A Serra das Esmeraldas: cartografia, imaginário e conflitos territoriais na Capitania do Espirito Santo (Séc. XVII)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the origin of the myth of the Serra das Esmeraldas, in the Capitaincy of Espírito Santo, and follow it's development from the letters and reports of chroniclers of the colony until its incorporation in modern Portuguese and European cartography, reflecting also about its role in political, administrative and territorial disputes in the Portuguese America in the Seventeenth Century. We believe that from this goal it's possible to understand the process of appreciating, and then depreciation, of Espírito Santo in the colonial period - between the first stories of the treasures in the inland, in the 1570s, and the creation of the Captaincy of São Paulo e Minas do Ouro, in 1709. To understand this process, we also analyzed the construction of the Seventeenth Century cartography, the influence from the reports of the expeditions to the wilderness, and how it influenced subsequent expeditions. We argue that the belief in the myth of the Serra das Esmeraldas increased the internalization of the colony, placed Espírito Santo among the most coveted region of the Portuguese America and the captaincy became the protagonist of the dispute between Portugal and Spain, in the colonial borders, and between the very hereditary