Fernão Mendes Pinto

• 1. Origins And Early Life

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  Fernão Mendes Pinto was born in about 1509 within the quiet town of Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. He emerged from a family that struggled financially or perhaps held minor noble status before falling on hard times. Records indicate he had two brothers and two sisters, with possibly other siblings lost to history. An uncle intervened in 1521 by taking the young boy to Lisbon to improve his prospects. There Pinto entered household service for a noblewoman but fled after eighteen months. At the docks he secured work as a ship's boy on a cargo vessel bound for Setúbal. French pirates captured the ship and set passengers ashore at Alentejo. Pinto eventually reached Setúbal where he served Francisco de Faria, a knight of Santiago, for four years. He then joined Jorge de Lencastre, an illegitimate son of King John II of Portugal. Although comfortable, this position offered no future advancement. At twenty-eight years old Pinto left to join the Portuguese India Armadas.

• 2. Voyages To The East

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  On the 11th of March 1537 Pinto departed Lisbon for India via Portuguese Mozambique. He arrived in Diu on the 5th of September that year while the town faced siege by Suleiman the Magnificent. A reconnaissance mission took him through Ethiopia to deliver messages to soldiers guarding the mother of Emperor Dawit II. The mission engaged three Turkish galleys near Massawa before suffering defeat. Crew members were taken to Mocha to be sold as slaves. Pinto was purchased by a Greek Muslim master who treated him cruelly. He threatened suicide and was subsequently sold to a Jewish merchant for about thirty ducats worth of dates. The merchant led him along caravan routes to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. There Pinto secured freedom after payment of three hundred ducats from the Portuguese crown. He became captain of the Fortress of Hormuz and served as the king's special magistrate for Indian affairs. Soon after he sailed to Goa but was transferred against his will to a fleet bound for Debal near Thatta. Battles with Ottoman ships followed before he finally reached Goa.

• 3. Captivity And Survival

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  From 1539 Pinto remained in Malacca under Pedro de Faria, the newly appointed captain. He established diplomatic contacts with small kingdoms allied against Muslims in northern Sumatra. In 1569 he discovered an Ottoman fleet led by Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis in Aceh. Following this mission Pinto traveled to Patani on the eastern shore of the Malay Peninsula. An unsuccessful delivery of merchandise to Siam resulted in goods stolen by pirates chased by Pinto and António de Faria. Trading operations continued in the South China Sea especially within the Gulf of Tonkin. Pinto entered China from the Yellow Sea and raided a tomb belonging to the Emperor of China. Shipwrecked and apprehended by Chinese authorities he received a sentence of one year hard labour on the Great Wall of China. Before completing his sentence invading Tatars took him prisoner. He became an agent of the Tartars and traveled with them to Cochinchina. A encounter occurred with a pope-like man possibly the Dalai Lama who had never heard of Europe. Pinto and two companions jumped ship onto a Chinese pirate junk only to be shipwrecked on Tanegashima island south of Kyūshū. Later in Java he may have resorted to cannibalism before submitting to slavery to secure passage out of swampy shores.

• 4. Japan And The Arquebus

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  Pinto claimed that his landing in 1543 made him the first European to set foot in Japan. He also asserted he introduced the arquebus firearm to the region. Modern consensus accepts that traders including António Mota and Francisco Zeimoto visited Japan a year earlier. The weapon was reproduced and used in Japanese civil wars under the name tanegashima. Pinto facilitated trade between Portugal and Japan during this period. At one point he was shipwrecked on the Ryukyu Islands. In 1549 he left Kagoshima accompanied by Anjirō, a Japanese fugitive. He returned to Japan with Saint Francis Xavier, a Catholic missionary. In 1554 Pinto joined the Society of Jesus and donated significant trading wealth to the mission. A letter from daimyō of Bungo named Otomo Yoshishige offered conversion and requested Pinto's return. The letter arrived while Xavier's body was displayed in Goa. Otomo did not convert immediately due to internal difficulties but later did so when Pinto finished his autobiography. Between 1554 and 1556 Pinto returned to Japan with Xavier's successor as ambassador to the daimyo of Bungo. Despite supporting the Church he eventually left the Jesuits in 1557.

• 5. The Memoir Peregrinação

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  Pinto began writing his memoirs in 1569 though the book appeared posthumously in 1614. Friar Belchior Faria published the work after Pinto's death. Although lacking formal education or knowledge of classical culture Pinto created a meaningful work through experiential intelligence. His vivid tales of wanderings seemed incredible and far-fetched to many readers. These stories gave rise to the saying Fernão Mentes? Minto which puns on his name meaning Fernão do you lie I do. The publication varied from Pinto's original manuscript with some sentences erased and others edited. References to the Society of Jesus disappeared notably despite clear indications of his relationship with the order. The text documents the impact of Asian civilizations on Europeans and offers analysis of Portuguese actions in the Orient. It stands as a reasonable comparison to Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas regarding colonial action. Maurice Collis considered Pinto's work the most complete European account of 16th century Asian history available at the time.

• 6. Historical Accuracy Debate

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  Scholars have long debated the verifiability of specific claims made by Pinto against other historical records. The Dutch historian P. A. Tiele wrote in 1880 that he did not believe Pinto was present during the Javanese campaign. Tiele suggested Pinto wrote information from secondhand sources rather than direct experience. Even so Tiele admitted Pinto's account could not be disregarded due to lack of alternative information about Javanese history. Maurice Collis held the opinion that Pinto's accounts while not entirely true remained compatible with known historical events. Many aspects of the work can be verified particularly through records of Pinto's service to the Portuguese crown. Verification also comes from his association with Jesuit missionaries who documented his activities. The memoirs remain just memories of events giving rise to doubts regarding strict historical accuracy. Yet they provide unique insight into the era despite the exaggerations found within the text.