Tristão Vaz Teixeira

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Tristão Vaz Teixeira (c. 1395 – 1480) was a Portuguese (some say English by birth) navigator and explorer who, together with João Gonçalves Zarco and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, discovered the Madeira Islands (1419-1420). His true name was just Tristão Vaz, the name Teixeira being later added because of his wife Branca Teixeira.

Nobleman of Prince Henry the Navigator's House, he was granted, as hereditary fief (Capitania), half the island of Madeira and, together with his fellow fleet commanders, started the colonization of the islands.