route of Tietê (denominated the Río Ayembí on the map) and Paraná rivers to facilitate the formation of foreign policy of Philip IV. Xeria's route is represented by a red line on the map. It is accompanied by illustrations of cities, towns, and indigenous villages. Nature is poorly represented in the map, other than river banks and some islands. The map lacks reliable coordinates, a compass rose, an indication of north orientation, projections, scale, or geometric precision. The Tietê River is represented in the upper left quadrants of the map, together with Vila de São Paulo. The Paraná River appears in the lower left quadrants of the documents; the settlements are in the lower right quadrants. The legend is in three columns and the crosses along the route to represent landing sites. Versions There are two versions of the map: the first is called Map 17 of Céspedes Xeria () and a second is titles Mapa 17bis de Céspedes Xeria. Both are from the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain. Although Céspedes Xeria was a military officer, studies show that he both collected the data and made the drawing. His intention was to send the map directly to Philip of Spain with his letter written in his own hand. Xeria, however, used copyists to produce reproductions of the document; this explains the difference of handwriting between the two versions. Facsimile at the Museu Paulista Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay (1876-1958), historian and director of the Museu Paulista between 1917 and 1946, located the map during the research he carried out at the museum. He had a great interest in the early history of Brazil, and his research focused on the role of the São Paulo region in the formation of the colony of Brazil. Taunay sought to situate the central role of São Paulo in the Independence of Brazil in conjunction of the centenary of the event in 1922. Taunay discovered the map in 1917, the year he became director of the museum. During this period, he made several structural changes to the institution, primarily to transform it into a historical museum. He inaugurated a room dedicated solely to the history of Brazil and São Paulo, colonial-period cartography, and a display of archival documents. The room is known as "Sala A-10"; maps are prominently displayed to highlight the chronology of Brazilian history. Taunay exchanged archival documents and ordered facsimiles from