ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an account of the journey of Japanese missionaries from Japan to Macao, the gateway to China, and from there to the Straits of Singapore. The Portuguese had tried to establish a presence in China using both diplomacy and force in the 1510s and early 1520s. Thereafter they traded illegally until around 1555 when they were given permission by the authorities in Canton to establish a settlement at a place known in Chinese as Ao-Men (Gate of the Bay) which the Portuguese preferred to call A-ma-ngao (Bay of the goddess Ama), soon shortened to Macao. Macao was a subordinate market to Canton from where the Portuguese acquired the silk on which their highly profitable trade with Japan depended. The Portuguese sailed from Macao to Japan catching the south-west monsoon from the end of June to early August and set out on the return voyage with the prevailing northerly winds between November and March.
