Fernão Pires de Andrade (also spelled as Fernão Peres de Andrade; in contemporary sources, Fernam (Fernã) Perez Dandrade) (d. 1552) was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and diplomat who worked under the explorer and colonial administrator
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...
. His encounter with
Ming China
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
in 1517—after initial contacts by
Jorge Álvares and
Rafael Perestrello
Rafael Perestrello ( fl. 1514–1517) was a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Filipa Moniz Perestrello, the wife of explorer Christopher Columbus.Brook, 124. He is best known for landing on the southern shores of mainland China in 1516 and ...
in 1513 and 1516, respectively—marked the resumption of direct European commercial and diplomatic contact with China. (Even though there were
Europeans in Medieval China
Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty. These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Chris ...
, notably
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
, that period of contact had been interrupted by the fall of the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
.)
Although de Andrade's mission was initially a success that allowed a Portuguese embassy to proceed all the way to
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, relations were soon spoiled by culminating events that led to an extremely negative impression of the Portuguese in China. This included acts of his brother Simão that enraged the Chinese, false reports of the Portuguese being cannibals of
kidnapped Chinese children and true reports of their conquest of
Malacca
Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...
, a
loyal Ming tributary state. Normalized trade and relations between Portugal and the Ming dynasty would not resume until the late 1540s and the 1557 establishment of Portuguese rule over
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
.
Andrade was referred to as a "
Folangji" () in Ming dynastic archives. ''Folangji'' comes from ''Franques'' or
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
, which was a generic name the
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s called Europeans since the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
, and which spawned the Indian-Southeast Asian term ''ferengi''.
The Chinese adopted the convention when they first thought the Portuguese were related to those Muslim guides and interpreters during Fernão's first encounter and before Europeans directly convened with Chinese.
Voyages abroad
India, Sumatra, and Malacca
Fernão Pires de Andrade commanded a vessel in the naval venture of the Portuguese explorer and conqueror
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...
from
Cochin
Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...
in India to conquer the
Malacca Sultanate
The Malacca Sultanate (; Jawi script: ) was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parameswara, also known as I ...
in 1511.
[Dion, 135.] The Portuguese historian
João de Barros
João de Barros (; 1496 – 20 October 1570), nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his (''Decades of Asia''), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa.
Early y ...
(1496–1570) wrote that when a violent storm arose as Albuquerque's fleet entered the vast waters between
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
and
Aceh
Aceh ( , ; , Jawi script, Jawoë: ; Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, Old Spelling: ''Atjeh'') is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capit ...
, a ship commanded by Simão Martinho was sunk, but his entire crew was rescued by Fernão and taken aboard his ship.
To make up for this loss, the Portuguese captured and commandeered five ships from
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
that were sailing between Malacca and
Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
.
The small fleet of Albuquerque engaged an enemy "
junk" ship of the Javanese "
Moors
The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a s ...
" near ''Polvoreira'' (likely ''
Pulau Berhala'', 160 miles from Malacca, between
Belawan, Medan and
Lumut, Perak).
[Dion, 138.][Birch, 63.] According to Barros, they fought against this ship for two days. The enemy crew employed tactics of lighting fire to its own ship as a means to burn Albuquerque's ships as they employed ramming techniques and close-range volleys of artillery.
[Dion, 138–139.] Although the ship surrendered; the Portuguese gained such an admiration for the junk and its crew that they nicknamed it ''O Bravo'' (The Brave Junk).
[Dion, 139.] The Portuguese crew pleaded with Fernão Pires to convince Albuquerque that the crew should be spared and viewed vassals of Portugal who were simply unaware of who they were actually fighting. Albuquerque eventually agreed to this.
While writing of Afonso de Albuquerque's ventures in Sumatra, João de Barros noted that the Chinese were the first to control trade between Sumatra and India, and noted the presence of Chinese people living in Sumatra.
[Dion, 144.] Barros also noted that while Fernão Pires was loading Southeast Asian spices onto his ship in
Pacem (a kingdom in Sumatra) in order to sell or present them as gifts in China, two different kings were killed and their position usurped.
[Dion, 146.] Apparently the usurpation of kings caused little tumult or crisis in this state, as Barros noted any leader there was believed by the locals not to have divine right to rule if he was able to be killed by a royal kinsman.
Historian Mark Dion notes that Fernão related the same story in his writing, only adding that a
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
in their society was the only acceptable replacement as ruler.
Initial contact with China
After the
conquest of Malacca in 1511, not only did the Portuguese monopolize the European
spice
In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...
trade, but they also met and traded avidly with Chinese merchants. When Portuguese under
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465–1530) was a Portuguese '' fidalgo'', sent to analyze the trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived at Malacca on 11 September 1509 and left the next year when he discovered that Sultan Mahmud Shah was ...
had earlier arrived in Malacca in 1509 to open trade relations, he was supported by the local Chinese merchants there (along with
Javanese and
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
merchants). D'Albuquerque sent
Jorge Álvares to explore northward; his expedition sailed along the coast of
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
in 1513 and hoisted a flag on "
Tuen Mun
Tuen Mun () or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the mo ...
island". This mission was followed up later that year by
Rafael Perestrello
Rafael Perestrello ( fl. 1514–1517) was a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Filipa Moniz Perestrello, the wife of explorer Christopher Columbus.Brook, 124. He is best known for landing on the southern shores of mainland China in 1516 and ...
, who later traded with Chinese merchants of
Canton in 1516. He provided an enticing report to other Portuguese on the lucrative trade in China. This prompted Andrade to speed up the course of his mission while stalled in Malacca and debate with his crew on whether to go to China or
Bengal
Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
.
[Wills, 336.]
Mission of Manuel I to China
Choosing the ambassadors
King
Manuel I authorized a trade mission in 1517 when Andrade set sail with seven cannon-armed merchant vessels with a Muslim interpreter on June 17, 1517. Andrade had been chosen for this mission in
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
back in 1515, so that—as a pharmacist—he could investigate the types of
pharmaceutical drugs used in East Asia for the benefit of the Portuguese and Europe.
Florentine merchant Giovanni da Empoli, who had written a report about trade with China while stationed in India, was also chosen for the mission as the chief commercial agent between the Portuguese and Chinese.
However, Giovanni would die in China during the early mission on October 15, 1517, when the ship he was on accidentally caught on fire.
Tomé Pires
Tomé Pires (c. 1468 — c. 1524/1540) was a Portuguese apothecary, colonial administrator, and diplomat. In 1510 he was commissioned by the Portuguese court to serve as a " factor of drugs" in India, arriving at Cannanore in 1511. In 1512 he was ...
, a royal
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is an Early Modern English, archaic English term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in Brit ...
who had also traveled to India and written a landmark work in 1515 on Asian trade, was chosen as the chief ambassador for the mission.
First contact
Although the mission was stalled once they lost a ship in the
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...
,
they nonetheless landed at the
Pearl River estuary on August 15 with eight ships
and negotiated with Chinese officials for possible
silk
Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
and
porcelain
Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
trade at
Canton. The Chinese naval commander of
Nantou (under the jurisdiction of
Zhongshan
Zhongshan ( zh, c=中山 ), alternately romanized via Cantonese as Chungshan, is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is n ...
, located at the mouth of the Pearl River) stalled Andrade's small fleet of ships for an entire month while Andrade waited for permission to sail upriver to Canton.
[Wills, 337.] After Andrade threatened to sail upriver without permission, the naval commander finally decided to let him pass, granting him pilots to assist his travel.
Once the ships sailed into port at Canton, they alarmed the Chinese residents and officials there by discharging cannon fire, what they believed was a friendly salute since the Chinese merchants had done so when the Portuguese earlier arrived in Malacca.
Chinese officials became even more cautious in dealing with the Portuguese, since the deposed King of Malacca had been a loyal tributary to the imperial Ming court.
The Portuguese explained that in deposing the Malaccan king, they were helping the Chinese merchants there who were being oppressed under his rule. In the eyes of the Canton officials, this added further negative speculations about the Portuguese visitors, because private Chinese overseas trade was banned under the current
hai jin laws that stated only the Chinese government could conduct foreign trade.

Although the local Canton officials watched the Portuguese and their ships closely, once the
provincial authorities arrived at Canton they greeted the Portuguese with a warm reception, providing them comfortable lodgings and had their trade goods brought ashore.
The Chinese became suspicious once again of Andrade, this time for being a spy, when he sent a ship along the
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern 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 capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
coast to look for further trade prospects, but he left a good impression when he gave the order that any locals who might be harmed by a Portuguese should seek him for redress.
Besides exploring Fujian, Andrade sent one of his captains named Jorge de Mascarenhas to explore the
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...
after he heard of their beauty while stationed in Malacca.
[Nowell, 8.]
Andrade's brother and spoiled relations
Simão de Andrade, brother to Fernão Pires, sailed from Malacca to China with a small crew on three
junks in August 1519.
[Wills, 337–338.] Simão immediately made a bad impression upon the Chinese when he built a fort at the center of
Tuen Mun
Tuen Mun () or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the mo ...
, an island designated for all foreigners to trade.
Soon after, Simão ceremoniously executed a Portuguese and barred other foreigners (mostly
Siamese and other South East Asians) from trading on the island, which drew even more attention to him.
When a Chinese official visited the island and began reasserting Ming authority over it, Simão became aggressive and hit him, knocking the official's hat off.
[Wills, 338.]
The greatest offense to the Chinese was the supposed kidnapping of children by the Portuguese so they could eat them.
In reality, Simão had earned the Portuguese a bad reputation for
buying young Chinese slaves, presumably some of whom were kidnapped after Simão offered local Chinese huge sums of money for child slaves.
In fact, some boys and girls from wealthy Chinese families were later found by Portuguese authorities at
Diu in western India.
However, there were no official reports of Simão's abuses, even though he stayed until September 1520; yet rumors of his behavior (which became associated with all Portuguese) no doubt reached as far as the court of Beijing, which would soon condemn the Portuguese for this and other reasons.
Although he had left Canton, Simão de Andrade landed at
Xiamen
Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...
and
Ningbo
Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the Eas ...
, establishing settlements there.
[Douglas, 11.] Simão continued to defy local Chinese laws at Ningbo, and when his men were cheated on a trade deal with a Chinese man in 1545, Simão sent a band of armed men into the town, pillaged it, and took local women and young girls as their captives.
[Williams, 76.] The outraged locals banded together and slaughtered the Portuguese under Simão.
A similar episode occurred later when Coelho de Sousa seized the house of a wealthy foreign resident in Jinzhou of
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern 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 capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
, which led authorities to cut off supplies to the Portuguese; the Portuguese then attacked and ransacked a nearby village for supplies, which prompted Chinese authorities to destroy thirteen of their ships while thirty Portuguese survivors of this settlement fled to the
Portuguese settlement at Macau in 1549.
[Douglas, 11–12.]
End of the mission
The embassy party left behind in Canton in 1518 proceeded north in January 1520 with the rest of the Portuguese under Tomé Pires and Fernão Pires de Andrade.
The embassy reached Nanjing, where the Zhengde Emperor was touring in May 1520, granting the Portuguese embassy a quick audience.
However, further diplomatic negotiations were to be resumed once the emperor returned to Beijing; hence, the Portuguese embassy was sent there to wait for the emperor's return.
Although no Chinese sources detail the event, Portuguese sources tell of how the Portuguese were summoned on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month to ceremoniously prostrate themselves before a wall of the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...
to seek another audience with the emperor.
From Beijing, the Portuguese embassy heard reports that the emperor reached
Tongzhou in January 1521 and had the rebel Prince of Ning executed there.
The Portuguese embassy had also become aware that ambassadors from the
exiled King of Malacca were sent to Beijing seeking assistance from the Chinese emperor in expelling the conquering Portuguese so that their king could be reinstalled there.
The Portuguese also knew of two officials in the
Censorate
The Censorate was a high-level supervisory agency in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China, first established during the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). It was a highly effective agency during the Mongols, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ( ...
—Qiu Daolong and He Ao— who sent
memorials to the throne that condemned the Portuguese conquest of Malacca and that their embassy should be rejected.
[Wills, 338–339.] There were also reports sent to Beijing by Canton officials stating that the Portuguese were bothersome foreigners who sought to build their own trading post.
With the death of the Zhengde Emperor on April 19, 1521, mourning ceremonies were initiated that cancelled all other ceremonies, including the reception of foreign embassies.
[Wills, 339.] The newly appointed
Grand Secretary
The Grand Secretariat, or the Cabinet (), was nominally a coordinating agency but ''de facto'' the highest institution in the imperial government of the Chinese Ming dynasty. It first took shape after the Hongwu Emperor abolished the office of Ch ...
,
Yang Tinghe, soon turned against the powerful eunuch influence at court, which had grown even more powerful under the Zhengde Emperor.
Although Ming officials were of the opinion that only foreign tributary states listed during the beginning of the dynasty should be accepted at court, it was the eunuchs who wanted to expand commercial ties with new foreign countries.
These desires were given free rein under the Zhengde Emperor, who was intrigued with and desired to learn about foreign and exotic peoples.
However, with his death, eunuch influence at court was challenged by Yang Tinghe, who announced the rejection of the Portuguese embassy under Pires and Andrade the day after the emperor's death; the embassy was forced to leave and arrived back in Canton in September.
Open hostility to reopening of relations
Earlier, in April and May 1521, five Portuguese ships docked at
Tuen Mun
Tuen Mun () or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the mo ...
to begin trading, but were ordered to leave once officials came to the region to announce the emperor's death.
The Portuguese refused this demand, so the Chinese sent a naval squadron to drive them out, sinking one ship, killing many, and taking the rest as prisoners (
First Battle of Tamao).
Two more Portuguese vessels arrived in June, were attacked by Chinese ships, but were able to fend off the Chinese attack.
Three more Portuguese ships barely fended off another attack in September, the same month that Fernão Pires de Andrade and Tomé Pires arrived back at Canton.
Ming authorities would not permit Fernão and Pires to see the prisoners captured in the sea battles and made inventories of their goods and the goods captured from the Portuguese ships.
In August 1522, Martim Afonso de Melo Coutinho arrived at Tuen Mun with three ships, unaware of the conflict and expecting to meet with Chinese officials on establishing consent for a Portuguese trade base in China.
[Wills, 340.] Two of his ships were captured in a surprise Chinese attack, while the survivors escaped back to Portugal on the third ship (see
Second Battle of Tamao).
[Madureira, 150.] These encounters and others with the Portuguese brought the first
breech-loading
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...
culverin
A culverin was initially an ancestor of the hand-held arquebus, but the term was later used to describe a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon. The word is derived from the antiquated "culuering" and the French (from " grass snake", follo ...
s into China, mentioned even by the philosopher and scholar-official
Wang Yangming
Wang Shouren (, 26 October 1472 – 9 January 1529), courtesy name Bo'an (), art name Yangmingzi (), usually referred to as Wang Yangming (), was a Chinese statesman, general, and Neo-Confucian philosopher during the Ming dynasty. After Zhu ...
in 1519 when he suppressed Zhu Chenhao's rebellion in
Jiangxi
; Gan: )
, translit_lang1_type2 =
, translit_lang1_info2 =
, translit_lang1_type3 =
, translit_lang1_info3 =
, image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg
, mapsize = 275px
, map_caption = Location ...
.
The prisoners of these sea battles were eventually executed in 1523 for crimes of "robbery in the high seas" and cannibalism,
while Tomé Pires was kept prisoner so that he could write letters to the
King of Portugal
This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portugal, Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution.
Thro ...
, the Viceroy of
Portuguese India
The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...
, and the Governor of Malacca conveying the
new Ming emperor's message that the Portuguese should leave Malacca and restore it to the rightful rule of its deposed king.
By some accounts, Fernão Pires de Andrade simply died while imprisoned;
others say Andrade was one of those beheaded when a crime of false credentials was placed upon him after a court examined if his embassy was legitimate or spurious due to negative accounts of the Portuguese (i.e. acts committed by those such as Fernão Pires' brother Simào).
[Williams, 76–77.][Douglas, 10–11.] Tomé Pires died while living as a prisoner in China;
there is speculation on whether Tomé Pires died in 1524 or 1540.
[Madureira, 150–151.] Two survivors of this embassy were still alive around 1536, when they sent letters to Malacca and
Goa detailing plans for how the Portuguese could capture Canton by force.
Other survivors of these missions retired to nearby Lampaco (Lampa) in Guangdong, where a trade post would exist for several decades; in 1537, there were written records of the Portuguese having three warehouses at Lampa,
Shangchuan Island, and
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
, and were initially allowed there with the excuse of drying their goods in a storm.
Despite initial hostilities, good relations between the Portuguese and Chinese would resume in 1549 with annual Portuguese trade missions to Shangchuan Island, following an event where the Portuguese helped Ming authorities eliminate coastal pirates.
[Brook, 124.][Wills, 342.] In 1554, Leonel de Sousa—a later
Governor of Macau
The governor of Macau (; ) was a Portugal, Portuguese colonial official who headed the Portuguese Empire, colony of Portuguese Macau, Macau, before 1623 called captain-major (). The post was replaced on 20 December 1999 upon the handover of M ...
— established positive relations through
an agreement with Cantonese authorities[Denis Crispin Twitchett, John King Fairbank]
The Cambridge history of China, Volume 2; Volume 8
Cambridge University Press, 1978, and in 1557 the Ming court finally gave consent for a permanent and official Portuguese trade base at Macau.
[Wills, 343–344.] Although Fernão Pires de Andrade and his Portuguese comrades were the first to open up China to the West, another significant diplomatic mission reaching all the way to Beijing would not be carried out until an Italian, the Jesuit
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci (; ; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...
(1552–1610) ventured there in 1598.
See also
*
Chronology of European exploration of Asia
*
History of Hong Kong
The region of Hong Kong has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, Old Stone Age, later becoming part of the Chinese Empire with its loose incorporation into the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). Starting out as a Walled villages of Hong Kong, farming ...
*
History of Macau
Macau is a special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. It was leased to Portugal in 1557 as a trading post in exchange for a symbolic annual rent of 500 tael. Despite remaining under Chinese sovereignty and authori ...
*
Vasco Calvo
*
Europeans in Medieval China
Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty. These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Chris ...
Notes
References
*Birch, Walter de Gray (1875). The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India, translated from the Portuguese edition of 1774 Vol. III. London: The Hakluyt society.
*Brook, Timothy. (1998). ''
The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China''. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Paperback).
*Dames, Mansel Longworth. (2002) ''The Book of Duarte Barbosa''. New Delhi: J. Jelley; Asian Educational Services.
*Dion, Mark. "Sumatra through Portuguese Eyes: Excerpts from
João de Barros
João de Barros (; 1496 – 20 October 1570), nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his (''Decades of Asia''), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa.
Early y ...
' 'Decadas da Asia'," ''Indonesia'' (Volume 9, 1970): 128–162.
*Douglas, Robert Kennaway. (2006). ''Europe and the Far East''. Adamant Media Corporation. .
*Madureira, Luis. "Tropical Sex Fantasies and the Ambassador's Other Death: The Difference in Portuguese Colonialism," ''Cultural Critique'' (Number 28; Fall of 1994): 149–173.
*Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
*Nowell, Charles E. "The Discovery of the Pacific: A Suggested Change of Approach," ''The Pacific Historical Review'' (Volume XVI, Number 1; February, 1947): 1–10.
*Williams, S. Wells. (1897). ''A History of China: Being the Historical Chapters From "The Middle Kingdom"''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
* Wills, John E., Jr. (1998). "Relations with Maritime Europe, 1514–1662," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume 8, The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2'', 333–375. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote. New York: Cambridge University Press. .
*Wolff, Robert S. "Da Gama's Blundering: Trade Encounters in Africa and Asia during the European 'Age of Discovery,' 1450–1520," ''The History Teacher'' (Volume 31, Number 3; May 1998): 297–318.
External links
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Portugal, Spain, Africa and Asia contact
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrade, Fernao Pires
Explorers of Asia
16th-century Portuguese explorers
Diplomats for Portugal
Portuguese merchants
Ming dynasty
Portuguese Macau
History of Hong Kong
Guangzhou
Year of birth unknown
1523 deaths
Portuguese expatriates in China
16th-century Portuguese businesspeople
Explorers of South Asia
16th-century Macau people