YEARLY REPORT OF THE DEEDS
REALIZED BY THE FATHERS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS & II

[INTRODUCTION]

The missionaries of the Society of Jesus set foot in Goa for the first time in 1542, to start an intense evangelising activity in many regions bordering the coasts of Asia. Since the very beginning of their activities became common practise to regularly send to Europe long letters relating the major achievements of each mission and minutely describing the problems and realities of their overseas expansion. The Superiors of the Society of Jesus fully aware of the extreme importance of such correspondence which stood as powerful 'weapons' of religious propaganda as well as greatly enriching the geographical knowledge of those regions in Europe, did not take long to organise their publication in collections of varied amplitude. During the second half of the sixteenth century, renewed publications of theses Jesuitic letters appeared in many parts of Europe, not only maintaining the interested readers informed of the development of the missions in the Orient but also revealing the geography and etnography of parts of the world virtually unknown.

Fr. Fernão Guerreiro [°1550-†1617] Superior of the Jesuit congregation in Lisbon was responsible for one of the most important collections of these letters from overseas missionaries of the Order. The five [sic] volumes of his Relação Anual das Coisas que Fizeram os Padres da Campanhia de Jesus nas Partes da India [...] (Yearly Report of the Deeds Realized by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in India [...]) were published between 1603 and 1611, in Evora and Lisboa. The diligent editor, having as major reference the yearly Carta Annuas (Annual Letters) sent by his overseas colleagues, presents a vast and well documented panorama of the regions in Asia where the Society of Jesus developed its most intense activities, specially emphasising India, China and Japan. The contents of the successive tomes of the Relação Anual [...] (Yearly Report [...]) went well beyond presenting a summary of religious activities to relate, with considerable lenght and detail, on the political situation, the geographical environment and the most relevant cultural and social practises of the regions were the Society of Jesus had established missions. The following extract succintly relates daily life in Macao during the first years of the seventeenth century.

First edition: Lisbon, 1605.

20

MACAO COLLEGE IN CHINA

On a tip of land like a peninsula, in the Chinese Kingdom's province of Guangdong, • there is a Portuguese episcopal city1 called Macao, where the Society [of Jesus] has a College. 2 Normally there are thirty [Fathers] in residence there, although this year [in 1601] there were nearly sixty, because those who had gone to Japan, in the years 1600 and 1601, were spending the winter. And as this College is the seminary of two such large missions and enterprises, as are those of Japan and China, in it are lectured humanities[s], the arts and theology, being here where those commited {to work in these two missions} master themselves in the arts and spiritual {development}. *3 The conversion of the heathens does not usually take place here because there is no building where they can teach the catechisms, but they still baptise some people throughout the year.

This year Our Lord blessed with some tribulations this College because of a huge fire which disastrously set our church alight. 4 However, when it happened, as all the city was so devoted to the Fathers, not only the men but even women and highly honourable ladies left their homes and went onto the streets, along with their girls and slaves, carrying pails of water, which they gave to their husbands and young men to throw onto the fire, which was so fierce that they barely had the chance to rescue the sacrarium of the Holy Sacrament. And if it were not for the enormous efforts which everyone made, there everything in the entire College which would have been burnt, because the fire leapt from the church and set three other areas on fire. The church was burnt to such an extent that there remained nothing more than the walls gaping with holes and cracks from the heat. As they were made of mortar and clay, there was not possible to repair them, and it was necessary to lodge everyone in one of the schoolrooms, which served in the meantime while another was being built. And because of this, apart from the donations which many people gave and as it was a time of great need and scarcity on account of the men having lost almost all their capital on the nao, which had got lost coming from Japan5 all the city's inhabitants, moved by pity and compassion, made a collection in which, before the Captain Major, by universal consent, they gave the building half-a-percent of all their Japan trade if Our Lord saved the nao which they were waiting for. And they helped very well because God had brought them great prosperity. And this donation was not so small as it reached three thousand, one hundred and thirty pardaus de reales. 6

There have been terrible storms in these parts this year, equally at sea as on land. The ones on land were so strong that houses were destroyed, or at least had their roof tiles blown off. Our College, as it is situated high up, suffered a lot of damage, destroying part of it, which happening after the fire's repairs and caused much damage. At sea, among other damage, it rammed to the coast fourteen leagues from here one of the naos coming from {the Portuguese State of} India, in which, apart from medicines, it was lost, only in reales, four-hundred thousand pardaus, which was almost the total capital of the businessmen in India. Many people also drowned and others were cut and wounded from the nailed planks and beams which floated on the sea's waves. And before they lost the nao, some people also died from a streak of lightening which struck there. The other two ships, in one of which were ten of our Fathers, arrived completely destroyed and, taking into account the extreme danger in which they had arrived, God had miraculously saved it for the many acts of service that they had done for Him on board.

The day after the arrival of the ships, another three appeared at sea, which had come quite safely with their sails fully extended as if they had not experienced the passing storm. 7 They were two large {ships} and a small two masted pinnace. 8 They were soon understood to be enemies, as not one of them [the vessels] were expected by anyone, for they were arriving from {the Portuguese State of} India as there were no winds to bring them from anywhere else. And as this city has no walls or fortifications nor any garrison of artillery and soldiers, those on land did not feel safe in their houses, and gathered together all their silver and other clothing in this college, all asking the rector if in the event of the enemy attempting to disembark, he would give them permission for the women and families to gather within {our walls}, because if the enemy invaded the beach, they resolved to retreat to the college, being higher up and defendable; and in the event that God wished to punish them, by allowing the enemy to prevail, they would take comfort [in] ending up among the Fathers.

Dom Paulo of Portugal was here as the local commander and soon organised the people that there were on land in the best way possible for the short time they had, and placed them in position just where the enemy were heading to, who were appearing quite close to land with big white flags astern on a skiff, 9 sent off from the main ship, which they saw reach land with eleven men to ascertain and know where they were. They were soon overcome by some of our boats and two of them were brought before the captain, where they said they were Dutch and had come to to find merchandise10 and establish trade in these lands. And because some of the other fellow sailors said that the ships brought seven hundred men, they were on guard with us all night.

In the morning of the following day the enemy came as their sailors from the skiff had not returned, and launched the two masted pinnace, which entered by the canal in front of the city and explored the entrance. Three or four of our vessels went out, and soon took nine men captive, among them being the pilot and the foreman of the main ship, four pieces of artillery and other weapons of war. The ships, coming to take their two masked pinnace, soon set off and went and anchored out there at eighteen or twenty leagues, upon which the local commander armed six row boats and being already prepared and embarked to look for them, then received the information that they had gone. Of those who remained prisoners, most of them died according to the law, but Our Lord was served through us, as all of them converted and ended up confessing to the Catholic faith and obeying the High Pontifice. They confessed with the Holy Sacrament on several occasions, and showed that they died quite consoled, asking God's forgiveness under the circumstances. 11

Translated from the Portuguese by: Linda Pearce

For the Portuguese translation see:

GUERREIRO, Fernão, LOUREIRO, Rui Manuel, intro., Relação Anual das Coisas que Fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus nas suas Missões, in "Antologia Documental: Visões da China na Literatura Ibérica dos Séculos XVI e XVII", in "Revista de Cultura":, Macau, 31 (2) Abril-Junho [April-June] 1997, pp.135-136 & For the Portuguese modernised translation by the author of the original text, with words or expressions between square brackets added to clarify the meaning.

For the original source of the Portuguese translation, see:

[GUERREIRO, Fernão,] VIEGAS, Artur, ed., Relação Anual das Coisas que Fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus nas suas Missões, 2 vols., Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1930, tome 2, pp.235-237 -- Partial transcription.

NOTES

*Translator's note: Words or expressions between curly brackets occur only in the English translation.

Numeration without punctuation marks follow that in Fernão Guerreiro's original text selected in Rui Loureiro's edited text in "Revista de Cultura" (Portuguese edition), Macau, 31 (2) Abril-Junho [April-June] 1997, p.136.

The spelling of Rui Loureiro's edited text [Port.] is indicated between quotation marks and in italics «" " » - unless the spelling of the original Portuguese text is indicated.

1 Dom Leonardo de Sá, specifically elected in 1579 as the first Tutelary Bishop of the Macao Diocese, reached the Colony in 1581.

2 The Colégio de São Paulo (St. Paul's College) had been founded in 1594.

3 Macao was in effect serving as a base to help the Jesuit Fathers who were on their way to Japan, where since 1549, they had developed a prosperous mission, and also in China, where they had managed to enter since 1583.

4 St. Paul's College was the scene of more than one fire. However its final destruction, which reduced the College to ruins, was caused by the great fire of 1835.

5 In 1599 the junk captained by Nuno Medonça got lost in the return 'Japan voyage', between Japan and Malacca, bringing a cargo estimated at four-hundred thousand cruzados. That same year no outgoing 'Japan voyage' took place between Malacca and Japan.

6 The author was referring to the 'big ship' which went to Japan in 1600, under the command of Horácio Nerete, in behalf of the Captain-Major Dom Pedro de Portugal, who stayed in Macao. The 'Japan voyage' ended successfully.

One "pardau" [Port.] & a gold or silver coin -- was worth about three-hundred reales ("réis" [Port.]) [or reais ?]. A reale was a Spanish coin, minted in American silver, which was common in the Far East after the Spanish had established themselves in the Philippines in 1565.

7 This concerns a Dutch fleet of three ships, commanded by Jacob van Neck, who had come to explore the possibilities of trade on the Chinese coast. In the years that followed, the Dutch continued to systematically wage war on shipping and the Portuguese oriental trading posts, and acquired several posts.

8 "patacho " [original Port.] ("[…] two masted pinnace."): vessel with two or three masts similar in structure to the Portuguese nao [Port.: 'nau']. {sic}

9 "esquife" [original Port.] ("skiff"): small rowing vessel used to shuttle from the ships of bigger tonnage.

10 "veniaga[s] " [Port.] ('trade' or 'commodities'): meaning, 'mercadoria[s]' ("merchandise").

11 The Dutch were summarily executed, with the exception of two boys and the Administrator ("feitor" [Port.]), who came before the Teller ("ouvidor" [Port.]) {sic} of Macao, who feared the presence of foreigners in the city could prejudice the good relationship the Portuguese had with the Guangdongnese authorities.