The Fort of Taurege, also known as Fort of Taurege River, Fort of Torrego, Fort of Tourege, Fort of Torrejo, and Fort of Maracapuru, was a colonial era Amazonian fort located in the confluence of the Taurege River (today Maracapuru River) and the

Amazon Delta The Amazon Delta (Portuguese language, Portuguese: delta do Amazonas) is a vast river delta formed by the Amazon River and the Tocantins River (through the Pará River distributary channel) in northern South America. It is located in the Federat ...

, possibly in the Island of Tucujus.

History

The structure dates to the beginning of the 17th century, raised by English smugglers of native Brazilian spices and medicines, similarly to a

Feitoria Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, of ...

. The settlement was attributed to the English and Dutch, being raised by James Purcell, an Irish merchant associated with Dutch capital, with authorization of King

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...

and King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

, these kings had donated the lands of the

to noblemen of their court, between 1613 and 1627. The structure has been dated to the year of 1628, attributed at the time a format of a regular polygon. The Pernambucan Pedro da Costa Favela surprised the fortified structure, that resisted to the siege imposed by his forces, on 26 September 1629. The Portuguese captain

Pedro Teixeira Pedro Teixeira (b.1570-1585 - d.4 July 1641), occasionally referred to as the Conqueror of the Amazon, was a Portuguese conquistador and military officer, who became, in 1637, the first European to travel up and down the entire length of the Am ...

arrived with reinforcements, and together, with 2,000 men, most indigenous bowmen, in 98 canoes, they achieved the fort's surrender on 24 October 1629, razing the position., Aires de Souza Chichorro was in charge of the fort's destruction, with orders to ''extract from the fort its artillery and bring down its walls for a quick and full demolition''. The governor of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...

, Gomes Freire de Andrade in a letter addressed to the King on 15 October 1685, remembered: :"''(...) the Fortress that better can assure these lands from foreign invasions, is in the lands where they call Torrego; site where another from England, whom found would take the arms of your majesty, with governance of this State under Francisco Coelho de Carvalho (...). ''" About the fort, it was registered: :"''So many repeated wreckages did not discourage the foreigners, that taking advantage of the commotions that divided the capital of Pará, raised another fort called Torrego on the island of Tocujus, guarded by irishmen commanded by Gomes Porcel (James Purcell), from where they would be expelled by the captains Pedro Teixeira and Pedro da Costa Favela, after having surrendered in the month of September of 1629''" After Purcell's surrender in 1628, in the same year arrived reinforcements led by Roger North, and he would repelled and founded the English fort in Cumaú.

References

{{reflist Forts in Brazil