Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on January 1, 1502 (hence Rio de
Janeiro, "January River"), by a Portuguese expedition under explorer
Gaspar de Lemos captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, or under
Gonçalo Coelho. Allegedly the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated
as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition. The
region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri, Botocudo and Maxakalí peoples.
In 1555, one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, now called Villegagnon Island,
was occupied by 500 French colonists under the French admiral Nicolas Durand de
