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Discovery Of Rio De Janeiro
Home » Brazil » Rio De Janeiro - Overview and History » Discovery Of Rio De JaneiroPortuguese explorers reached Guanabara Bay in an expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Gaspar de Lemos in January 1502. There is a legend that the mariners named Rio de Janeiro, River of January, because they thought the mouth of the bay was actually the mouth of a river. At the time of the discovery, river was the general word for any large body of water.
French smugglers began using the bay as a post for smuggling Brazil wood and in 1519 Ferdinand Megellan resupplied his ships in the bay. The first permanent European settlement was not established until 1555, when Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon arrived with a fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers’ ad colonists. The actual city was not founded until March 1565, by a knight from Portuguese who named the city Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, in honor of King Sebastian I of Portugal. The city was founded as a base from which to invade the French settlement and they finally succeeded in 1567 when the French were banned.
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