Fernão Mendes Pinto
Fernão Mendes Pinto (Old Portuguese: Fernam Mendez Pinto); (Montemor-o-Velho, 1509?-Pragal, Almada, 1583) was a Portuguese adventurer, explorer and writer, whose exploits are known to history through the posthumous publication of his memoir, "Pilgrimage", ("Peregrinação" in Portuguese), in 1614 — an autobiographical work whose validity is nearly impossible to assess. In the course of his adventures in the Far East, Pinto visited Ethiopia, the Arabian Sea, China (where he spent a year in forced labor on the Great Wall), India, and Japan: He claimed to have been among the first group of Europeans to land in that country, and to have introduced the gun to that nation in 1543. He was known to have funded the first Christian church in Japan, after befriending a Catholic priest and founding member of the Society of Jesus, later known as Saint Francis Xavier, and was at one time a Jesuit, though he later separated from the order.
In Pilgrimage, Pinto was sharply critical of Portugese colonialism in the Far East, recording moral and religious objections to what he perceived to be a hypocritical and greedy enterprise disguised as a religious mission, a view that would later become common but at the time was relatively unknown.[1] The vivid tale of Pinto's two decades of wanderings (he wrote, "thirteen times made captive and seventeen times sold") was so unusual that for some time it was not believed, giving rise to the Portugese pun on his name: "Fernão, Mentes? Minto!" meaning "Fernão, do you lie? Yes, I lie!"
Early life
Fernão Mendes Pinto was born in Montemor-o-Velho in 1509 to a poor country family. It is known he had at least two brothers and at least two sisters. His brother Álvaro was present at Malacca in 1551 and other letters reveal that one of the brothers suffered martydom in Malacca. It is also known that he had a wealthy cousin, Francisco García de Vargas who was present at Cochin in 1557. He departed for Lisbon, capital of the Kingdom, in 1521, where he served George, Duke of Coimbra (natural son of King John II of Portugal). Two years later, he sailed for Setúbal, to work for a nobleman called Francisco de Faria, but during the voyage the ship was attacked by French pirates who abandoned the crew and passengers on the beach near Alentejo.
Voyages
Pinto's travels can be divided into three phases; his initial voyages from Portugal to India, in which he attempted to join Portugese outposts on the Western coast of India, and was diverted several times, travelling through many nations around the Arabian Gulf, from the coast of Africa to the Persian Gulf. After eventually reaching India, he then voyaged to the eastern coast of India and to Portugese possessions around Malacca, bringing him to Sumatra, Siam, China, and Japan. Finally, Pinto returned to Europe.
First voyage to India
Fernão's first voyage to India began on March 11, 1537 when he set sail from Lisbon. Little happened on the voyage besides a brief stop in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. On September 5, 1537 he arrived in Diu, a fortified island and town northwest of Bombay, which had been taken into Portuguese possesion two years earlier. According to his account the fortress was under the siege by Muslims led by Suleiman the Magnificent, who was determined to overthrow the Portuguese rule in India and to maintain the Muslim monopoly on eastern trade.
Enticed by the tales of riches that could be obtained by attacking Muslim shipping, he joined a reconnaissance mission to the Red Sea, with a brief stop in Ethiopia to deliver a message to the Portuguese soliders who were guarding Eleni of Ethiopia, the mother of "Prester John" (Dawit II of Ethiopia, the negus) in a mountain fortress. After departing the Ethiopian port, Massawa, the Portuguese ships he was with engaged three Turkish galleys, but were defeated. They were taken as prisoners to Mocha, a port in the southwest Arabia, and put on an auction block. Pinto was sold to a Greek Muslim who he claims was a cruel master, and threatened to commit suicide, convincing his master to sell him to a Jewish merchant for about thirty ducats' worth of dates.
His new master takes him on the caravan route to Hormuz, then the leading market town in the Persian Gulf, where Pinto was offered to the Captain of the Fortress of Hormuz and the King's special magistrate for Indian affairs, who had recently been sent by the Governor of Portuguese India on a mission for the crown. Fernão was freed at a cost of three hundred ducats payed by the crown.
His second voyage to India was soon after becoming free when he signed on a Portuguese cargo ship that was bound for Goa, the Portugese colony and naval base that had been established to seize complete control of the spice trade from other European powers after traditional land routes to India had been closed by the Ottoman Turks. Against his will Pinto was transfered while on route to a naval fleet bound for Dabul to try to capture or destroy the Ottoman Turkish vessel anchored there. After a number of engagements in the Arabian Sea, with varying success, Pinto ultimately reached Goa.
Malacca and the Far East
From 1539 on it appears Pinto was based in Malacca under the newly appointed Captain of Malacca, Pero de Faria, who sent Pinto to establish diplomatic contacts with the unknown states in the region.
Most of his early time in Malacca included missions to the petty kingdoms of Sumatra, which was allied with the Portuguese against the Muslims of Achin in northern Sumatra. During these voyages he made private trades, hoping to make profits himself, but remained loyal to the King's interests, in contrast to many of his colleagues, who would engage in private trade to the extent that it would be a detriment to the interests of the crown.
Patani voyage
Following his mission to Sumatra, he was sent to Patani, on the eastern shore of the Malay peninsula. In a joint venture with countrymen based in Patani, Pinto travelled with a shipload of merchandise to the coast of Siam (modern-day Thailand), but they were attacked by a Muslim pirate, who stole their profits. Sailing in search of the pirate, they essentially become pirates themselves, under the command of António de Faria. Faria's exploits lead him to become a popular figure in Portuguese literature.
Pinto continued in this role for months, operating in the Gulf of Tongking near Indochina, in the waters of the South China seas, and raging northward along the coast of China and Korea, where he claims to have raided the Emperor of China's tomb.
After a shipwreck leaves them in the hands of the Chinese, the survivors of the ordeal are sentenced to one year of hard labor on the Great Wall of China, but Fernão did not complete his sentence, becoming a prisoner of war after a Tatar invasion. Pinto and his comrades buy their freedom by teaching the Tatars how to storm a fortress, and in the company of a Tatar ambassador, they traveled toward Cochinchina, the southermost part of modern-day Cambodia and Vietnam.
While on the journey, they encounter a major religious figure Pinto describes as "pope-like," — possibly the Dalai Lama — who had never heard of Europe. Frustrated with the slow pace of travel, and still in the vicinity of the deserted islands off the coast of Canton, Pinto and two companions boarded a Chinese pirate junk, which is cast by a storm onto Japanese island of Tangegashima, just south of Kyushu; this is the source of Pinto's claim to be the first westerner to enter Japan.
Voyages to Japan
A few years later (1542) Pinto made his first voyage to Japan, accompanied by other Portuguese, supposedly introducing the arquebus, a kind of firearm, to that country.
They landed in Japan in 1542 or 1543. They then endeared themselves to a feudal lord who they claim to have given the first firearm to have entered Japan, the arquebus. The copy was rapidly reproduced turning the tide of the civil wars in Japan. Pinto returns to the coast of China after being released, at Ningpo. The Portuguese merchants are highly interested and form a party to make money from the supposed riches with Fernão onboard. However, in the rush they shipwrecked on the coast of the Ryukyu Islands where they were arrested for piracy but were released because of the compassion of the women of the island.
In 1549 he leaves from the port of Kagoshima but before he does he takes a Japanese fugitive known as Anijiro to Saint Francais Xavier. Francais joins Fernão's voyage to Japan. In 1551 he meets Xavier again who in Japan and worked for him during the evangelization period of the region. He joined the Society of Jesus and became a "brother". He gave all his belongings to less wealthy people or to the Society itself. He is forced to leave that year with Xavier as a shipmate because Xavier leaves his work to his successor.
In 1554, Fernão decides to return home to Portugal with the fortune he had gained during his voyages. It was while returning home that he underwent the conversion to the Society of Jesus and donated a large sum of his wealth. A letter from Otomo Yoshishige concurs with these events when the daiymo of Bungo requests for him to come to return to Japan (his final trip) and held out on his conversion. The letter arrived during the same time that Xavier's body was being displayed in Goa. Fernão was to accompany the mission which to a small degree was a successful diplomatic mission establishing an embassy but he failed to convert Otomo because of an ongoing civil war and he could not afford to take the chance. Twenty two years later Otomo would convert to Christianity which was the same time as Fernão was completing his autobiography.
His final voyage to Japan is in 1554-1556 with Xavier's succssor who is leaving as the Viceroy of Portuguese India's ambassador to the daimyo of Bungo on the island of Kyushu. At the end of the voyage Fernão lends money to Xavier to create the first church in Japan. For or an unknown reason he abandoned the Jesuits in 1557 on his return trip.
Martaban
Fernão returns to Malacca and reports to the captain who sends him on a mission to Martaban which is today part of Lower Myanmar. He arives in the midst of a siege and takes refuge in the Portuguese camp of mercenaries who had betryaed the Viceroy of Martaban. At the end of the siege, Fernão is likewise betrayed by a mercenary. He is made a captive of the Burmese and placed under the charge of the king's treasurer who takes him to the kingdom of Calaminham which is identified now as Luang Prabang. Fernão flees on his return trip while the Burmese besiedge Sandoway to Goa
China
Once he returned to Goa, he meets up with Pero de Faria again, who is now ex-captain of Malacca. Pero sends him on a voyage to Java to buy pepper which can then be sold in China. While buying goods in Java he is joined by forty Portuguese merchants in the port of Bantam who were alarmed by the violence in the area in order to have an new emperor because the previous one was slain by his page boy over a point of honor.
The Japanese Wako shipreck them in the Gulf of Siam where they end up tossed onto the coast of Java. There they resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Those that do (including Fernão) sell themselves as slaves in order to be taken out of the swamps. They are then resold to a Celebes merchant and sold yet agin to the King of Kalapa now known as Jakarta. After hearing their stories he generously sends them on a ship to Sunda from which they had previously departed.
Using borrowed money Fernão buys passage to Siam, now known as Thailand. Not long after his arrival the King of Siam requests Portuguese residents to enlist to quell a revolt in the Northern boundaries. On his return the King of Siam is poisoned by the Queen who also murders the young heir to the thrown and places her lover in the boys place. He is then murdered, and unrest ensues provoking the King of Burma to lay siege to Ayuthia the capital of Burma. While Fernão may not have been present the knowledge he tells during this is far more indepth than any other European accounts during the time period.
Return voyage
Fernão returned to Portugal on 22 September, 1558 an a uneventful voyage. He was already famous in Western Europe as the author of a letter that had been published by the Society of Jesus in 1555. From 1562-1566 Fernão spent four and a half years in court hoping to receive a reward or compensation for his services to the Crown.
The book
In 1558 he returned to Portugal where he married Maria Correia Barreto whom he had at least two daughters with though the number is unknown. He bought a farm in the region of Pragal (near Almada) in 1562 and in 1569 he started to write the account of his voyages in the Orient.
His book would only be published 31 years after his death in 1614 by a friar named Belchior Faria. The full title of the book was
"Pilgrimage of Fernam Mendez Pinto in which is told the many and very strange things he saw and heard in the kingdom of China, in the one of Tartary, in the one of Sornau, usually called Siam, in the one of Calaminhan, in the one of Pegù, in the one of Martauão, and in many other kingdoms and lordships of the Oriental parts, and that in our Occident there are few or no accounts. And also the account of many particular affairs that occured both to him and many other people. And in the end of it briefly regards some things, & the death of the Holy Priest Francis Xavier, sole light and brightness of those parts of the Orient, & universal ruller of the Society of Jesus in those parts."
(in Old Portuguese: "Peregrinaçam de Fernam Mendez Pinto em que da conta de muytas e muyto estranhas cousas que vio & ouvio no reyno da China, no da Tartaria, no de Sornau, que vulgarmente se chama de Sião, no de Calaminhan, no do Pegù, no de Martauão, & em outros muytos reynos & senhorios das partes Orientais, de que nestas nossas do Occidente ha muyto pouca ou nenhua noticia. E tambem da conta de muytos casos particulares que acontecerão assi a elle como a outras muytas pessoas. E no fim della trata brevemente de alguas cousas, & da morte do Santo Padre Francisco Xavier, unica luz & resplandor daquellas partes do Oriente, & reitor nellas universal da Companhia de Iesus.")
It is thought that the printed version of the book does not correspond exactly to the author’s manuscripts — some sentences appear to have been erased and others were "corrected". The disappearance of references to the Society of Jesus, one of the most active religious orders in the Orient, is notable, as there are clear indications of Fernão Mendes Pinto's relations with the society.
Fernão Mendes Pinto died on July 8, 1583 on his farm of Pragal.
Notable views held in the book
Although Fernão Mendes Pinto did not have an education similar to his contemporary authors and did not reveal knowledge of either classical culture or of the aesthetics of the Renaissance, his experiential knowledge and intelligence enabled him to create a fascinating and lasting work.
The absence of a formal education, his physical distance from the dominant culture, and his humble roots were his advantages. His work has no signs of prejudice regarding the "new" cultures discovered by the Portuguese and thus it is a living testimony of their habits, attitudes and ways of life.
Historicity
The book was written by memory due to that it cannot be considered a true source. However, it documents extremely well the impact of the Asian civilizations on the Europeans and constitutes a perfectly realistic analysis of Portuguese action in the Orient, far more realistic than the one made by Luís de Camões in The Lusiads. The most controversial of his claims is being the first European to land in Japan and introduce the arqeabus. However, despite the difficulty in proving it there is no doubt that he was among the first European's in Japan and so his book's accounts could be considered more reliable than other books written about the time long afterwards. A second example is his claim that he fought in Java against the Muslims. The Dutch historian, P.A. Tiele who wrote in [[1880] did not believe he was present during the campaign but wrote his information from second hand. Even so he admits his account cannot be disgarded because of the little information about Javanese history during the time period. Maurice Collis's , a modern expert on Asian affairs, who lived in the area for 20 years holds the opinion that Fernão's accounts, while not entirely true, are essentially true to the basic events. Because of this he considers his work the most complete European account of Asian history in the 16th century.
References
- Breve História da Literatura Portuguesa, Texto Editora, Lisboa, 1999
- A. J. Barreiros, História da Literatura Portuguesa, Editora Pax, 11th ed.
- A. J. Saraiva, O. Lopes, História da Literatura Portuguesa, Porto Editora, 12tg ed.
- Verbo – Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, 15th ed., Editorial Verbo, Lisboa
- Lexicoteca – Moderna Enciclopédia Universal, vol. 15, Círculo de Leitores, 1987
- The Travels of Mendes Pinto, ISBN 0226669513
- Collis, Maurice. The Grand Peregrination. London: Faber and Faber, 1949.