Documental Anthology

2 CHAPTER CXXVI
The Very Great Kingdom of China

Leaving these islands which no man can number and the names whereof we know not, some inhabited and some lying waste, I turn to the coast which goes from Malacca towards the Chins{1} [of which I myself know nothing but have enquired from trustworthy Moors and Heathen who have told me that there were four uninhabited islands; and through them I have only learned that] after passing by the Kingdom of Ansiam and many others there is the Kingdom of China, which they say is a very great country ruling the main and the sea-coast and inhabited by Heathen. The King threof is a Heathen and gives great worship to Idols; he dwells ever in the inland region and holds many great and fair cities. No strangers may enter the inland country, but they may trade in the seaports; their [chief] trade is in the islands.

If any ambassador from another Kingdom comes thither by sea, they first make known to him (i. e., to the King), that they are bringing to him certain embassies and presentes, and then he orders the ambassador to go to the place where he is dwelling.

The inhabitants of this land are great merchants; they are white men, and well built. Both men and women have small eyes, in their beards they have three or four hairs and no more, as a sign of gentility, and the smaller their eyes are the more repute they have as well-bred men. The women are trimly attired in garnments of cotton, silk, and wool. The manner of dressing among the people of this land is as among the Germans, 1 they eat like us at raised tables with very white cloths thereon, and for as many persons as are to eat at one table they lay a knife, a plate, a napkin and a silver cup: they touch not with the hand anything they eat, but bring the plate near to the mouth, and with certain wooden or silver tongs they convey the food to the mouth in very small pieces because they eat very quickly. They make numerous dishes of flesh, fish and many other things; they eat good wheaten bread and drink wines of diverse kinds and many times at each meal. They eat dogs' flesh and hold it to be very good meat.

They are very thruthful men, yet they are not great gentlemen but good merchants dealing in goods of all kinds.

They make here great store of porcelain{2}which is good merchandise everywhere. This they make from the shells of fish ground fine, from eggshells and the water of eggs and other materials. From these they make a paste which they place under the ground "for a certain time" [for eighty and a hundred years. Ramusio and the Spanish version]. This among them is held to be a valuable property and treasure, for the nearer the time approaches for working it the greater is its value [and this pastye they leave as a treasure to their sons, and they always have some left to them by their ancient predecessors with records of it, place by place]. And when the time is fulfilled they fashion in many styles and manners, some coarse, some fine, and after it is shaped they glaze and paint it. 2 [And in the same place where it was buried they place fresh paste, so they always have the old to work on when the new to bury].

Very good silk is produced here from which they make great store of damask cloths in colours, satins and other cloths without nap, also brocades. There is here also abundance of rhubarb, musk, silver, seedpearls (although not perfectly round).

PAU-DA-CHINA (CHINA ROOT or RADIX CHINA). In: COSTA, Cristóvão da, Tractado de las Drogas y Medecinas de las Indias Orientales. Burgos, 1578.

In this Kingdom they make beautiful and gilded ornamental articles such as very rich boxes, wooden dishes, salt-cellars and other cunning things; and for this there are many very skilful men.

"They wear boots like the people of cold countries."

They sail in juncos,which carry sails made of mats "as in Moçambique" [and have two masts fashioned otherwise than ours]. 3 "Their cables ae made of certain canes (i. e., rattans). Some of them are great pirates. 4 They sail{3} to Malaca with all the Chinese goods which have a great sale there; and take cargoes of iron in abundance, saltpetre, raw silk and other small things," such as the Venetians used formerly to bring to us, "also pepper from Çamatra and Malabar which in China is worth fifteen or sixteen cruzados the quintal and upwards according to whither they take it, and in Malaca they buy it at four cruzados or less. They also take anfiam which we call opium (opeo), incense, coral, Cambaya and Paleacate cloths.

These Chins who live by trade and navigation always take their wives and children with them in their ships where they live constantly and have no other houses. 5

The Kingdom of China marches with Tartaria on the northern side.

Revised reprint of:

[BARBOSA, Duarte], The Book of Duarte Barbosa. /An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants, written by Duarte Barbosa, and completed about the year 1518A. D. /Translated from the Portuguese text, first published in 1812A. D. by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, in vol. II of its Collection of Documents regarding the History and Geography of the Nations beyond the seas, and edited and annotated by / MANSEL LONGWORTH DAMES, Indian Civil Service (Retired); Vice-President Royal Asiatic Society and Royal Anthropological Institute; F. R. N. S.; M. F. S., 2 vols., London, Hakluyt Society, 1921, vol.2, [Including the Coasts of Malabar, Eastern India, further India, China and the Indian Archipelago], Chap. 126., pp.211-215 [second series, No. XLIX].

For the Portuguese text, see:

PIRES, Tomé, LOUREIRO, Rui Manuel, intro., Suma Oriental, 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. 18-26 -- For the Portuguese modernised version 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 text, see:

DUARTE BARBOSA, ALBUQUERQUE, Luís de, ed., Livro do Que Viu e Ouviu no Oriente Duarte Barbosa, Lisboa, Publicações Alfa, 1898, pp.155-157 -- Partial transcription. This edition was compared with Codice. 11008 of the work, considered its most complete manuscript, which is kept in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa (Lisbon National Library), in Lisbon.

NOTES

The numeration of these notes specifically refer to the section of Duarte Barbosa'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.29.

The prevailing numeration of these notes is indicated between curly brackets《{ }》and is cross-referenced to Mansel Longworth Dames' English translation [MLD] of Duarte Barbosa's original text, indicated immediately after, in between flat brackets 《[ ]》.

The contents of these notes have been transferred in their entirety exactly as they appear in Mansel Longworth Dames' English translation [MLD] of Duarte Barbosa's text, and do not follow the standardized formatting of the "Review of Culture".

Whenever followed by a superciliary asterix《*》, these notes' bibliographic references are alphabetically repertoried according to their author's name in this issue's SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY following the standardized formatting of the "Review of Culture".

{1} [MLD: pp.211-212, n. l] The first Portuguese communication with China. It is evident that Duarte Barbosa had left India before any direct communication had been established between the Portuguese and China. He says that his information was derived from Moors ar Heathen, no doubt Arab merchants, Malays or Hindus. Had any Portuguese or European expedition been known to him he would undoubtedly have alluded to it. Yet in his account of Ceylon (p. 109, n.3) he alludes to the creation of a fort by Lopes Soares d'Albergaria, which took place in September, 1518, and the information regarding it must probably, like that of the destruction of Berbera by Saldanha in the same year (see Introduction, vol. I, p. xlv), have reached him after his return to Portugal. But of the Portuguese expedition under Fernão Peres de Andrade which sailed on its return voyage from China at the end of September 1518, and arrived in 1519 at Cochin, he evidently had not heard.

But other information from European sources may have come to his knowledge. Mr. Donald Ferguson in his Letters from Portuguese Captives in Canton, p.4, alludes to a passage in a letter from Andrea Corsali to the Duke Giuliano de'Medici to which attention had already been drawn by Yule (Yule and Cordier, Cathay, I, p.180). Corsali gives some information similar to that given by Barbosa, but less full and accurate. His letter is dated (see text in Ramusio, vol.1, f. 177v tol80v) January 6th, 1515, but this is evidently a mistake, for in this very letter he alludes to the death of Alboquerque { Afonso de Albuquerque }, which took place on his arrival from Hurmuz {Ormuz} at Goa on December 16th, 1515. The date of the letter should therefore be corrected to January 6th, 1516. Corsali's second letter (Ramusio, I, f. 181) gives the date of his own departure from Goa on his return journey as February 8th, 1516.

A letter from Giovanni da Empoli (who afterwards accompanied Fernão Peres de Andrade to China, where he died in October, 1517), dated from Cochin, November 15th, 1515, is published in Archivo Storico Italiano, App. III, pp.85-87, and translated by D. Ferguson (l. c., p.5). In this he alludes to China, "where men of ours have been who are staying here." Mr. Ferguson compares the account of China given in this letter unfavourably with "the wonderfully accurate description of China (from hearsay) given by Duarte Barbosa." There are some curious points of resemblance in Giovanni da Empoli's account to that of our author especially the treatment that the Chinese dress like the Germans.

There had been an earlier expedition to China regarding which we have little information, viz., that of Jorge Alvares sent out from Malacca in 1514, regarding which we only know from De Barros {João de Barros} (III, vi,2, f. 159-160) that he claimed to have arrived in China a year before Rafael Perestrelo (who went on a private venture of his own in 1515 and returned to India in August 1516) and to have erected a padrão with the arms of Portugal, and that he was still at Canton {Guangzhou} when Duarte Coelho arrived on June 21st, 1521, but died a few days after (D. Ferguson, l. c., pp.3-4). How far any of these voyages were known to Duarte Barbosa is not easy to say, but if he accompanied the ships he had been ordered by Alboquerque to build and went to the Red Sea, where he was present at the taking of Zeila in 1517 (Introduction, Vol. I, p. xlv) it is probable that he left before Perestrelo's return, and before Fernão Peres de Andrade had started on his last and successful voyage to China.

For the full history of the first Portuguese communications with China reference should be made to Mr. Donald Ferguson's work already quoted and also to an essay by M. Henri Cordier "L'Arrivée des Portugais en Chine", published in vol. XII of T'oung-Pao (Leiden, 1911) which forms the first part of M. Cordier's Histoire Générale des Relations de l'Empire Chinois avec les Puissances Occidentales depuis le XVIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours. The introductory portion contains an excellent sketch of the early history of the Portuguese in the East. In this essay (p.520, n.2) M. Cordier says that "Mr. Ferguson's work is by far the best there is on the subject."

M. Cordier (p.5 12), like Mr. Ferguson, in alluding to the letter of Andrea Corsali mentioned above has not noticed the error in the date. It is evident that we must read 1516 for 1515, and Mr. Cordier's deduction to the effect that this letter "leaves no doubt as to the year of the arrival of the Portuguese in China, that is to say 1514" must be modified, the date being 1513. The letter of Giovanni da Empoli of November 15th, 1515, written from Cochin, must therefore take precedence of that of Andrea Corsali as the first record of Portuguese intercourse with China. Giovanni da Empoli had come out in the same fleet as the new governor and Fernão Peres de Andrade and accompanied Jorge de Brito, the new captain of Malacca. Correa tells us (II, p.473) that "Fernão Peres went to seek for Pacem, where he expected to find a cargo of pepper ready for he had sent with Jorge de Brito a frolentim (Florentine) called Joanes in the ship of Antonio Pacheco, who had collected a good cargo, which was burnt while the ship was loading."

De Barros (III, ii, chap.6, fol.42) in his account of this event says "It happened through the sailors' carelessness from a spark of a torch carried below to fetch water that the ship in which Ioannes Impoli went as Captain and feitor was burnt with all the cargo that was below decks."

From these extracts it is evident that Giovanni da Empoli came to India with the special intention of taking part in the Chinese expedition and that he was in a position to obtain all the information available at Cochin.

{2} [MLD, p.213, n.1] Porcelain. This legend of the burial of materials out of which porcelain is made for some time, which in the Spanish version and Ramusio has been converted into eighty or a hundred years, copied also by Linschoten (I, p. 130), has no foundation in fact and Mr. R. L. Hobson, one of our principal authorities on the subject, informs me that it is most improbable and that the Chinese authorities mention no such practice. The use of the white of eggs is also imaginary. Sea shells may have been used for lime, but not as one of the ingredients of the paste.

{3} [MLD, p.214, n. l] Chinese navigation and trade. Chinese ships had been accustomed to visit neighbouring countries from an early date. Very full information on this subject from Chinese sources was brought together by the late Mr. W. W. Rockhill in his Notes on the Relations and Trade of China, published in T'oung-Pao (Leiden), Vols. XVI and XVI. This trade reached its greatest extension under the Sung· dynasty (eleventh and twelfth centuries), and included all the principal Islands of the Malay Archipelago, as well as India, Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Under the reign of the great Mongol Emperor Kubilai Kaan· the trade was vigorously developed, and continued to be active under the Yuan· and Ming· dynasties (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). No doubt there was then, as there has been in quite modern times, a great deal of piracy among the maritime population of the islands and inlets of the Chinese coast.

Malacca was a great centre of Chinese trade and there from the time of Alboquerque's conquest the Portuguese got into close relations with the merchants of that country, and often made use of their junks. Alboquerque was especially careful to be conciliatory in his dealings with the Chinese trading class, and was anxious to open up communications with China.

NOTES

Numeration without punctuation marks follow that in Duarte Barbosa'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.29.

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 -- followed by the spelling of Mansel Longworth Dames' English translation [MLD], indicated immediately after, between quotation marks within parentheses《(" ")》.

1 It is curious to note that the Chinese are compared to the Germans in a number of texts from the first decades of the sixteenth century.

2 The author's description of "porcelana[s] " ("porcelain") is quite fantasious. It was undoubtedly based on hearsay reports widespeard in the seaports of the Far East where Chinese wares were held in high esteem.

3 This is an interesting a priori description of Chinese "junco[s]" [original Port.]("junco[s]") [junks] which the author had not yet observed.

4 Throughout the sixteenth century the meridional regions of China were plagued by continual multinational piracy.

5 The fact that the Chinese merchants took their families along on their travels greatly astonished the first Portuguese voyagers who belonged to a civilization which always held maritime excursions and life at sea in general to be the exclusive realm of men.

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