4(i
VOYAGES
A N D D I S C O V E R I E S OF
respect to Pinzon from a royal order issued in the following year, allowing him to export a quantity of grain, in consideration of the heavy losses he had sustained in his voyage of discovery.
He
did but share the usual lot of the Spanish discoverers, whose golden anticipations too frequently ended in penury ; but he is distinguished from among the crowd of them by being the first European who crossed the equinoctial line, on the western ocean, and by discovering the great kingdom of Brazil.* * On the 5th of September, 1501, a royal permission was given to Vicente Yanez Pinzon to colonize and govern the lands he had discovered, beginning a little north of the river Amazon, and extending to Cape St. Augustine.
The
object of the government in this permission was to establish an outpost and a resolute commander on this southern frontier, to check any intrusions the Por足 tuguese might make in consequence of the accidental discovery of a part of the coast of Brazil by Pedro Alvarez Cabrai, in 1500.
The subsequent arrange足
ment of a partition line between the two countries prevented the necessity of this precaution, and it does not appear that Vicente Yanez Pinzon made any second voyage to those parts. In 1506 he undertook an expedition in company with Juan Diaz de Solis, a native of Lebrija, the object of which was to endeavor to find the strait or pas足 sage supposed by Columbus to lead from the Atlantic to a Southern Ocean.
It
was necessarily without success, as was also another voyage made by them, for the same purpose, in 1508.
A s no such passage exists, no blame could attach
to those able navigators for being foiled in the object of their search. In consequence of the distinguished merits and services of the Pinzon family, they were raised, by the Emperor Charles V , to the dignity of a Hidalguia, or nobility, without any express title, and a coat of arms was granted them, on which were emblazoned three caravels, with a hand at the stern pointing to an island covered with savages.
This coat of arms is still main足
tained by the family, who have added to it the motto granted to Columbus merely substituting the name of Pinzon for that of the admiral, A Castile y a Leon, Nuevo Mnndo dio Pinzon.