Juan González de Mendoza

An English translation by Robert Parke appeared in 1588 and was reprinted by the Hakluyt Society in two volumes, edited by Sir George T. Staunton, Bart.

González de Mendoza's Historia was mostly superseded in 1615 by the work of much more informed Jesuit missionaries who actually lived in China, Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas.

He joined the army but after some years resigned to enter the Order of Saint Augustine.

It was based on the journals of Miguel de Luarca[citation needed], whose 1580 trip to Ming China provided a simple majority thereof.

He never set foot in China[citation needed], but spent two years in Mexico before returning to Spain.

First page of the chapter on Chinese language in González de Mendoza's 1585 book, reproducing the characters published by Escalante in 1577. According to Staunton, of the two characters shown on this page, the first (said to mean "heaven") is hard to identify, although he guesses that it might be 𨺩 (a variant of 乾). [ 2 ] Modern Chinese translators of González de Mendoza's books suggest that 穹 may have been meant. [ 3 ] (May it though be a combination of two characters, with the one on top being a 天, perhaps in seal script ?). The second (said to mean "king") is a poorly written 皇. [ 2 ]