Restingas in the seventeenth century
Lands and waters. After Gil de Góis returned the captain-
cy of São Tomé to the Portuguese Crown in 1619(9), his lands
remained unowned until seven noblemen claimed for them as
“sesmarias” (royal grants) in 1627. To Miguel Aires Maldonado
and José de Castilho Pinto it was attributed a document that
became famous and controversial with the abbreviated title of
Seven Captains route(10). In fact, it was discovered that it was
written by an anonymous clerk who accompanied the captains
during their three excursions into their dominions. After its read-
ing, it can be seen that it is partly authentic, partly apocryphal. In
any case, this is the first detailed description of the future north-
ern region of Rio de Janeiro State. The captains undertook three
journeys to their sesmarias to be able to settle in the land along
with their relatives and household. There are several referenc-
es about restingas of the region from the first journey in 1632,
since the entourage marched on foot from Macaé to the field
of Goitacases, following the coast. This happened because the
attempt to reach the sesmarias located between the Iguaçu and
Macaé rivers by the sea was unsuccessful. The document con-
tains complaints of the travelers about the difficulties of walking
on the sand, mentions forests near the sea and on the shores
of coastal lagoons. It refers to moorlands with sand and thorny
bushes flooded in some places. In Brazil, moorland is synony-
mous of swamp, as explained by Holland Ferreira(11). In Portugal,
however, it means “sandy land, infertile, in which grows only wild
herbs”, as also recorded by Moraes and Aurelio(4,11). It is with this
meaning that the Seven Captains Route employs the term, as
it had not been used yet in the seventeenth century to indicate
marshy areas. The author of the manuscript affirms more than
once that after leaving the shore line and walking inland, it was
possible to find sandy moorlands dotted with marshy places
and woods not very far from the sea. The meadows spread to
the interior. Again, the document is faithful to the environmen-
tal configuration of the northern Fluminense plain. The contrast
between restinga and alluvial plain is clear....we walked on the seaside and
we found sandy soils: to bear the fatigue
we moved down from seaside to the
meadow because of the sandy soil; we
walked along the meadow of the north-
western side; lakes of water were formed,
and from these waters the Iguaçu River
is formed. It is born in the great Feia la-
goon, to which we gave the nickname,
the deep marshy bay runs to the east; its
waters are channeled by a kind of river,
making curves, running from the South-
west by the side of the corral of the cap-
tain Monteiro farm, in the Costaneira,
nickname gave by him; it follows until
a certain part of the meadow, then fol-
lowing East towards the seaside. In this
place the river channeling ends. Its wa-
ters spread through the meadow, always
to the East, not too far from the seaside;
from this point the waters break towards
the Northeast, until Barra do Iguaçu, on
the north side of the Cape of São Tomé(10).The so mentioned Iguassu River is now reduced to a la-
goon named Açu. On the second voyage, made in 1633, the bap-
tism voyage, the owners of sesmarias were entrusted of nam-
ing various geographical features, most of them keep the same
name at the present. Along with the Carapebus lagoon, which
was named in the first voyage, they also named the coastal
lagoons Fedorenta, Jagabra de Santo Amaro, Bananeiras (be-
tween the restinga and the alluvial plain), Salgado, Taí, and a
few others of difficult location. The three voyages of the seven
captains constituted the first experience of this region recon-
naissance, allowing the identification of four environments: the
restinga plains, alluvial plains, coastal and interior lagoons, as
well as forests(10).