Journey
1624 – 1630 · 9 stops · 4,800 km
Loading the map…
Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon, spent most of the years 1624 to 1630 in the two Vietnamese realms of his day: Cochinchina, ruled by the Nguyễn lords, and Tonkin, ruled by the Trịnh. He learned the language from Francisco de Pina and later printed the first Vietnamese dictionary, written in the Latin letters that grew into today's chữ Quốc ngữ. The quotes are from his own account, in our translation.
December 1624 · Setting out
He had been meant for Japan, but persecution closed it to missionaries. In December 1624 the Jesuits of Macau sent him instead to Cochinchina, the land of the Nguyễn lords, with the visitor Gabriel de Mattos, four other fathers and a Japanese who read Chinese.
Who held this place then: Spanish Empire
December 1624 · By sea, 890 km
Nineteen days out of Macau they reached Cochinchina, landing at Hội An, and found Francisco de Pina, who had made himself a master of the language. Hearing it spoken, all in tones, de Rhodes at first lost hope of ever learning it.
“For my part, I confess that when I had arrived in Cochinchina and heard the people of the country talk, the women above all, I seemed to hear birds twittering, and I lost hope of ever being able to learn it.”The original: “Pour moi, je vous avoue que quand je fus arrivé à la Cochinchine, et que j'entendais parler les naturels du pays, particulièrement les femmes, il me semblait d'entendre gazouiller des oiseaux, et je perdais l'espérance de la pouvoir jamais apprendre.”
Who held this place then: Nguyễn lords
1625 – July 1626 · By river, 10 km
In 1625 he worked beside Pina in the province he calls Cham, Quảng Nam, whose seat was at Thanh Chiêm, where Pina had lived. A boy taught him the tones in three weeks; in four months he could hear confessions and in six he preached in Vietnamese. Pina drowned that December.
Who held this place then: Nguyễn lords
1626 · By river, 900 km
The Jesuit Giuliano Baldinotti, back from Tonkin, asked for a father who could speak to its people, and de Rhodes was chosen for his Vietnamese. As the Trịnh and the Nguyễn were at war, he could not go straight north, so in July 1626 he sailed back to Macau first.
Who held this place then: Spanish Empire
19 March 1627 · By sea, 1,100 km
He left Macau on 12 March 1627 with Pedro Marques, and after eight stormy days they landed at Cửa Bạng in Thanh Hoá, which he named the port of Saint Joseph. Lord Trịnh Tráng, marching south against the Nguyễn, told them to wait in Thanh Hoá; in two months they baptised two hundred people.
“At once I began to sell them mine, telling them I had a ware more precious and cheaper than all the others, which I gave for nothing to whoever wanted it: the true law, and the true way to happiness. I preached them a little sermon on it, because in their language the same word, Danc, means both law and way.”The original: “Je commençai aussitôt à leur débiter la mienne, et à leur dire que j'avais une marchandise plus précieuse et à meilleur marché que toutes les autres, que je la donnais pour rien à qui la voudrait, que c'était la vraie loi, et le vrai chemin du bonheur ; je leur fis sur cela un petit sermon, parce que le même mot Danc signifie en leur langue, et loi, et chemin.”
Who held this place then: Trịnh lords
2 July 1627 – 1630 · By river, 180 km (the way is a guess)
He gave the lord a clock and an hourglass, then a gilt book of mathematics when Trịnh Tráng came back from a failed campaign, and the lord took him by galley to the capital, Kẻ Chợ, which they reached on 2 July 1627. There he preached up to six times a day; his reports count more than 6,000 converts in three years.
“When we had reached the capital of Tonkin, called Checho, a very large and very fine city, with broad streets, people without number and walls at least six good leagues round, the king at once had a house and a fine church built for me…”The original: “Quand nous fûmes arrivés dans la capitale du Tonkin, nommée Checho, qui est une fort grande et fort belle ville, où les rues sont larges, le peuple infini, le circuit des murailles au moins de six bonnes lieues, le roi me fit incontinent bâtir une maison et une belle église…”
Who held this place then: Trịnh lords
1630 · By river, 390 km (the way is a guess)
Early in 1630, told that the priest's breath bewitched people, Trịnh Tráng banned his preaching and had him sent off by galley under thirty-six soldiers. In three weeks aboard, twenty-four of the guards became Christians, and they let him go in Bố Chính, the province farthest from the court, where he hid among Christians.
Who held this place then: Nguyễn lords
May 1630 · By sea, 390 km (the way is a guess)
When the Portuguese ship came, with two more Jesuits, they went boldly back to court, but were soon ordered aboard. In May 1630 he sailed away, his converts weeping on the bank, some standing in the water up to their waists.
“At last, when we began to make sail, the tears began again on both sides; we followed one another with our eyes as long as we could, and our hearts have never parted; for, to tell the truth, the whole of mine is in Tonkin…”The original: “Enfin, quand nous commençâmes à faire voile, les larmes se renouvelèrent de part et d'autre ; nous nous suivîmes des yeux tant que nous pûmes, et nos cœurs ne se sont jamais séparés ; car, à dire le vrai, tout le mien est dans le Tonkin…”
Who held this place then: Trịnh lords
1630 · By river, 940 km (the way is a guess)
Back in Macau he taught theology for ten years and urged his superiors to send more fathers to Tonkin. From 1640 he worked again in Cochinchina, and in Rome in 1651 he printed his Vietnamese, Portuguese and Latin dictionary.
Who held this place then: Spanish Empire