Vicente Yáñez Pinzón

From Freepedia

Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (c. 1460 - after 1523) was Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador.

Martin Alonzo Pinzón was his older brother. He sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of the Niña.

In 1499, he sailed to the South American coast. In 1500, on January 26, carried by a strong storm, Pinzón reached the north coast of what today is Brazil, specifically he disembarked on the shore called Praia do Paraíso, Cape of Saint Agostinho, State of Pernanbuco. According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), Spain could make no claim, but that place was named Cabo de Santa Maria de la Consolación by Pinzon. He also sighted the Amazon River and ascended to a point about fifty metres from the sea. He called it the "Río Santa María de la Mar Dulce", thus becoming the first explorer to discover an estuary of the Amazon River.

In 1505, Pinzón was named governor of Puerto Rico. In 1508, he travelled with Juan Díaz de Solís to South America. No record exist of him after 1523.

On November 19, 1999, a monument in his memory was inaugurated in the Palos de la Frontera on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the discovery of Brazil, and the brotherhood with the city of the Cape of Saint Agostinho.

Preceded by: none

Governor of Puerto Rico 1505-1508

Succeeded by: Juan Ponce de León