Jácome Raimundo de Noronha, commissioned an expedition with the goal of discovering the river all the way to Quito, learning the best places to establish fortifications, securing through the good conduct of the expeditionaries and small gifts the peace and friendship of the indigenous tribes, and founding a settlement to mark the limit, in the Amazon, of Portuguese control. And so did Pedro Teixeira. On 25 July 1637 Pedro Teixeira's fleet arrived in Guajará, from where it left to Cametá to secure more crewmates and ships, with everything ready Teixeira left on 28 October 1637, his expedition consisted of 47 large canoes, with 70 soldiers, a few clergymen, and 1,200 Natives, his guide was the friar Domingos de La Brieba. In January 1638, the expedition found the mouth of the Rio Negro, and on 3 July 1638 the mouth of the Napo River, finally reaching the Quijos river on 15 August 1638, crossing the Spanish settlement of Baeza, and from there arrived in Quito in September 1638. 1639: Return Journey Completed the initial journey, on 16 February 1639, Teixeira and his expedition left Quito for Belém. Six months later, on 16 August 1639, they founded the settlement of Franciscana, whose name was chosen in honor of the Franciscan friars whose initial journey served as the impetus for Teixeira's expedition, on the River Ouro (theorized to be the Aguarico River). Of Franciscana little remains to this day, and the Portuguese didn't manage to keep that border, with it later being fixed on the Javary River. Teixeira's expedition arrived back in the city of Belém on 12 December 1639, for his merits he was promoted to Capitão-Mor. He accepted the post of governor of Pará on 28 February 1640, a position in which he would remain in for a year and three months, until 26 May 1641. He died on 4 July 1641. His ashes rest on the Belém Metropolitan Cathedral in the city of Belém. Legacy Teixeira's grand expedition and the founding of the settlement of Franciscana to mark the limit between the Portuguese and Spanish Crown would be used extensively by the Portuguese to sustain their claims to Upper Amazonas, including in the negotiations for the Treaty of Madrid, over a hundred years afterwards. On 10 December 2009, the Brazilian Senate made a tribute to Pedro Teixeira, celebrating the 370 years since Teixeira's Amazon Expedition. References Further reading Smith, Anthony