Captain Baltasar Fernandes (also spelled Baltazar or Balthazar) (c. 1580 - c. 1667) was a Portuguese colonist of Brazil who led the expeditions called Bandeirantes into the interior seeking gold, silver, and iron.
[2] He began as a bandeirante (or pioneer) who would enslave natives in Rio Grande do Sul and Paraguay to forcefully work in the fields.
Baltasar Fernandes and his son, Captain Andrew of Zunéga Y Leon, along with his family and hundreds of captive native slaves, founded the city of Sorocaba on 15 August 1654.
Sorocaba immediately started a city council and that same day, they named the main members of the board: Judges Baltazar Fernandes and André de Zunega, Aldermans Cláudio Furquim and Paschoal Leite Paes, and Attorney Domingos Garcia, accompanied by Registrar Francisco Sanches.
According to one account, Fernandes shot Father Diogo de Alfaro in the head after the Portuguese Inquisition sent him to investigate the Paulista "heretics".