The Primitive Cartography of Paranaguá Bay and the Limits of Portuguese America in XVIIth Century

Abstract

In the sixteenth century, Paranaguá Bay was a region of diffi cult access because of navigation problems of its mouth,
the lack of easy fl uvial communication with the continent interior, as well as for the fact of being in an area disputed
between Portugal and Spain because of the ambiguities of the Treaty of Tordesillas. However, it is known since at
least 1550, when it was visited by Hans Staden, who found some Portuguese men in contact with the Indians. In the
seventeenth century the knowledge of the bay increased progressively with the advancement of the activities of Indian
slavery and gold mining. The fi rst cartographical representation of the bay appeared on the map of the captaincy of São
Vicente, shown on the “Atlas of Brazil” by Joao Teixeira Albernaz I (the elder), between 1631-42. In 1653, during the
gold mining boom, Pedro de Souza Pereira made the fi rst exclusive cartographic representation of the bay, detailing
its inner geographical features and showing its gold mines. Both two maps were used by João Teixeira Albernaz II (the
boy) in his “Demotração (sic) of Pernagoa and Cananea”, 1666. The iconographic representation and maps show how the Bay of Paranagua had been progressively incorporated into the Portuguese colonial scope during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. At the end of the seventeenth century the limits between Spaniards and Portugueses would be
located further south, between the villages of Colonia del Sacramento and Laguna.