310 



PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



of Diogo Alvez Correa, the Caramuru* almost in the shape of a novel, and 

 which subjects this portion of the early history of this province to incoheren- 

 cies and doubts. The said Jesuit who asserted that he wrote from circumstan- 

 tial documents, says he does not know whether the vessel of the shipwrecked 

 Caramuru was proceeding to India or the capitania of St. Vincente, as he pre- 

 tends that the latter was then in progress of colonization, by Martim AfFonso 

 de Souza, which, from concurring testimony, is an affirmation not founded in 

 truth; Correa's shipwreck having occurred in 1510, upwards of twenty years 

 previous to that event ; and the vessel was unquestionably either one of those 

 included in the contract for Brazil wood, or in the progress of an exploration 

 of the coast, and did not belong to any of the armaments destined for India. 



The epoch of Correa's shipwreck, who was a person of noble birth, and his 

 being the first European settler at Bahia, is confirmed by the evidence of 

 Herrera, who, in describing the misfortunes that attended the St. Pitta, one 

 of two Spanish ships that sailed from St, Lucar, in September, 1534, (from 

 which it would appear also, the shipwreck of the Spanish vessel before alluded 

 to, happened in the year 1535,) says, " onde liallaron un Portuguez, que dixo, 

 *' que avia veynte y cinco anos, que estava entre los Indios"1[ A person now 

 living at Porto Seguro has in his possession an ancient manuscript, which 

 affirms that Caspar de Lemos, on proceeding to Lisbon with despatches of 

 Cabral's new discovery, entered the river Ilheos and the Bay of All Saints ; 

 where some sailors went on shore, and were suddenly attacked by the Indians ; 

 that Diogo Alvez Correa, not having time to embark with his companions, fled 

 to a place where he was soon found by those savages. This would make 

 Correa the Caramuru's residence near Bahia, to have commenced in 1500; but, 

 as this circumstance is not alluded to in the authentic statements of Cabral's 

 expedition, it would still appear more probable that Correa was thrown amongst 

 the Indians, in consequence of the shipwreck alluded to in 1510. 



At the period when King John III. divided the Brazil into capitanias, Fran- 

 cisco Peyreyra Coutinho was in Portugal, having recently returned from India, 

 where he had rendered important services to the state, in remuneration for 

 which, the said King granted him a capitania of all the country which lay 



* He acquired the appellation of Caramuru, which signifies "a man of fire," on the occasion of his 

 first discharging a musket in the presence of the astonished Indians. 



f " Where there was a Portuguese, who said he had lived twenty-five years amongst the Indians," 

 proving Correa's shipwreck to be in 1510. 



