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{{More citations needed|date=January 2007}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Duarte Pacheco Pereira
|native_name =
|native_name_lang =
|honorific-suffix =
|image = Duarte Pacheco Pereira.jpg
|imagesize =
|smallimage = 
|alt =
|caption = Duarte Pacheco Pereira
|order =
|office = [[Captain-major]] of [[Portuguese Gold Coast]]
|term_start = 1519
|term_end = 1522
|monarch = [[Manuel I of Portugal]]
|predecessor = Fernão Lopes Correia
|successor = Afonso de Albuquerque
|monarch2 =
|predecessor2 =
|successor2 =
|birth_date = 1460
|birth_place = [[Lisbon]], [[Kingdom of Portugal]]
|death_date = {{BirthDeathAge|df=yes| |1460| | |1533}}
|death_place = [[Kingdom of Portugal]]
|restingplace =
|restingplacecoordinates =
|birthname =
|citizenship =
|nationality = [[Portuguese People|Portuguese]]
|party =
|otherparty = 
|spouse = Antónia de Albuquerque
|partner = 
|relations =
|children = João Fernandes Pacheco Jerónimo Pacheco Maria de Albuquerque Isabel de Albuquerque Garcia Pacheco Gaspar Pacheco Duarte Pacheco Lisuarte Pacheco
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|nickname =
|allegiance = [[Portuguese Empire]]
|branch =
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|commands =
|battles = [[Battle of Cochin (1504)|Battle of Cochin]]
|awards =
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'''Duarte Pacheco Pereira''' ({{IPA-pt|duˈaɾt(ɨ) pɐˈʃeku p(ɨ)ˈɾejrɐ|eu}}; c. 1460 – 1533),<ref>''Revista de História'', ed. 69-70 (1967), p. 513. Eurípedes Simões de Paula, Universidade de São Paulo. Departamento de História, Sociedade de Estudos Históricos (Brazil)</ref> called the '''Portuguese [[Achilles]]''' (''Aquiles Lusitano'') by the poet [[Luís de Camões|Camões]],<ref>[[Luís de Camões]], in ''[[w:Os Lusíadas|The Lusiads]]'' (first printed in 1572), Canto X, 12: ''E canta como lá se embarcaria Em Belém o remédio deste dano, Sem saber o que em si ao mar traria, O grão Pacheco, Aquiles Lusitano. O peso sentirão, quando entraria, O curvo lenho e o férvido Oceano, Quando mais n' água os troncos que gemerem Contra sua natureza se meterem.'' Translation by Robert Ffrench Duff, in ''The Lusiad of Camoens translated into English Spencerian verse'' (1880), p. 365: ''She sang how in his ship a man would go From Belem to avenge the cruel shame. The weight it bears the ocean shall not know, That great Pacheco who shall justly claim Of Portuguese Achilles' glorious name; When he embarks, the surging waves his weight Shall feel, and all the vessel's beams and frame Shall groan oppressed beneath the burthen great, And in the water sink below its usual state.''</ref><ref>Manuel Mira ''The forgotten Portuguese'' (1998), p. 153</ref> was a [[Portugal|Portuguese]] sea captain, soldier, explorer and [[cartography|cartographer]]. He travelled particularly in the central [[Atlantic Ocean]] west of the [[Colonial Cape Verde|Cape Verde]] islands, along the coast of West [[Africa]] and to [[India]]. His accomplishments in strategic warfare, exploration, mathematics and astronomy were of an exceptional level.

== Background ==

Pacheco Pereira was the son of João Pacheco and Isabel Pereira.<ref>Portuguese historian Armando Cortesão asserts that Duarte Pacheco was the son of [[Gonçalo Pacheco]], a treasurer of the Casa de Ceuta, who famously outfitted the slave-raiding fleet of [[Dinis Eanes de Grã]] that devastated the [[Bay of Arguin]] in 1444/45. See Armando Cortesão (1931) "Subsídios para a história do Descobrimento de Cabo Verde e Guiné", ''Boletim da Agencia Geral das Colonias'', No. 75, as reprinted in 1975, ''Esparsos'', vol. 1, Coimbra.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2PbNS0LHn60C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false p.10]</ref> In his youth he served as the King of Portugal's personal squire. In the year of 1455, having graduated with honors, he was awarded a study fellowship from the monarch himself. Later on, in 1488 he explored the west coast of Africa. His expedition fell ill with fever and lost their ship. Pacheco Pereira was rescued from the island of [[Príncipe]] in the [[Gulf of Guinea]] by [[Bartolomeu Dias]] when Dias was returning from rounding the [[Cape of Good Hope]] for the first time.

The knowledge he collected from Dias expedition as well as his own explorations granted him the post of official geographer of the Portuguese monarch. In 1494 he signed the Pope-sanctioned [[Treaty of Tordesillas]], which shared the non-Christian world between Portugal and Spain.

== Pacheco in India ==
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2020}}
In 1503 Duarte Pacheco Pereira departed for India as captain of ''Espírito Santo'', one of the three ships in the [[5th Portuguese India Armada (Albuquerque, 1503)|fleet headed]] by [[Afonso de Albuquerque]]. In 1504, he was placed in charge of the defence of [[Cochin]], a Portuguese protectorate in India, from a series of attacks between March and July 1504 by the ruling [[Zamorin]] of [[Kozhikode|Calicut]]. (see [[Battle of Cochin (1504)]]). Having only 150 Portuguese and a small number of Malabarese auxiliaries at his disposal, Cochin was vastly outnumbered by the Zamorin's army of 60,000. Nonetheless, by clever positioning, individual heroics and a lot of luck, Duarte Pacheco successfully resisted attacks for five months, until the humiliated Zamorin finally called off his forces. His son Lisuarte (or Jusarte) took a leading part in the fight.

For his exploits in the defense of Cochin, Duarte Pacheco was given a grant of arms by the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin, and greeted with honors the King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] and public festivities upon his return to Lisbon in 1505.

== After India ==

His diary (1506), preserved in the Portuguese National Archive (Torre do Tombo), is probably the first European document to acknowledge that [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]]s built their own rudimentary tools.{{Dubious|Chimpanzees|date=January 2021}}

Between 1505 and 1508 Duarte Pacheco Pereira composed a book, ''Esmeraldo de situ orbis'',<ref name="Bakewell">{{cite book|author=Wilks, Ivor. Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries|editor1-last=Bakewell|editor1-first=Peter|title=Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas|date=1997|publisher=Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Aldershot|pages=13}}</ref> inspired on [[Pomponius Mela]]'s ''De situ Orbis'',<ref>{{cite book| last = Diffie|first = Bailey| title = Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1977|isbn=0-8166-0782-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZtMBLJ7GgC|ref=Diffie 1977|accessdate=2011-08-15}}</ref> which has been described as one of the first major scientific works "reporting on what was observed and experimented in the newly 'discovered' environment."<ref>[[Helaine Selin|Selin, Helaine]], ed., ''Mathematics across cultures: the history of non-western mathematics'' Springer (31 Oct 2000) {{ISBN|978-0-7923-6481-8}} p.86</ref> Never completed, it was not published until 1892, possibly to avoid giving others information about Portugal's valuable Guinea trade.<ref>[[John Donnelly Fage]], ''A Commentary on Duarte Pacheco Pereira's Account of the Lower Guinea Coastlands in His "Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis," and on Some Other Early Accounts'' "History in Africa", Vol. 7 (1980), pp. 47-80</ref>

(The meaning of the 'esmeraldo' in the title has been much speculated. Among the proposals, it is a reference to the [[Emerald (color)#Emerald|emerald green]] of the sea; that it is an anagram combining the names 'Emmanuel' (for King [[Manuel I of Portugal]]) and 'Eduardus' (of Duarte Pacheco), that ''Esmeralda'' might have been the name (or nickname) of the ship Duarte Pacheco sailed to India, that it is a corruption of the Spanish word ''esmerado'' (meaning "guide"), that in [[Malayalam]], an [[emerald]] gemstone is known as ''pache'' or ''pachec'', and thus ''Esmeraldo'' is a pun on his own name (thus, "Pacheco's De Situ Orbis").<ref>Barradas de Carvalho (1964), [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322605877_A_decifracao_de_um_enigma_o_titulo_Esmeraldo_de_Situ_Orbis A decifração de um enigma: o título “Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis”], ''Revista de história'' 28(58):339–348.</ref><ref>M. Newitt, (2010) ''The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415-1670: A documentary history''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, p.44</ref>

Duarte Pacheco Pereira was probably one of the first early modern Europeans to scientifically study the relationship between the [[tide]]s and the phases of the [[moon]], which played a critical importance in the course of the Battle of Cochin,<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Conquerors-Portugal-Forged-Global-Empire/dp/0812994000] Title; Conquerors, Author: Roger Crowley, Publisher: Random House; 1st edition, Page: 157-160 year: 2015</ref> and carefully took notes on the timing of the tides. Pacheco is said to have been the first to notice their connection to the moon and to establish rules for predicting the progress of tides by reference to lunar observations. He also sifted through his data to correct and improve astronomical observations (notably correcting the average daily deviation of the moon from the [[sun]]) and constructing nautical measurements to be used by future Portuguese navigators.<ref>Mathew, K.N. (1988) History of the Portuguese Navigation in India. New Delhi: Mittal.</ref>

In 1508, Duarte Pacheco was commissioned by the Portuguese king to give chase to Mondragon French [[privateer]] which operated between the [[Azores]] and the Portuguese coast, where they attacked the ships coming from [[Portuguese India]]. Duarte Pacheco located and cornered Mondragon off [[Cape Finisterre]] in 1509, and defeated and captured him.

Later in life, while away governing [[São Jorge da Mina]], he was slandered by his enemies at court with accusations of theft and corruption. He was recalled to the capital and briefly imprisoned until he was exonerated by the Crown being proved innocent. But the damage was done as he had lost his governorship, his wealth, and influence. Although he was acquitted his protector, King João II of Portugal had died and been replaced by a king who didn't acknowledge the value of Duarte Pacheco. Duarte Pacheco had served the previous king as a squire, and had served King Manuel merely as a high ranking servant. His distance from [[Lisbon]] and his success meant he had many enemies abroad, and few friends in the capital to defend him. He died alone and penniless.

According to one of its most important biographers, the Portuguese historian [[Joaquim Barradas de Carvalho]], who lived in exile in [[Brazil]] in the 1960s, Duarte Pacheco was a genius comparable to [[Leonardo da Vinci]]. With the anticipation of more than two centuries, the cosmographer was responsible for calculating the value of the degree of the [[meridian arc]] with a margin of error of only 4%, when the current error at the time varied between 7 and 15%.<ref>Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de História, Sociedade de Estudos Históricos (Brazil), ''Revista de História'' (1965), ed. 61-64, p. 350</ref>

== Possible discovery of Brazil ==
It has also been suggested that Duarte Pacheco Pereira may have discovered the coasts of [[Maranhão]], [[Pará]] and [[Marajó]] island and the mouth of the [[Amazon River]] in 1498, preceding the possible landings of the expeditions of [[Amerigo Vespucci]] in 1499, of [[Vicente Yáñez Pinzon]] in January 1500, and of Diego de Lepe in February 1500; and the Cabral's expedition in April 1500, making him the first known European explorer of present-day [[Brazil]]. This claim is based on interpretations of the cipher manuscript ''Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis'', written by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, which gives the following brief account:
<blockquote>
Most fortunate Prince, we have known and seen how in the third year of your reign in the year of Our Lord 1498, in which your Highness ordered us to discover the Western region, a very large landmass with many large islands adjacent, extending 70° North of the Equator, and located beyond the greatness of the Ocean, has been discovered and navigated; this distant land is densely populated and extends 28° degrees on the other side of the Equator towards the Antarctic Pole. Such is its greatness and length that on either side its end has not been seen or known, so that it is certain that it goes round the whole globe.<ref>''Esmeraldo de situ orbis'' [published between 1506 and 1508], Part I, ch. I, translated and edited by George Herbert Tinley Kimble, London: 1937, p. 12. Original Portuguese: ''Bemauenturado Príncipe, temos sabido e visto como no terceiro anno de vosso Reinado do hanno de nosso senhor de 1498, donde nos vossa alteza mandou descobrir a parte oucidental, passando alem ha grandeza do mar oceano, onde he achada a navegada hûa tão grande terra firme, com muitas e grandes ilhas ajacentes a ella, que se estende a setente graaos de ladeza da linha equinoçial contra ho pollo artico e posto que seja asaz fora, he grandemente pouorada, e do mesmo circulo equinocial torna outra vez e vay alem em vinte e oito graaos e meo de ladeza contra ho pollo antartico, e tanto se dilata sua grandeza e corre com muita longura, que de hûa parte nem da outra foy visto nem sabido ho fim e cabo della; pello qual segundo ha hordem que leua, he certo que vay en cercoyto por toda a Redondeza.''</ref>
</blockquote>
However, in their book ''Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415-1580'', historians Bailey Wallys, Boyd Shafer and George Winius, based in the Portuguese historian [[Duarte Leite]] and other authors, make the following comment:

<blockquote>"What really is important," Duarte Leite says, "is to know whether Pacheco arrived in Brazil before Alvares Cabral (April 22, 1500). In agreement with Luciano Pereira, such modern Portuguese historians as Faustino da Fonseca, Brito Rebelo, Lopes de Mendonça, and Jaime Cortesão say he did. . . as does Vignaud; and I believe he does not lack supporters in Brazil." "However," says Leite, "if Pacheco did discover areas east of the Line of Demarcation and did bring back news of this to [King] Manuel [of Portugal], the reason which induced Don Manuel to keep secret. . . such an important discovery escapes me. As soon as Cabral returned in 1501, Manuel announced the discovery of Brazil to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Why would he not in 1499, after the return of Vasco da Gama, make a similar announcement if Pacheco had already discovered Brazil? No objection could come on the part of Spain, given the division made by the Treaty of Tordesillas, as indeed none came in 1501 when Cabral's discovery was announced. I am persuaded that Pacheco neither discovered Brazil in 1498 nor was present two years later at its discovery by Cabral."<ref>Diffie, Bailey Wallys; Boyd C. Shafer; George Davison Winius ''Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415-1580'' University of Minnesota Press, Nov 1977 {{ISBN|978-0-8166-0782-2}} p. 452 [https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZtMBLJ7GgC&pg=RA1-PA451&lpg=RA1-PA451&dq=Duarte+Pacheco,+Brazil+1498&source=bl&ots=LdSJfhmqPT&sig=r9Elt70OOF_n8bw8iXa9C-Yc8O4&hl=en&ei=bWLrSc2RGp6RjAfC3ImbCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PRA1-PA452,M1]</ref></blockquote>

Duarte Pacheco Pereira's ''Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis'' is the first European navigation script book to mention the coast of Brazil.

== Marriage and descendants ==
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2020}}
He married Antónia de Albuquerque, daughter of Jorge Garcês and wife Isabel de Albuquerque Galvão, only daughter of [[Duarte Galvão]] by first wife Catarina de Sousa e Albuquerque, and had eight children:
* João Fernandes Pacheco, who married Dona Maria da Silva, without issue and had a bastard daughter married with issue
* Jerónimo Pacheco, who died unmarried and without issue in [[Tangier]]
* Maria de Albuquerque, married to João da Silva, [[Alcalde|Alcaide]]-Mór of [[Soure Municipality, Portugal|Soure]], and had a daughter married and with issue
* Isabel de Albuquerque
* Garcia Pacheco
* Gaspar Pacheco
* Duarte Pacheco
* Lisuarte Pacheco, a bastard son according to records. Lisuarte was raised and trained by his father as a squire, and mastered various weapons before being knighted at the age of 20. He was a strong man with a husky build who was known for use of a large [[Broadsword]]. He was famous for his feats in India, namely the battle of Cochin while under his father's command. During one land battle in Cochin he had charged ahead of a Portuguese unit under his father's command, thrusting himself into the ranks of the Zamorin's 10,000 troops, he not only survived without a scratch, but was found with several dead enemy troops and severed limbs around him, including one enemy who was even cleaved in half. Lisuarte fought continues wars around Portuguese trade targets after Cochin, later commanding a ship against the Egyptian fleet in the [[Battle of Diu]] and was gravely wounded. His final campaign in 1510 ended up being a massacre of the Portuguese troops after the commander underestimated the local natives and attempted to loot the city, Lisuarte fell in battle after being shot with an arrow between his temple and neck, dying at age 30. Information about any possible marriage or children is unknown. His father named him after the character King Lisuart of the [[Amadis de Gaula]] stories.

== See also ==
{{wikiquote}}

* [[Battle of Cochin (1504)]]
* [[5th Portuguese India Armada (Albuquerque, 1503)]]
* [[Controversies about the discovery of Brazil]]

== References ==

* Duarte Pacheco Pereira (c.1509) ''Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis'', 1892 edition, Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.[https://archive.org/details/esmeraldodesitu00peregoog  online]

{{reflist|2}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Duarte Pacheco}}
[[Category:Portuguese explorers]]
[[Category:1460 births]]
[[Category:1533 deaths]]
[[Category:Explorers of Africa]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:Portuguese Renaissance writers]]
[[Category:Captain-majors of Portuguese Gold Coast]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Portugal]]
[[Category:History of Kerala]]
[[Category:People from Lisbon]]
[[Category:16th century in Ghana]]
[[Category:15th-century explorers]]
[[Category:15th-century Portuguese people]]
[[Category:16th-century Portuguese people]]

Duarte Pacheco Pereira - Revision history

>SdkbBot at 05:27, 2 June 2021