In 1615, Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco, the Portuguese captain-general of the captaincy of Bahia, was tasked by the Governor General of Brazil with leading a military expedition to monitor the trading activities of foreign powers (the French, Dutch, and English) along the Amazon River from the Cabo do Norte in Grão Pará. On January 12, 1616, he mistakenly believed he had found the main channel of the river when he arrived at what is now known as Guajará Bay, situated at the confluence of the Para and Guamá Rivers, which was referred to by the Tupinambás as "Guaçu Paraná". There, he built a wooden fort covered with straw, which he called "Presépio" (or nativity scene), and the colony formed around it was called Feliz Lusitânia ("Fortunate Lusitania"). This fort was unsuccessful in preventing colonization by the Dutch and French, but it did help to ward off further attempts. Later, Feliz Lusitânia was renamed Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão Pará (Our Lady of Bethlehem of Grao-Para) and Santa Maria de Belém (St. Mary of Bethlehem), and was granted city status in 1655. It was made the capital of the state Pará when it was separated from Maranhão in 1772.