Fernão Pires de Andrade
Fernão Pires de Andrade | |
---|---|
Died | 1552 |
Nationality | Portuguese |
Occupation(s) | Merchant, pharmacist and diplomat |
Known for | Diplomatic encounter with the Chinese Ming dynasty |
Fernão Pires de Andrade (also spelled as Fernão Peres de Andrade; in contemporary sources, Fernam (Fernã) Perez Dandrade[1]) (d. 1552)[2] was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and diplomat who worked under the explorer and colonial administrator Afonso de Albuquerque. His encounter with Ming China in 1517—after initial contacts by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello 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, notably Marco Polo, that period of contact had been interrupted by the fall of the Yuan dynasty.)
Although de Andrade's mission was initially a success that allowed a Portuguese embassy to proceed all the way to
Andrade was referred to as a "
Voyages abroad
India, Sumatra, and Malacca
Fernão Pires de Andrade commanded a vessel in the naval venture of the Portuguese explorer and conqueror
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.
Initial contact with China
After the
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 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.[12] 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.[12] However, Giovanni would die in China during the early mission on October 15, 1517 when the ship he was on accidentally caught on fire.[14] Tomé Pires, a royal apothecary 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.[12]
First contact
Although the mission was stalled once they lost a ship in the
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.
Although the local Canton officials watched the Portuguese and their ships closely, once the
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.[17] Simão immediately made a bad impression upon the Chinese when he built a fort at the center of Tuen Mun, an island designated for all foreigners to trade.[17] 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.[17] 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.[18]
The greatest offense to the Chinese was the supposed kidnapping of children by the Portuguese so they could eat them.[18] 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.[18] In fact, some boys and girls from wealthy Chinese families were later found by Portuguese authorities at Diu in western India.[18] 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.[18]
Although he had left Canton, Simão de Andrade landed at Xiamen and Ningbo, establishing settlements there.[19] 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.[19][20] The outraged locals banded together and slaughtered the Portuguese under Simão.[19] A similar episode occurred later when Coelho de Sousa seized the house of a wealthy foreign resident in Jinzhou of Fujian, 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.[20][21]
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.[18] The embassy reached Nanjing, where the Zhengde Emperor was touring in May 1520, granting the Portuguese embassy a quick audience.[18] 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.[18]
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
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.[23] The newly appointed Grand Secretary, Yang Tinghe, soon turned against the powerful eunuch influence at court, which had grown even more powerful under the Zhengde Emperor.[23] 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.[23] These desires were given free rein under the Zhengde Emperor, who was intrigued with and desired to learn about foreign and exotic peoples.[18] 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.[23]
Open hostility to reopening of relations
Earlier, in April and May 1521, five Portuguese ships docked at
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.
The prisoners of these sea battles were eventually executed in 1523 for crimes of "robbery in the high seas" and cannibalism,
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.
See also
- Chronology of European exploration of Asia
- History of Hong Kong
- History of Macau
- Vasco Calvo
- Europeans in Medieval China
Notes
- ^ João de Barros, 3rd Decada, Book II.
- ^ "Andrade, Fernão Peres de, -1552". Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f Wills, 340.
- ^ a b c Dion, 135.
- ^ Dion, 138.
- ^ Birch, 63.
- ^ Dion, 138–139.
- ^ a b Dion, 139.
- ^ Dion, 144.
- ^ a b c Dion, 146.
- ^ Wolff, 311.
- ^ a b c d e f Wills, 336.
- ^ Dames, 247.
- ^ Dames, 211–212.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wills, 337.
- ^ Nowell, 8.
- ^ a b c Wills, 337–338.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wills, 338.
- ^ a b c d Douglas, 11.
- ^ a b Williams, 76.
- ^ Douglas, 11–12.
- ^ a b Wills, 338–339.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wills, 339.
- ^ a b Madureira, 150.
- ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 369, 372, 374.
- ^ a b Williams, 76–77.
- ^ Douglas, 10–11.
- ^ Madureira, 150–151.
- ^ Brook, 124.
- ^ Wills, 342.
- ISBN 0-521-24333-5
- ^ Wills, 343–344.
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). ISBN 0-520-22154-0(Paperback).
- Dames, Mansel Longworth. (2002) The Book of Duarte Barbosa. New Delhi: J. Jelley; Asian Educational Services. ISBN 81-206-0451-2
- Dion, Mark. "Sumatra through Portuguese Eyes: Excerpts from João de Barros' 'Decadas da Asia'," Indonesia (Volume 9, 1970): 128–162.
- Douglas, Robert Kennaway. (2006). Europe and the Far East. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0-543-93972-3.
- 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. ISBN 0-521-24333-5.
- 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
- Jayne, Kingsley Garland; Prestage, Edgar (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 144. . In
- Portugal, Spain, Africa and Asia contact