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Cristóvão Jaques (Christopher Jaques), also known asCristóvão Valjaques (c. 1480 inAlgarve,Kingdom of Portugal – after 1530), was aPortuguese noble ofAragonese descent.[1]
He was the illegitimate son ofPero Jaques, and was legitimized byD. João II (1481–1495) and was later made a nobleman by the Royal House ofD. Manuel I (1495–1521).
He married a daughter ofFrancisco Portocarreiro, with whom he had three children.
In 1503 he first came to the coast ofBrazil in the fleet commanded byGonçalo Coelho.
In 1516, in command of twocaravels, he was in charge of patrolling the coast of Brazil in order to discourage incursions by Frenchpirates. In November of that year he landed in a large bay, which he namedBaía de Todos os Santos (Bay of all Saints). InRío de la Plata he fought and imprisoned manyFrench. He traveled up and down the coast until 1519.
On 21 July 1521 he sailed from the mouth ofRio Tejo (Tagus) to Brazil, founded an outpost inItamaracá,Pernambuco, one of the most popular anchorages on the Brazilian coast, where there was plenty of Brazil wood (Caesalpinia echinata) and had frequent contacts between Natives and Europeans, before going south to Río de la Plata and entering theParana River for about 23 leagues (around 140 km) to near the present city ofRosario for the first time.[2]
Finally, in 1526, he was appointed, by KingJoão III, as Governor of all Parts of Brazil, replacingPero Capico in Pernambuco, and returned again in command of aship and five caravels, having countless battles with Frenchpirates. In 1527 he imprisoned three French galleons inRecôncavo, Bahia.[3] But having acted with barbarity towards the prisoners, this gesture eventually caused him major problems with D. João III (1521–1557).
Upon returning to Portugal, he made an offer to the King, in which Jacques would take one thousand colonists, at his own expense, to begin the permanent occupation of the new lands in Brazil, but nothing came of the proposal.
Records show that, only four years after the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the French traveled the shores ofRio Paraguaçu, dealing with the natives. The official discovery of the river is, however, attributed to Cristóvão Jacques, commander of the expedition bodyguards in 1526. Three rivers flow into the Bahia de Todos os Santos - theJaguaripe, theSubaé andParaguaçu. The Paraguaçu is the longest, with 600 km long, which made it be called "big river" in Indian language. Subaé River, which bordersSanto Amaro, Bahia would be the river ofsugar mills, the Jaguaripe River that is present in the city ofNazaré, Bahia, the river of flour, and Paraguaçu, with its length, the river of penetration into the captaincy.
In a letter fromFrei Vicente do Salvador, it is recorded that Christóvão Jacques found an island (already controlled by the French), on the lower river course of the Paraguaçu two ships that traded with the Indians, and were properly sunk. At the site there would be a town later named village of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Cachoeira, in the early 17th century allotment ofGaspar Dias Adorno, ideal for penetration of the captaincy.