Bento de Góis’s journey from India to China
The Jesuit lay brother Bento de Góis, disguised as an Armenian merchant, travelled with caravans from Mughal India across the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs to Yarkand and on to the Great Wall, proving that Marco Polo’s Cathay was China; he died at the Chinese frontier town of Suzhou.
- Date
- between October 1602 and February 1603 – 11 April 1607start: exact date unknown: an interval is given; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 4 years
- Place
- Yarkandtoday: Yarkant County, Xinjiang, China · Central and Northern Asia
- Route
- Agra → Lahore → Peshawar → Kabul → Taloqan → Yarkand → Aksu → Turpan → Hami → Jiayu Pass → Suzhou (Jiuquan)
- Participants
- Bento de Góis, Society of Jesus, Mughal Empire, Ming dynasty
- Threads
- History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
- Also known as
- Benedict Goës; Bento de Goes; Бенто де Гоиш; Бенедикт Гоиш
The Jesuits in China, led by Matteo Ricci, suspected that Cathay and China were one country, but merchants at the Mughal court spoke of a Christian Cathay beyond Kashgar. The order sent Góis, a former soldier from the Azores who had lived at the court of Akbar and spoke Persian, to find out; the emperor gave him letters of safe conduct and money. Góis left Agra at the end of 1602 or early in 1603 — the sources also differ on whether his caravan left Lahore in December 1602 or in February 1603 — went through Kabul, crossed the mountains and reached Yarkand, the capital of Kashgaria, in November 1603.
A year later he joined a caravan carrying jade to China, travelled via Aksu, Turpan and Hami, passed the Great Wall at the Jiayu Pass and reached Suzhou (now Jiuquan) at the end of 1605. Held there for more than a year, he managed to send a letter to Ricci, who sent the Chinese Jesuit brother Giovanni Fernandes to fetch him; Fernandes arrived in March 1607 to find Góis dying, and he died on 11 April. His journal was lost, and his route is known from his letters and from the account of his Armenian companion Isaac recorded by Ricci. The route on the map is approximate.
Connections
Related events
- Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295 · East AsiaGóis’s journey showed that the Cathay described by Marco Polo was China
Same participants
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526 · South Asiavia Mughal Empire
- Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil29 March 1549 · Latin Americavia Society of Jesus
- Portuguese settle in Macau1557 · East Asiavia Ming dynasty
Adjacent events in the thread
- Cortes of Tomar: Philip II becomes King of PortugalApril 1581 · Western and Central Europe
- Dutch capture of Malacca3 August 1640 – 14 January 1641 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
Africa
- Battle of Alcácer Quibir4 August 1578
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Bento de Góis
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бенто де Гоиш
- Wessels C. Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, 1603–1721. — The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1924.