The islands first reports came from the German adventurer Hans Staden, who in the middle of the 16th century under
Portuguese services was traveling along the Brazilian coast in order to rescue Portuguese out of Indian prison ship.
Near Santos, the preferred landing zone of Portuguese and Jesuit Missionaries he shipwrecked in 1554 and was
taken prisoner by the Tupinamba Indians for 22 month. Already condemned to death by cannibalism he achieved to escape in
1555 and to publish in 1557 in Marburg his chronicle “The true story and description of wild, naked and furious man-eating
people”. Stadens reports are considered as the first description of Indian customs in the New World.
Due to unlimited sweet water reserves, tropical fruits, large quantities of brazilwood but mainly because of the
proximity to the port of
Paraty,
the principle shipping point of the Brazilian gold to Europe, Ilha Grande after
Stadens visit became the favorite shelter for European pirates and corsairs. Approximately 50 shipwrecks between A
ngra dos Reis and Ilha Grande are testimonies of the battles that during the 16th and 17th century occurred
between Portuguese, Pirates and Tamoios Indians.
In the 18th and 19th century the island developed to one of the regions most important slave trading center.
In one of the darkest chapter of Brazilian history, over 200 years, men, women and children from Africa landed
at Ilha Grande on the beaches of Palmas and Dois Rios condemned to do the hard work on sugar plantations all
over the country.
In order to attend the increasing labor demand after the abolishment of slavery in 1850, Brazil opened its doors
predominately for European and Asiatic immigrants. As some of those countries at that time suffered from cholera epidemics,
D. Pedro I ordered to construct a quarantine hospital at Ilha Grande where immigrants had to stay some time before entering officially
Brazil. Today tropical rainforest covers the ruins of that hospital.
The whole Ilha Grande is in a Tamoios Environmental Protection Area and subdivided in 3 more especific areas:
State Park, Marine State Park and Biologial Reserve of Praia do Sul (see
Topographic Map).
