I'm re-reading Charles C. Mann's 1493, and he mentions the arrival of a group of "Dutch" (a mix of Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Malays) pirates in Fujian in 1547, where they set up a base on Wu Island. I can't seem to find any other references to this event on the internet, and it is kind of treated as representative of larger trends of the period.
The date seems very early to me for such an unknown event. When did European travels to the orient by sail like this become so commonplace that they wouldn't be noteworthy to put in the history books? As far as I'm aware, Europeans had just discovered Japan at this point, and travel to China was still anything but a common occurrence. Have I wrongly conceptualized the existing trade and contact links of this period?
edit: I realize "the Orient" can mean something different to each person. What I'm really talking about here is the Far East (eg., China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, The Philippines, Formosa, etc.).
The average number of Portuguese ships arriving in the east (including India) during the 16th century was about six per year, and fairly constant for most of the century. Not what i'd call a common sight. However, Malacca (in present day Malaysia) fell to the Portuguese in 1511, giving them a permanent presence in the far east. Two years later they reached China for the first time.
What surprises me about this story, which i'd never heard of, is the presence, and leading role of the Dutch. At this time the various Counties*, Bishoprics and Lordships that would become the Netherlands were still all part of the Habsburg Netherlands, under Charles V (or Carlos II if you prefer his Spanish name). As such they were bound by the treaty of tordesillas which made Chinese waters the preserve of Portuguese traders. I'm not really sure what Mann means by Dutch flags either, could be a County or city flag i suppose.
The first 'official' Dutch traders arrived in China in 1601, they left empty-handed after a violent confrontation with the Portuguese at Macau.
I don't own the book myself, and the google books version is incomplete, could you tell me if Mann offers any sources on this story?
*As in, an area ruled over by a count, not the modern administrative area.