(To Francisco Perez in Malacca)
Through the
mercy and kindness of God our Lord, the ship of Diogo Pereira,
and all of us who sailed on it, arrived safely in this harbor
of Sanchoâo (Sancian), where we met many other merchant
ships. This harbor of Sanchoâo is thirty leagues from Cantâo
(Canton). Many merchants of the city of Cantâo come to this
Sanchoâo to trade with the Portuguese. The Portuguese diligently
treated with them to see if any merchant from Cantâo would
be willing to take me. All made excuses, saying that they would
be placing their lives and their possessions at great risk if
the governor of Cantâo learned that they had brought me
with them; and because of this they were unwilling to take me
at any price on their ships to Cantâo.
It pleased
God our Lord that a distinguished man, a resident of Cantâo,
offered to take me for two hundred cruzados in a small boat in
which there would be no other sailors except his sons and servants,
so that the governor of Cantâo would not, through the sailors,
come to know who was the merchant who had brought me. He further
offered to keep me hidden in his house for three or four days
and to take me from there one morning before dawn to the gate
of the city with my books and baggage so that I might go at once
from there to the house of the governor and tell him how we had
come to go to where the king of China is, showing him the letter
which we received from the Lord Bishop for the king of China,
and telling him how we have been sent by His Highness to proclaim
the law of God.
According
to what the people of the land tell us, the dangers which we shall
incur are two: the first is that the man who takes us, after he
has been paid the two hundred cruzados, will leave us on some
deserted island, or throw us into the sea, so that it does not
come to the knowledge of the governor of Cantâo; the second
is that if he takes us to Cantâo, and we come before the
governor, he will give orders that we be tortured or be put in
prison, since it is such a strange thing and there are so many
prohibitions in China that anybody should go there without a pass
from the king, since the king so strongly forbids strangers entering
his land without his permit. Besides these two dangers, there
are' others much greater which do not affect the people of the
land, and which would take too long to recount, although I will
not omit to mention a few.
The first
is to cease to hope and confide in the mercy of God, since it
is for His love and service that we are going to manifest His
law and Jesus Christ, His Son, our Redeemer and Lord, as He well
knows. Since through His holy mercy, He gave us these desires,
to distrust His mercy and power now, because of the dangers in
which we could see ourselves for His service, is a much greater
danger (for if He is served more, He will protect us from the
dangers of this life) than the evils which can be inflicted upon
us by all the enemies of God, since without God's licence and
permission, the devils and their ministers cannot harm us in any
way.
And we must
also strengthen ourselves with the saying of the Lord that says:
"He that loves his life in this world will lose it, and he
who loses it for the sake of God will find it," which is
in keeping with what Christ our Lord also says: "He who puts
his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom
of God."
We, considering
these dangers to the soul, which are much greater than those of
the body, find that it is safer and more secure to pass through
bodily dangers than to be caught in spiritual dangers before God.
We are consequently determined to go to China by any way whatever.
I hope in God our Lord that the outcome of our voyage will be
to the increase of our holy faith, no matter how much the enemies
and their ministers persecute us, since "if God is for us,
who will be victorious over us?"
When the
ship leaves this port of Sanchoâo for Mallaca, I hope in
God our Lord that it will bear news of how we were received in
Cantâo, since boats are always coming from Cantâo
to this port, through which I shall be able to write about what
we have experienced from here to Cantâo, and what the governor
of Cantâo did to us.
Alvaro Ferreira
and Antonio China were always ill on their voyage; now, through
the mercy of God, they are feeling better. I have discovered that
Antonio is of no use as an interpreter, since he has forgotten
how to speak Chinese. A certain Pero Lopez, who was a slave of
Antonio de Lopez Bobadilha, who died in the siege of Mallaca,
offered to go with me as an interpreter. He knows how to read
and write Portuguese, and he also reads and writes Chinese to
a certain extent. He offered himself to go with me with great
courage and readiness; God will reward him in this life and in
the next; commend him to God our Lord that He grant him the gift
of perseverance.
When we
arrived in Sanchoâo, we built a church; and I said Mass
every day until I became ill with fevers. I was sick for fifteen
days; now, through the mercy of God, I have recovered my health.
There has been no lack of spiritual labors such as in hearing
confessions and visiting the sick, and reconciling enemies. From
here I do not know what else to tell you except that we are firmly
resolved to go to China. All the Chinese whom we have seen, I
mean distinguished merchants, show that they are happy and eager
for us to go to China, since it seems to them that we are bringing
a law written in books which will be better than what they have,
or because they are pleased with what is new. They all show that
they are much pleased, but no one is willing to take us because
of the dangers which they might incur.
Written
in Sanchoâo.
The church
of Our Lady + and the college, if it should belong to us, and
all that belongs to the Society of Jesus will remain with Padre
Vicente Viegas. Give it to him with your own hand and leave him
a copy of the donation which the Lord Bishop gave of the house
of Our Lady to the Society of the name of Jesus, so that neither
the vicar nor anyone else should have anything to do with the
church of Our Lady except Padre Vicente Viegas. And so you will
earnestly ask Padre Vicente Viegas on your part and mine that
he be willing to accept this burden for the love of God until
the rector of Sâo Paulo should provide for some person to
come to stay in Mallaca. And if it seems good to you that Bernardo
should remain with him, he should remain to instruct the children.
I am waiting
each day for a Chinaman who is to come from Cantâo to take
me. May it please God that he come as I desire it, for if by any
chance God does not wish it, I do not know what I should do, whether
I should go to India or to Siâo, so that from Siâo
I might go in the embassy which the king of Siâo sends to
the king of China. I am writing you this so that you may tell
Diogo Pereira that if he has to go to China and has some way of
writing to me in Siâo, that he write to me, so that we meet
there or in some other port of China. Keep a close friendship
with Diogo Pereira both in Mallaca and in India, recommending
him first of all to God; and then assist him in every other way
you can, since he is so great a friend of the Society.
May Christ
our Lord give us His help and favor. Amen.
From Sanchoâo,
today, the twenty-second of October, 1552.
Wholly yours in Christ,
Francisco.
