When and where was Fernão Mendes Pinto born?
Fernão Mendes Pinto was born in about 1509 within the quiet town of Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. Records indicate he had two brothers and two sisters, with possibly other siblings lost to history.
Questions about Fernão Mendes Pinto
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What happened to Fernão Mendes Pinto during his voyage to India in 1537?
On the 11th of March 1537 Pinto departed Lisbon for India via Portuguese Mozambique and arrived in Diu on the 5th of September that year while the town faced siege by Suleiman the Magnificent. He suffered defeat near Massawa, was taken to Mocha to be sold as slaves, and eventually secured freedom after payment of three hundred ducats from the Portuguese crown.
How did Fernão Mendes Pinto end up working for the Tartars?
After being shipwrecked and apprehended by Chinese authorities, Pinto received a sentence of one year hard labour on the Great Wall of China before invading Tatars took him prisoner. He became an agent of the Tartars and traveled with them to Cochinchina.
Did Fernão Mendes Pinto actually discover Japan first?
Pinto claimed that his landing in 1543 made him the first European to set foot in Japan but modern consensus accepts that traders including António Mota and Francisco Zeimoto visited Japan a year earlier. The weapon he introduced was reproduced and used in Japanese civil wars under the name tanegashima.
When was Fernão Mendes Pinto's memoir published and who edited it?
Fernão Mendes Pinto began writing his memoirs in 1569 though the book appeared posthumously in 1614. Friar Belchior Faria published the work after Pinto's death and altered the text by erasing some sentences and editing others.