Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita - Later Years

Later Years

In later years, Mesquita was wracked by depression due to his slow and inadequate promotion in the Portuguese military, allegedly due to being Macanese. He was further saddened by the lack official recognition of his role in protecting Macau. As a result, he suffered a series severe nervous breakdowns - the last prompted his permanent retirement. His professional and personal life deteriorated rapidly afterwards. His madness reached its zenith on March 3, 1880 - at his fashionable home: nº 1, Largo da Bica do Lilau - when Mesquita murdered his second wife, a daughter and gravely wounded two other of his children. Afterwards, on that same day, Mesquia committed suicide by throwing himself down a well at his home.

Under these circumstances, the then present Governor of Macau would not accord him a military burial, nor would the Bishop of Macau allow his remains to be placed in consecrated ground. Some thirty years later, on August 28, 1910, in conformity with public opinion on the importance of this man to the history of Macau, were his remains re-interred in the Cemitério de São Miguel with full military and ecclesiastical honors.