SOUZA, Martim Affonso de, Portuguese governor, born in Coimbra near the end of the 15th century; died in Goa, India, about 1550. The coast of South America, of which Cabral had taken possession for the crown of Portugal in 1500, had been visited only occasionally by Portuguese vessels, but when King John III. heard that many French vessels came to the coast of Brazil he resolved to colonize the country. In December, 1530, he despatched from Lisbon a fleet of five sail and four hundred men, the command of which was given to Souza, a young officer, with the title of governor of New Lusitania, and extraordinary powers to distribute land and exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction. Capturing three French vessels loaded with Brazil-wood, he touched the American coast at Cape St. Augustine, whence he despatched Diogo Leite with two ships to explore the coast northward to Amazon river, while he continued to the south, entering Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, where he remained for some time to construct two brigantines and take fresh water. Continuing his voyage to the south, he anchored, on 12 August, 1531, at the island of Abrigo, where from some Spanish settlers he obtained reports of rich mines. He landed near Cananea, and sent into the interior an expedition of eighty men, who perished at the hands of the Indians. On 26 September he continued to the south, but his flagship was wrecked in the mouth of the river Chuy, and he despatched his brother to explore the river Plate. On 22 January, 1532, he founded the first Portuguese colony in Brazil on an island to which he gave the name of Sao Vicente. The Indians of the locality showed signs of hostility, but Souza received the unexpected assistance of Jogo Ramalho, who had been shipwrecked long ago on the coast, and had received aid and protection from the say-ages. He arrived with the chief Tybirica at Sao Vicente, and made a treaty between the hostile Indians and Souza, who thenceforward always received assistance and support from the savages. Besides this colony. Souza, by the advice of Ramalho, also founded that of Piratininga on the bank of the river of that name. He sent his brother with a report of his discoveries to Portugal, and established in the neighborhood of the colony the first sugar-mill in the country, having brought cane-plants from the island of Madeira. In 1533 he was recalled to his native country to consult about the partition of the newly erected hereditary captaincies, but, although he was given the richest one, that of Sao Vicente, he did not return, but in 1534 sailed for India, where he acquired great military fame and died.--His brother, Pero Lopes, born in Coimbra about 1500; died on the coast of Madagascar in 1539, had served in the navy against the Mediterranean corsairs, when, in 1530, he was appointed by his brother commander of one of the vessels of the expedition to Brazil. He took a principal part in the capture of the French ships, and the command of the largest prize was awarded to him. After saving Martim Affonso from the shipwreck at Chuy, he was sent with his two vessels to explore the river Plate, with orders to rally at the island of Palmas. He sailed on 23 November, entered the estuary of the Plate, and beyond the confluence of the Uruguay explored the Parana for a considerable distance above 30º S., returning on 27 December, 1531. Having joined his brother at Palmas, he participated in the foundation of Sao Vicente, and in May, 1532, was sent with despatches to Portugal, being also commissioned to give a detailed report to King John. On the division of the land into captaincies on 28 September, 1532, he was awarded two tracts of twenty-five leagues, and sailed in 1533 with a party of colonists to occupy the northern division between Parahiba and Pernambuco, but, meeting with opposition from a neighboring tribe, the Petiguares, he went to Europe to collect more abundant means for colonization. He was offered the command of a fleet to the East Indies, and, hoping to obtain funds from his brother, he accepted, but perished on his return voyage by shipwreck on the coast of Madagascar. The manuscript of his report to King John III. lay in the royal archives till it was published by Adolpho de Varnhagen under the title " Diario de navigacao da Armada, que foi a terra do Brazil em 1530 " (Lisbon, 1829).