明代中期，西方殖民帝国葡萄牙西班牙势力扩展到南海，中国开始和西方“海盗”有所冲突。

多数中国人不知道的一件事实是，16世纪初葡萄牙曾向中国派出过使节团。 1517年这个使节团到达广东，1520年到达北京，等待正德接见，正德死后中国大臣们发现葡萄牙文国书并不像中文国书那样恭顺，完全不符合中国”朝贡“系统的规则，因此将葡萄牙使节团驱除出北京。当葡萄牙使节团回到广东，又因为明朝和葡萄牙“海盗”冲突，使节团团长Tome Piras和使节团 被控海盗和间谍罪， 据说Tome Piras于1524死在广州监狱。 当时葡萄牙人罪名之一就是吃人。 葡萄牙使节团被囚禁其间，有位叫Cristavao Vierria的使节团团员写了封信(1524)，请求葡萄牙派兵援救，声称用不着十五艘葡萄牙战船和三千葡萄牙士兵足以攻克和占据广州， 受压迫的百姓将起来反抗明廷。 这封信走了数年才到达欧洲。

Lach 名著“Asia in the Making of Europe"第一卷有此信的英文译文。 这本书主要讲欧洲亚洲早期交往史，强调的亚洲对欧洲的影响。 书中提到当时欧洲两派，一派极力“美化”中国，一派对中国相当”鄙视“。 就军事而言， “鄙视”派占绝对上风。 Lach 这本书发表之后，西班牙史学家从书中引用资料发现西班牙进攻中国计划蛛丝马迹，最后挖出这个计划（西班牙和菲律宾档案）。 新版“Asia in the Making of Europe”第一卷好像已经把这段加了进去。

下面是1524年对葡萄牙人的指控。葡萄牙人喜欢吃小孩。

These people [the Portuguese] like to eat small children. It is said that in their country only the king can eat them; the ministers and those underneath them cannot do it. At that time [ca. 1521], they secretly bought small children aged ten and older and ate them. They bought each child for one hundred gold coins.... [and] devoured countless [of them].
Their method: they bring water to boil in a big pot. As soon as the water boils, they place a little boy in an iron cage, fixing the latter above the pot in order to make him sweat. When [the child's] body has been purged of sweat, they take him out of the cage. They brush away the coarse skin with an iron brush. [Since] the child has been kept alive, they then kill him, slitting open his belly and disembowelling him, so that they can eat up the cooked body.
In the course of two or three years, they abducted an ever increasing number of children. Near and far people suffered from this. ((qtd. in Pelliot 94n)