The following is an incomplete list of some of the captaincies and their first donatary captains.
Madeira There were three captaincies in the archipelago of
Madeira, associated with the three principal discoverers of the islands: •
Funchal, bestowed to captain
João Gonçalves Zarco; •
Machico, bestowed to captain
Tristão Vaz Teixeira; •
Porto Santo, assigned to captain
Bartolomeu Perestrello.
Azores Following their discovery,
Gonçalo Velho Cabral became the first donatary captain of the islands, beginning with the island of Santa Maria, but later including the island of São Miguel when it was discovered. Those captaincies, which lasted from 1439 to 1461, as well as their first captain, were first mentioned in 1460 by
Henry the Navigator in a letter to Cabral: "" ("[You are ]my knight and captain, [ruling ]for me, in my islands of Saint Mary and Saint Michael in the Azores"). The progressive discovery of the islands of the archipelago resulted in new captaincies; in total, there have been thirteen unique captaincies in the Azores since their discovery: •
Santa Maria: part of Santa Maria and São Miguel, the captaincy of Gonçalo Velho Cabral; it was later split by his nephew
João Soares de Albergaria, with Santa Maria left in the hands of Cabral's offspring; •
São Miguel: part of the captaincy of Gonçalo Velho Cabral; it was sold by
João Soares de Albergaria to its third Rui Gonçalves da Câmara; •
Angra: originally a single administration under the captaincy of
Jácome de Bruges, the southern portion of Terceira was carved out and allocated to
João Vaz Corte-Real; •
Praia: a quarrelling between João Vaz Corte-Real and
Álvaro Martins Homem, after the mysterious "disappearance" of Jácome de Bruge, resulted in Álvaro's receiving Praia as his captaincy; •
Praia da Graciosa: initially allocated to
Duarte Barreto do Couto at the time of its early settlement, his mysterious disappearance left it in the caretakership of his wife, until her brother
Vasco Gil Sodré came to assist her with keeping the settlement for her family; •
Santa Cruz: Pedro Correio da Cunha (brother-in-law of Christopher Columbus), who arrived on the island from Porto Santo, obtained the captaincy in 1474, after Duarte Barreto do Couto went missing; •
Graciosa: Vasco Gil Sodré attempted to obtain the captaincy of Graciosa following a Castilian incursion in 1475, but, using the same logic, the Crown decided to unify the island under one captain: Pedro Correio do Couto; •
São Jorge: originally bestowed to João Vaz Corte-Real, the island was a fiefdom of Terceira, until re-incorporated by the Crown, after Manuel de Moura Corte-Real, donatary captain of Angra, decided to maintain his allegiance to
Philip III of Portugal; •
Faial: the island was placed under the administration of
Josse van Huerter, even after he failed on his first attempt to settle the island. This would be a discrepancy, since his second attempt at settling and developing the territory resulted in greater expansion; •
Pico: Álvaro de Ornelas attempted to settle the island, starting from 1460, bringing colonists from northern Portugal who arrived via Terceira and Graciosa, but his attempt was slow and ultimately failed; • Faial and Pico: the island of Pico was incorporated into the Faialan administration of the Huerter–Dutra family on 29th December 1482, following the inefficiency and failure of Álvaro de Ornelas to spearhead and expand settlements; • Flores and Corvo: developed belatedly and without any clear statute, the two-island fiefdom functioned within a feudal hierarchy, following its settlement by
Diogo de Teive.
Africa •
Portuguese Guinea, before it was united in 1879 under that name with its own governor, and separated from
Portuguese Cape Verde, remaining Portuguese till 1974: •
Bissau, 1687–1879; see
Colonial Heads of Bissau •
Cacheu (after Administrators since 1614) 1640–1879; see also
Colonial Heads of Cacheu • in present-day
Ghana, since the foundation of the
Portuguese Gold Coast on the 21st of January, 1482, it had always had a single captain-major, until after the Dutch occupation of its capital
São Jorge da Mina on the 29th of August, 1637; it was ceded to the Dutch, becoming part of
Dutch Gold Coast, on the 9th of January, 1642; •
Mazagan (
El Jadida), from 1506, when it became a Portuguese possession, to 1608; thereafter, it had its own governors, being ultimately incorporated into the
Sultanate of Morocco on 11 March 1769; •
Mombasa, on the coast of later
Kenya (since 1502 a
sultanate, in
Swahili or [] in Arabic, independent from Kilwa Kisiwani) since its 1593 Portuguese occupation had captains-major (since 1638 as a Portuguese colony, subordinated to
Goa in India), interrupted on the 12 December 1698 by Omani sovereignty (under governors styled [] in Arabic, or in
Swahili, meaning "Governor" in both languages), then a last one as Portuguese rule resumed (12 March 1728 – 21 September 1729, with Álvaro Caetano de Melo Castro, ending up definitively lost — see also
Colonial Heads of Mombasa; •
Portuguese Mozambique, claimed for Portugal by
Vasco da Gama on the 1st of March 1498; had captains-major starting from 1501, when a Portuguese administration began, as Captaincy of
Sofala (subordinated to
Goa, in India), till 1569; thereafter ruled by captains-general; then by governors, from 1609; and, from March 1837, by governors-general. See
Colonial Heads of Mozambique; • on the
São Tomé island, there had been captains-major from 1485, when it became a (donatary's lands), to 1586, with governors assuming control after that. In 1753, it was united with the Príncipe Island, resulting in
Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe.
South America (
Luís Teixeira), Biblioteca da Ajuda (Lisbon) •
Ceará, a captaincy since 1619, subordinated to the
Captaincy of Maranhão from 1621 to 1656; there were captains-major from 30 June 1699 to 17 January 1799. Ceará was then split from the
Captaincy of Pernambuco (to which it had been subordinated since 1656) and received its own governor; •
Espírito Santo, which had been a under its own governors since 1535, had captains-major 1627–1675, then again two donatary governors, and more captains-major 1682 through 1799 (though since 1718 it was a crown colony, subordinated to
Bahia), and finally governors again after that; • The
State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão had captains-major starting in 1615—when the settlement began as a part of Maranhão, which had its governors residing there from 1737 to 1755). After 1753, it had only governors-general; •
Captaincy of Maranhão had captains-major from 1745 to 1775, and governors after 1775 (and also before 1745, starting on 9 January 1616); •
Captaincy of Paraíba, since its creation in 1582, subordinated to Pernambuco, except during the Dutch occupation (1635–1645) and the single
junta (1645–1655), through 1797, with governors taking over after that. In 1799, a separate
Captaincy of Paraíba do Norte was created; • at least one captain-major is known to have ruled the
Captaincy of Pernambuco (founded in 1535 as Donataria of
Nova Lusitania; renamed in 1575): Manuel de Mascarenhas Homem; no later than 1699, it received its own governors, but, nevertheless, became a Crown colony in 1716; • the
Captaincy of Rio Grande, founded in 1597, had a single captain-major from 1697 to 1701, Bernardo Vieira de Mello, then governors; subordinated to Pernambuco till 1808; it then received its current name,
Rio Grande do Norte, in 1737, retaining it ever since; • at least from 1761 in the 1759-founded
Captaincy of São José do Piauí, subordinated to
Maranhão till 1811, from then with its own governors, since 28 February 1821 renamed to Province of
Piauí; •
Captaincy of São Vicente had captains-major, alongside donataries, from 1533 to 1691. On 17 April 1709, the name of São Vicente changed to
São Paulo e Minas de Ouro. From 18 June 1710, it gained its own governors. In 1750 it was renamed to
São Paulo. It became a province on 28 February 1821; •
Sergipe d'el Rei had captains-major since 1696, and also after the 1763 merger with Bahia, till 20 February 1821; thereafter it was a province with its own governors.
Asia • starting from 1518 (except 1524 and 1551), Portuguese captains-major were appointed to Colombo, the capital of the
Kotte kingdom on
Portuguese Ceylon (currently
Sri Lanka), until the last incumbent,
Pedro Homem Pereira, was promoted to governor in 1594. On 27 May 1597, King
Dharmapala of Kotte dies heirless, and bequeaths his entire kingdom to the King of Portugal, turning it into a Portuguese colony; • in 1557, the Portuguese established a trading post in
Macau (subordinated to
Goa in
Portuguese India). It had captains-major thence to 1622, then governors from 7 July 1623 to 19 December 1999, when its lands were returned to China; •
Portuguese Timor, becoming a colony in 1642, had donataries at least since 1647, then captains-major 1665–1702, then governors; •
Ormus (present-day
Hormuz in Iran) had captains-major from September 1507 to January 1508, when the Portuguese first occupied it, then again in 1 April 1515 when the island became a Portuguese possession (subordinated to
Goa in Portuguese India), until its incorporation into
Persia on 3 May 1622; •
Portuguese Malacca, a Portuguese colony on peninsular Malaysia, starting on 24 August 1511, had captains-major from 1512 (also subordinated to Goa) to 14 January 1641, then it had captains-general till the Dutch assumed control of it on 14 January 1641. ==Captains==