434 



PROVINCE OF MARANHAM. 



of the colony, which sailed from Lisbon in 1535, consisting of nine hundred 

 persons, including two sons of the donatory, with the important addition of 

 one hundred and thirteen horses. 



This armament, comprising ten vessels, and considered the most powerful 

 that had sailed for a long period from the Tagus, was unfortunately wrecked 

 upon the shoals which surround the island of Maranham. Some persons 

 escaped to the island of Medi or Boqueirao at the entrance of the bay ; but 

 which not being adapted for the foundation of the colony, they abandoned and 

 returned to Portugal by the first vessel that appeared, excepting one individual, 

 a blacksmith, called Pedro, or Pero, who remained among the Indians, and 

 rendered himself highly important and exceedingly useful to them, in conse- 

 quence of the variety of instruments he constructed of the iron taken from the 

 fi-agments of the wreck that were washed upon the beach. A daughter of a 

 cacique, or prince, was bestowed upon him in marriage, by whom he had two 

 sons, both called Pedros, or Peros, from which the Indians thought the Por- 

 tuguese all had this^ name, and they usually gave that nation the appellation of 

 Peros; 



The severe disappointment which Barros sustained, not only in the Joss of 

 his property but of his two sons, by this terrible disaster, deterred him from 

 making any further attempt. And the same monarch gave this territory to 

 Luiz de Mello^ and furnished him with three ships and two caravels, that he 

 might the more effectually execute his project, which was to penetrate Jby the 

 river Amazons as far as the eastern mines of Peru^ He was not, however, much 

 less unfortunate than Ayres da Cunha, the whole of the armament being lost near 

 the same place, excepting one caravel that escaped, ?nd with which he returned 

 tt) Lisbon. These misfortunes attending the vessels that entered even tlje 

 best anchorage place of this province discouraged all those persons who were 

 capable of colonizing its fertile land, but did not prevent its being visited by 

 other nations. 



In the year 1594 M. Rifault, a Frenchman, entered the port of Maranham 

 with three sail, where he left Charles Vaux and a small number of his crew. 

 This weak colony was reinforced in the year 1612 by M. Ravardiere. Two 

 years afterwards Jeronimo d' Albuquerque Coelho was despatched from Per- 

 nambuco by order of the governor, Gaspar de Souza, to expel those intruders, 

 over whom, after some attacks, he gained very little advantage, by a capitula- 

 tion which he entered into with them. Alexandre de Moura, who arrived there' 

 1ihe following year with a strong force, proposed, instead of the capitulation. 



