Galeote Pereira
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Galeote Pereira (sometimes also Galiote Pereira) was a 16th-century
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
soldier of fortune. He spent several years in China's
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
and Guangxi province after being captured by the Chinese authorities in an anti-smuggling operation. The report he wrote after escaping China is one of the earliest known accounts by a westerner of life in
Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
China; indeed, it is the first detailed observation of that civilisation by a lay (non-
cleric Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
al) European visitor since that of Marco Polo.


Biography

Pereira and other Portuguese mercenaries helped defend the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom against the invading army of King
Tabinshwehti Tabinshwehti ( my, တပင်‌ရွှေထီး, ; 16 April 1516 – 30 April 1550) was king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created the largest kin ...
of
Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langua ...
in the Burmese–Siamese War (1548–49), introducing Early Modern warfare to the region. Pereira engaged in smuggling along the
Ming Empire The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
's
South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...
coast, for which enterprise one notorious centre was the
Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China * Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China *Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China ** G ...
islet of Wuyu in
Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an ...
Bay. He was aboard one of the two Portuguese junks seized in March 1549 near the Dongshan Peninsula during the Pirate Extermination Campaign of the
Jiajing Emperor The Jiajing Emperor (; 16September 150723January 1567) was the 12th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin. His father, Zhu Youyuan (1476–1519), Prince of Xing, w ...
, which was actively carried out by
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
's grand coordinator
Zhu Wan Zhu Wan (; September 29, 1494 – January 2, 1550), courtesy name Zichun () and art name Qiuya (), was a Chinese general of the Ming dynasty. He was known for his uncompromising stance against the Jiajing wokou pirates (so named because they ra ...
. Luckily not among the crew members executed extrajudicially, Pereira and others were incarcerated at Fuzhou. During and subsequent to his trial, the detainees were taken out "many times ... and were brought to the palaces of noblemen to be seen of them and their wives", which allowed Pereira to see something of Fuzhou. Fortunately for Pereira and other surviving Portuguese (and their companions, coming from various parts of the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia),
Zhu Wan Zhu Wan (; September 29, 1494 – January 2, 1550), courtesy name Zichun () and art name Qiuya (), was a Chinese general of the Ming dynasty. He was known for his uncompromising stance against the Jiajing wokou pirates (so named because they ra ...
's enemy at the imperial court learned of the irregularities involved in the execution of the prisoners and the handling of captured merchandise; censors arrived from Beijing, a number of officials were removed from their positions and punished; Zhu Wan himself committed suicide. The Portuguese prisoners waiting for the end of their lives in Fuzhou's prison were dispatched to live out their sentences of separate internal exile, in various locations around
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
,
Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...
. With the help of the Portuguese merchants in Canton, many of the exiles managed to make their way by bribery and stealth back to the sea coast and to Portuguese ships and off-shore bases. Pereira was one of these escapees. It is known that in mid-February 1553 he was already in the
Shangchuan Island Shangchuan Island (, also known as "Schangschwan", "Sancian", "Sanchão", "Chang-Chuang", "St. John's Island" or "St John Island") is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of Guangdong, China. Its name originated from Sã ...
, assisting at the exhumation of the
incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their ...
remains of
Francis Xavier Francis Xavier (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: ''Franciscus Xaverius''; Basque: ''Frantzisko Xabierkoa''; French: ''François Xavier''; Spanish: ''Francisco Javier''; Portuguese: ''Francisco Xavier''; 7 April 15063 December ...
.


Pereira's story

Several of the Portuguese survivors of the 1549 incident and the subsequent imprisonment and exile wrote accounts of their experiences. The first of them was published as early as 1555. However, Galeote Pereira's is considered the most complete, and is the best known. It is not known when Pereira first wrote his account. While
C. R. Boxer Sir Charles Ralph Boxer FBA GCIH (8 March 1904 – 27 April 2000) was a British historian of Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history, especially in relation to South Asia and the Far East. In Hong Kong he was the chief spy for the ...
surmised that Pereira may have penned his recollections soon after his escape to safety, the earliest known manuscript of his notes dates to 1561. It is a copy made by Indian pupils of the Jesuit Saint Paul's College in Goa, and sent to one of the Jesuits' central offices in Europe. While the original Portuguese text, entitled "Algũas cousas sabidas da China ..." ("Some things known about China ...") was not published at the time, its (slightly abridged) Italian translation appeared in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
in 1565 in a book containing a number of other reports sent by Jesuits from India. An English translation of that Italian text, made by a former English Jesuit Richard Willis was printed in 1577, in the ''History of Travayle in the West and East Indies'', under the title "Certain reports of the province China, learned through the Portugals there imprisoned, and chiefly by the relation of Galeote Pereira, a gentleman of good credit, that lay prisoner in that country many years. Done out of Italian by R.W.". Willis' translation was reprinted a number of times. A complete English translation of the original (i.e., the earliest known to us) Portuguese manuscript was made by Boxer and published in 1953 in ''Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu'', vol. XXII, pp. 63–92. The original Portuguese text has since been published in Portugal, and in vol. 153 of ''Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu'' in Rome. Published accounts of other Portuguese prisoners captured together with Pereira include the letter of Afonso Ramiro, sent from
Wuzhou Wuzhou (, postal: Wuchow; za, Ngouzcouh / Ŋouƨcouƅ), formerly Ngchow, is a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Geography and climate Wuzhou is located in eastern Guangxi borde ...
to the Portuguese base at Langbaijiao in 1555.


Content of the report

The organization of Pereira's account is somewhat chaotic: it is neither a strictly chronological account describing a chain of events (a "travelogue" or "memoir"), nor a treatise describing various aspects of China in some logical order (as later book-size works by
Gaspar da Cruz Gaspar da Cruz ( 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European account ...
,
Bernardino de Escalante Bernardino de Escalante (ca. 1537– after 1605) was a Spanish soldier, priest, geographer and a prolific writer. He is best known as the author of the second book on China that was published in Europe, and the first author of such a book to o ...
or
Juan González de Mendoza Juan González de Mendoza, O.S.A. (1545 – 14 February 1618) was a Spanish bishop, explorer, sinologist, and writer. He was the author of one of the earliest Western histories of China. Published by him in 1585, ''Historia de las cosas más ...
would be). Instead, both aspects are present to some extent. Pereira's manuscript starts in the style of a geographical overview. Like most later geographical works on China, he starts with listing China's
provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
(" shires", in Willis' translation), stating that there are 13 of them, giving names of 11 of them and a brief information about some, and concluding that for "Confu",
Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
and
Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, "how many towns hosethree shires have, we are ignorant as yet, as also of the proper names of the twelfth and thirteenth shires, and the towns therein". This shows that Pereira (or his early Jesuit editors) were not in possession of the information that the Lisbon historian João de Barros had when writing the Third of his ''Décadas da Ásia'' (published 1563, but written much earlier), which correctly lists all fifteen provinces of the Ming China. He then proceeds with a brief description of Chinese cities whose "streets are wonderful to behold" and which are decorated with numerous " arches of triumph", and of the densely populated and intensively farmed countryside. He is impressed with well-paved roads and the
bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...
of Fujian's coastal road, built using huge stones. Pereira is surprised that the word "China", which the Portuguese had learned in Southern and Southeastern Asia, is not known in China itself, and is curious
how How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by Dov Seidma ...
Chinese people call their country and themselves. He gets the answer that "the whole country is called ''Tamen''" (i.e., '' Da Ming''), and its people, ''Tamenjins'' (i.e., ''Da Ming ren'', 大明人, "people of the Great Ming"). Interspersed with geographical details and references to his personal experience is a fair amount of information about the country's administration, the titles and roles of various government officials.


Description of the Ming law-enforcement system

Due to the peculiar circumstances of Pereira's stay in China, it is not surprising that a significant portion of Galeote Pereira's account deals with the "inner side" of the Ming courts and prisons. He described harsh conditions inside the prisons of the time, as well as the practice of corporal punishment:
Their whips be bamboos, cleft in the middle, in such sort that they seem rather plain than sharp. He that is to be whipped lieth groveling on the ground. Upon his thighs the hangman layeth on blows mightily with these bamboos, that the standers-by tremble at their cruelty. Ten stripes draws a great deal of blood, twenty or thirty spoil the flesh altogether, fifty or threescore will require a long time to be healed, and if they come to the number of one hundred, then they are incurable—and they are given to whosoever hath nothing wherewith to bribe these executioners who administer them.
Despite the severity of its punishments, Pereira extols the impartiality of the Ming judicial system. The malign accusations of two local worthies, apparently their erstwhile partners, were not enough to see the Portuguese smugglers scapegoated :
For wheresoever in any town of
Christendom Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...
should be accused unknown men as we were, I know not what end the very Innocents' cause would have; but we in a heathen country, having for our enemies two of the chiefest men in a whole town, wanting an interpreter, ignorant of that country's language, did in the end see our great adversaries cast into prison for our sake, and deprived of their offices and honour for not doing justice—yea, not to escape death, for as rumour goeth, they shall be beheaded. Now see if he Mingdo justice or no.


Religion

Even in proportion to its (shorter) length, Pereira's work dwells less on religious issues than do the later books of professional Christian missionaries (such as Gaspar da Cruz, Martín de Rada or Matteo Ricci); nonetheless, he still gives a brief account of the religious practices of both
Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
and
Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
people. He notes that people refer to the supreme divine power as "Heaven", explaining that "as we are wont to say 'God knoweth it', so say they at every word ''Tien xautee'', that is to say 'The heavens do know it'". He did realize at least that there are several types of temples, and the divinity worshiped in some of them is referred to as ''Omithofom'' ( Āmítuó Fó) Pereira deems the
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
to be almost entirely assimilated into the Chinese mainstream. According to him, they "knew so little of their sect, that they could say nothing else but that 'Mahomet was a Moor, my father was a Moor, and I am a Moor', with some other words of their Alcoran, wherewithal and in abstinence from swine's flesh, they live until the devil take them all". ("
Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...
" ( pt, Mouros) was at the time a common way for the Portuguese to refer to any Muslims). He says that there were over 200 Muslims in a Guangxi city he visited (not quite clear whether he is talking of
Wuzhou Wuzhou (, postal: Wuchow; za, Ngouzcouh / Ŋouƨcouƅ), formerly Ngchow, is a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Geography and climate Wuzhou is located in eastern Guangxi borde ...
or
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
), all attending the Friday prayers in their mosques. He thinks, however, "that will no longer endure", because while the older generation is still observant and remembers of its old homeland in ''Çamarquão'' ( Samarkand), "their posterity is so confused, that they have nothing of a Moor in them but abstinence from swine's flesh, and yet many of them do eat thereof privately".


Language

Several references to (Chinese) interpreters, or problems arising in their absence, indicate that few if any Portuguese prisoners spoke much Chinese, at least in the beginning. There is no explicit information on how much Chinese Pereira learned even by the end of his enforced stay in the country.


Other notable elements of Pereira's account

Like
Gaspar da Cruz Gaspar da Cruz ( 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European account ...
a few years later, Pereira is dismayed at the prevalence and common acceptance of homosexual liaisons:
The greatest fault we do find in them is
sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sod ...
, a vice very common in the meanest sort, and nothing strange among the best.
Marco Polo, too, had found the practice quite as prevalent and accepted under the Mongol-ruled Yuan. But too like Polo, Pereira has some surprising ''lacunae'': he makes not one reference to the widespread, customary practice of
foot binding Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...
(six hundred years old in his time, three in Polo's). Nor does he mention the use of the herb Camellia sinensis (tea), nor the unique character of the Empire's
writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...
nor to its marvelous facilities for the
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
thereof.


Influence of Pereira's account

According to Boxer's estimate, about one-third of Galeote Pereira's account was later incorporated in
Gaspar da Cruz Gaspar da Cruz ( 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European account ...
's ''A Treatise of China'', the first China-specific book published in Europe (1569). Via that book, or
Bernardino de Escalante Bernardino de Escalante (ca. 1537– after 1605) was a Spanish soldier, priest, geographer and a prolific writer. He is best known as the author of the second book on China that was published in Europe, and the first author of such a book to o ...
's work largely derivative of da Cruz, much of the information conveyed by Pereira got into
Juan González de Mendoza Juan González de Mendoza, O.S.A. (1545 – 14 February 1618) was a Spanish bishop, explorer, sinologist, and writer. He was the author of one of the earliest Western histories of China. Published by him in 1585, ''Historia de las cosas más ...
's '' History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof'' (1585), which was to become Europe's most authoritative book on China for the following three decades.
Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; c.1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' ( pt, Peregrinação) (1614), his autobiographical memoir. The historical accuracy of the work is debatable due t ...
's ''Peregrinação'' ("Pilgrimage", 1614) depends heavily on Pereira at several points.


Legacy

The 2005 English-language Thai film '' The King Maker'' shows a character similar to Galeote Pereira. Although the character is named Fernando De Gama he is known as a Portuguese soldier of fortune helping to defend the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom where the film is based.


Notes


References

* (Includes an English translation of Galeote Pereira's report, from the Portuguese original that had not been published until 1953, with C. R. Boxer's comments) * (General information on inter-relationship between the early European accounts of China) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Galeote Portuguese explorers Portuguese travel writers Portuguese Renaissance writers Portuguese expatriates in China 16th-century explorers Explorers of Asia 16th-century Portuguese people