Captain of the donatarie is the English rendering of the Portuguese Capitães dos Donatários (Captains of the Donataries), the colonial officials, placed in charge of a Captaincy (Portuguese: capitania), deemed not (yet) important enough to have its own colonial Governor. The term also applied as the rank title of the field officer that was in charge of a captaincy (group of companies) of the Ordenanças, the Portuguese territorial militia that existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.