page_title: Fernão Mendes Pinto
section_title: First voyage to India
hierarchical_section_title: Fernão Mendes Pinto / Voyages / First voyage to India
context_page_description: Fernão Mendes Pinto was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in Pilgrimage, 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". Some aspects of the work can be verified, particularly through Pinto's service to the Portuguese Crown and by his association with Jesuit missionaries.
context_section_description: On 11 March 1537, Pinto left Lisbon for India via Portuguese Mozambique. On 5 September that year, he arrived in Diu, a fortified island and town northwest of Bombay (Portuguese since 1535 but under siege by Suleiman the Magnificent).
  Pinto joined a Portuguese reconnaissance mission to the Red Sea via Ethiopia. The mission was to deliver a message to Portuguese soldiers guarding Eleni of Ethiopia, the mother of "Prester John" (Emperor Dawit II of Ethiopia) in a mountain fortress. After leaving Massawa, the mission engaged three Turkish galleys in battle. The Portuguese ships were defeated and their crews taken to Mocha to be sold as slaves.
  Pinto was sold to a Greek Muslim who was a cruel master.  Pinto threatened suicide and was sold to a Jewish merchant for about thirty ducats' worth of dates. With the Jewish merchant, Pinto travelled the caravan route to Hormuz, a leading market town in the Persian Gulf. There, Pinto was freed by way of payment of three hundred ducats from the Portuguese crown. He was made captain of the Fortress of Hormuz and the Portuguese king's special magistrate for Indian affairs.
caption: Map of India showing Diu
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