Jorge de Menezes (c. 1498[citation needed] – 1537) was a Portuguese explorer. Due to a
monsoon, he was forced to reside in Versya, posited by
Pieter Anton Tiele as
Waisai, between 1526 and 1527.[1] Menezes called the region Ilhas dos Papuas,[2] though the name of "Papua" was already known at the time. Yet he was still the first European to go ashore[3] and thus credited with the European discovery of
New Guinea.[4]
Biography
As a nobleman,[5] he was possibly the "D. Jorge de Meneses" present at the
His Most Faithful Majesty's Council of
Manuel I of Portugal in 1518 and 1519.[6] In 1526, Menezes traveled to
Brunei, detailing the city as being fortified by a brick wall and having a moderate number of notable buildings.[7] His visit opened a new route to the
Moluccas,[8] becoming the favored course to
Ternate.[9] Successor to Antonio de Brito,[10] Menezes was the
Portuguese Governor of the Moluccas [
pt] from 1527 until 1530, residing in Ternate.[11] On 22 August 1526, he left
Portuguese Malacca[12] with 100 men[13] to take his post but was sidetracked by a
monsoon, leading to his discovery of
New Guinea; he arrived in Ternate on 31 May 1527.[12]
In 1528, he captured and plundered[14] a lightly-defended Spanish fort commanded by
Hernando de la Torre,[15] during the competition between the empires over the Moluccas that ended with the
Treaty of Zaragoza as well as a personal treaty with the Spanish and Menezes in 1529.[16] He further involved the Portuguese in the affairs of
the sultanate and held
Boheyat and
Dayal prisoner in
Fort Kastela. Officials suspected of conspiring against him were executed.[10] Beyond his political interferences, he committed atrocities against the population.[11][14][17] Under orders of Dayal's mother, the fort was besieged.[10][17] Subsequently, Menezes was arrested and sent to
Old Goa,
Portuguese India[11][14] by his successor, Gonçalo Pereira.[10][18] After his return to Portugal, he
was banished to the
Colony of Brazil.[14] During a trip to
Lisbon,
Vasco Fernandes Coutinho left Menezes in charge of the
Captaincy of Espírito Santo.[5][19] He captured indigenous people and enslaved them on his
sesmaria [
pt],[19] provoking an attack that temporarily destroyed the captaincy and eradicated the colonists in 1537.[5][19] Menezes died in combat during the assault.[14]
^Kratoska, Paul H. (2001). South East Asia, Colonial History: Imperialism before 1800, Volume 1 de South East Asia, Colonial History. Taylor & Francis. p. 56.
online
Augeron, Mickaël; Vidal, Laurent (2007). Constructing Early Modern empires: proprietary ventures in the Atlantic world, 1500-1750. Leiden: Brill.
ISBN9789047419037.
Humble Ferreira, Susannah C. (January 2004). "Development of the Portuguese royal council in the reign of Manuel I (1495-1521)". Portuguese Studies Review. 12 (1): 1–17.
Kelsey, Harry (28 June 2016). The first circumnavigators: unsung heroes of the age of discovery. New Haven: Yale University Press.
ISBN9780300220865.