Facsimile reproduction of ms. 51-IV-38 in Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisbon, in [Luis Teixeira], Roteiro de todos os sinais, conhecimentos, fundos, baixos, alturas, e derrotas que há na costa do Brasil desde o cabo de Santo Agostinho até ao estreito de Fernão de Magalhães

This map believed to have been made by by Luis Teixeira, who was the royal cosmographer to the king of Portugal iis part of a longer “roteiro” or description of the coast of Brazil from the Cape of Santo Agostinho to the Straits of Magellan. Believed to have been made between 1574 and 1578, the map of Rio and the Guanabara Bay shows the first two sites of the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. The first site, labeled “Cidade Velha,” is located between the Pão de Açúcar and the Cara de Cão, right at the entrance to the Guanabara Bay. The island where the French had built their fort is still labeled as Villegagnon Fort, suggesting that some sort of new fortification had been built over the wreckage of the French fort. The city of São Sebastião appears prominently right across from Villegagnon Island. This is its second site, chosen by Mem de Sá, following the final defeat of the French and their Native allies. The city is not mapped, but rather it is suggested by an symbol or sign–a simple sketch of buildings–such as was common on Portuguese charts from the early years of the sixteenth century (Smith, “Cartographic Signs” ). Below the city appears another label “forte” that refers, most likely, to the fort on the Morro do Castelo. Teixeira chooses to map the full extent of the Guanabara Bay, and he includes many of the rivers that drain into it the bay, including the two rivers in the North, one of which he writes extends 20 leagues into the interior. The other, he also suggests, extends to the mountains known as os Orgãos [the Organs].  The Carioca River (“A Carioca”) is clearly marked. The presence of Native peoples is mapped through the clear labeling and symbolizing of the Aldeia de Martinho [Martinho’s Village], located north of the city. Governador Island is named Ilha do Gato, also a reference to a Native settlement, which is also symbolized  The notation in the northeastern corner of the bay “aqui ha pao vermelho” (here is red wood) suggests that Brazilwood was still being harvested and traded. Many indigenous names still appear for rivers and islands. Overall, the map suggests change and continuities. The Native groups who had lived in the Guanabara Bay and Basin in the first half of the sixteenth century have been defeated by the Portuguese and are no longer living in the bay. Shadows of their villages undoubtedly remain, but new settlements–the Portuguese royal city–and the indigenous villages of Natives allied with the Portuguese appear on the map. The ecology of the bay has not changed very much. The built domain of the Portuguese is tiny and occupies just the summit of one hill. The island once claimed by the French has become their fort. The map does not show the extent of land grants or the opening of the first sugar plantations, cattle ranches, and subsistence farms. These would begin to transform the natural environment of the bay in the seventeenth century.

In Roteiro de todos os sinais, the author describes the sail from Cabo Frio, the entrance of the Guanabara Bay, and some characteristics of the bay in this text, which appears facing the map.

Transcribed text (modernized Portuguese):

. . . tem este Rio de Janeiro a entrada entre as duas pontas que faz a boca uma lájea de pedra marmoz que de largo tem 7 palmos e de comprido 10 b [braças?] lava a o mar e cobre a de todo de preamar tem ao mar três ou quatro ilhas e dentro muitas como mais claramente se verá na demonstração ao diante [o mapa Rio de Janeiro] e está a boca deste Rio em altura de 23 grãos e um terço entram por ele ao norte e ainda que lhe chamem Rio é baia e nele entram muitos rios terei aviso que estando e a altura do Rio de Janeiro indo do Cabo Frio pera ele, verei pela terra dento umas Serras muito altas como Órgãos uns altos e outros baixos e vendo os direi que estou sobre o Rui de Janeiro. Da barra deste Rio ao sul-sudoeste está junto ao mar um monte muito alto que aos que o vem parece um pão de açúcar.

Translation:

the entrance to this Rio de Janeiro lies between two points and between them lies a huge rock of marmoz [marble?] that is 7 palmos wide and 10 b [braças?] long. The sea washes over it and the rock is wholly covered at high tide. There are three or four islands at the mouth and many inside as will be seen more clearly in the illustration[the Rio de Janeiro map] and the mouth of this river is at 23 degrees and a third and one enters heading to the north and even though it is called Rio it is bay and in it many rivers empty in and I am informed that when heading to Rio de Janeiro from Cabo Frio, I will see on the land some very high mountains like Organs, some high and others low, and seeing them I will say that I am at Rio de Janeiro. From the entrance of this “river” to the south-southwest, next to the sea, there is a very high mountain that looks like a sugar loaf to those who see it.