172
S. F. BALFOUR
Duarte Coelho, a captain who arrived at T'un Mun a little before Fernando d'Andrade, had had to fight no less than 35 engagements with local pirates, and his fleet was almost decimated by pirates while he was away in Canton. Besides pirates, they had to put up with a local boycott. The inhabitants had refused to help when their ships had been wrecked in a typhoon and gave them no provisions. It was natural that Simon Andrade decided to solve these problems by building a fort with forced labour and by making raids on the pirates' bases. The Chinese themselves recognised this, for one of the arguments that was put before the government for continuing trade negotiations was that the Portuguese were suppressing piracy at Lo Man Shan and other places.
The Chinese officials might in fact have tolerated the outrages committed by Simon Andrade if he and his companions had not designed to annex territory at T'un Mun and organise a trading colony under the Portuguese flag. The inscription with the arms of Portugal had been one of the signs of this intention; the fort Andrade built was another. The Chinese government, which had heretofore encouraged colonies of foreign traders, now felt that their liberality was being exploited. A Chinese text explains the situation as follows: "Some time near the end of Ching Tê's reign (1506 to 1522) a people not recognised as tributary to China known as the Feringhis (1) together with a crowd of riff-raff filtered into the harbours between T'un Mun and Kwai Ch'ung and set up barracks and a fort, mounted many cannon to make war, captured islands, killed people, robbed ships and terrorised the population by their fierce dominion over the coast. Their ambition being to annex territory they made a survey and set up boundary stones and tried to administer the various other foreign traders within this area."28
In this text Kwai Ch'ung must refer to a village of that name south-east of Tsün Wan and opposite Tsing I Island. The harbour between the mainland and Tsing I Island is one of the most sheltered in the whole region and must, I think, have been one of the main anchorages of the foreign ships. The place referred to as T'un Mun O is Castle Peak Bay itself and this was undoubtedly the place where the subsequent battle between the Portuguese and
28 Chang T'ien-tse connects these boundary stones with the tablet bearing the Portuguese arms mentioned by Barros.
172
S. F. BALFOUR
Duarte Coelho, a captain who arrived at T'un Mun a little before Fernando d'Andrade, had had to fight no less than 35 engagements with local pirates, and his fleet was almost decimated by pirates while he was away in Canton. Besides pirates, they had to put up with a local boycott. The inhabitants had refused to help when their ships had been wrecked in a typhoon and gave them no provisions. It was natural that Simon Andrade decided to solve these problems by building a fort with forced labour and by making raids on the pirates bases. The Chinese themselves recognised this, for one of the arguments that was put before the government for continuing trade negotiations was that the Portu- guese were suppressing piracy at Lo Man Shan and other places.
The Chinese officials might in fact have tolerated the outrages committed by Simon Andrade if he and his companions had not designed to annex territory at T'un Mun and organise a trading Colony under the Portuguese flag. The inscription with the arms of Portugal had been one of the signs of this intention, the fort Andrade built was another. The Chinese government which had heretofore encouraged colonies of foreign traders, now felt that their liberality was being exploited. A Chinese text explains the situation as follows: "Some time near the end of Ching Tê's reign (1506 to 1522) a people not recognised as tributary to China known as the Feringhis (1) together with a crowd of riff raff filtered into the harbours between T'un Mun and Kwai Ch'ung and set up barracks and a fort, mounted many cannon to make war, captured islands, killed people, robbed ships and terrorised the population by their fierce dominion over the coast. Their ambition being to annex territory they made a survey and set up boundary stones and tried to administer the various other foreign traders within this area."*28
In this text Kwai Ch'ung must refer to a village of that name south-east of Tsün Wan and opposite Tsing I Island. The harbour between the mainland and Tsing 1 Island is one of the most sheltered in the whole region and must, I think, have been one of the main anchorages of the foreign ships. The place referred to as T'un Mun O is Castle Peak Bay itself and this was undoubtedly the place where the subsequent battle between the Portuguese and
28 Chang T'ien-tse connects these boundary stones with the tablet bearing the Portuguese arms mentioned by Barros.
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