Tupiniquim people
Nation | Active
1396 CE to 2057 CE
Tupiniquim are an indigenous peoples of Brazil, who now live in three Indigenous Territories (Terras Indígenas in Portuguese).
The Indigenous Territories (Caieiras Velhas, Pau-Brasil and Comboios) are located near the cities of Santa Cruz and Vila do Riacho in the municipality of Aracruz in northern Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil.
Caieiras Velhas Indigenous Territories is located along the banks of the Piraquê-Açu River.
The Pau-Brasil Indigenous Territories is near the Sahy creek.
The Comboios Indigenous Territories is located on the banks of the Comboios River.
A 2010 census, determined the population of Tupiniquim in all three Indigenous Territories as 2,630.
Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 31 total
Pedro Cabral's fleet, after nearly thirty days of sailing (forty-four since departure), finds the first indications of nearby land on April 21 and sights the Brazilian coast the following day, seeing the outlines of a hill they name Monte Pascoal, some sixty kilometers south of modern Porto Seguro, Bahia.
The following morning, the armada anchors at the mouth of the Frade river and a group of local Tupiniquim Indians assembles on the beach.
Cabral dispatches a small party, headed by Nicolau Coelho, in a longboat ashore to make first contact.
Coelho tosses his hat in exchange for a feathered headdress, but the surf is too strong for a proper landing and opening of communication, so they return to the ships.
Strong overnight winds on prompt the armada to lift anchor and sail some ten leagues (forty-five kilometers) north, finding harbor behind the reef at Cabrália Bay, just north of Porto Seguro.
The pilot Afonso Lopes goes sounding in a rowboat.
He spies a native canoe, captures the two Indians on board, and brings them back to ship.
The language barrier prevents questioning, but they are fed and given cloth and beads.
The cultural differences are staggering, fed with honey and cake, they spit them out and are deeply surprised with the sight of a chicken.
The next day a party led by Nicolau Coelho and Bartolomeu Dias goes ashore, accompanied by the two natives.
Armed Tupiniquim warily approach the beach, but on a signal from the two natives, lay down their bows, and allow the Portuguese to land and collect water.
A Franciscan friar goes ashore to celebrate the first known Christian mass on the American mainland, curiously watched by some two hundred Tupiniquim Indians.
For much of the week, interaction between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim gradually increases.
There is a brisk trade in European iron nails, cloth, beads and crucifixes in return for American amulets, spears, parrots and monkeys.
There is only the slightest hint that precious metals might be found in the hinterlands.
Portuguese degredados are assigned to spend the night in Tupiniquim villages, while the remainder of the crews sleep aboard ships.
Cabral makes preparations to resume the journey to India.
The Portuguese pilots, assisted by the physician-astronomer Master João Faras and his astronomical instruments, determine that the land lies east of the Tordesillas line, prompting Cabral to formally claim Brazil for the Portuguese crown, bestowing upon it the name of Ilha de Vera Cruz ("Island of the True Cross"—later renamed Terra de Santa Cruz, "Land of the Holy Cross", upon the realization that it is not an island).
Cabral dispatches the supply ship back to Lisbon on May 2, with the Brazilian items and a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal composed by the factor’s secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha to announce the discovery.
It also carries a separate private letter to the king from Master João Faras, in which he identifies the main guiding constellation in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross (Cruzeiro).
The supply ship will arrive in Lisbon in June.
Leaving behind a couple of Portuguese degredados with the Tupiniquim of Porto Seguro, Cabral orders the eleven remaining ships to set sail the next day and continue on their route to India via the Cape of Good Hope.
Cabral's armada, after crossing the Atlantic ocean from Brazil, reaches the Cape of Good Hope in late May.
The fleet faces headlong winds for six straight days.
Four ships are lost at sea in the process—including the Sofala-destined ship of Bartolomeu Dias.
The three others are the crown-owned ships of Aires Gomes da Silva, Simão de Pina and Vasco de Ataíde (if Ataíde had not been lost earlier at Cape Verde, he is certainly lost by this time; some scholars contend Pires was lost now, and Ataíde was lost earlier).
In any case, the fleet is reduced to seven ships.
Facing strong winds, the seven split into smaller groups, to meet again on the other side.
Cabral holds two ships together with his own.
Pedro Cabral's battered three-ship squadron reaches the Primeiras Islands, several leagues north of Sofala, on June 16, 1500.
Two local merchant ships, catching sight of Cabral, take flight.
Cabral gives pursuit—one of them runs aground and the other is captured.
Questioning quickly determines that these ships are owned by a cousin of the sultan Fateima of Malindi (who had received Vasco da Gama so graciously back in 1498), so they are released without harm.
Cabral's three-ship squadron hobbles on to Mozambique Island on June 22.
Despite the earlier quarrel with Gama, he is given an unexpectedly warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique, and allowed to collect water and supplies.
Shortly after, three more ships of the Cabral’s fleet sail into Mozambique island and rejoin the expedition.
Only the ship of Diogo Dias, Bartolomeu's brother, remains missing.
As Dias's mission is for Sofala anyway, Cabral decides not to wait for it but rather to press on with his current fleet of six ships.
Cabral's fleet reaches the city-state of Kilwa, the dominant city of the East African coast, which Gama had never visited.
Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and and mercifully escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), goes ashore on July 26 to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim.
There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa, the last one, al-Fudail, having been deposed around 1495 in a coup by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who has since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.
A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor.
Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and, for all the formal pleasantries, resistant to the overtures.
Cabral, feeling there is nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon winds to India, decides to break off the negotiations and sail on.
The Cabral expedition, pressing north on August 2, avoids hostile Mombasa and finally reaches …
…friendly Malindi, where Cabral drops off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year.
The Sultan of Malindi gives Cabral an excellent reception.
Leaving behind two degredados (Luís de Moura and João Machado) and picking up two Gujarati pilots, Cabral's six-ship armada finally begins its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7.
Cabral, while in Cochin, receives missives from the rulers of Cannanore further north, another of Calicut's reluctant rivals, and …
…Quilon, further south, once a great Syrian Christian merchant city-state, entrepôt for cinnamon, ginger and dyewood.
They commend Cabral's actions against Zamorin's Calicut, and invite the Portuguese to trade in their cities instead.
Not wishing to offend his gracious Cochinese host, Cabral politely declines the invitations, promising only to visit these cities at some future date.