108 Boundaries and Beyond
instructions.^34 They also paid a courtesy visit to the ambassador, Tomé
Pires, who was lodged in the house-compound in which the Maritime
Trade and Shipping Supervisor, Ying Xiang, lived.^35
Andrade was invited to go ashore, but he declined, saying that he
was responsible for the safety of the ships. Instead, he asked the favor
of a house owner near the waterfront, “where he might offer for sale
or exchange some of the goods he had brought”,^36 and his request was
granted.
At this juncture, Andrade received a message that his ships in
Tunmen had been attacked by pirates. He left Tomé Pires and his suite
at Guangzhou and, at the end of 1517 or beginning of 1518 returned
to Tunmen. From there, Andrade sent a message to Malacca reporting
“how the ambassador was received, the friendship established with the
‘Governors’ of Canton, and how we were welcomed in those parts”.^37 At
the same time, Andrade also sent Captain Jorge Mascarenhas to explore
the Liuqiu Islands via Zhangzhou of southern Fujian. Mascarenhas was
probably taken to southern Fujian by either the Fujianese or the Liuqiu
merchants trading at Malacca.^38 During his sojourn in southern Fujian,
he opened trade with the Chinese and found that “one could make just
as much proβit in Ch’uanchow [Zhangzhou?] as in Canton [Guangzhou]”.^39
Andrade set sail for Malacca with his squadron in September 1518,
after nearly 14 months in China. He made a friendly farewell gesture by
issuing a proclamation that, “if any Chinese had received any injury from
or had any claim on a Portuguese he was to come to him and satisfaction
should be made”.^40 During his visit, Andrade had handled his mission
“with such skill and tact that he left a very favourable impression of the
Portuguese character on the Chinese”.^41
Before Andrade’s departure from China, he had apparently received
the impression from the high-ranking ofβicials of Guangzhou that the
emperor had agreed to welcome the ambassador.^42 In fact, Pires and his
suite waited in Guangzhou for 15 more months. It seems that the senior
provincial ofβicials had been in favor of receiving the envoy, but realizing
that Folangji was not among the tributary nations from the South Seas,
- Cortesão, “Introduction”, pp. xxxiii, xxxiv.
- Ibid., p. xxxiv; also Chang T’ien-tse, Sino-Portuguese Trade, p. 22.
- Ferguson, “Letters”, p. 427.
- Cortesão, “Introduction”, p. xxxiv.
- Chang T’ien-tse, Sino-Portuguese Trade, p. 45.
- Ibid.
- Ferguson, “Letters”, p. 427.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
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