Mamoa Coast

Off Mamoa, north of Ilhéus, the Atlantic meets a coast of beaches and river mouths in southern Bahia. The coastline formed part of the captaincy of Ilhéus, granted to Jorge de Figueiredo Correia in the sixteenth century. Portuguese settlement established a town at the mouth of the Cachoeira River, while sugar mills arose in the surrounding district. Coastal navigation linked the settlements of this humid and forested shore to other ports of Portuguese America.