Tea was first introduced to Western priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which time it was termed chá.[13] The earliest European reference to tea, written as chili, came from Delle navigation e Viaggi written by Venetian Giambattista Ramusio in 1545. The first recorded shipment of tea by a European nation was in 1607 when the Dutch East India Company moved a cargo of tea from Macao to Java, then two years later, the Dutch bought the first assignment of tea which was from Hirado in Japan to be shipped to Europe.