Martín Alonso Pinzón

Martín Alonso Pinzón, (; Palos de la Frontera, Huelva; c. 1441 – c. 1493) His youngest brother Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was captain of the Niña, and the middle brother Francisco Martín Pinzón was maestre (first mate) of the Pinta.

The Pinzón family of Palos

The Pinzón family was among the leading families of Palos de la Frontera in the late 15th century. There are several conflicting theories about the origin of the family and of their name (see Pinzón family). His grandfather was a sailor and diver known as Martín; it is not clear whether that was a first or last name, and whether in his generation Pinzón was a surname or an epithet. His father was a sailor named Martín Pinzón; his mother was named Mayor Vicente. Martín's family contracted a marriage with a resident of the locality named María Álvarez. Pinzon is known to have displayed a remarkable confidence in guiding Columbus in his discovery of the New World. It is probable that even while in Portugal before coming to Spain, Columbus was aware of Martín Alonso, because he was known for his participation in the war, as well as for his incursions into the Afro-Atlantic waters in the wake of the Portuguese, traveling to the Canary Islands and Guinea, with their rich fisheries and the commercial possibility of trade in gold, spices, and slaves.

Preparations for the voyage of discovery

On 23 May 1492 a royal provision was read out to the residents of Palos, by which the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered that certain residents deliver two caravels to Columbus and travel with him on his voyage that he was making "by command of Their Highnesses" ("por mandado de Sus Altezas") and that the town should respect the royal decision.

thumb|Pinzón family house in Palos, now [[Casa Museo de Martín Alonso Pinzón.]]

At about this time, Pinzón returned from a routine commercial voyage to Rome. The Franciscans of the Monastery of La Rábida put Columbus in touch with Pinzón. Pinzón's friend Pero Vázquez de la Frontera, a very respected old mariner in the town, also had an important influence on Pinzón deciding to support the undertaking, not only morally but also economically.

As a strong sign of his commitment to Columbus's plan, Pinzón put up half a million ("medio cuento") maravedís in coin toward the cost of the voyage, half of the amount that had been put up by the monarchy. Thanks to his prestige as a shipowner and expert sailor and his fame throughout the Tinto-Odiel region, he was able to enlist an appropriate crew. Signing on, he dismissed the vessels that Columbus had already seized based on the royal order and also dismissed the men he had enrolled, supplying the enterprise with two caravels of his own, the Pinta and the Niña, which he knew from his own experience would be better and more suitable boats. Furthermore, he traveled through Palos, Moguer and Huelva, convincing his relatives and friends to enlist, composing of them the best crew possible. According to testimony in the pleitos colombinos, he "brought such diligence to secure and animate the people as if what were discovered were for him and his sons." Among those he recruited were Cristóbal Quintero from Palos and the Niño brothers from Moguer.

Voyage with Columbus

thumb|right|Columbus and the Pinzón brothers arrive in America, by [[Dióscoro Puebla (1862)]]

thumb|right|Replica of the caravel Pinta at the [[Wharf of the Caravels in Palos.]]

thumb|Statue of the Pinzón brothers in Palos.

thumb|[[Monastery of La Rábida.]]

The voyage out

On 3 August 1492, the Santa María, Pinta, and Niña left Palos on their voyage of discovery. Admiral Columbus captained the flagship Santa María, Pinzón was captain of the Pinta; his middle brother Francisco was master. It was from the Pinta that Rodrigo de Triana would be the first to sight land in the Americas.

During the voyage, Pinzón demonstrated on several occasions his gifts as an expert mariner and as a leader. When the tiller of the Pinta broke en route to the Canary Islands, Columbus, who could not get close enough to help from the Santa María:

When, between 6 and 7 October 1492 Columbus was unable to reestablish discipline among the tired and discouraged crew of the Santa María, Martín Alonso with his gift of command managed to resolve the situation. As the Hernán Pérez Mateos would testify over forty years later:

At that time, Pinzón suggested to Columbus the change of course on 6 October 1492. This change brought the expedition to landfall on Guanahani on 12 October 1492.

These and other acts by Pinzón and by his brothers, especially Vicente, have led historians to see the brothers as "co-discoverers of America", in that without their help, support, and courage, Columbus probably could not have achieved his enterprise of discovery, at least not in that time and place. At one point during the pleitos colombinos, a royal prosecutor argued that Pinzón had played a more important role in the discovery of the Indies than Columbus himself.

Separation in the Caribbean

All evidence—the remarks in Columbus's diary, the testimony in the pleitos colombinos—is that on the outward voyage, relations between Columbus and Pinzón remained positive. Once among the Caribbean islands, that began to change.

On 21 November 1492, off the coast of Cuba, Pinzón failed to follow a direct order of Columbus to change course. He probably sailed off on his own trying to make individual discoveries and to find treasure, Fernández Duro responds that Pinzón simply continued the prior course, and if Columbus wanted, he should have had a pretty fair idea where to find him over the next several days.) During his separate travels he discovered new land; while all of the island geography of the first voyage is open to question, it is believed that the land was Haiti. Pinzón's brother Vicente in command of the Niña played a key part in rescuing the sailors and Columbus himself. Columbus, giving up on Pinzón, began sailing homeward 4 January, leaving behind 38 men, all of whom died before Columbus's return nine months later. and, after a furious argument in which according to at least one witness, Pinzón objected to the 38 men being "left so far from Spain, being so few, because they could not be provided for and would be lost", and Columbus threatened to hang Pinzón,

Columbus's published diary of the voyage was heavily edited by Bartolomé de las Casas, so it is impossible to know what was actually written at the time and what was added later, but the diary launches a series of accusations against Pinzón beginning with his separation on November 21:

: * <small>An effort to make sense of a rather obscure phrase, "y aunque tenía dice que consigo muchos hombres de bien"; possibly alternatively "and though he had to say that they had many good men with them".</small>

Nonetheless, much of the testimony in the pleitos colombinos, as well as part of the specialized historiography and investigators, does not agree that these things happened in this manner, nor is there any accusation against Pinzón in Columbus's Letter on the First Voyage, which Columbus wrote during his return.

Return voyage and death

During the voyage back to Spain, Pinzón's ship was separated from Columbus in stormy conditions, southwest of the Azores. Columbus reached Lisbon on March 4; he later faced problems with the Court for having touched down in Portugal out of necessity in bad weather. Pinzón, despite the bad weather and strong southerly winds, had managed to touch down on Spanish territory, not Portuguese. Believing Columbus to be lost, or trying to overcome him, he sent a letter to the King and Queen; some have argued that he claimed the glory of the great discoveries for himself, while others defend him from the charge; the letter itself is lost. In any case, he was snubbed by the court and told to only come under the command of Columbus. It is not clear whether Pinzón's letter or Columbus's from Lisbon reached court first, nor is it clear whether the failure to invite Pinzón to court resulted from Columbus's primacy of position, possible accusations by Columbus against Pinzón, or simply reports of Pinzón's illness and death.

Pinzón returned home to Palos, arriving on 15 March 1493, precisely the same day the Niña reached the voyage's starting point. Exhausted and suffering from a recurrent fever, the woman who had been living with his father since he became a widower, and with whom the father would have two illegitimate children: Francisco and Inés Pinzón. According to the testimony of Francisco Medel and Hernán Pérez Mateos, he was brought to the La Rábida Monastery, where he died; he was entombed there, as was his wish.

It has been claimed that Pinzón's recurring fever was syphilis. The theory that syphilis is of New World origin and that it was first brought back to Europe by Columbus's crew has been longstanding, and long controversial. Some recent genetic evidence restores credence to the theory. Even so, even if Pinzón contracted it on the voyage, it is extremely unlikely that it was the cause of his death. Tertiary syphilis does not normally show up for 3 to 15 years. There is also a possibility that some historians have confused Martín Alonso Pinzón with his brother Francisco, who is more plausibly (but still controversially) believed to have had this particular disease.

Fernández Duro further writes that Pinzón's "unpardonable crime" was that he had the luck or skill to obtain more gold than Columbus.

Legacy

Along with his brother, Martín Alonso Pínzon is the namesake of Pinzón Island in the Galápagos. He was portrayed by Tchéky Karyo in 1492: Conquest of Paradise and by Robert Davi in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, both released in 1992.

Martín Alonso Pinzón

The Pinzón family of Palos

Preparations for the voyage of discovery

Voyage with Columbus

The voyage out

Separation in the Caribbean

Return voyage and death

Legacy

References

Sources

Further reading

External links