CRUZ, GASPARE de. — The first Dominican missionary to arrive in China. Born in Evora (date unknown), he was part of the first expedition of twelve Dominicans who departed for India (1548). He also reached Cambodia and touched upon China (1556), but returned the following year and died in 1570. He wrote a Trattato delle cose di Cina, published at Evora in 1569 and subsequently republished in a second edition in 1829.
BIBL.: Streit, Bibl., IV, p. 518.