[INTRODUCTION]
João de Escobar was a clerk for Gil de Góis' ambassadorial mission which was sent to China by Dom Francisco Coutinho, Governor of the Portuguese State of India [1561-1564], to attempt formalising Luso-Chinese relations and to obtain permission for the Fathers from the Society of Jesus to enter the Chinese Empire. In 1563 he would have travelled from Goa to Macao on board the ambassador's nao. He visited the city of Guangzhou· on several occasions and took part in the famous campaign against Chinese pirates in 1564, jointly organised by the Guangdongnese and Portuguese authorities already established in Macao. Two extensive Comentários [...] (Commentaries [...]) were prepared by him of which only the second part barely survives in a copy kept in the Jesuitic Roman Archives [A. R. S. I. (Archivum Romanum Societatis lesu): Goa, fol.38]. His accounts became crucial in clarifying once and for all some of the most important episodes in the first years of the Cidade do [Santo] Nome de Deus (City of the [Holy] Name of God). This important document remained unpublished until quite recently, when in 1996 it appeared unabridged in print for the first time.
Porto de macao(Port of Macao).
ANONYMOUS.
ca1640. Watercolour on paper.
In: SILVEIRA, Luís, ed., Livro das Plantas das Fortalezas, Cidades e Povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental, Lisboa, Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropcal,1991, p.109.
* MS., Macau, 1565.
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