An Unexpected Friendship: Cordial Relations Between English Ships and French Missionaries on the Coasts of Late 17th-Century China

This presentation will examine the surprisingly cordial relationship between English maritime merchants and French missionaries in China’s maritime periphery from about 1684 to 1715. It will argue that because of the conflict between the Portuguese and French monastic orders in the last decades of the seventeenth century, French missionaries often needed to avoid the Portuguese centre of Macau, which had previously been the gateway for most Catholic missionaries entering China. Consequently, French missionaries established themselves on other parts of China’s coast far from Macau and the Pearl River delta. Maintaining lines of communication with other members of their order and securing transport to and from these outposts was a significant challenge for the French Jesuits, but the problem was partially solved for some of them thanks to the arrival of other European ships. The most important of these were English ones sent by both of the two English East India companies and by private merchants based in India. Despite confessional differences and national rivalries in Europe, the missionaries and the merchants in China frequently discovered they were in a position to help one another. The English ships willingly carried letters and passengers while the missionaries frequently helped the merchants by supplying information, making introductions to local merchants and magistrates, and acting as translators.