ANDRADE, ANTONIO de. - Portuguese Jesuit, missionary, and explorer, b. at Oleiros (Beira Baixa province) in 1580, d. at Goa on 19 March 1634. In 1600 he set out for the Indian missions; after ordination he served as rector at Rachol and Goa, and was then sent as superior to the Mogul mission. Reports spread by merchants about Tibet induced him to travel to that unknown region. Departing from Agra with a single lay brother on 30 March 1624, he became the first European to cross the Himalayas and reached as far as the small town of Tsaparang in the upper Sutlej valley, where he was well received by the local ruler, who granted him permission to preach the Gospel. Returning to Agra, on 17 June 1625 he set out again for Tibet and on 28 August established at Tsaparang the seat of the new Tibetan mission, where five other Portuguese Jesuits and one Frenchman worked. However, the mission survived only a few years after Andrade’s departure, owing to revolutions and wars. Andrade himself had been recalled to Goa as superior of that province, which then numbered about 300 missionaries spread from the Himalayas to the borders of Malabar and Persia and along the eastern coasts of Africa. After completing his term as provincial (1630–33), he was made rector of the College of St Paul in Goa. He was preparing for a new attempt to enter Tibet when he died, apparently poisoned by a perverted Christian.
He wrote two accounts of his journeys, both much sought after in Europe and translated into Spanish, French, Polish, and Italian (Relatione del nuouo scoprimento del gran Catacio, ouero regno del Tibet..., Rome 1628). His annual letters from Tibet for 1626 were also published (Lettere annue del Tibet del 1626..., Rome 1627). Other of his writings, both published and unpublished, are listed by Streit, Bibl., V, pp. 101, 105–18, 146, 151.