Editing Fernão Pires de Andrade (section)

===Mission of Manuel I to China===

====Choosing the ambassadors====
[[Image:ManuelI-P.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Manuel I of Portugal]], who commissioned Andrade's mission to China.]]

King [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]] authorized a trade mission in 1517 when Andrade set sail with seven cannon-armed merchant vessels with a Muslim interpreter on June 17, 1517. Andrade had been chosen for this mission in [[Lisbon]] back in 1515, so that—as a pharmacist—he could investigate the types of [[Traditional Chinese medicine|pharmaceutical drugs used in East Asia]] for the benefit of the Portuguese and Europe.<ref name="cambridge 336"/> [[Florence|Florentine]] merchant Giovanni da Empoli, who had written a report about trade with China while stationed in India, was also chosen for the mission as the chief commercial agent between the Portuguese and Chinese.<ref name="cambridge 336"/> However, Giovanni would die in China during the early mission on October 15, 1517, when the ship he was on accidentally caught on fire.<ref>Dames, 211&ndash;212.</ref> [[Tomé Pires]], a royal [[apothecary]] who had also traveled to India and written a landmark work in 1515 on Asian trade, was chosen as the chief ambassador for the mission.<ref name="cambridge 336"/>

====First contact====
Although the mission was stalled once they lost a ship in the [[Strait of Malacca]],<ref name="cambridge 336"/> they nonetheless landed at the [[Pearl River estuary]] on August 15 with eight ships<ref name="cambridge 336"/> and negotiated with Chinese officials for possible [[silk]] and [[porcelain]] trade at [[Guangzhou|Canton]]. The Chinese naval commander of [[Nantou, Zhongshan|Nantou]] (under the jurisdiction of [[Zhongshan]], located at the mouth of the Pearl River) stalled Andrade's small fleet of ships for an entire month while Andrade waited for permission to sail upriver to Canton.<ref name="cambridge 337">Wills, 337.</ref> After Andrade threatened to sail upriver without permission, the naval commander finally decided to let him pass, granting him pilots to assist his travel.<ref name="cambridge 337"/>

Once the ships sailed into port at Canton, they alarmed the Chinese residents and officials there by discharging cannon fire, what they believed was a friendly salute since the Chinese merchants had done so when the Portuguese earlier arrived in Malacca.<ref name="cambridge 337"/> Chinese officials became even more cautious in dealing with the Portuguese, since the deposed King of Malacca had been a loyal tributary to the imperial Ming court.<ref name="cambridge 337"/> The Portuguese explained that in deposing the Malaccan king, they were helping the Chinese merchants there who were being oppressed under his rule. In the eyes of the Canton officials, this added further negative speculations about the Portuguese visitors, because private Chinese overseas trade was banned under the current [[hai jin]] laws that stated only the Chinese government could conduct foreign trade.<ref name="cambridge 337"/>

[[File:East China Sea Map.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Ryukyu Islands]], where Jorge de Mascarenhas was sent by Andrade.]]
Although the local Canton officials watched the Portuguese and their ships closely, once the [[Province (China)|provincial authorities]] arrived at Canton they greeted the Portuguese with a warm reception, providing them comfortable lodgings and had their trade goods brought ashore.<ref name="cambridge 337"/> The Chinese became suspicious once again of Andrade, this time for being a spy, when he sent a ship along the [[Fujian]] coast to look for further trade prospects, but he left a good impression when he gave the order that any locals who might be harmed by a Portuguese should seek him for redress.<ref name="cambridge 337"/> Besides exploring Fujian, Andrade sent one of his captains named Jorge de Mascarenhas to explore the [[Ryukyu Islands]] after he heard of their beauty while stationed in Malacca.<ref name="Nowell 8">Nowell, 8.</ref>

====Andrade's brother and spoiled relations====

Simão de Andrade, brother to Fernão Pires, sailed from Malacca to China with a small crew on three [[Junk (ship)|junks]] in August 1519.<ref name="cambridge 337 338">Wills, 337&ndash;338.</ref> Simão immediately made a bad impression upon the Chinese when he built a fort at the center of [[Tuen Mun]], an island designated for all foreigners to trade.<ref name="cambridge 337 338"/> Soon after, Simão ceremoniously executed a Portuguese and barred other foreigners (mostly [[Thai people|Siamese]] and other South East Asians) from trading on the island, which drew even more attention to him.<ref name="cambridge 337 338"/> When a Chinese official visited the island and began reasserting Ming authority over it, Simão became aggressive and hit him, knocking the official's hat off.<ref name="cambridge 338">Wills, 338.</ref>

The greatest offense to the Chinese was the supposed kidnapping of children by the Portuguese so they could eat them.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> In reality, Simão had earned the Portuguese a bad reputation for [[Slavery in China|buying young Chinese slaves]], presumably some of whom were kidnapped after Simão offered local Chinese huge sums of money for child slaves.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> In fact, some boys and girls from wealthy Chinese families were later found by Portuguese authorities at [[Diu, India|Diu]] in western India.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> However, there were no official reports of Simão's abuses, even though he stayed until September 1520; yet rumors of his behavior (which became associated with all Portuguese) no doubt reached as far as the court of Beijing, which would soon condemn the Portuguese for this and other reasons.<ref name="cambridge 338"/>

Although he had left Canton, Simão de Andrade landed at [[Xiamen]] and [[Ningbo]], establishing settlements there.<ref name="douglas 11">Douglas, 11.</ref> Simão continued to defy local Chinese laws at Ningbo, and when his men were cheated on a trade deal with a Chinese man in 1545, Simão sent a band of armed men into the town, pillaged it, and took local women and young girls as their captives.<ref name="douglas 11"/><ref name="williams 76">Williams, 76.</ref> The outraged locals banded together and slaughtered the Portuguese under Simão.<ref name="douglas 11"/> A similar episode occurred later when Coelho de Sousa seized the house of a wealthy foreign resident in Jinzhou of [[Fujian]], which led authorities to cut off supplies to the Portuguese; the Portuguese then attacked and ransacked a nearby village for supplies, which prompted Chinese authorities to destroy thirteen of their ships while thirty Portuguese survivors of this settlement fled to the [[Portuguese Macau|Portuguese settlement at Macau]] in 1549.<ref name="williams 76"/><ref name="douglas 11 12">Douglas, 11&ndash;12.</ref>

====End of the mission====
[[Image:Zhengde.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Zhengde Emperor]], who accepted the Portuguese embassy but died before he could finalize relations with Portugal, hence dooming the embassy as conservative factions at court in [[Beijing]] were aligned against those who conquered the Ming's loyal tributary vassal in Malacca.]]
The embassy party left behind in Canton in 1518 proceeded north in January 1520 with the rest of the Portuguese under Tomé Pires and Fernão Pires de Andrade.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> The embassy reached Nanjing, where the Zhengde Emperor was touring in May 1520, granting the Portuguese embassy a quick audience.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> However, further diplomatic negotiations were to be resumed once the emperor returned to Beijing; hence, the Portuguese embassy was sent there to wait for the emperor's return.<ref name="cambridge 338"/>

Although no Chinese sources detail the event, Portuguese sources tell of how the Portuguese were summoned on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month to ceremoniously prostrate themselves before a wall of the [[Forbidden City]] to seek another audience with the emperor.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> From Beijing, the Portuguese embassy heard reports that the emperor reached [[Tongzhou District, Beijing|Tongzhou]] in January 1521 and had the rebel Prince of Ning executed there.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> The Portuguese embassy had also become aware that ambassadors from the [[Mahmud Shah of Malacca|exiled King of Malacca]] were sent to Beijing seeking assistance from the Chinese emperor in expelling the conquering Portuguese so that their king could be reinstalled there.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> The Portuguese also knew of two officials in the [[Ming dynasty#Government|Censorate]]—Qiu Daolong and He Ao— who sent [[memorials to the throne]] that condemned the Portuguese conquest of Malacca and that their embassy should be rejected.<ref name="cambridge 338 339">Wills, 338&ndash;339.</ref> There were also reports sent to Beijing by Canton officials stating that the Portuguese were bothersome foreigners who sought to build their own trading post.<ref name="cambridge 338 339"/>

With the death of the Zhengde Emperor on April 19, 1521, mourning ceremonies were initiated that cancelled all other ceremonies, including the reception of foreign embassies.<ref name="cambridge 339">Wills, 339.</ref> The newly appointed [[Grand Secretariat|Grand Secretary]], [[Yang Tinghe]], soon turned against the powerful eunuch influence at court, which had grown even more powerful under the Zhengde Emperor.<ref name="cambridge 339"/> Although Ming officials were of the opinion that only foreign tributary states listed during the beginning of the dynasty should be accepted at court, it was the eunuchs who wanted to expand commercial ties with new foreign countries.<ref name="cambridge 339"/> These desires were given free rein under the Zhengde Emperor, who was intrigued with and desired to learn about foreign and exotic peoples.<ref name="cambridge 338"/> However, with his death, eunuch influence at court was challenged by Yang Tinghe, who announced the rejection of the Portuguese embassy under Pires and Andrade the day after the emperor's death; the embassy was forced to leave and arrived back in Canton in September.<ref name="cambridge 339"/>