Anthony Knivet

Who is Anthony Knivet?

Anthony Knivet, also Anthony Knyvett or Antonie Knivet, was an English sailor who fell into Portuguese hands in Brazil, lived for a while with a native Brazilian tribe, and wrote about his adventures after his eventual return to Britain.

He was an illegitimate son of Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton, Wiltshire. In 1591 he joined an English privateer, Thomas Cavendish, on a voyage aimed at raiding Portuguese holdings in Brazil. Cavendish was at the height of his fame, having completed a successful voyage around the world from 1586 to 1588.

After Cavendish's men had raided the town of Santos and destroyed several Portuguese sugar plantations, they traveled on and eventually left Knivet, who had developed frostbite in the Strait of Magellan, along with nineteen other sick or mutinous men on the then remote island of Ilhabela. He was captured by the Portuguese and was put to work as a slave on a sugar plantation. Later he was tasked with traveling inland and contacting natives in order to obtain more slaves. After a failed escape attempt, he was sent back to a plantation, where he attacked his owner and fled again.