22 



FROM THE FIRST DISCOVERY TO THE 



year 1516, when he proceeded to the Brazil, and then entered the bay of 

 All Saints. 



Assamin,^ that G. Coelho was the admiral of these caravels, on traversing 

 the Atlantic they were driven by a severe gale to 3° south latitude, where a 

 loss of four was sustained upon some rocks in the proximity of an island, which 

 beyond a doubt was Fernando de Noronha, situated in 3° 50' south latitude. 

 The two remaining vessels continued their course to the coast of Vera or St. 

 Cruz, and made land near a magnificent bay (Bahia), which they entered, and 

 gave the appellation of Todos os Santos, (being All Saints Day.) They coasted 

 on southward, constantly approximating to the land, where the shore presented 

 no obstacles, minutely inspecting all its remarkable rivers, ports, capes, 

 and headlands, the adjacent islands, and the coast generally, as far as Cape 

 Virgins, near the Straits of Magellan. They erected stone pillars, bearing the 

 arms of Portugal, in some of the most conspicuous situations. They left at 

 Porto Seguro, a colony consisting of a part of the persons who had escaped 

 from the shipwrecked vessels, with two Franciscan missionaries, and returned 

 to Portugal laden with Brazil wood. This wood had now acquired such repu- 

 tation in Europe, that the name of St. Cruz, otherwise Vera Cruz, given to the 

 country by Cabral, was lost in the denomination which it universally received 

 of the Brazil, (or Brazil wood country.) 



In the same year, 1503, before the explorer Coelho reached the land of 

 Vera Cruz, Don AfFonso d'Albuquerque arrived upon the coast, having left 

 Lisbon, on the 6th of April, with a squadron under his command for India: 

 the latitude or part of the Brazil that he saw is not stated, but he observed 

 the cassia and verniz trees. Buona somma di cassia et di vernizo, altro di 

 momenti non abiamo compreso'' — Ramuzio.) Shortly after Coelho's return, a 

 contract was granted for the Brazil wood, and the colony began to be frequently 

 visited by the caravels of the contractors. 



The King of Castile despatched Jiian Dias de Solis, in the year 1509; and 

 it is said the celebrated pilot Vincente Yanez Pinson accompanied him, to take 

 possession of a part of the newly-discovered country, and in pursuance of this 

 project they erected crosses upon different parts of the coast. The King of 

 Portugal remonstrated against this proceeding as an intrusion upon his share 

 of the division of undiscovered countries, which Alexander VI. had very 

 artfully assigned to those two nations. Feelings of bitter regret cannot but 

 arise in the mind, on contemplating, at the present day, this fine and fairest 

 portion of the new world, placed in such hands by an imaginary partition of 



