Diego de Couto

There being in this year of 1542, of which we Are treating, three Portuguese companions, named Antonio da Mota, Francisco Zeimoto and Antonio Peixoto, in the port of Siam, with a junk of theirs, carrying on their trade, they resolved to go to China, because of its being then a voyage of much profit. And loading the junk with pelts and other commodities, they set sail, and with fair weather crossed the great gulf of Hainan, and passed to the city of Canton, in order to go and seek the port of Chincheo, because they could not enter that city; because after that in the year 1515 Fernao Peres de Andrade, being in China as ambassador, flogged a mandarin (who are those that administer justice, which among those heathens is much venerated), the Portuguese became so detested and abhorred, that the king commanded by a general edict: "That the men with the beards and large eyes should no more be permitted within his realms ", which was inscribed in large letteres of gold, ans affixed to the gates of the city of Canton. And those no Portuguese had dared to go to its port; and some ships at various times afterwards went to some islands off that coast to exchange their commodities, whence, however, they turned them away. Afterwards they went on to Chincheo, wither these were going, and where they permitted them because of the profit that they derived from the commerce; but they carried on their business at sea, because they did not trust them