The Travels of Mendes Pinto

The immortal work of travel and adventure by the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer, now available in a sparkling English translation.

This work by Fernão Mendes Pinto, presented as his incredible-yet-true autobiography, came second only to Marco Polo's work in exciting Europe's imagination of the Orient. Chronicling adventures from Ethiopia to Japan, Travels covers twenty years of Mendes Pinto's odyssey as a soldier, a merchant, a diplomat, a slave, a pirate, and a missionary. It continues to fascinate readers today with the baffling mysteries surrounding it and the sheer enjoyment of its narrative.

"[T]here is plenty here for the modern reader. . . . The vivid descriptions of swashbuckling military campaigns and exotic locations make this a great adventure story. . . . Mendes Pinto may have been a sensitive eyewitness, or a great liar, or a brilliant satirist, but he was certainly more than a simple storyteller." —Stuart Schwartz, The New York Times