This paper will present an attempt to visualize the itineraries of objects and knowledge in the hinterlands of Portuguese America at the end of the eighteenth century. One source is a handwritten document that outlines the travels of José Joaquim Roiz, an expert in the hinterlands of Pernambuco. The Junta do Comércio (Council of Commerce) in Lisbon had commissioned Roiz to locate new medicines for trade and, as part of his commission, Roiz had extensive contact with indigenous communities in Portuguese America. In addition to the document relating to Roiz and his travels, this paper discusses the use of information from newspapers and medical journals (coevos) to track the movement of Ayapana in the Lusophone world from Piancó, in the hinterlands, to Lisbon. as well as the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a geoprocessing software, to construct maps of that trace the diffusion of this plant. Finally, the analysis will include some comparison of these GIS maps with geographical conceptions contained in the writings of Roiz and in maps of Portuguese America from the late eighteenth century. This project seeks to represent and frame the movement Ayapana from perspective of connected histories in which the site becomes global.
