Salvador Correa de Sá e Benevides, the young man

Date of birth: 1602, Cádiz Date of death: 1686, Lisboa Governor of Rio de Janeiro and the Southern Partition. Link to BRASILHIS Database: https://brasilhis.usal.es/es/personaje/salvador-correia-de-sa-e-benavides-correa-de-sa-e-benevides Salvador Correa de Sá e Benevides was a key figure in the early years of the colonisation of Rio de Janeiro. A member of the powerful Correa de Sá family, he …
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Diogo de Campos Moreno

Diogo de Campos Moreno, an essential figure in the first two decades of the 17th century in Portuguese America, was Sargento Mor of Brazil. He was born in 1566 in Tangiers or Ilha Terceira. Hélio Viana affirms that his North African origin is more probable, since he makes some allusions to this region at the beginning of the Livro da Razão and because his nephew Luís de Guevara was also from there (Vianna, 1955: 40).

Fray José de Pernambuco (José Ruiz)

Place and date of birth: Olinda (Pernambuco, Brazil), 1609 Place and date of death: Bemba (Congo), 1653 Catholic missionary and teacher of the first religious schools for nobles in the capital San Salvador del Congo. Due to his knowledge of several languages, he participated in the first Kikongo/Spanish/Latin dictionary. Database Brasilhis: http://brasilhis.usal.es/es/personaje/jose-ruiz-jose-de-pernambuco Africa’s connection from …
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Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen

Born in Dillenburg (Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire in 1604, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen was the firstborn son of the marriage of Johan VII van Nassau-Siegen (1561-1623) to Margaretha van Holstein (1583-1658). In turn, Johan VII was the son of Johan VI van Nassau-Dillenburg (1535-1606), brother of Willem I (1533-1584), of Zwijger (the Silent), Prince of Orange, and one of the main leaders who worked for the formation of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Boxer, 2004: 94-95; Mello, 2006: 22-27; Mout, 1979: 14-17).

Antônio Paraupaba

Place and date of birth: Captaincy of Paraíba, 1595. Place and date of death: The Netherlands, 1656. Job title and main information: Indigenous interpreter and mediator (1631-1644). Regent and captain of the Indigenous of Rio Grande (1645-1649) and Brazil (1649-1654). Link to BRASILHIS Database: https://brasilhis.usal.es/es/personaje/antonio-paraupaba A Potiguara from the indigenous village (aldeia) of Tabussuram, located …
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Jorge de Mascarenhas

The year of Jorge de Mascarenhas’ birth is uncertain, some claim to have been in 1570, others in 1585, or even in 1579, as indicated by the most reliable source (WHITE, 2004), son of the marriage between Francisco Mascarenhas (c. 1530-1608), Portuguese admiral and governor of Hormuz between 1569 and 1572, and Jerônima de Castro Lima e Pereira, niece of Francisco Barreto, governor of India.