Cristóvão de Mendonça
| Cristóvão de Mendonça | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1475 Mourão, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | 1532 (aged 56–57) Ormus |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Occupation | Explorer |
| Parent(s) | Diogo Furtado de Mendonça Brites Soares de Albergaria |
Cristóvão de Mendonça (Mourão?, 1475 – Ormus, 1532) was a Portuguese noble and explorer who was active in South East Asia in the 16th century.
Son of D. Diogo Furtado de Mendonça,Alcaide-mor (lord mayor) of Mourão, captain of crossbowmen, and his wife, Brites Soares de Albergaria. Another daughter of the marriage, D. Joana, was married to D. Jaime, 4th duke of Bragança. Cristóvão de Mendonça married D. Maria de Vilhena, daughter of Sancho de Tovar, but there was no issue of this marriage.
Mendonça is known from a small number of Portuguese sources, notably João de Barros. Barros was one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his work Décadas da Ásia (Decades of Asia), a history of the Portuguese Empire in India and Asia, published between 1552–1615. Barros mentions that Cristóvão de Mendonça was the son of a Pedro de Mendonça of Mourão, but his date of birth is not given. Mendonça later governed Hormuz (Ormus) as Captain-Major from 1527. He died there in 1532.
Mendonça is named by Barros as the captain of a ship that left Lisbon in 1519 and, after arriving at Goa, as having been given instructions to search for Pliny's legendary Isles of Gold (Chryse), said to lie to "beyond Sumatra":
At the end of June of the year 1520, a ship arrived that had departed the Kingdom that year, the Captain and Pilot being Pedro Eanes, nicknamed the Frenchman, who being a diligent man and one well versed in matters of the sea, King Manuel had entrusted with letters for Diogo Lopez concerning service matters. And among other things that the King ordered Diogo Lopez to do that year, was to send some person in the same ship with Pedro Eanes, to who would be entrusted to go to discover the Isles of Gold beyond Sumatra, of which we have already written above, for many persons who had gone to these parts of India had given him great hope that they could be discovered. Diogo Lopez then gave this to do to Christovão de Mendoça, the son of Pero Mendoça the lord mayor of Mourão; of whose voyage we will make mention below.
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