The first really important attempt at colonizing the country was undertaken by Martin Affonso de Souza.  This navigator set out from Portugal in command of many ships and men.  Like Coelho, he struck the Brazilian coast at Bahia; but, instead of proceeding to the south, as his predecessor had done, he remained for some while at the spot.  It is said that when De Souza landed he fell in with a Portuguese of the name of Correia.  This worthy is supposed to have formed one of Cabral’s expedition.  For some reason or other he was marooned at that place.  The Indians, instead of slaying him, had conceived a great veneration for this white man, who had, as it were, dropped from the clouds into their midst.  The marooned sailor had become a kind of professional adviser, whose counsel was sought by the natives on every important occasion.  Many of the early navigators maintain that the comparatively easy colonization of this portion of the Brazilian coast was due to the presence of the much-esteemed Correia.

Bahia rapidly became the most important of these early Portuguese settlements.  In the first instance it was, of course, extremely difficult for the few bands of daring Portuguese to make any practical impression on the huge slice of coast which had fallen to their share.  The experiences of the first colonists, moreover, were destined to differ considerably from those of the pioneer Spaniards.  The latter had their field of exploration practically to themselves.  The Portuguese, on the other hand, found rivals in the South Seas almost as soon as the prows of their ships had pierced the waters.  The Dutch eventually were destined to become by far the most formidable of these; but in the first instance the chief friction occurred with the French.

Just at this period the Gallic sailors awoke to a strong interest in Brazil, and the French vessels carried numbers of warlike and industrial adventurers to the tropical shores.  Even before 1530 a French factory had been established at Pernambuco, but a circumstance of far greater importance was that these French rovers discovered the magnificent harbour of Rio de Janeiro, sailed into the narrow entrance between the lofty peaks, and founded a colony there before the Portuguese had obtained the opportunity of a permanent footing in that place.

The leader of these troops was Nicolas Durant de Villegagnon, and his men comprised a number of Huguenots who were abandoning France.  Villegagnon’s own character appears to have been complex and curious in the extreme.  He was apparently a true blade of the old swashbuckling type; he employed religion for such ends as he might have in view at the moment, regarding its tenets cynically, tongue in cheek.  Thus he came out in command of the Huguenots, ostensibly himself a Huguenot; but his convictions appear to have changed on various occasions, and he is seen now as their abettor, now as their oppressor.  In the end he clearly showed himself antagonistic to the convictions of his followers, and took to denouncing them as heretics.  With the exception of this leader, the circumstances and motives of the expedition were somewhat similar to those which caused the first emigration of the English Puritans to North America.