VICENTE YAgEZ PINZON commanded the "Nina" in and remained loyal to Columbus throughout. In after years he made important discoveries on his own account. In December 1499 he sailed with four caravels across the Atlantic to the south west, and on Feb. 7, 1500, he landed at Cape S. Agostinho, near its most easterly projection (called by him Cape Santa Maria de la Consolation). Proceeding southwards a short distance, he then turned north, followed the coast to the north-west, discov ered the Amazon estuary, and went as far as what is now Costa Rica. After touching at Haiti, and losing two of his vessels among the Bahamas, Vicente returned to Palos in September 1500. Although he was created governor of the newly discovered lands by Ferdinand and Isabella, he did not take possession. In 1507 he sailed with Juan Diaz de Solis along the east coast of Central America. In 1509, again with De Solis, he coasted the Atlantic side of South America as far as the La Plata estuary, hoping to find an opening westwards leading to the Spice Islands.
According to Herrera, he reached S., not recognizing the La Plata and turning back about the mouth of the Rio Negro, but this is probably an exaggeration. After 1523 all traces of Vicente are lost.
See Navarrete, Coleccion de viajes; Washington Irving's Columbus, Bk. XIV., ch. ii.; bibliography in Joaquim Caetano da Silva's L'Oyapoc et l'Amazone (Paris, 186r) ; Herrera, Indias Occid., Dec. I., lib. vi. cap. 17 ; lib. vii., caps. I and 9 (Madrid, 5730) ; Oviedo, Hist. general de las lndias lib. xxiii. cap. (Madrid, 1852) ; 0. Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, pp. 230, (Munich, i865) ; Zeitalter der Entdeck ungen, pp. 305, etc., 426 ; Jose Maria Asensio, Cristoval Colon, su vida, sus viajes, sus descobrimientos (Barcelona, 1891) ; Cesareo Fernandez Duro Colon e Pinzon.