Page 37 - Suape 45 Anos

Pinzón, the discoverer of Brazil

“Who discovered Brazil?” It depends. If you ask the question in
the municipality of Cabo de Santo Agostinho, you will probably not
get the answer you expect. Not Pedro Álvares Cabral, but Vicente
Yáñez Pinzón. This is not just something made up. Some studies
show that the Spanish navigator arrived on the coast of Pernambu-
co on 26 January 1500, almost three months earlier than the Portu-
guese sailor Cabral yelled, “Land Ahoy!” off the coast of Bahia.
After setting out from Palos, in Southern Spain, Vicente Pinzón
and his fleet sailed through the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast
of Africa and encountered powerful storms on the Atlantic Ocean
before arriving at a location described as being of indescribable
beauty. He decided to give it the name of Santa Maria da Conso-
lación. The captain’s ships remained at anchor in a sheltered port
easy for small boats to access. This must have been Suape.
The Spaniard did not stay long. He knew that he could not
claim the territory for the Spanish Crown because of the Treaty of
Tordesillas, which divided the world between the Spanish and the
Portuguese. As this piece of land was Portuguese territory, Pinzón
weighed anchor and set off westward. But he left his name in the
history of the city of Cabo, which, every 26th of January, Celebrates
Municipal Hispano-Brazilian Nationality Day. And woe betide any-
one who says otherwise.

Suape 45 anos | 37