Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro and Eliane Canedo
Research and contributions: Cristiane Titoneli
French corsairs in the bay
However, the Docklands handled not only massive throughflows of goods, but huge amounts of money as well. Determined to prevent looting, piracy and smuggling, King John IV of Portugal set up a trade oversight board (Companhia Geral de Comércio) in 1649 that defined who could and could not supply goods through the Port, with tight control over exports, which were heavily taxed by government officers, as the Crown held the monopoly over these transactions.
In this region around the Guanabara Bay, safety was ensured through fifteen fortifications, all equipped with batteries of cannons: the Fortaleza de São João and Forte de São Teodoro in Urca; the Fortaleza da Laje; Fortaleza de Santa Cruz, Fortaleza da Praia de Fora and Forte da Boa Viagem, all in Niterói; the Fortaleza de São Sebastião on the Morro de Santo Antônio hill; the Forte da Misericórdia on the Morro do Castelo hill; the Forte São Tiago at the foot of the Morro do Castelo hill; the Fortaleza de Santa Luzia on the Praia de Santa Luzia beach; the Fortaleza da Ilha das Cobras; the Fortaleza Nossa Senhora da Conceição on the Morro da Conceição hill; the Forte de Villegagnon; the Fortaleza da Praia Vermelha and even the Mosteiro de São Bento, the Benedictine monastery where barricades had been installed, together with four batteries of cannons.
In the words of French corsair Duguay-Trouin – who forced the besieged capital to pay a heavy ransom for its release from a blockade manned by some 3,000 of his troops in 1711, under a charter issued by King Louis XIV – the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro was a real fortress. Despite being well guarded, this corsair managed to sail through the bay and land in the Saco do Alferes cove behind the city, subsequently occupying the São Diogo range of hills and the Gamboa district. It was only after this defeat that the Government realized that there was a risk of further attacks, deciding to buttress the city’s security with new batteries of cannons and fortresses – like the Conceição fort, built on top of the hill of the same name in the Saúde district of the Freguesia de Santa Rita parish.
Torturer of the city of Rio de Janeiro but a hero in France (his statue still stands today in his hometown of Saint-Malo), the Commander-in-Chief of the 1711 French invasion, Duguay-Trouin wrote in his memoirs: “The Bay of Rio de Janeiro is closed by a mouth that is a quarter narrower than that of Brest. There is a large rock in the middle of this strait that forces vessels to sail within rifle shot range of the forts that protect its influence on both sides.”10