30. 300 years ago

Three hundred years ago, Monsieur de la Revardière set foot on an island off the Brazilian coast, at the mouth of the Maranhão River. He came back some years later and founded the city of São Luiz. The Portuguese threw the French out after two years. However, there is no single inhabitant of São Luiz who doesn’t conceives an unexplainable and touching pride of their town’s origins... ​

The river shines like a metallic mirror under the equatorial sky. Blue and brown sails slip silently toward the small harbor set among the warehouses and the old mansions covered with ceramic wall tiles. In this XVII century setting, where longshoremen with dark and sweaty bodies work about, I imagine a sudden invasion by the Tortuga Island buccaneers armed with muskets, axes and sabers.