page_title: Martín Alonso Pinzón
section_title: Preparations for the voyage of discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Martín Alonso Pinzón / Preparations for the voyage of discovery
caption_attribution_description: Casa Museo Martín Alonso Pinzón, Palos de la Frontera (Huelva)
context_page_description: Martín Alonso Pinzón, was a Spanish mariner, shipbuilder, navigator and explorer, oldest of the Pinzón brothers. He sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of the Pinta. His youngest brother Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was captain of the Niña, and the middle brother Francisco Martín Pinzón was maestre of the Pinta.
context_section_description: On 23 May 1492 a royal provision was read out to the residents of Palos, by which the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered that certain residents deliver two caravels to Columbus and travel with him on his voyage that he was making "by command of Their Highnesses" ("por mandado de Sus Altezas") and that the town should respect the royal decision. The locals did not comply. The sailors of Palos had no confidence in embarking on this adventure with Columbus, who was largely unknown to them. Independent of their greater or lesser credence in his ideas, the men of Palos found it difficult to support the Genovese sailor if he was not accompanied by a mariner known and respected in the town. The venture—risky and, above all, of uncertain profit—did not present great attractions. Opposition or indifference to Columbus's project was general.
  At about this time, Pinzón returned from a routine commercial voyage to Rome. The Franciscans of the Monastery of La Rábida put Columbus in touch with Pinzón. Pinzón's friend Pero Vázquez de la Frontera, a very respected old mariner in the town, also had an important influence on Pinzón deciding to support the undertaking, not only morally but also economically.
  There is no record of any written agreement between Columbus and Pinzón, and the terms of any agreement are lost to history. However, we do have the writings of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and the testimony of some witnesses. According to Fernández Duro, de las Casas says Columbus offered Pinzón equal honors in the voyage and half the profits, and Diego Pinzón Colmenero testified the same in the pleitos colombinos; Francisco Medel testified that he heard him offer Pinzón "whatever he asked for and desired".
  As a strong sign of his commitment to Columbus's plan, Pinzón put up half a million ("medio cuento") maravedís in coin toward the cost of the voyage, half of the amount that had been put up by the monarchy. Thanks to his prestige as a shipowner and expert sailor and his fame throughout the Tinto-Odiel region, he was able to enlist an appropriate crew. Signing on, he dismissed the vessels that Columbus had already seized based on the royal order and also dismissed the men he had enrolled, supplying the enterprise with two caravels of his own, the Pinta and the Niña, which he knew from his own experience would be better and more suitable boats. Furthermore, he traveled through Palos, Moguer and Huelva, convincing his relatives and friends to enlist, composing of them the best crew possible. According to testimony in the pleitos colombinos, he "brought such diligence to secure and animate the people as if what were discovered were for him and his sons." Among those he recruited were Cristóbal Quintero from Palos and the Niño brothers from Moguer.
  At this time, Pinzón and Columbus seemed quite close. In the pleitos colombinos, witness Alonso Gallego from Huelva remembered hearing Columbus say, "Mister Martín Alonso Pinzón, we are going on this voyage which, if we go on with it and God reveals new lands to us, I promise by the Royal Crown to treat you as a brother."
caption: Pinzón family house in Palos, now Casa Museo de Martín Alonso Pinzón.
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