Fernão Dias Pais Leme

Fernão Dias Pais Leme (c. 1608–1681) was a São Paulo bandeirante nicknamed the Emerald Hunter. From 1644 he led his own slave-raiding expeditions into the sertão.

Elected a local judge in 1651, he promoted reconciliation between settlers and Jesuits in 1653, yet in 1661 led another expedition against Jesuit missions to capture Indigenous people for enslavement.

In 1671 the governor commissioned him to find the emeralds of the legendary Serra da Sabarabuçu. Setting out in 1674, his bandeira spent years in the wilderness. He died of fever in 1681, believing the green stones he had sent south were emeralds; they were tourmalines.