The Grand Peregrination. Being the Life and Adventures of Fernao
Mendes Pinto. By Maurice Collis. (Faber. 2 SS.) FERNAO MENDES PINTO was born in Portugal in about 1509, and in 1537 he set out to make his fortune. After returning home he gave some of his money to the Jesuits and spent the last twenty years of his life in writing his adventures. The present volume is the con- densed account of the original vast work, with a running commen- tary to relate it to contemporary history. Considered as a liar when he was first read. Pinto is now thought only to depart from fact when he wishes to criticise his fellow countrymen. Then he invented scenes to protect him from their wrath. The shipwrecks, battles, tortures and scenes of cruelty, lust and destruction are bearable because there is no self-aggrandisement, and the hero is often conscious both of sympathy with his victims and even of guilt. Illustrations of seventeenth-century tapestries and Japanese screens give verisimilitude to this strange story.
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