Fernão de Noronha
Encyclopedia
Fernão de Loronha whose name is often corrupted to Fernando de Noronha or Fernando della Rogna, was a prominent 16th C. Portuguese
merchant of Lisbon
, of Jewish
descent. He was the first charter-holder (1502–1512), the first donatary captain
in Brazil
and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas expeditions. The islands of Fernando de Noronha
off the coast of Brazil, discovered by one of his expeditions and granted to Loronha and his heirs as a fief in 1504, are named after him.
converted to Catholicism
(cristão-novo
). He was the son of Martim Afonso de Loronha and the brother of another Martim Afonso de Loronha, a clerk of the Order of Christ
, both ennobled and granted a Coat of Arms
newly created. He married Violante Rodrigues de Noronha and had issue apparently extinct at the generation of his great-grandchildren.
By 1500, Fernão de Loronha was a well-established merchant in Lisbon
, where he served as the factor
of Jakob Fugger, head of the wealthy German banking family of Augsburg
. In his 1504 royal letter, King Manuel I of Portugal
referred to Loronha as a knight of the royal household (cavaleiro da nossa casa). His acquisition of status at a time when even wealthy and notable Jews came under persecution in Portugal suggests Loronha had unusually high connections. Even the corruption of his name from Loronha to Noronha might not be accidental, but reflect a popular assumption (which he might not have been eager to correct) that he was connected to the Noronha
clan, one of the most illustrious noble families in Portugal, of royal Castilian descent (although there is no evidence Loronha had any ties, by blood or marriage, to the Noronhas).
After the discovery of Brazil
by Pedro Álvares Cabral
in 1500, the Portuguese crown sent out a follow-up mapping expedition in 1501 to explore the Brazilian coast. The commander of this expedition is unknown, but it was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci
, who wrote an account of it. Some scholars believe that Fernão de Loronha may have actually been the overall captain of this expedition, although others believe it unlikely a prominent and wealthy merchant like Loronha would absent his businesses to go personally command vessels himself, that Loronha's support (if any) was largely financial. .
Exploring much of the Brazilian eastern coast from Cape São Roque
in the northeast down to the environs of Cabo Frio
, and naming many of the locations along the way, the mapping expedition returned to Lisbon by September 1502, and reported the discovery of an abundance of brazilwood
(pau-brasil) on the coast. Brazilwood was highly valued by the European cloth industry as a superb dye
, producing a deep red color, but it had to be imported from India
at great expense. Sensing the commercial opportunity of the new discovery, Fernando de Loronha assembled a consortium of Lisbon merchants, with himself at its head, and petitioned the crown for permission to exploit the find. In late September 1502, King Manuel of Portugal
issued a charter
(now lost) granting Fernão de Loronha the exclusive right to the commercial exploitation of the "Lands of Vera Cruz" (as Brazil was then known) for a period of three years. In return, Loronha was obliged to outfit and send six ships per year at his own expense, commit himself to discovering 300 leagues of new coast per year and build a fort (forteza) in the new country. Loronha would also obliged pay the crown a share of his revenues: zero in the first year, one-sixth in the second year, and one quarter in the third year. However, a different account reports Loronha was given a ten-year charter, for which he paid the crown a fixed sum of 4,000 ducats per year. One possible reconciliation is that the latter reflect not the original terms, but new terms that were negotiated upon the renewal of Loronha's charter in 1505.
Around April–May 1503, Loronha's consortium outfitted an expedition of six ships under captain Gonçalo Coelho
, accompanied once again by Amerigo Vespucci
, to scout the Brazilian coast. On August 10, 1503, the expedition the uninhabited island off the northeast Brazilian coast, that is now called the Fernando de Noronha
island. However, it went through different names at that time. Vespucci called it São Lourenço, official documents called it São João, while a contemporary map, the Cantino planisphere
, apparently called it Quaresma.
The Coelho-Vespucci expedition was instructed by Loronha to establish factories
(feitorias, essentially warehouses) along the coast as collection points for brazilwood harvests. It is believed three warehouses were established on this expedition - one by Vespucci at Cabo Frio
(manned by 24 men, thus filling the forteza requirement), another by Coelho at Porto Seguro
(feitoria da Santa Cruz de Cabrália) and possibly a third, also by Coelho, in Guanabara Bay
(feitoria da Carioca). Around 1509 or 1511 (details uncertain), an expedition outfitted by Fernão de Loronha under Cristóvão Pires established another brazilwood factory at Baía de Todos os Santos
(modern Bahia). It is believed a factory may have also been established at São Vicente
around 1508 or so, although this lacks confirmation.
On January 14, 1504, King Manuel I of Portugal
issued a royal letter granting the island of São João (Fernando de Noronha
) personally to Fernão de Loronha and his descendants, thereby making Loronha the first Portuguese hereditary donatary captain
of Brazil. A factory was immediately set up on the island, and quickly became the hub of Loronha's operation - brazilwood harvested directly across the water, or ferried in by small boats from the factories down the coast, were collected on the island, and dispatched on larger ships back to Portugal. By 1506, Loronha's consortium is said to have reaped a brazilwood harvest of 20,000 quintal
s by 1506, representing a 400-500% profit over the initial lump sum payment and ship expenses. Loronha also drummed up some business in 'novelty' pets like colorful Brazilian parrots and monkeys, cotton and occasionally, Indian slaves.
Loronha's enterprise, run with only a bare minimum of staff, was not known to employ coercion. Brazilwood and other products were acquired by trade with indigenous peoples. Brazilian Indians (mostly Tupi
) did all of the woodcutting independently, and delivered the harvest to the warehouses, where they traded with Loronha's agents for iron goods, tools, knives, axes, mirrors, and other miscellaneous products of that kind. The slaves were not acquired in raids, but by ransoming war captives from local tribes (although this proved tricky, given the embedded tradition of cannibalism
among the Tupi, local chieftains were reluctant to sell their 'sacred' prisoners.)
Loronha's commercial charter was renewed in 1506, and then again until 1512, when the crown passed the charter to a different merchant consortium, led by Jorge Lopes Bixorda. In 1515, the Portuguese crown let Bixorda's charter expire, and finally took over the factories and brazilwood trade itself. By this time, Spanish and French interlopers (the latter mainly outfitted by merchants from the Atlantic ports of Brittany
and Normandy
, connected to the cloth trade), had begun to visit the Brazilian coast with some regularity, landing brazilwood-harvesting parties and/or plundering the stores from the lightly manned Portuguese factories along the coast. As private merchants did not have the wherewithal (nor the authority) to challenge the foreign interlopers, the losses were heavy. When the crown took over, it immediately set up a military coastal patrol to defend these locations. Despite losing its monopoly charter, Loronha's family retained its capitaincy of Fernando de Noronha island (heirs are confirmed in documents down to 1580).
Independently of his Brazilian activities, Fernão de Loronha also participated in the outfitting of the Portuguese India Armadas
of the early 1500s. The Bassas da India
atoll in the Mozambique Channel
is named after one of Loronha's ships, nicknamed the Judia ('Jewess'), which ran into them. The original name 'baixas da Judia' (shoals of the Judia) was corrupted into 'bassas da India' by natural transcription error of later cartographers.
and its inhabitants, it would be Fernão de Loronha. Although officially named the lands of Santa Cruz or Vera Cruz by the original discovers, it was during Loronha's tenure that the name of the land gradually transitioned to Terra do Brasil and its inhabitants to Brasileiros. Some unkind authors claim that Loronha, on account of his Jewish roots, was uncomfortable with referring to the land after the True Cross
. But the truth is probably more mundane. It was rather common for 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese to refer to distant lands by their commercial product rather than their proper name, e.g. Madeira
island, the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast
and Slave Coast
of West Africa, etc. The lands of Vera Cruz were simply better known as the "Lands of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) for the same reason. (Curiously, some documents from the early 1500s refer to it also the "Land of Parrot
s")
More curious is the demonym
. In the Portuguese language
, an inhabitant of Brazil is referred to as a Brasileiro. But the common rules of the Portuguese language reserves the suffix -eiro to denote occupations, rather than inhabitants (which are usually given the suffix -ano). (the English equivalent is the suffix -er for occupations (e.g. baker, shoemaker) and the suffix "-an" for demonyms (e.g. Indian, American)). If this rule was followed, an inhabitant of Brazil should have been known (in Portuguese) as a Brasiliano. But uniquely among Portuguese demonyms, they are instead referred to as a Brasileiro, an occupation. That too stemmed from Loronha's tenure, when brasileiro was indeed a reference to an occupation, a brazilwood cutter or trafficker. The name of the occupation was simply gradually extended to refer to all the inhabitants of the land.
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
merchant of Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, of Jewish
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
descent. He was the first charter-holder (1502–1512), the first donatary captain
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...
in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas expeditions. The islands of Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, offshore from the Brazilian coast. The main island has an area of and had a population of 3,012 in the year 2010...
off the coast of Brazil, discovered by one of his expeditions and granted to Loronha and his heirs as a fief in 1504, are named after him.
Biography
Fernão de Loronha (corr. Noronha) was a Sephardi JewSephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
(cristão-novo
Marrano
Marranos were Jews living in the Iberian peninsula who converted to Christianity rather than be expelled but continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret...
). He was the son of Martim Afonso de Loronha and the brother of another Martim Afonso de Loronha, a clerk of the Order of Christ
Order of Christ (Portugal)
The Military Order of Christ previously the Royal Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ was the heritage of the Knights Templar in Portugal, after the suppression of the Templars in 1312...
, both ennobled and granted a Coat of Arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
newly created. He married Violante Rodrigues de Noronha and had issue apparently extinct at the generation of his great-grandchildren.
By 1500, Fernão de Loronha was a well-established merchant in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, where he served as the factor
Factor (agent)
A factor, from the Latin "he who does" , is a person who professionally acts as the representative of another individual or other legal entity, historically with his seat at a factory , notably in the following contexts:-Mercantile factor:In a relatively large company, there could be a hierarchy,...
of Jakob Fugger, head of the wealthy German banking family of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
. In his 1504 royal letter, King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
referred to Loronha as a knight of the royal household (cavaleiro da nossa casa). His acquisition of status at a time when even wealthy and notable Jews came under persecution in Portugal suggests Loronha had unusually high connections. Even the corruption of his name from Loronha to Noronha might not be accidental, but reflect a popular assumption (which he might not have been eager to correct) that he was connected to the Noronha
Noronha
Noronha is a family name common among some aristocratic families in Portugal.This family has its origins in the marriage of Alfonso, Count of Gijón and Noreña with Isabel of Portugal...
clan, one of the most illustrious noble families in Portugal, of royal Castilian descent (although there is no evidence Loronha had any ties, by blood or marriage, to the Noronhas).
After the discovery of Brazil
2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)
The Second Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil for the Portuguese crown along the way...
by Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
in 1500, the Portuguese crown sent out a follow-up mapping expedition in 1501 to explore the Brazilian coast. The commander of this expedition is unknown, but it was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
, who wrote an account of it. Some scholars believe that Fernão de Loronha may have actually been the overall captain of this expedition, although others believe it unlikely a prominent and wealthy merchant like Loronha would absent his businesses to go personally command vessels himself, that Loronha's support (if any) was largely financial. .
Exploring much of the Brazilian eastern coast from Cape São Roque
Cape São Roque
Cape São Roque or Cape of Saint Roch, is a cape in northeastern tip of Brazil.Cape São Roque is located in the municipality of Maxaranguape, 51 km north of Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. Cape São Roque is the "point" on the bend of the Brazilian mainland coast that is...
in the northeast down to the environs of Cabo Frio
Cabo Frio
Cabo Frio is a Brazilian municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, founded by the Portuguese on November 13, 1615.The city's economy is mainly based on tourism, as most of the cities situated in the called Região dos Lagos . The city is usually visited by people from Minas Gerais, Brasília and Rio de...
, and naming many of the locations along the way, the mapping expedition returned to Lisbon by September 1502, and reported the discovery of an abundance of brazilwood
Brazilwood
Caesalpinia echinata is a species of Brazilian timber tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Common names include Brazilwood, Pau-Brasil, Pau de Pernambuco and Ibirapitanga . This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for...
(pau-brasil) on the coast. Brazilwood was highly valued by the European cloth industry as a superb dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
, producing a deep red color, but it had to be imported from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
at great expense. Sensing the commercial opportunity of the new discovery, Fernando de Loronha assembled a consortium of Lisbon merchants, with himself at its head, and petitioned the crown for permission to exploit the find. In late September 1502, King Manuel of Portugal
Manuel of Portugal
-Kings:* Manuel I of Portugal , 14th King of Portugal* Manuel II of Portugal , 34th and last King of -Infante:* Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém , son of Peter II of Portugal...
issued a charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
(now lost) granting Fernão de Loronha the exclusive right to the commercial exploitation of the "Lands of Vera Cruz" (as Brazil was then known) for a period of three years. In return, Loronha was obliged to outfit and send six ships per year at his own expense, commit himself to discovering 300 leagues of new coast per year and build a fort (forteza) in the new country. Loronha would also obliged pay the crown a share of his revenues: zero in the first year, one-sixth in the second year, and one quarter in the third year. However, a different account reports Loronha was given a ten-year charter, for which he paid the crown a fixed sum of 4,000 ducats per year. One possible reconciliation is that the latter reflect not the original terms, but new terms that were negotiated upon the renewal of Loronha's charter in 1505.
Around April–May 1503, Loronha's consortium outfitted an expedition of six ships under captain Gonçalo Coelho
Gonçalo Coelho
Gonçalo Coelho was a Portuguese explorer who belonged to a prominent family in northern Portugal. He commanded two expeditions which explored much of the coast of Brazil....
, accompanied once again by Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
, to scout the Brazilian coast. On August 10, 1503, the expedition the uninhabited island off the northeast Brazilian coast, that is now called the Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, offshore from the Brazilian coast. The main island has an area of and had a population of 3,012 in the year 2010...
island. However, it went through different names at that time. Vespucci called it São Lourenço, official documents called it São João, while a contemporary map, the Cantino planisphere
Cantino planisphere
The Cantino planisphere is the earliest surviving map showing Portuguese Discoveries in the east and west. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal to Italy in 1502...
, apparently called it Quaresma.
Factory (trading post)
Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions...
(feitorias, essentially warehouses) along the coast as collection points for brazilwood harvests. It is believed three warehouses were established on this expedition - one by Vespucci at Cabo Frio
Cabo Frio
Cabo Frio is a Brazilian municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, founded by the Portuguese on November 13, 1615.The city's economy is mainly based on tourism, as most of the cities situated in the called Região dos Lagos . The city is usually visited by people from Minas Gerais, Brasília and Rio de...
(manned by 24 men, thus filling the forteza requirement), another by Coelho at Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500...
(feitoria da Santa Cruz de Cabrália) and possibly a third, also by Coelho, in Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. Four other municipalities surround the bay's shores...
(feitoria da Carioca). Around 1509 or 1511 (details uncertain), an expedition outfitted by Fernão de Loronha under Cristóvão Pires established another brazilwood factory at Baía de Todos os Santos
Baía de Todos os Santos
Baía de Todos os Santos is the main and biggest bay of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Its name expanded to include a whole province, now known as the state of Bahia), where the city of São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos was built...
(modern Bahia). It is believed a factory may have also been established at São Vicente
São Vicente Island (São Paulo, Brazil)
São Vicente Island is an island in São Paulo state, Brazil. It has an area of 57.4 km2. Parts of the cities of São Vicente and Santos are located on the island....
around 1508 or so, although this lacks confirmation.
On January 14, 1504, King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
issued a royal letter granting the island of São João (Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, offshore from the Brazilian coast. The main island has an area of and had a population of 3,012 in the year 2010...
) personally to Fernão de Loronha and his descendants, thereby making Loronha the first Portuguese hereditary donatary captain
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...
of Brazil. A factory was immediately set up on the island, and quickly became the hub of Loronha's operation - brazilwood harvested directly across the water, or ferried in by small boats from the factories down the coast, were collected on the island, and dispatched on larger ships back to Portugal. By 1506, Loronha's consortium is said to have reaped a brazilwood harvest of 20,000 quintal
Quintal
Quintal may refer to:* Quintal , a unit of mass* Quartal and quintal harmony in music* Quintal, Haute-Savoie, a commune of the Haute-Savoie département in France* Stéphane Quintal, NHL ice hockey player...
s by 1506, representing a 400-500% profit over the initial lump sum payment and ship expenses. Loronha also drummed up some business in 'novelty' pets like colorful Brazilian parrots and monkeys, cotton and occasionally, Indian slaves.
Loronha's enterprise, run with only a bare minimum of staff, was not known to employ coercion. Brazilwood and other products were acquired by trade with indigenous peoples. Brazilian Indians (mostly Tupi
Tupi
The Tupi people, Tupinambá, were one of the main ethnic groups of Brazilian indigenous people. Scholars believe they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, but 2,900 years ago they started to spread southward and gradually occupied the Atlantic coast....
) did all of the woodcutting independently, and delivered the harvest to the warehouses, where they traded with Loronha's agents for iron goods, tools, knives, axes, mirrors, and other miscellaneous products of that kind. The slaves were not acquired in raids, but by ransoming war captives from local tribes (although this proved tricky, given the embedded tradition of cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
among the Tupi, local chieftains were reluctant to sell their 'sacred' prisoners.)
Loronha's commercial charter was renewed in 1506, and then again until 1512, when the crown passed the charter to a different merchant consortium, led by Jorge Lopes Bixorda. In 1515, the Portuguese crown let Bixorda's charter expire, and finally took over the factories and brazilwood trade itself. By this time, Spanish and French interlopers (the latter mainly outfitted by merchants from the Atlantic ports of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, connected to the cloth trade), had begun to visit the Brazilian coast with some regularity, landing brazilwood-harvesting parties and/or plundering the stores from the lightly manned Portuguese factories along the coast. As private merchants did not have the wherewithal (nor the authority) to challenge the foreign interlopers, the losses were heavy. When the crown took over, it immediately set up a military coastal patrol to defend these locations. Despite losing its monopoly charter, Loronha's family retained its capitaincy of Fernando de Noronha island (heirs are confirmed in documents down to 1580).
Independently of his Brazilian activities, Fernão de Loronha also participated in the outfitting of the Portuguese India Armadas
Portuguese India Armadas
The Portuguese India armadas were the fleets of ships, organized by the Portuguese crown and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally Goa...
of the early 1500s. The Bassas da India
Bassas da India
Bassas da India is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. It is an uninhabited, roughly circular atoll about in diameter, which corresponds to a total size of . It is located in the southern Mozambique Channel, about half-way between Madagascar and Mozambique, and northwest of...
atoll in the Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel
The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar...
is named after one of Loronha's ships, nicknamed the Judia ('Jewess'), which ran into them. The original name 'baixas da Judia' (shoals of the Judia) was corrupted into 'bassas da India' by natural transcription error of later cartographers.
Naming Brazil
If anyone is responsible for the naming of BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and its inhabitants, it would be Fernão de Loronha. Although officially named the lands of Santa Cruz or Vera Cruz by the original discovers, it was during Loronha's tenure that the name of the land gradually transitioned to Terra do Brasil and its inhabitants to Brasileiros. Some unkind authors claim that Loronha, on account of his Jewish roots, was uncomfortable with referring to the land after the True Cross
True Cross
The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...
. But the truth is probably more mundane. It was rather common for 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese to refer to distant lands by their commercial product rather than their proper name, e.g. Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
island, the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast
Gold Coast (region)
The Gold Coast was the region of West Africa which is now the nation of Ghana. Early uses of the term refer literally to the coast and not the interior. It was not until the 19th century that the term came to refer to areas that are far from the coast...
and Slave Coast
Slave Coast
The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin. In pre-colonial time it was one of the most densely populated parts of the African continent...
of West Africa, etc. The lands of Vera Cruz were simply better known as the "Lands of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) for the same reason. (Curiously, some documents from the early 1500s refer to it also the "Land of Parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s")
More curious is the demonym
Demonym
A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...
. In the Portuguese language
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, an inhabitant of Brazil is referred to as a Brasileiro. But the common rules of the Portuguese language reserves the suffix -eiro to denote occupations, rather than inhabitants (which are usually given the suffix -ano). (the English equivalent is the suffix -er for occupations (e.g. baker, shoemaker) and the suffix "-an" for demonyms (e.g. Indian, American)). If this rule was followed, an inhabitant of Brazil should have been known (in Portuguese) as a Brasiliano. But uniquely among Portuguese demonyms, they are instead referred to as a Brasileiro, an occupation. That too stemmed from Loronha's tenure, when brasileiro was indeed a reference to an occupation, a brazilwood cutter or trafficker. The name of the occupation was simply gradually extended to refer to all the inhabitants of the land.