Francisco Mascarenhas (Governor of Macau)

In time, the city grew into an important staging ground for the lucrative Japan voyage, a trade route terminating in Nagasaki monopolized by the Portuguese from the late 16th to early 17th century.

The new city had no governor at the beginning, instead, power was shared between the Captain-major of the Japan Voyage—who had supreme authority while he was in the city—and the Macau Senate representing local Portuguese interests.

[4] The first significant conflict between Mascarenhas and the Macanese elites concerned the appointment of the replacement for João Pinto da Piedade as Bishop of Macau.

The diocesan feud between the two parties turned increasingly violent, with priests being beaten on the streets and muskets being fired on both sides, ultimately escalating to a point where the Jesuits shot three cannonballs through the St. Augustine's Church [pt; zh] where Mascarenhas had been staying.

[9] After some negotiation, it was decided that 22,000 taels of silver were to be paid annually from the Portuguese to the provincial authorities in Guangdong for the constructions to be allowed to continue,[10] and that the fortress at Patane [zh] aimed at the mainland had to be dismantled.

[11] Mascarenhas also established the city's gun foundry in 1623, which became world-renowned for the quality of its cannons under the supervision of Manuel Tavares Bocarro, future governor of Macau.

Local tradition have it that Mascarenhas was killed by an angry mob on this occasion, or that he fled back to India on a ship, but the reality is that he quickly quashed the rebellion and stayed as governor until the end of his term in July 1626.

[17][18] Mascarenhas handed over the governorship of Macau to his successor Felipe Lobo in July 1626 upon the expiration of his term in office, upon which he sailed back to Europe by way of Goa.

While returning to Lisbon, he caught the nobleman Francisco Pereira Pinto in the act of sodomy and had him burned at the stake in what C. R. Boxer calls "the only instance of an auto-da-fé at sea".

[19] This controversial act and the victim's social standing caused Mascarenhas to be imprisoned for a short time while the matter was being investigated, and although he was found to have done no wrong, he was not appointed as Governor of India again.