Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
Captain Ferno Pires de Andrade (also spelled as Ferno Peres de Andrade; in contemporary sources, Fernam (Fern) Perez Dandrade) (died 1552) was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and official diplomat under the explorer and Portuguese Malacca governor Afonso de Albuquerque. His encounter with Ming China in 1517after initial contacts by Jorge lvares and Rafael Perestrello in 1513 and 1516, respectivelymarked the resumption of direct European commercial and diplomatic contact with China. (Even though there were Europeans in Medieval China, notably Marco Polo, that period of contact had been interrupted by the fall of the Yuan dynasty.) Although de Andrade's mission was initially a success that allowed a Portuguese embassy to proceed all the way to Beijing, relations were soon spoiled by culminating events that led to an extremely negative impression of the Portuguese in China. This included acts of his brother Simo that enraged the Chinese, false reports of the Portuguese being cannibals of kidnapped Chinese children and true reports of their conquest of Malacca, a loyal Ming tributary state. Normalized trade and relations between Portugal and the Ming dynasty would not resume until the late 1540s and the 1557 establishment of Portuguese rule over Macau.
Andrade was referred to as a "Folangji" () in Ming dynastic archives. Folangji comes from Franques or Franks, which was a generic name the Muslims called Europeans since the Crusades, and which spawned the Indian-Southeast Asian term ferengi. The Chinese adopted the convention when they first thought the Portuguese were related to those Muslim guides and interpreters during Ferno's first encounter and before Europeans directly convened with Chinese.
Watercraft, also known as water vessels or waterborne vessels, are vehicles used in and on water, including boats, ships, hovercraft, and submarines. Watercraft usually have a propulsive capability (whether by sail, oar, paddle, or engine) and hence are distinct from a simple device that merely floats, such as a log raft.