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Fernão de Loronha and the Rental of Brazil in 1502: A New Chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John L. Vogt
John L. Vogt*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
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Extract

In July, 1502, the fleet which Dom Manuel I had dispatched following Cabral's discovery of Brazil returned to Lisbon with news of Portugal's New World possession. The findings were incorporated into an official report and geographical observations were placed on the sea charts of the day, including the famous Cantino map of September, 1502. The three vessels in this expedition had sailed along the Brazilian coast for over a thousand miles, exploring and charting the major landfalls, from the northeastern tip around Cape Calcanhar to at least as far south as Cape Frio at 23° S. Lat. But no products of any great commerćial wealth which could compare with the riches being obtained in the Orient had been discovered, and the dispatch of further royal expeditions to Brazil seemingly was not justified. There were, however, private parties in Portugal who showed an interest in the slight commercial possibilities that were offered by this new land. The leader of this group was Fernão de Loronha, a wealthy merchant with a family business in Lisbon and sufficient capital to outfit several ships a year in overseas ventures. Moreover, Loronha had a first-hand acquaintance with this new land. He had been the overall commander of the fleet of 1501-1502 which had just returned from Brazil. There was one item of value in Brazil which particularly attracted Loronha. This was the dyewood trees growing in great abundance there. A large market for this commodity existed in northern Europe, for the dye extracted from the wood of the Asian variety of this tree had been a staple in the finishing of fine cloths produced by the weavers of Bruges, Liége, and other cities in the Low Countries since the twelfth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , October 1967 , pp. 153 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1967

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References

1 This famous work and forerunner of all other known maps of Brazil is so-called after the Italian agent who spirited it from Portugal to his native city-state of Ferrara. Scholars generally concede it to be the most accurate and beautifulexample of the Portuguese mapmaker’s art in the early sixteenth century. Cortesão, Cf.Armando, Cartografía e cartógrafos portugueses dosséculos XV e XVI (Lisbon,1935), 1, 138–139.Google Scholar

The Cantino map has been reproduced numerous times in historical atlases and individual studies. Among the most notable of these works are: A. E. Nordenskjöld, , Facsimile Atlas to the Early History of Cartography (Stockholm, 1889), pp. 111–112 Google Scholar; Cortesão, Armandoand da Mota, Avelino Teixeira, Portugaliae momumenta cartographica (Lisbon, 1960), 1, 29–37.Google Scholar

2 Cf. Greenlee, William B., “The Captaincy of the Second Portuguese Voyage to Brazil, 1501–1502, The Americas, 2 (1945), 3–13. Greenlee examines all of the docu¬ments and accounts relative to the commander of the expedition, and he confirms Loronha's position as commander of the fleet. The other possibilities for the captaincy (Gonçalo Coelho, André Gonçalves, Gaspar de Lemos, and Nuno Manuel) are definitely eliminated as choices by this study.Google Scholar

3 This process of leasing out the trade in certain areas had been widely utilized over the past century or so. In 1441 Prince Henry the Navigatorhad been granted a monopoly over all trade with the Canary Islands. All ships going there wererequired to have his license and pay him a fifth of the proceeds of these voyages. King Affonso V, continuing Prince Henry’s policy, leased the monopoly of the Guinea trade to Fernáo Gomes, a Lisbon merchant, for a period of five years beginning in 1469. In return Gomes paid fifteen hundred ducats to the king and agreed to explore at least five hundred leagues of untraversed African coast during the term of his contract. Cf. Antonio Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana (Lisbon), ser. 2, Vol. I (1958), 436–445, 451–456. By these and other grants the Portuguese monarchs relieved themselves of much of the financial burden of outfitting and supervising these voyages, while at the same time acquiring a profit on them in return for the concession.

4 This is the letter of the Genoese, Pietro Rondinelli, considered in detail below.

5 There has never been an adequate study made of the lease of Brazil in 1502 due to the almost complete absence of source material on this subject. This is because much of the original documentation for this lease as well as other phases of sixteenth century Brazilian history was destroyed when the archive of the Casa da India in Lisbon was razed by fire and earthquake in November, 1755.

6 Berchet, Berchet, “Fonti italiane per la scopertá del Nuovo Mondo,” Raccolta colombiana [Rome], ser. 3, Vol. 2 (1893), 121.Google Scholar

7 Greenlee, William B., The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabrai to Brazil and India (London:Hakluyt Society, 1937), pp. 141–142.Google Scholar

8 Peragallo, Prospero, “Carta de el-rei D. Manuel ao rei Cathólico,” Centenário da descoberta da América (Lisbon, 1892), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar

9 “Ilha de sam joham que elle hora novamenteachou e descubryo cinquenta leguas alla mar de nossa terra de santa Cruz que lhe temos aremdada.” Reproduced by Duarte Leite, História dos deseobrimentos (Lisbon, 1962), I, 602.

10 de Goes, Damião, Chronicado serenissimo senhor rei D. Manuel (1st ed.; Lisbon, 1566 Google Scholar; 5th ed.; Lisbon, 1909), II, chapter 65, p. 89; Markham, Clements R. (ed.), The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci and other documents illustrative of his career (London, 1894), p. 52.Google Scholar

11 Markham, , Letters of Amerigo Vespucci, p.55.Google Scholar

12 Our information on this voyage comes from the ship’s log of the Bertôa, [Bretôa], which is preserved in Portugal’s national archive, Torre do Tombo, under the heading Lluyro da náoo bertoa que vay pera a Terra do brasyll … de feureiro de (1)511: Coxias da Livraria, drawer 9, no. 2, fols. 1–5. Antonio Baião, “O comércio do paubrasil,” História da colonização portuguesa do Brasil (Porto, 1923), II, 343–347 repro-duces this roteiro in its original orthography.

13 Peragallo, Carta de el-rei D. Manuel, p. 83.

14 As stated above, there is no adequate work on the lease of Brazil, but the contract of Loronha is frequently mentioned because of its connection with the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci’s writings include accounts of the voyages of 1501–1502 and 1503–1504; the latter was the first fleet sent by Loronha under the terms of the agreement of October, 1502. Therefore, during any discussion of Vespucci, brief reference is generally made to the lease of Loronha. The current state of opinion among scholars who believe in a renewal of the contract in 1505 is best stated by Duarte Leite, História dos descobrimentos, II, 162.

15 “ E asy do que comprarem nos navyos do trauto de Fernam de Loronha das terras novas durando o tempo do seu contrauto que sse acabará no anno mil b c b …”: Trading privileges conceded to German merchants by Dom Manuel I, October 6, 1503, Archivo Nacional de Torre do Tombo (cited hereinafter as AN 11 ),Chancelaria de D. Manuel, livro 22, fol. 25.

16 “ Tirando os açucares que se carregarem em naaos e navios de nossos nararaes.” ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Manuel, livro 19, fol. 27.

17 “Aos framẽgos mesares e mercadoresde Frandes e d’Olanda e naturaes das terras e senhorios do duque de Borgonha assi estantes moradores e a nossa cidade de Lisboa corno quaesquer outros que novamente a ella e a estes Reinos vierem com mercadorias …”: ANTT, Livro VI de Místicos, fol. 72, November 4, 1509.

18 “… Os quaes burgalezes sam xpovã de Horã e D.o délas covas Rubias … e que possam carregar todas suas mercadoryas em quaesquer naaos e navyos que quyserem tirando os açucares que se carregarem em naaos e navyos como se ora faz …” ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Manuel, livro 17, fol. 29.

19 Grant of September 18, 1510, to merchants resident in Lisbon: ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Manuel, livro 17, fol. 29. Another copy of this same grant is in ANTT, Livro VI de Místicos, fol. lOOv.

20 “ No anno de mil, e quinhentos, e treze estando el Rei dom Emanuele em Santos o velho tendo despacho em huma casa de madeira, que alli então estava, na panta do caes, posta sobella agoa, George Lopez bixorda que naquelle tempo tinha o trauto do pao brasil que trazem desta terra de santa Cruz veo a fallar a el Rei ecom elle trez homens desta provincia …” Damião de Goes, Chronica (1909), Vol. II, chapter 56, p. 50.