Martim Afonso de Sousa

Martim Afonso de Sousa was a Portuguese nobleman, sailor and military leader who participated in the first colonizing expedition sent to Brazil by King John III of Portugal in 1530. He was the first donatary of the Captaincy of São Vicente and the governor of Portuguese India from 1542 to 1545. Martim Afonso de Sousa was born in Vila Viçosa, and had been raised in the Duke of Braganza household and was a personal friend since childhood of King John III of Portugal, being also a cousin. He left the service of the Duke of Braganza in 1516 and began to study mathematics, cosmography and geography with the chief cosmographer Pedro Nunes. He also fought in the service of Emperor Charles V against the French in Spain. In 1523, he married Ana Pimentel, a Spanish noblewoman from a prominent family. In 1530, he was entrusted by King John III with the command of the armada that would expel the French from the coast of Portuguese America and start the effective colonization of the territory. In this expedition, he founded the settlements of São Vicente and Santos, and his brother Pero Lopes de Sousa received the donataries of the Captaincies of Santana, Santo Amaro and Itamaracá. He returned to Portugal in 1533 and never came back to America. He was then appointed as captain-major of the Armada of the Kingdom, a position he held until 1539. In 1542, he returned to India where he was governor until 1545, after which he returned to Portugal where he acted as a state counselor until his death. He died in Lisbon on July 21, 1564 and was buried in the Convent of São Francisco da Cidade.