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Gaspar da Cruz
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Gaspar da Cruz
Gaspar da Cruz (c. 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European accounts about China.
Gaspar da Cruz was admitted to the Order of Preachers (Dominican order) convent of Azeitão. In 1548, along with 10 other friars. Gaspar da Cruz embarked for Portuguese India under the orders of Friar Diogo Bermudes, 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 Portuguese 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 Cambodia. 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, where he was documented helping victims of the plague. He later returned to his convent in Setúbal where he died of the plague on 5 February 1570.
Cruz's book, Tratado das cousas da China (Treatise on things Chinese) was published by André de Burgos, of Évora, in 1569. The full title, in the original orthography, was Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estẽso as 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.
The book also contains accounts of Cambodia and Hormuz.
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 Pereira (1565). Cruz' Treatise (along with João de Barros' earlier coverage of China in his Decadas) was the main source of information for 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.
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Gaspar da Cruz
Gaspar da Cruz (c. 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European accounts about China.
Gaspar da Cruz was admitted to the Order of Preachers (Dominican order) convent of Azeitão. In 1548, along with 10 other friars. Gaspar da Cruz embarked for Portuguese India under the orders of Friar Diogo Bermudes, 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 Portuguese 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 Cambodia. 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, where he was documented helping victims of the plague. He later returned to his convent in Setúbal where he died of the plague on 5 February 1570.
Cruz's book, Tratado das cousas da China (Treatise on things Chinese) was published by André de Burgos, of Évora, in 1569. The full title, in the original orthography, was Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estẽso as 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.
The book also contains accounts of Cambodia and Hormuz.
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 Pereira (1565). Cruz' Treatise (along with João de Barros' earlier coverage of China in his Decadas) was the main source of information for 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.