Domingos Jorge Velho (1641–1705) was one of the fiercest and most effective

bandeirantes The ''Bandeirantes'' (), literally "flag-carriers", were slavers, explorers, adventurers, and fortune hunters in early Colonial Brazil. They are largely responsible for Brazil's great expansion westward, far beyond the Tordesillas Line of 1494 ...

. He was born in

Santana de Parnaíba Santana de Parnaíba is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 142,301 (2020 est.) in an area of . It was founded in 1625 near the Tietê River by Susan ...

, captaincy of São Paulo, to Francisco Jorge Velho and Francisca Gonçalves de Camargo. He was responsible for the repression of several indigenous nations in

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and especially

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

, which he is reputed to have been the first colonist to explore. His greater fame, however, is due to his conquest of the

Quilombo dos Palmares Palmares, or Quilombo dos Palmares, was a ''quilombo'', a community of escaped slaves and others, in colonial Brazil that developed from 1605 until its suppression in 1694. It was located in the captaincy of Pernambuco, in what is today the Br ...

, in the hinterland of

Alagoas Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. It ...

, on behalf of João da Cunha Souto Maior, governor of

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

. Velho accepted the assignment and, in 1694, with an army of

amerindians The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Ame ...

and

mameluco ''Mameluco'' is a Portuguese word that denotes the first generation child of a European and an Amerindian. It corresponds to the Spanish word ''mestizo''. In the 17th and 18th centuries, ''mameluco'' was also used to refer to organized bands of ...

s, European Native American offspring, overran the fortified city of Macacos, on the

Serra da Barriga Serra da Barriga is a mountain range located in the municipality of União dos Palmares, in the Brazilian state of Alagoas. It is best known for being the location of a fortified settlement known as Cerca do Macaco under the control of the Palm ...

mountain. According to the bishop of

Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state capi ...

at the time, he did not speak Portuguese fluently but rather the

língua geral Língua Geral (, ''General Language'') is the name of two distinct lingua francas, spoken in Brazil: the '' Língua Geral Paulista'' (''Tupi Austral'', or Southern Tupi), which was spoken in the region of Paulistania but is now dead, and the ''Lí ...

, a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

based on

Tupian languages The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi language, Tupi proper and Guarani language, Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian u ...

spoken in Brazil at that time. John Manuel Monteiro, a specialist on the subject, in ''Os Negros da Terra'', explains that Velho not only spoke Portuguese but was indeed literate: "actually Domingos not only spoke but he also wrote in Portuguese, what would be highly unusual for a Tapuia ..Domingos even wrote a letter to the Portuguese King, and his recognizable signature can be identified frequently in the civil registries of Santana de Parnaíba". Velho is reputed to have had several amerindian concubines, but only married in old age. He died in Piancó, captaincy of Paraíba. His uncle of the same name was married to Izabel Pires de Monteiro; the Captain Salvador Jorge Velho and Simão Jorge Velho were born out of this union.

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Further reading