Arakaiu

Aracaju lies near the mouth of the Sergipe River, on a low Atlantic coast threaded by waterways and estuaries. Its name is of Tupi origin and has been interpreted as “cashew tree of the parrots.” A village called Santo Antônio do Aracaju was recorded on the river in the seventeenth century, with the Indigenous captain João Mulato among its inhabitants. Fishing settlements occupied the surrounding coast.