Documental Anthology

CERTAIN REPORTS OF CHINA*

Galiote Pereira

[INTRODUCTION]

Galiote Pereira was a nobleman of the Portuguese Royal Court, son of the alcalde (Mayor) of Arraiolos, and in 1534 he set off for the Orient with a fleet of ships. Five years later he was in Malacca [presently Melaka] under the service of Pêro de Faria, a man with great experience overseas who took on the leadership of that fortress for the second time. Given the connections this captain had with trade in China, it is probable that Galiote Pereira would have dedicated himself to merchant activities in the years that followed. In 1548 he boarded Diogo Pereira's ship in Malacca. Pereira was a very rich Portuguese ship owner who intended heading for the Chinese coast and from there attempting to sell two junk loads of merchandise. The situation which they encountered on the coast of the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian was quite confusing and presented an unfavourable atmosphere for the Portuguese traders because the imperial fleet had unleashed a violent campaign against foreign pirates.

In a sudden battle the crew of Diogo Pereira's two ships were taken prisoner by the Chinese authorities in 1549, being the survivors of the conflict which had taken place, and they were transported to the city of Fuzhou· to be placed before the court of judges. In the meantime, the viceroy of the province seems to have exercised reprisals of a far too violent nature on foreign maritime trading and the prisoners, setting off a protest movement from those Chinese traditionally involved in foreign trade. In the short term a commission of inquiry, originating from Beijing· clarified the situation, punishing the overly zealous functionaries and alleviating the situation in captivity of many of the Portuguese involved in the legal proceedings.

Galiote Pereira lived through all these events as he was part of the captured group of Portuguese. Once the imperial inquiry was finished, he and some of his companions were condemned to internal exile in the Guangxi· province, from where they were fortunately secretly transferred, thereby having contact with the interior regions of China which had never before been visited by the Portuguese. Galiote Pereira seems to have lived in Gueilin• city for some time. However, as he enjoyed relative freedom of movement, he ended up escaping thanks to the complicity of Chinese intermediaries, and reached Shangchuan Dao• at the beginning of 1553, from where all Sino-Portuguese trade contacts developed.

Once free again, Galiote Pereira set off to India where he remained for the following years, carrying out various posts in the governing of the region. In the meantime, with no certain dates and perhaps at the insistence of Jesuit Fathers, he prepared an extensive account of his travels in China which would later be widely distributed by the Society of Jesus. After the death of Fr. Francis Xavier, precisely on Shangchuan Dao, the Company of Jesus devoted greater attention to China and considered it as one of their most urgent missionary objectives. The Treatise, Algumas Coisas sabidas da China [...] (Certain Reports of China [...]), as well as telling of the misfortunes of the Portuguese prisoners, presented an attentive and well-informed description of several aspects of Chinese reality. Galiote Pereira, as well as being an avid observer, seems to have remained quite impressed with the Middle Kingdom which he took pleasure in praising throughout his accounts, singling out the Chinese in a positive way from all other oriental peoples in contact with the Portuguese up until then. The work of this noble merchant was only recently published in Portugal in its entirety. The passage quoted here mainly refers to the Chinese judicial system, which Galiote Pereira had the opportunity to know at first hand during his time in captivity on Chinese soil.

* MS., Goa, ca1555.

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