January 22, 1808

Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil

Portuguese royal fleet arrives at Salvador

The ships anchored on 22 January; the governor had to go out to the flagship to receive the prince, and Salvador needed two more days before the royal party could stage a formal landing.

Anchored at Salvador

After an Atlantic voyage from Portugal, the part of the royal fleet carrying Prince Regent João and members of the Braganza family anchored at Salvador, in Bahia, on 22 January 1808. The D. Pedro IV museum project puts the crossing at 55 days.

The court had sailed from Lisbon on 29 November 1807 as French forces occupied the Portuguese capital.

The Biblioteca Nacional's detailed reconstruction records that at 4 p.m., once the ships were anchored, Bahia's governor the Count of Ponte went aboard the flagship Príncipe Real to receive the prince.

Arrival is not landing

22 January was the fleet's arrival, not the ceremonial disembarkation. The Biblioteca Nacional exhibit places the royal party's solemn landing at 5 p.m. on 24 January, about 48 hours later; the same library's shorter chronology gives 23 January.

João was governing for his mother, Queen Maria I, who travelled with the family but was incapacitated by mental illness.

Estimates of how many people left Portugal with the court vary; about 10,000 is the conventional approximation, and it does not mean all of them reached Salvador together.

The ports opened six days later

João did not open Brazil's ports on the day he arrived. The surviving charter is dated 28 January and admitted foreign goods while permitting most Brazilian exports to countries at peace with Portugal.

On 1 April he revoked the general prohibition on establishing manufactures in Brazil — a change in the law, whose economic effects are a separate question.

Salvador was not the destination that mattered most: the court reached Rio de Janeiro, which became its principal seat, only on 7 March.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The arrival of the ships on January 22 is well supported. Sources differ on whether the royal family's disembarkation occurred January 23 or January 24: a Biblioteca Nacional chronology says January 23, while its more detailed exhibit specifies 5 p.m. on January 24.
Contemporary estimates of how many people left Portugal with the court vary substantially. About 10,000 is conventional, but it should remain an approximation and does not mean all 10,000 arrived at Salvador together.