A feitoria Portuguesa do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The article approaches the investigation about the place where the first Portuguese settlement in Brazil was erected, the first nucleus of European civilization south of the equator in the western Atlantic region. Discussing the theses about the settlement named "Cabo Frio" (Varhagen and Laguarda Trias), the text examines the list of geologic, ethnologic, iconographic, and cartographic factors implied, in light of the elements of historical and archeological proof, to sustain the position of the settlement on Gato Island, the Governador's Island in Guanabara Bay. Evidence of a probable pre-discovery of Brazil prowls the essay with the reinterpretation of the nebulous circumstances that involve the so-called "cycle of brazilwood".