Pêro Vaz de Caminha | |
|---|---|
 Vaz de Caminha (standing on the right) reads toCommander Cabral,Friar Henrique andMaster João the letter that would later be sent toManuel I of Portugal | |
| Born | c. 1450 |
| Died | 15 December 1500 Calicut, India |
| Occupation(s) | Knight, writer, secretary |
| Known for | Writer of the official report of thediscovery of Brazil. |
| Signature | |
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Pêro orPero[1][2]Vaz de Caminha (c. 1450 – 15 December 1500;Portuguese pronunciation:[ˈpeɾuˈvaʒðɨkɐˈmiɲɐ]; also spelledPedro Vaz de Caminha)[a] was aPortuguese knight that accompaniedPedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500 as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500discovery of Brazil byCabral's fleet (Carta de Pêro Vaz de Caminha, dated 1 May 1500). He died in a riot inCalicut, India, at the end of that year.
Pêro Vaz de Caminha was the son of Vasco Fernandes de Caminha, a knight of the household of theDuke of Guimarães (later Braganza). His ancestors were among the first settlers ofNeiva during the reign ofFerdinand I (r.1367–83). On 8 March 1476, Pêro Vaz de Caminha was appointedmestre da balança (master of the scale) of the royalmint ofPorto, one of the many positions held by his father at the time. The appointment letter, which characterized Pêro Vaz as aknight of the royal household, was written fromToro, suggesting that Pêro Vaz had accompanied KingAfonso V of Portugal on a campaign againstCastile, and probably participated in theBattle of Toro (2 March 1476).[4] In 1497, he was chosen to write, as Alderman, the Chapters of the Porto City Council, to be presented to theCortes ofLisbon.
In 1500, Pêro Vaz de Caminha, already at an advanced age, was appointed as secretary of thefactory projected to be built inCalicut, India, under the designated royal factorAires Correia. Correia and Caminha sailed aboard the flagship of the2nd India armada underPedro Álvares Cabral that set out from Lisbon in March 1500. Charting a wide arc in the South Atlantic, the armada stumbled on the landmass ofBrazil on 22 April 1500, and anchored nearPorto Seguro, Bahia. After about a week of idling on the beach and interacting with the localTupiniquim natives, the fleet prepared to resume their journey to India.
Before departing, Cabral instructed Pêro Vaz de Caminha to write a letter to KingManuel I of Portugal, officially reporting the discovery of this new land – or island, as they initially believed. Caminha's letter (Carta de Pêro Vaz de Caminha) gives a detailed report of the expedition up to that point, and of the new land and people they had discovered. Caminha's letter is dated 1 May and signed from the location of "deste Porto Seguro da vossa ilha da Vera Cruz" ("this Safe Harbor of your island of the True Cross"), the name Cabral bestowed in honor ofFeast of the Cross (3 May in the liturgical calendar).
Caminha's official report and an additional separate letter by the astronomer-physician MestreJoão Faras, were given to one of Cabral's captains (eitherGaspar de Lemos orAndré Gonçalves, sources conflict).[5] who set sail back to Portugal on a supply ship they had brought along. The rest of the fleet left Brazil on 3 May 1500, in the direction of theCape of Good Hope and then onto India.
Pêro Vaz de Caminha's letter is often celebrated as the "birth certificate" ofBrazil, although given the secrecy with which theKingdom of Portugal has always involved reports of its discoveries, it was only published in the nineteenth century by FatherManuel Aires de Casal in hisCorografia Brasílica.[6]
The 2nd Armada arrived on theMalabar Coast of India in September 1500, and the factory was promptly set up inCalicut (Calecute, Kozhikode). Caminha, the factory's secretary, assumed his duties there. However, a conflict soon arose between the Portuguese traders and the established Arab merchant guilds in the city. Finding little vent for their trade goods, the Portuguese suspected the Arabs were colluding to shut them out of the city's spice markets by organizing a boycott. The rulingZamorin of Calicut refused to intervene, prompting the frustrated factor Aires Correia to take matters into his own hands. In late December 1500, after the Portuguese set about seizing the spice cargoes of Arab boats in the harbor, a riot erupted on the piers. Calicut mobs overran the Portuguese factory, killing every Portuguese they could get their hands on.[7] Some fifty to seventy Portuguese perished in the riot – including the factor Aires Correia and, it is commonly supposed, the factory's secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha.
In a royal letter dated 3 December 1501, King Manuel I of Portugal appointed Caminha's grandson, Rodrigo d'Osouro, to his grandfather's post at the Porto mint, noting explicitly that Pêro Vaz de Caminha had "died in India".[8]
First contact with the local inhabitants was peaceful; the Portuguese carried out a little trade and exploration; a cross was erected on Friday, the first of May; and a mass was celebrated. The fleet's secretary, Pero Vaz de Caminha penned a report in the form of a letter to the king (I-1) about the new land.
With the exception of the physical descriptions of the landscape and its inhabitants, the very ordinariness of Cabral's days in Brazil emerges in the long letter written by Pero Vaz de Caminha, a nobleman in the fleet.
Pero (ou Pêro, antes da aplicação doAcordo Ortográfico de 1990) (...) Pero é variante arcaica de Pedro e ocorria sobretudo como forma proclítica, antes de umpatronímico[Pero (or Pêro, before the application of theOrthographic Agreement of 1990) (...) Pero is an archaic variant of Pedro and mainly occurred as a proclitic form, before apatronymic]
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