Martim Afonso de Sousa ( – 21 July 1564) was a Portuguese fidalgo, explorer and colonial administrator.
Early life, family and education
Martim Afonso de Sousa was born in Vila Viçosa, and had been raised in the Duke of Bragança household and was a cousin and personal friend since childhood of King John III of Portugal. He justified the decision by saying: "The duke can make me mayor, but the king can make me duke", but that never happened.
Upon return to São Vicente and Santos, in 1532 he led troops guided by the native inhabitants and by earlier Portuguese settlers such as João Ramalho up the Serra do Mar mountains to the area near the future village of São Paulo. On the high plateau, he founded the town of Santo André. He also established a sugar mill near the coast at São Vicente, with sugarcane brought from the Portuguese Cape Verde islands. In both activities, Afonso de Sousa established a pattern followed by Portuguese colonizers and Brazilians for long afterward: the "entradas" and "bandeiras" – or explorations and raids into the interior – and the production of sugar along the coast for export.
He fought French privateers on the coast and was honored by the Portuguese crown, under the reign of King John III, as Donatary captain of two tracts of land in Brazil: the two tracts of the Captaincy of São Vicente. Since the depart, he had received communication from the king that the immense territory would be divided into extensive strips of land: hereditary captaincies. On that occasion, he was given one hundred leagues on the coast and he was authorized to return to Lisbon.