[INTRODUCTION]
This anonymously written Informação da China [...] (Information on China [...]), dating from 1548, has been attributed, without much foundation, to Fr. Francisco [Francis] Xavier [°1506-†1552]. The famous Jesuit landed in India in 1542 and would then travel on around all the Asian seas, looking for suitable bases for setting up missions in the Far East for the Society of Jesus. In 1547, while passing through Malacca [presently Melaka] on his way to a Japanese archipelago which had recently been explored, Francis Xavier gave a Portuguese acquaintance a detailed questionnaire for information about China in an attempt to obtain more specific facts about this enigmatic Empire. It is certain that Portuguese adventurers and merchants had visited the ports on China's coast almost without interruption for around three decades already. However, up until then no-one was concerned with compiling accounts which went beyond a level of elementary first impressions. The Portuguese were mainly interested in questions relating to trade or shipping: products which were available or scarce, prices, weights and measures, diaries about fairs and markets, and also the most accessible ports, routes, anchorages, winds and currents.
The inquisitive initiative of this Jesuit Father saw the awakening of the importance of a more profound knowledge of oriental peoples, giving rise to a cultural interest in China. The learned Francis Xavier seems to have been one of the first Europeans to try to obtain a new kind of information about China which was not of the practical kind. The anonymous author of Informação da China [...] (Information on China [...]) presented information on specific aspects of Chinese life which had never been published, like the formation and contents of the teaching system, scholars' statutes, types of lettering, the diffusion of typography and the living conditions of foreign communities in Chinese territory. Even so, some utilitarianism is notable in this text, as all the questions touched on are strictly related to the Jesuit missionary project.
A careful reading of this account shows that the process of correlating all this information was quite elaborate. In the first place, Francis Xavier would have written down the original questionnaire, which he would have then handed over to some noble merchant he knew. This man would subsequently try to answer the Jesuit's various questions by searching into his own life experiences in the Far East and also by using the services of a Chinese informer, probably some business associate. The final result, the Informação da China [...] (Information on China [...]) which we know, would later be handed over to Francis Xavier.
The well-known twentieth century historian, Georg Schurhammer, attributed the writing of this account to Afonso Gentil, a Portuguese noble with much experience in the Orient, who carried out different official functions in Malacca and the Moluccas and travelled around the South China Sea between 1529 and 1533, dedicating himself to trade.
A copy of the Informacão da China [...] (Information on China [...]) was soon included in a collection of various material about Asian affairs in 1548 or 1549, which had been organised on the insistence of Garcia de Sá, during his brief period as Governor of the [Portuguese] State of India, 1548-1549.
*MS., Goa, 1548.
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