Cerca do Macaco

The settlement may have been founded as early as 1602, by which time Portuguese settlers were reporting that their captives were running away and building mocambos, or small communities in the surrounding area.

At this time, most enslaved Africans in the area were from Portuguese Angola, and a report from 1671 suggests that the founders of Macaco were Angolan.

A description of the visit of Johan Blaer to one of the larger mocambos in 1645 (which had been abandoned) revealed that there were 220 buildings in the community, a church, four smithies, and a council house.

After the war, Velho and his followers were given land grants in the former territory of Angola Janga, which they occupied as a means of keeping the kingdom from being reconstituted.

[6] In 1986 the site of the city was listed in the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), and in 2003 it was officially opened by the President of Brazil.