Fernão Mendes Pinto

Fernão Mendes Pinto
Possible likeness of Fernão Mendes Pinto in the Visitation altarpiece (Giraldo Fernandes de Prado, 1589-91) of the Church of Misericórdia of Almada, Portugal
Born	1509 Montemor-o-Velho, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	8 July 1583(1583-07-08) Pragal, Almada, Kingdom of Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Occupation	explorer and writer
Known for	Pilgrimage

Fernão Mendes Pinto (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃w̃ ˈmẽdɨʃ ˈpĩtu]; c.1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in Pilgrimage (Portuguese: Peregrinação) (1614), his autobiographical memoir. The historical accuracy of the work is debatable due to the many events which seem far fetched or at least exaggerated, earning him the nickname "Fernão Mentes Minto" (wordplay with the Portuguese verb mentir 'lie', meaning "Fernão, are you lying? I am lying."). Some aspects of the work can be verified, particularly through Pinto's service to the Portuguese Crown and by his association with Jesuit missionaries.

Fernão Mendes Pinto was born in about 1509, in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal to a poor rural family (or perhaps to a family of minor nobility who had fallen on hard times). Pinto had two brothers and two sisters (and possibly other siblings). In 1551, a brother, Álvaro, was recorded in Portuguese Malacca. Letters also record the martyr's death of a brother in Malacca. In 1557, Francisco Garcia de Vargas, Pinto's wealthy cousin is recorded at Cochin.

Pinto described his childhood as spartan. In 1521, hoping to improve the boy's prospects, an uncle took him to Lisbon. There, Pinto was employed in the household service of a noblewoman. After eighteen months or so, Pinto fled. At the docks, he was hired as a ship's boy on a cargo vessel bound for Setúbal. On the way, French pirates captured the ship and the passengers were set upon the shore at Alentejo.

There is a claim that he might have been related to the wealthy Mendes family who were descendants of Jewish Marranos who lived in Portugal (which makes him a relative of Gracia Mendes Nasi). They had a monopoly of the black pepper commerce in Portugal and some of them later moved to Antwerp in Belgium