Gaspar da Cruz
Encyclopedia
Gaspar da Cruz was a Portuguese
Dominican
friar born in Évora
, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European accounts about China
.
convent of Azeitão
. In 1548, along with 10 other friar
s. Gaspar da Cruz embarked for India
under the orders of Friar Diogo Bermudez, with the purpose of founding a Dominican mission
in the East. For six years, Cruz remained in Hindustan
, probably in Goa
, Chaul
and Kochi, as his Order had established a settlement there. During this time he also visited Ceylon.
In 1554, Cruz was in Malacca
, where he founded a house under his Order, living there until September 1555. He was then shipped to Cambodja. Given the failure of the Cambodian mission, in late 1556 Cruz went to Lampacao, a small island in the Guangzhou
bay, six leagues north of Shangchuan Island
(Sanchão). At that time, Lamapacao island was a port for trade with the Chinese. At Lampacao, he was able to obtain a permission to go to Guangzhou, and spent a month preaching there.
In 1557, Cruz returned to Malacca.
In 1560, Cruz headed to Hormuz
where he gave support to soldiers of the Portuguese fort. He probably returned to India about 3 years later, although there are no definite records for this period. It is likely that Cruz returned to Portugal in 1565, returning to Lisbon in 1569, were he was documented helping victims of the plague
. He later returned to his convent in Setúbal
where he died of the plague on February 5, 1570.
, in 1569. The full title, in the original orthography, was Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estẽso au cousas da China. It is often described as the first European book whose main topic was China; at any rate, it is one of the first undisputed books on China published in Europe since that of Marco Polo
.
(1565). Cruz' Treatise (along with João de Barros
' earlier coverage of China in his Decadas) was the main source of information in Bernardino de Escalante
's Discourso ... de las grandezas del Reino de la China (1577), and one of the main sources for the much more famous and widely translated History of the great and mighty kingdom of China compiled by Juan González de Mendoza
in 1585.
While Escalante's and Mendoza's works were translated into many European languages within a few years after the appearance of the Spanish original (the English versions were published in 1579 and 1588, respectively), Cruz' text only appeared in English in 1625, in Samuel Purchas
' Purchas his Pilgrimes, and even then only in an abridged form, as A Treatise of China and the adjoining regions, written by Gaspar da Cruz a Dominican Friar, and dedicated to Sebastian, King of Portugal: here abbreviated. By this time his report had been superseded not only by Mendoza's celebrated treatise, but also by the much more informed work of Matteo Ricci
and Nicolas Trigault
, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas
(Latin 1616; English abridgment, in the same Purchas' collection of 1625).
's, expedition to Fujian
in 1575). The Portuguese, of course, did know some Chinese words and common expression: da Cruz' book contains, for example, titles of various officials, or the word cha (tea).
Da Cruz was, however, curious about the Chinese writing system, and gives a brief report of it, which John DeFrancis
has described as "the first Western account of the fascinatingly different Chinese writing."
Chinese children and take them to various Portuguese colonies, or to Portugal itself. While this traffic was on a much smaller scale than the Atlantic slave trade
, supplying millions of African slaves for Portuguese Brazil
, it was a contributing factor already to the failure of the Tomé Pires
' 1521 embassy, when, in a words of a later researcher, many residents of Canton discovered that "many of their children, whom they had given in pledge to their creditors, had been kidnapped by" Simão de Andrade "and carried away to become slaves".
Gaspar da Cruz was aware of this trade, and, as his book (Chapter XV) implies, he had heard of the Portuguese slavers' attempt to justify their actions by claiming that they had been merely buying children that already were slaves while in China. Da Cruz described the situation with slavery in China
as he saw it. According to him, the laws of China allowed impoverished widows to sell her children; however, the conditions under which boys or girls sold into servitude could be kept were regulated by law and custom, and upon reaching a certain age they had to be set free. Reselling of such slaves (or, rather, bond-servants) was regulated too, there being "great penalties" for selling any of them to the Portuguese. He concludes therefore (as C.R. Boxer summarizes his argument), that "the Portuguese had no legal or moral rights to purchase either mui-tsai
or kidnapped children for use as slaves":
, which is in no way reproved among them." The rest of the chapter, entitled "Of some punishments from God which the Chinas received in the year of fifty-six", discusses the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake and certain flooding events of the same year, which da Cruz views as God's punishment for "this sin".
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friar born in Évora
Évora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European accounts about China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Biography
Gaspar da Cruz was admitted to the Order of Preachers (Dominican order)Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
convent of Azeitão
Azeitão
Azeitão is a region near Setúbal composed by a cluster of small "aldeias" or small villages, some of those are: Vila Fresca de Azeitão, Vila Nogueira de Azeitão,Brejos de Azeitão, Aldeia de Irmãos, Vendas de Azeitão....
. In 1548, along with 10 other friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s. Gaspar da Cruz embarked for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
under the orders of Friar Diogo Bermudez, with the purpose of founding a Dominican mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
in the East. For six years, Cruz remained in Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...
, probably in Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, Chaul
Chaul
Chaul is a former city of Portuguese India, now in ruins. It is located 60 km south of Mumbai, in Raigad District of Maharashtra state in western India....
and Kochi, as his Order had established a settlement there. During this time he also visited Ceylon.
In 1554, Cruz was in Malacca
Portuguese Malacca
Portuguese Malacca was the territory of Malacca that, for 130 years , was a Portuguese colony.- History :From the writing of the Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Erédia in the middle of the 16th century, the site of the old city of Malacca was named after the Myrobalans, fruit-bearing trees...
, where he founded a house under his Order, living there until September 1555. He was then shipped to Cambodja. Given the failure of the Cambodian mission, in late 1556 Cruz went to Lampacao, a small island in the Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
bay, six leagues north of Shangchuan Island
Shangchuan Island
Shangchuan Island also written is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of China. Its name originated from São João - Saint John in Portuguese. It is part of the Guangdong province, in the South China Sea...
(Sanchão). At that time, Lamapacao island was a port for trade with the Chinese. At Lampacao, he was able to obtain a permission to go to Guangzhou, and spent a month preaching there.
In 1557, Cruz returned to Malacca.
In 1560, Cruz headed to Hormuz
Hormuz Island
Hormuz Island , also spelled Hormoz, is an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf. It is located in the Strait of Hormuz and is part of the Hormozgān Province.-Geography:...
where he gave support to soldiers of the Portuguese fort. He probably returned to India about 3 years later, although there are no definite records for this period. It is likely that Cruz returned to Portugal in 1565, returning to Lisbon in 1569, were he was documented helping victims of the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
. He later returned to his convent in Setúbal
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
where he died of the plague on February 5, 1570.
A Treatise of China
Cruz' book, Tratado das cousas da China(Treatise on things Chinese) was published by André de Burgos, of ÉvoraÉvora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
, in 1569. The full title, in the original orthography, was Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estẽso au cousas da China. It is often described as the first European book whose main topic was China; at any rate, it is one of the first undisputed books on China published in Europe since that of Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
.
Influence
In Donald F. Lach's assessment, Cruz' book itself did not become widely distributed in Europe either because it was published in Portuguese (rather than some more widely spoken language), or because it appeared in the year of the plague. Nonetheless, Cruz' book, at least indirectly, played a key role in forming the European view of China in the sixteenth century, alongside the earlier and shorter account by Galeote PereiraGaleote Pereira
Galeote Pereira was a 16th century Portuguese soldier of fortune who has left us one of the earliest accounts by a westerner of life in China's Ming Dynasty, indeed the first detailed observation of that civilisation by a non-cleric since that of Marco Polo....
(1565). Cruz' Treatise (along with João de Barros
João de Barros
João de Barros , called the Portuguese Livy, is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia , a history of the Portuguese in India and Asia.-Early years:...
' earlier coverage of China in his Decadas) was the main source of information in Bernardino de Escalante
Bernardino de Escalante
Bernardino de Escalante was a Spanish soldier, priest, geographer and a prolific writer. He is best known as the author of the second book on China published in Europe, and the first one to obtain wide circulation outside of Portugal.The foremost scholar of the European literature about Asia,...
's Discourso ... de las grandezas del Reino de la China (1577), and one of the main sources for the much more famous and widely translated History of the great and mighty kingdom of China compiled by Juan González de Mendoza
Juan González de Mendoza
Juan González de Mendoza was the author of the first Western history of China to publish Chinese characters for Western delectation. Published by him in 1586, Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China is an account of observations several Spanish travelers...
in 1585.
While Escalante's and Mendoza's works were translated into many European languages within a few years after the appearance of the Spanish original (the English versions were published in 1579 and 1588, respectively), Cruz' text only appeared in English in 1625, in Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas , was an English travel writer, a near-contemporary of Richard Hakluyt.Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex, and graduated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1600; later he became a B.D., and with this degree was admitted at Oxford in 1615. In 1604 he was presented by James I to the...
' Purchas his Pilgrimes, and even then only in an abridged form, as A Treatise of China and the adjoining regions, written by Gaspar da Cruz a Dominican Friar, and dedicated to Sebastian, King of Portugal: here abbreviated. By this time his report had been superseded not only by Mendoza's celebrated treatise, but also by the much more informed work of Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
and Nicolas Trigault
Nicolas Trigault
Nicolas Trigault was a Flemish Jesuit, and a missionary to China. He was also known by his latinised name Trigautius or Trigaultius, and his Chinese name Jīn Nígé .-Life and work:...
, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas
De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas
De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu is a book based on an Italian manuscript written by the most important founding figure of the Jesuit China mission, Matteo Ricci , expanded and translated into Latin by his colleague Nicolas Trigault...
(Latin 1616; English abridgment, in the same Purchas' collection of 1625).
Chinese language and writing
Reading Gaspar da Cruz' Treatise, one has an impression that, as of 1555, communication between the Portuguese and the Chinese was accomplished primarily thanks to the existence of some Chinese people able to speak Portuguese, rather than the other way around. His book several times mentions Chinese interpreters working with Portuguese, but never a Portuguese person speaking or reading Chinese. (This was not any different from the situation that obtained in the account's of da Cruz' Spanish colleague Martín de RadaMartín de Rada
Martín de Rada was one of the first members of the Order of Saint Augustine to evangelize the Philippines, as well as one of the first Christian missionaries to visit the Ming China.-Early years:When he was twelve years old, de Rada's parents sent him and his older brother to study at the...
's, expedition to Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
in 1575). The Portuguese, of course, did know some Chinese words and common expression: da Cruz' book contains, for example, titles of various officials, or the word cha (tea).
Da Cruz was, however, curious about the Chinese writing system, and gives a brief report of it, which John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa....
has described as "the first Western account of the fascinatingly different Chinese writing."
Slavery
One of the major irritants in the early Sino-Portuguese relations was the Portuguese' proclivity to enslaveSlavery in Portugal
-Ancient era:Slavery was a major economic and social institution in Europe during the classical era. A great deal is known about the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Romans added Portugal to their empire . It was the province of Lusitania. The name of the future kingdom was derived from Portucale, a...
Chinese children and take them to various Portuguese colonies, or to Portugal itself. While this traffic was on a much smaller scale than the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
, supplying millions of African slaves for Portuguese Brazil
Slavery in Brazil
Slavery in Brazil shaped the country's social structure and ethnic landscape. During the colonial epoch and for over six decades after the 1822 independence, slavery was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy, especially in mining, cotton, and sugar cane production.Brazil obtained an estimated 35% of...
, it was a contributing factor already to the failure of the Tomé Pires
Tomé Pires
Tomé Pires was an apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in South East Asia...
' 1521 embassy, when, in a words of a later researcher, many residents of Canton discovered that "many of their children, whom they had given in pledge to their creditors, had been kidnapped by" Simão de Andrade "and carried away to become slaves".
Gaspar da Cruz was aware of this trade, and, as his book (Chapter XV) implies, he had heard of the Portuguese slavers' attempt to justify their actions by claiming that they had been merely buying children that already were slaves while in China. Da Cruz described the situation with slavery in China
Slavery in China
Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Never as absolute as its Muslim or European models, Chinese slavery still often viewed its objects as "half-man, half-thing"...
as he saw it. According to him, the laws of China allowed impoverished widows to sell her children; however, the conditions under which boys or girls sold into servitude could be kept were regulated by law and custom, and upon reaching a certain age they had to be set free. Reselling of such slaves (or, rather, bond-servants) was regulated too, there being "great penalties" for selling any of them to the Portuguese. He concludes therefore (as C.R. Boxer summarizes his argument), that "the Portuguese had no legal or moral rights to purchase either mui-tsai
Mui tsai
Mui Tsai , which means "little sister" in Cantonese, describes young Chinese women who worked as domestic servants in China, or in brothels or affluent Chinese households in San Francisco. The young women were typically from poor families, and sold at a young age, under the condition that they be...
or kidnapped children for use as slaves":
God's punishment for sins
In the first paragraph of the last chapter (XXIX) of his book Cruz severely criticized "a filthy abomination, which is that they are so given to the accursed sin of unnatural viceSodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
, which is in no way reproved among them." The rest of the chapter, entitled "Of some punishments from God which the Chinas received in the year of fifty-six", discusses the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake and certain flooding events of the same year, which da Cruz views as God's punishment for "this sin".
See also
- Tomé PiresTomé PiresTomé Pires was an apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in South East Asia...
, an unsuccessful Portuguese envoy to the Ming Court ca. 1518-1521 - Martín de RadaMartín de RadaMartín de Rada was one of the first members of the Order of Saint Augustine to evangelize the Philippines, as well as one of the first Christian missionaries to visit the Ming China.-Early years:When he was twelve years old, de Rada's parents sent him and his older brother to study at the...
, a Spanish Augustinian friar to visit China in 1575; Juan González de MendozaJuan González de MendozaJuan González de Mendoza was the author of the first Western history of China to publish Chinese characters for Western delectation. Published by him in 1586, Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China is an account of observations several Spanish travelers...
's book gives account of de Rada's and other Spanish expeditions