106 Boundaries and Beyond
because their Chinese contacts said it was against their custom to let
foreigners enter their dwellings. However, the Portuguese were able “to
sell their goods at a great gain”.^22
Soon after this successful voyage, a second expedition went to China
in 1515, under the leadership of Rafael Perestrelo, a man of Italian
extraction in Portuguese service, who took with him a number of
Portuguese. This time they traveled on board a junk belonging to a native
merchant of Malacca. Perestrelo returned to Malacca in late 1516 with
a great proβit,^23 and brought back the welcome news “that the Chinese
desired peace and friendship with the Portuguese, and that they were a
very good people”.^24
These βirst contacts with the south China coast by Portuguese
merchant-adventurers who sailed from Malacca on Chinese or native
junks demonstrated that there was “as great proβit in taking spices to
China as in taking them to Portugal”.^25 According to one estimate, pepper
could be sent from Malacca to China at a proβit of 300 per cent.^26
At the beginning of September 1515, a new governor-general of India,
Lopo Soares de Albergaria, arrived at Goa. With him came Fernão Peres
de Andrade, whom the king sent as captain-major of a βleet to sail from
India “to discover China” and take a Portuguese ambassador there. Tomé
Pires, the royal apothecary, was chosen to be the ambassador because he
was “discreet and eager to learn”, and “would know better than anyone
else the drugs there were in China”.^27
Andrade went from Malacca to Pasai in December to collect a cargo
of pepper. He then returned to Malacca, and in June 1517 sailed to
China with seven or eight ships, including three junks. One junk was
owned by a Malaccan merchant named Curiaraja, another also by a
Malacca merchant called Pulata and a third by António Lobo Falcão. The
βleet arrived at Tunmen on 15 August 1517.^28
They found a conducive environment. The latter half of the βifteenth
and the early years of the sixteenth century constituted “a relatively stable
and prosperous period in which ... [Ming China’s] economy grew, internal
trade βlourished and along the coast, private overseas trade gradually
developed in spite of continuing laws and interdictions carried over from
- Ferguson, “Letters”, p. 423.
- Cortesão, “Introduction”, p. xxx.
- Chang T’ien-tse, Sino-Portuguese Trade from 1514 to 1644 (Leiden: Late E.J. Brill
Ltd., 1934), p. 38. - Cited in Boxer, South China, p. xx.
- Ibid., fn. l, p. xx.
- Cortesão, “Introduction”, p. xxvii.
- Ibid., p. xxx.
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