Rebuilding the Map of the Hereditary Captaincies

Abstract

This paper analyses the classic map of hereditary captaincies of Portuguese America when it was created, in the first half of the sixteenth century. We point out some of its shortcomings, and propose a new design on primary sources, namely: charts of donation and forais, as well as the cartography of the time, particularly the map of Bartolomeu Velho. The main changes proposed refer to: boundary lines of the northern captaincies, which should follow the meridians and not the parallels; the particular configuration of the southern captaincies, with lines following northwest direction; the division into portions, named quinhões, of the captaincies of Aires da Cunha and Joao de Barros and finally the existence of undistributed lands.