Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1 of 2

by Robert Grant Watson

In the year 1499, Vicente Yañez Pinzon, of Palos, one of the three brothers who had sailed with Columbus in his first voyage seven years previously, obtained from the king of Castile the necessary permission to embark on an expedition of discovery on the Atlantic. Pinzon, who was accompanied by two nephews, as well as by several sailors who had sailed with Columbus, set out with four caravels from the port of Palos, putting to sea in the beginning of December. After passing the Canary and the Cape de Verde Islands, the expedition proceeded to the south-west. Having sailed about seven hundred leagues, they crossed the equator and lost sight of the north star. On crossing the equinoctial line they encountered a terrible tempest; but the confused mariners looked in vain for a guide whereby to steer. Pinzon pursued his course resolutely to the west, and after sailing for about two hundred and forty leagues further, being then in the eighth degree of southern latitude, he beheld, on the 20th of January, a point of land, which he called Consolation, but which is now known as Cape St. Augustine, in the province of Pernambuco. The sea was discoloured, and on sounding, they found sixteen fathoms of water. Pinzon, as in duty bound, landed with a notary and took formal possession of the territory for the crown of Castile. The natives whom he saw in the neighbourhood declined to have any dealings whatsoever with the strangers; and not liking their appearance, the commander made sail next day and stood to the north-west until he came to the mouth of a river where he again encountered a multitude of naked Indians with whom his men had a desperate encounter, in which a number of Spaniards were wounded or slain. Discouraged by this reception, the navigator now stood forty leagues to the north-west, being once more near the equinoctial line. Here the water was so sweet that he replenished his casks from it.

Astonished at this phenomenon, he stood in for land, and arrived among a number of islands whose people he found hospitable and in no way afraid of intercourse with the strangers. By degrees Pinzon realised the fact that these islands lay at the mouth of an immense river, a river so great that its dimensions can scarcely be realised by one accustomed even to the largest of European streams, such as the Danube or the Volga, far less by one whose ideas of an inland stream were formed by the Guadalquiver. The mariner had in fact alighted at the mouth of the mightiest of the mighty streams of the New World, a river which pours into the ocean a greater volume of water than even the Mississippi or the Plata; he had reached the Amazons, a stream which, discovered at its mouth by one Spaniard, was, a few years later, to be traced throughout the greater part of its course down to the ocean by another Spaniard, the ill-fated Orellana.

The Amazons at its mouth has a breadth of no less than thirty leagues, the volume of water proceeding through which penetrates for forty leagues into the sea before losing its sweetness. Whilst lying at the mouth of this river, Pinzon encountered a sudden swelling of the stream, which, meeting the current of the ocean, caused a rise of more than five fathoms, the mountain waves threatening his ships with destruction. Having extricated his vessels with no small difficulty from this danger, Pinzon, finding that there was no object to detain him in this region, showed that he was not less civilised than other Spanish navigators at the time in the matter of requiting hospitality, by carrying off thirty-six natives as slaves.

Having the polar star once more to guide him, the mariner pursued his course along the coast, passing the mouths of the Orinoco, and entering the gulf of Pária, where he took in brazil-wood, and from which he emerged by the celebrated Boca del Drago. He subsequently reached Palos about the end of September of the same year, having lost two of his vessels at the Bahamas. Vicente Pinzon has the glory of having been the first European to cross the equinoctial line on the Western Atlantic and of having discovered Brazil.

1500.

Later in the same year in which Pinzon had discovered Cape St. Augustine and had taken possession of the neighbouring coast in the name of the sovereigns of Castile, an event happened which illustrates how sometimes in human affairs the effect of accident may almost anticipate the calculations and discoveries of genius.[I] Scarcely eight years had elapsed since Columbus had set out on that voyage which, according to the motto beneath his armorial bearings, gave a new world to Castile and to Léon, when another expedition was equipped by King Emanuel of Portugal, the commander of which, without having the least idea of discovering land to the westwards, accidentally lighted upon the coast of South America.

But although Cabral has little or no merit in having been one of the first two independent discoverers of Brazil, yet it would be unfair to state that chance was wholly answerable for his discovery, and that scientific inquiry had no share in the matter. Scientific inquiry in this instance was, however, not due to Cabral, but to Prince Henry of Portugal, the great patron of maritime exploration along the western coast of Africa, and who, though he did not survive to know it, had paved the way for the great achievement of Vasco de Gama. It was in order to follow up the discoveries of the hero of the Lusiad that King Emanuel had equipped the squadron which left Belem on the Tagus, with befitting pomp and solemnity, in March A.D. 1500. The commander took with him a banner blessed by the Bishop of Ceuta, and set out under a royal salute from the fleet. It is remarkable that this expedition, destined to add to the Portuguese position in the East, should lead to the foundation of the Lusian Empire of the West.

Cabral steered for the Cape de Verdes and then westwards to escape “the Doldrums” or calms on the African coast; and so sailing, he, on the 25th of April, sighted land near the harbour which bears his name. He himself now proceeded on his original destination eastward, but he sent back one of his vessels to inform his king of his discovery in the West, to follow up which an expedition was next year despatched.

1501.

Amerigo Vespucci, now in the service of Portugal, landed on the coast of Brazil south of the equator; but the cannibal savages whom he discovered declined to have any dealings with the intruders whom their domains could not but attract. The forests were like gardens of flowers, the trees having blossoms of all colours, contrasted with the perfection of effect only met with in nature. Parasites filled the intervening spaces between trees and boughs, whilst orchids hung from them in the air, and birds of tropical plumage warbled amidst groves of pomegranate and orange trees. As Vespucci and his companions sailed southwards, new heavens were revealed to his wondering eyes, the Southern Cross looking down upon them in its glory. On reaching the eighth degree of southern latitude they found the natives more tractable. They were welcomed everywhere, and were thus enabled to explore the coast. They coasted onwards till the thirty-second degree, when they put out to sea, going twenty degrees further in the same direction. Here they met with stormy weather, and the cold became intense, so that Vespucci deemed it expedient to retrace his way to Lisbon, which place he reached in safety after a voyage of sixteen months. It was from this voyage that Amerigo Vespucci was considered the discoverer of the mainland of South America. His name was at first applied to these southern regions, but was afterwards extended to the whole continent. Vespucci was ignorant that Brazil had previously been discovered both by Pinzon and Cabral. His account of his voyage, addressed to Lorenzo de Medici, was published at Strasburg in 1505. It is said to have been printed in Venice in 1504.