Vicente Yáñez Pinzón

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Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
Born c. 1462
Palos de la Frontera, Spain
Died c. 1514
Triana, Seville, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Occupation Explorer
Known for Captain of the Niña
Home town Palos de la Frontera
Religion Roman Catholic
Spouse(s) Teresa Rodríguez,[1] Ana Núñez de Trujillo[2]
Children Ana Rodríguez, Juana González[1]
Parents Martín Pinzón, Mayor Vicente[3]
Relatives Pinzón brothers

Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (Palos de la Frontera, Spain, c. 1462 – after 1514) was a Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador, the youngest of the Pinzón brothers. Along with his older brother Martín Alonso Pinzón who captained the Pinta, he sailed with Christopher Columbus on the first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of the Niña. His was the first European expedition to explore the coast of Brazil and to provide a description of the Amazon River's mouth.

Personal life[edit]

Pinzón was born in Palos de la Frontera on the Atlantic coast of Huelva, youngest of the three famous sons of seaman Martín Pinzón and his wife Mayor Vicente.[3] His birth year is uncertain; it is generally given as c. 1462;[citation needed] Juan Gil concludes from legal documents that show his two daughters to be over the age of 20 in 1509 that it certainly cannot be later than 1469.[1] 1469 would be quite a late date, given that there is record of him being a corsair or privateer (with his older brother Martín Alonso) in Mediterranean waters between 1477 and 1479 when other towns failed to provide Palos with an adequate supply of grain in wartime.[4][5]

He married twice: first to Teresa Rodríguez, by whom he had two daughters, Ana Rodríguez Pinzón and Juana González Pinzón;[1] second, probably in 1509, to Ana de Trujillo, whom some surviving documents refer to as Ana Núñez de Trujillo.[2]

It would appear that he was based in Palos at least up to and including the time of Columbus's first voyage (1492); by 1495 he was living in nearby Moguer; after the economic failure of his 1499–1500 expedition,[6] he appears to have moved no later than 1502 to Seville. He may have moved there to escape creditors.[7] Historian Juan Gil, researching Pinzón's family life, found strong circumstantial evidence that his first wife left behind a mansion in Triana, across the river from Seville: her own property, not his, which passed into the hands of the daughters.[8]

The last primary record of him is in 1514 in Seville or Triana. According to the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, he died that year, probably at the end of September. It is not known precisely where he is buried, though Oviedo expressed confidence that it was in the cemetery of Triana.[9]


In 1499 Pinzón sailed to the South American coast. Carried by a strong storm, he reached the north coast of what today is Brazil on January 26, 1500. Pinzón eventually disembarked on the shore called Praia do Paraíso, in present-day Cabo de Santo Agostinho of the state of Pernambuco, or further northwest, in what is today Fortaleza (capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará). According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) between Spain and Portugal, Spain could make no claim, but the place was named Cabo de Santa María de la Consolación by Pinzón. He also sighted the Amazon River and ascended to a point about fifty miles from the sea.[10] He called it the "Río Santa María de la Mar Dulce" (River of Saint Mary of the Sweet Sea) on account of the vastness of the fresh water river mouth, and the thus became the first European explorer to discover an estuary of the Amazon River. Pinzón is also considered the discoverer of the Oiapoque River.

In 1505, Pinzón was named commander-in-chief and 'corregidor' of the city of Puerto Rico, now called San Juan. This was to be the first step in the colonization of the island called Borinquén by its inhabitants and San Juan Bautista by the Spanish (now called Puerto Rico). However, Pinzón did not fulfill this commission.[11] In 1508, he travelled with Juan Díaz de Solís to South America. No record exists of Pinzón after 1514.

On November 19, 1999, a monument to his memory was dedicated in Palos de la Frontera, Spain, on the occasion of the fifth century of the discovery of Brazil and of the brotherhood with the city Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Brazil.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b c d Gil 1987, p. 747
  2. ^ a b Gil 1987, p. 750 et. seq.
  3. ^ a b Archivo General de Simancas, Registro General del Sello, March 1505.
    Cited in :
  4. ^ Coll y Juliá, Núria (1950). Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, descubridor del Brasil corsario en Cataluña (Nº 40 vol. 10). Madrid: Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, CSIC. pp. 594–597. 
  5. ^ Manzano y Manzano 1988, Vol. III, p. 1-2
  6. ^ Gil 1987, p. 747, 754. On p. 754, Gil characterizes the failure as "el muy serio quebrante experimentado en 1500."
  7. ^ Gil 1987, passim., p. 748–749
  8. ^ Gil 1987, passim., esp. p. 749
  9. ^ Izquierdo Labrado, Julio (1999). "Vicente Yáñez Pinzón". Archived from the original on 2007-10-19. Retrieved 2008-10-18. 
  10. ^ Morison, Samuel (1974). The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492-1616. New York: Oxford University Press. 
  11. ^ Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (1461-1514) (Spanish) - Wayback Machine archive retrieved September 13, 2007


  • Gil, Juan (Sep–Dec 1987), "Sobre la Vida Familiar de Vicente Yáñez Pinzón", Revista de Indias, XLVII (181): 645:754 
  • Izquierdo Labrado, Julio (1987) Palos de la Frontera en el Antiguo Régimen (1380-1830) Huelva: Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana y Ayuntamiento de Palos de la Frontera
  • Izquierdo Labrado, Julio (2004) Palermos ilustres Huelva: Ayuntamiento de Palos de la Frontera ISBN 84-606-3612-7
  • Manzano y Manzano, Juan; Ana Maria Manzano Fernandez-Heredia (1988), Los Pinzones y el Descubrimiento de América 3 vol., Madrid: Ediciones de Cultura Hispanica, ISBN 978-84-7232-442-8 
  • Ortega, Fray Ángel (1925) La Rábida. Historia documental y crítica 4 vols. Sevilla.

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