Joao III

Fernao Mendes Pinto 2: The Red Sea and the Siege of Diu

16th-Century Painting of an Ottoman Fleet - (Wikimedia)

Pinto visits the "Land of Prester John," faces trouble on the Red Sea, and brushes up against the 1538 Siege of Diu. He takes part in combat on the waters and along the Indian coast, grumbles as to his lot in life, and is whisked about by boat to Massawa, Mokha, Qeshm, Chaul, Goa, Honnavar, and Diu, before heading further east.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

  1. Article on ambergris, a substance which makes fairly frequent appearances on this podcast.

  2. Podcast episode on “The Ottoman Red Sea.”

  3. Article on the Ottoman coffee crackdown.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Casale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press, 2010.

  • Pearson, N.M. The Portuguese in India. Cambridge University Press, 2006.


Fernao Mendes Pinto 1: From Lisbon, Poverty, and Pirates

Detail from Duarte de Armas’ Livro das Fortalezas - (Wiki)

Fernão Mendes Pinto, respected by many of his contemporaries for the expertise knowledge which he'd gained through his travels, absolutely synonymous for others with lies and exaggerations. 

From humble beginnings and vaguely unfortunate events in his early life, Pinto would find a place for himself in the 16th-century world of colonial Portugal, would write himself into it if necessary.

He was, he said, “13 times a prisoner and 17 a slave.” As Rebecca Catz writes, he served as a “soldier, merchant, pirate, ambassador, missionary, doctor—the list is not complete.” He ran afoul of pirates, was shipwrecked, and robbed royal tombs. The characters in his story included a saint, an Indonesian ruler, the mother of Prester John, a Japanese lord, and someone who may or may not have been the Dalai Lama. He claimed to be among the very first Europeans to set foot in Japan, but then he claimed to be a lot of things.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

  1. Article on the history of the mango and a Portuguese connection.

  2. Article about the discovery of a shipwreck, thought to have come from Vasco da Gama’s armada.

  3. The story of the rhino of Lisbon.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670: A Documentary History, edited by Malyn Newitt. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  • Pearson, N.M. The Portuguese in India. Cambridge University Press, 2006.