Portuguese adventurer and explorer born in Montemor-o-Velho, who is believed to have been part of the first expedition Portuguese that managed to reach Japan (1543), and thus became one of those responsible for the introduction of firearms in that country. Descending from a modest family, he was taken as a child by an uncle who took him to Lisbon, and placed him in the service of Duke D. Jorge, son of King D. John II. At court he received a good education and became attracted to travel to distant lands. He left for India (1537) and when crossing the Red Sea he faced the Ottomans in naval combat and was imprisoned and sold into slavery.
When he was in the service of a Jew in Ormuz, he was rescued by the Portuguese. For the next 21 years he passed the coasts of Burma, Siam, Sunda archipelago, Moluccas, China and Japan. In Japan he met São. Francisco Xavier and decided to join the Society of Jesus. He disposed of his material possessions (1554) and went to Japan as a novice in the Society of Jesus and as ambassador of the viceroy D. Afonso de Noronha to the king of Bungo. His feeble convictions soon proved insufficient and he abandoned the novitiate and returned to Portugal.
He tried to receive a state pension for services rendered, but was unsuccessful and, disillusioned, moved to the Rosal Valley, in Almada, where he wrote his adventures (1570-1578) and lived until his death. His main work, Peregrinação (1578), would only be published almost two decades after his death (1614), in Almada, Pragal. That is why some authors fear that the original has been modified to the taste of the powerful Jesuits.
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order F - Biography - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/fernao-mendes-pinto-de-montemor.htm
