Pero Vaz de Caminha

Pero Vaz de Caminha (c. 1450 – 15 December 1500) was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500 as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet (Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha, dated 1 May, 1500). He died in a riot in Calicut, India, at the end of that year.

Quotes

• Esta gente é boa e de boa simplicidade. E imprimir-se-á ligeiramente neles cuqlquer cunho, que les quiserem dar. E logo lhes, Nosso Senhor, deu bons corpos e bons rostos, como a bons homens, e Ele que nos por aqui trouxe, creio que não foi sem causa. E portanto, Vossa Alteza, pois tanto deseja acrescentar na santa fé católica, deve entender em sua salvação.

translation:

• These people are good and simple. You can stamp on them any design that you wish to give them. And Our Lord gave them good bodies and good faces, and I think that it was his plan that we arrive here. Therefore, Your Majesty, since you wish so much to increase Catholic faith, you must provide for their salvation.
  • Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha, published in 1817, Chamber's Dictionary of Quotations, p. 878

External links

• Chamber's Dictionary of Quotations, 1996