Fernam Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese adventurer, born near Coimbra about 1510, died near Lisbon, July 8, 1583. At an early age he went to the East Indies, and in 1537 embarked as a volunteer against the Turks in the Indian ocean and Red sea. After various adventures he was captured by the Turks near the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, carried to Mocha, sold as a slave, and ransomed by the Portuguese governor of Ormuz, who furnished him with the means of returning to India. He was afterward employed in several expeditions, was again enslaved and ransomed, and was involved in shipwrecks and conflicts with pirates. In May, 1542, he and some other Portuguese were persuaded by a Chinese pirate to undertake an expedition to the island of Calempui, not far from Peking, where, as they were led to believe, were the tombs of 17 Chinese kings, containing vast treasures. Their attempt to plunder these tombs was only partially successful, and they fled terrified at the alarm raised by the guardians of the treasures. Shortly afterward they were again shipwrecked on the Chinese coast. Pinto with a few others got on shore; but they were apprehended as thieves and set to work in repairing the great wall.

In a few months they were delivered by an inroad of Tartars, who carried them to assist in the siege of Peking, and then took them to Tartary. After a short residence in that country Pinto went in the train of an ambassador to Cochin-China, and from there made his way to Macao. Here he enlisted in the service of a Chinese pirate, whose vessel was driven by a gale to the coast of Japan, which had not then been visited by Europeans. Pinto was well received by the Japanese, and after a considerable stay in their country he sailed back to Ningpo (then called Liampo) with the Chinese pirate. His report of the discovery of Japan and its great wealth and magnificence created such an excitement among the Portuguese at Ningpo, that in 15 days nine hastily equipped ships were despatched for the new Eldorado. Eight of them foundered, and the one in which Pinto sailed was driven to the Loo Choo islands, then first seen by Europeans, and wrecked there. After many fresh adventures Pinto found his way back to China. He next visited Pegu, Siam, Java, and some of the neighboring countries, and in 1547 he made a second voyage to Japan. Soon after his arrival there a civil war broke out, in which Pinto took part for a while; and having returned to Malacca, he met St. Francis Xavier, "the apostle of the Indies," with whom in the course of a few months he made a third visit to Japan, arriving there in August, 1548. By these voyages Pinto acquired great wealth, and in 1553 he was at Goa, preparing to return to Portugal, when the arrival there of the body of Xavier, and his conferences with the Jesuits, so excited his religious enthusiasm, that he devoted his whole fortune, except 2,000 crowns which he sent to his poor relations in Portugal, to the foundation of a seminary for propagating the faith in Japan. He was then appointed ambassador from the Portuguese viceroy of India to the prince of Bungo in Japan. Before setting out he took" the vows as a Jesuit; but on his arrival in Japan his zeal evaporated, and he was released from his vows.

He returned to Lisbon, where he arrived Sept. 22, 1558, bearing to the queen regent a letter from the viceroy at Goa, recommending him warmly to the favor of the government. He spent a few years in attendance on the court, which brought him nothing but promises, and which he says were more tedious and harassing than his 21 years of service in the East, where he had been 13 times taken by the enemy, and 17 times sold as a slave. The first extant account of his travels and adventures is given in a collection of Jesuits' letters published in Italian at Venice in 1565. He wrote a full narrative of his life, which was published by Francisco de Andrada under the title of Peregri-nacao de Fernam Mendez Pinto (4to, Lisbon, 1614). A Spanish translation by Francisco de Herrera, in which great liberties were taken with the original, appeared in 1620; a French translation was made by Bernard Figuier, of which three editions have been printed (Paris, 1628, 1645, and 1830), and an English translation by II. Cosjan, of which there have been two editions (London, 1663 and 1692). Pinto's reputation has suffered greatly by an oft quoted line in Congreve's "Love for Love: ' "Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude! " But it is now admitted that his general veracity cannot be disputed.