Macapá is a corruption of the Tupi word macapaba, or "place
of many bacabas", the fruit of the local palm tree. The Spaniard
Francisco de Orellana claimed the region in 1544 and called it Nueva Andalucía (New Andalusia). The
modern town began as the base of a Portuguese military detachment, stationed
there in 1738. On February 4, 1758 Sebastião Veiga Cabral, the illegitimate
child of the military governor of Trás-os-Montes, Sebastião Veiga Cabral,
founded the town of
