience, urging urgent payment or the initiation of a formal inquiry through the Reverend Judge of the Inquisition. The text also references procedural delays, including the deposition of the designated investigator Terbo and opposition to recent claims. Additionally, Semedo petitions against the establishment of a new Corôs settlement without prior investigation into the conduct of former official Antonin Belle Que Staiagi, currently under scrutiny alongside others at Aley Dellaagardeside. A subsequent note records the Bishop’s inability to attend proceedings due to pressing duties, though he affirmed compliance with royal directives regarding clerical administration. The document originates from colonial archival holdings, bearing marginalia, seals, and archival references consistent with Portuguese imperial administrative practice in Asia during the mid-seventeenth century.
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This abstract describes a formal petition dated 1644, originating from Chinese Christian residents of Macau and addressed to the Portuguese monarch. The document is preserved in the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU) in Lisbon, bearing archival identifiers including ‘India’ and ‘1644’ on its first page and a marginal note indicating dispatch under cover of a letter dated 24 January (year unspecified but contextually consistent with 1644). The petitioners—self-identified as loyal vassals and members of the Confraternity of Jesus—detail longstanding civic contributions, particularly their foundational role in administering the Santa Casa da Misericórdia and maintaining its hospital. They enumerate six principal grievances: restrictions on coastal trade; compulsory unpaid watch duty in Canton despite reliance on manual labour; enforced abandonment of the *capa* garment used to conceal poverty; non-enforcement of debts owed by Portuguese creditors; unlawful diversion of legacies to the royal exchequer; and verbal and physical abuse that undermines Christian conversion efforts. The petition requests reinstatement of qualified Chinese Christians to governance roles within the Santa Casa, liberty of emigration, judicial redress through formal *devassa*, enforcement of widow’s guardianship rights under the *Ordenações do Reino*, and extension of privileges equivalent to those granted to Christians in Portuguese India and Ceylon. An administrative endorsement directs transmission to the Viceroy of India, stressing urgency due to Macau’s current state of being ‘combattida por inimigos’.