The Captaincy of Bahia, fully the Captaincy of the Bay of All Saints (Modern Portuguese: Capitania da Baía de Todos os Santos), was a captaincy of PortugueseBrazil.
Arriving in Brazil in late 1536, Pereira Coutinho and his men slept on their ships until they had completed the construction of about forty adobe homes, which he christened the village (povoado) of Pereira.[3] This was located in modern Salvador's Ladeira da Barra neighborhood and was quickly elevated into a township (vila) with a municipal council (concelho), which became known as Vila Velha ("Old Town").[4] A fortified house, the Castelo do Pereira, was also established. The settlement was assisted by "Caramuru", a Portuguesenoble (fidalgo) named Diogo Álvares Correia who had lived with the Tupinambá Indians since a shipwreck in 1510.[5] He was granted a concession (sesmaria) authorizing the authority he already wielded over a native village of 300 huts and over a thousand men.[6] By 1545,[7] the colony had a sugarcane plantation with two mills (engenho,)[8] as well as smaller cotton and tobacco fields. However, mistreatment at the hands of Pereira's settlers caused the Tupinambá to turn hostile and in that year the settlement was abandoned, with the survivors fleeing to Porto Seguro. When they returned in 1547 or '48, their ship was damaged off the southern shore of Itaparica and the survivors captured by the Indians there. Caramuru was spared[5] but the captain was consumed by the Tupinambá in a cannibalistic feast.[9]
Upon the discovery of Pereira Coutinho's death, King João immediately appropriated the captaincy from its heir Manuel Pereira Coutinho in exchange for a hereditary pension of 400,000 reals.[10] (The family was not interested in remaining in the Americas in any case.)[11] In 1549, Tomé de Sousa was dispatched to the area as a royal governor general, founding Salvador de Bahia near the ruins of Pereira with soldiers, Jesuits, nobles, and other colonists.[11] He was separately considered the administrator of the royal captaincy (Portuguese: capitania real) of Bahia.[11]
On 28 February 1821, Bahia was notionally made a province of the Empire of Brazil,[citation needed] although Salvador was not surrendered by Portuguese forces until July 2, 1823.