A Spanish bishop's history of the Manchu conquest of China
A history of the Manchu ('Tartar') conquest of Ming China in the 1640s, compiled in Mexico from reports sent via the Philippines, in the English edition of 1676.
Full title The History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (1600-1659), bishop of Puebla and for a time viceroy of New Spain, gathered reports that reached Mexico from Manila about the fall of the Ming and the Manchu takeover. The history was found among his papers after his death and published posthumously; this corpus copy is the 1676 English edition. Besides the campaigns, the sack of Canton and the Shunzhi emperor's rule, later chapters describe the Tartars' tents, food, war habits, dress and hair. Palafox never went to China.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
The Manchus (the 'Tartars' of the north-east beyond the Great Wall) who conquered China and founded the Qing dynasty; their ruler is 'the Cham of Tartary'.
Why read it
It shows how the Manchu conquest reached European readers as a 'Tartar' conquest, and it gives a vivid picture of a Tartar army camp laid out like a town of leather tents.
Watch out
Palafox relies on missionary and merchant reports from Manila, not his own eyes, and he moralises about Chinese softness and Tartar vigour. The OCR of this early printed book is very poor; only short readable passages can be quoted.
Editorial contextDescribing how the Tartars stormed Chinese walled towns, Palafox says archers lying or kneeling on the wall top drove the defenders from their guns while others scaled the walls or seized a gate. Once horses got inside, their noise and neighing told everyone the town was taken. On the next page he notes that the Tartars stormed first and only brought up artillery afterwards, the reverse of European practice.
they quickly discover, that the Town is taken… Thus the Tartarian horses first proclaim the Victory.
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (English translation, 1676)
Editorial contextWhen the trumpet sounds at night, every soldier pulls his tent from the baggage wagons. Palafox says the tents are made of strong leather or raw hides sewn together, big enough to live in, and pitched in order with streets and market places like a great town. On the next page he adds that the Tartars preferred living in tents to living in Chinese cities, which they felt were bad for their health, though he expects them to grow soft in time.
The Tents are either made of strong Leather or raw hides, which are sewed together; and made up indifferent handsomly… These Tents they pitch in great order, with Market-places and Streets, like as in great Towns,
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (English translation, 1676)
Editorial contextPalafox says the Tartars eat and drink heartily, care more for quantity than quality, and count horse-flesh their greatest delicacy. Their daily food is mutton from their great flocks, plus venison they hunt in the mountains, and he claims they eat their meat nearly raw 'according to the custome of Barbarians'. On the page before he says they despise soft music and love only the harsh sound of the trumpet.
They account Horse-flesh their greatest dainty… But their ordinary food is Mutton, and they have great flocks of Sheep : They eat likewise all sorts of Venison,
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (English translation, 1676)