 Section 26 of the South American Republic's Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter. Part 4. Brazil. Chapter 3. Description. Cabral's discovery bequeathed to the Portuguese race one of the largest, most productive and valuable political divisions of the globe. The area is 3,150,000 square miles, larger than the United States without Alaska, and surpassed only by the British, Russian, Chinese and American empires. From north to south it extends 2,600 miles, and east to west 2,700. Lying across the equator and traversed by no very high mountain ranges, its climate is more uniform than any other equally large inhabited region, but its extent is so immense that there are very considerable variations. Compact in form with a continuous sea coast, unsurpassable harbors and the great extension of navigable rivers, water communication between the different parts is easy and the danger of dismemberment by external attack a minimum. Occupying the central portion of South America, it touches all the other countries of the continent except Chile, uniting them geographically, and to a large extent controlling land communication among them. It is nearer Europe and Africa than any other South American country, and is also on the direct route between the North Atlantic and both coasts of South America. Situated in latitudes where evaporation and precipitation are largest, where the trade winds unfailingly bring moisture from the Atlantic, and on the eastern and windward slope of the narrow west of the continents, Brazil has the steadiest and most uniformly distributed rainfall of any large part of the globe. The exuberance of life in Brazil must be seen to be realized. The early voyagers related the wonder and admiration which they felt. Américo Vespucci said that if paradise did exist on this planet, it could not be far from Brazilian coast. Agassi believed that the future center of the civilization of the world would be in the Amazon Valley. The plants useful for food and in industry, commerce and medicine are innumerable, nowhere except in Ceylon does the palm floor or so. There are more plants indigenous to Brazil than to any other country, and many species like coffee transplanted there have doubled in productiveness. Indian corn and mandioc were already cultivated by the Indians when Cabral landed, and both upland and lowland rice grew wild. The soil lands itself kindly to any kind of culture, and in most cases two crops may be reaped annually. In a word, the subsoil, the soil, the atmosphere, the forests and the waters of Brazil are teeming with life and full of potential wealth, too much so perhaps for the most wholesome development of the human race. The most extensive and the least developed part of Brazil is the Amazon Valley. The Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin comprises 45% of the whole territory of the Republic. The northern and southeastern borders slope up to the surrounding mountains, but the rest is an early level plain, little elevated above the sea. The plains are covered with dense forests. Much of the country is frequently flooded, and communication is only possible by the streams. In their neighborhood the climate is in many localities unhealthful and is everywhere tropical and rainy. Back from the rivers is an unexplored and unknown wilderness. The Amazon, with its tributaries, forms the greatest of all navigable fluvial systems. 10,700 miles are already known to be suitable for navigation by steamboats and 4,800 more for smaller boats. It is in the narrow coast plain of the Atlantic and in the high regions lying to the east and south of the Great Central Depression that the Brazilian people live. The main orographic feature of the non-Amazonian Brazil is the Great Mountain System which extends uninterruptedly from the northern coast through the whole country. The continental uplift corresponds to the Andes on the west coast just as the Appalachians do to the Rockies in North America. Its relative importance is many times greater on account of its great width and because a broad plateau nearly connects it with the Andes between the headwaters of the Amazon and plate river systems. The joint result is that two-thirds of Brazil is high enough to have a moderate and healthful climate but the cataracts in the rivers and the steep escarpments of the mountains make it difficult of access. The promontory of South America which reaches out to the northeast looking in a direct line to the western extremity of Africa is a region of gentle slopes, of wide sparsely wooded plateaus and of brush-covered hills. At long intervals the interior is subject to severe droughts, the soil is fertile as a rule and the rainfall generally sufficient for cereal crops. Nearing the sea precipitation increases and cotton and sugar thrive. The mountain ranges rarely exceed 3,000 feet in height and lie far back from the coast, from which the country slopes up gradually. This region was the first in Brazil to contain a large population and the Dutch fought hard for it during the 17th century. In its area of 30,000 square miles seven of the Brazilian states are included Maranhão, Piaui, Seara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco and Alagoas. The promontory of São Roque where the coast turns from an east and west direction to a north and south marks a commercial division. Sailing vessels found it difficult to round the scape from the north and consequently the commercial relations of Maranhão, Piaui and Seara have been rather with the Amazon than southern Brazil. South of São Roque the region is most easily accessible from Europe and is on the direct line of communication between both sides of the North Atlantic and the coasts to the south. The region drained by the Tocantins and Araguaya very nearly corresponds with the state of Goias. It is the western slope of the Brazilian Cordillera and differs radically from the Amazonian plain which it adjoins. As one ascends the Tocantins and Araguaya from their mouths in the Amazon estuary the altitude rapidly rises and navigation is quickly interrupted by cataracts. In the south the level rises to over 4,000 feet and the climate shows a considerable range of temperature with the thermometer sometimes falling below freezing in the higher mountains. Though the area is 350,000 square miles the population hardly reaches a quarter of a million and has not been increasing rapidly since the exhaustion of the aluvial gold deposits. Roughly speaking it may be described as a region well adapted to cattle and agriculture and composed of high open rolling plateaus traversed by low mountain ranges and well wooded river valleys. The next natural division comprises the oval depression lying between the Great Central Watershed and the High Range which runs straight north from Rio within a few hundred miles of the coast. This is the South Francisco Valley. Politically and commercially connected is the adjacent coast plain. Valley and plain are divided into the four states of Minas, Bahia, Sergipe and Espirito Santo with 430,000 square miles and 6 million inhabitants. In the coast plain the rainfall is greater than farther north and the soil is very fertile producing not only cotton, sugar and tobacco but coffee, maize and mandioc. The slopes are more abrupt and the mountains begin closer to the sea. The interior is a great plateau traversed by high mountain ranges and the tributaries of the South Francisco River. Most of this plateau is included in the Great State of Minas the most populous member of the Brazilian Union which is agriculturally self-sufficient and one of the greatest mineral regions of the world. The rainfall is abundant, the climate is healthful and bracing, the birth rate is large and the region is admirably adapted to the white races. Its general character is a rolling plateau 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the ocean forming extensive treeless plains which are interspersed with wooded mountain chains, river valleys and extensive tracks of brushland. The European who visits the South Francisco Valley is astonished to find a country where the climate is temperate and the soil fitted to the production of all sorts of food crops including the cereals and where nevertheless proximity to the equator makes practicable a multiplicity of crops in a single year. The coast plain which forms the greatest part of Bahia, Sergipe and Espírito Santo is fertile but the climate is inner rating to Europeans and the proportion of black blood there is the largest in Brazil. About the 20th degree the mountains approach close to the coast and from Victoria south to the 30th degree the Atlantic border of Brazil is steep and mountainous often rising directly from the sea to a height of 2,600 feet. It is a coast of splendid harbours and magnificent scenery. The drainage is mostly inland into the plate system and water falling within a dozen miles of the ocean flows 2,500 miles before reaching the sea. To this rule there is but one important exception the Paraíba River, the basin of which is practically coterminous with the state of Rio de Janeiro and the Federal District. This state is commercially and politically very important although its area is small. The surface is very mountainous and the soil mostly inferior to that of the divisions to the north and south. However it is still an immense producer of coffee and sugar. Its geographical situation and great harbour have made it the most thickly settled part of the country. The rainfall is very large especially on the mountains to the west to see which are covered with magnificent forests. The coast plains is warm though not unhealthful safe in the vicinity of the infected city of Rio and in the higher regions the climate is delightful and temperature almost European. The northern boundary is the Montiqueira Range which divides the Paraíba Basin from the valleys of the Paraná and South Francisco. This range is the highest in Brazil and the carbonating peak Itatiaia is 10,000 feet high though it is only 70 miles from the sea. Slightly lower ranges lie between the Montiqueira and the ocean and of these the highest is Pedro da Sul 7,365 feet which overlooks Rio Harbour only 20 miles away. The Brazilian portion of the great Paraná valley presents a remarkable uniformity of general characteristics. Fearing the sea is a range of mountains or rather the abrupt excarpment of the plateau some 3,000 feet high. From its summit the surface slopes gently to the west draining into the Paraná by a hundred streams many of which are navigable in their middle courses. This great plateau with its area of about 250,000 square miles is mostly treeless towards the north but in the south is covered with pine forests it lies in the temperate zone and snow sometimes falls on the higher peaks and chapadas of Sao Paulo. The soil is remarkably fertile and this is the coffee region par excellence of the world. A coffee tree in Sao Paulo produces 2 to 4 times as much as in other parts of the globe. Foot crops grow well and the country might be economically independent of the rest of the world. The contour of the country is favourable to railroad building and the region is easily penetrable. From their settlements on the seaward border of this plateau the Paulistas of the 17th century roamed over the whole interior of South America enslaving the Indians and driving out the Spanish Jesuits. The rainfall diminishes towards the interior and there is an ill-defined limit where it seizes to be sufficient for coffee. The coffee district is also limited by the lowering of average temperature with increasing latitude. The three states of Sao Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina contain most of the region under description but southwestern Minas and extreme southern Goyas also belong to it. The great plateau gradually dies away to the south ending with a low escarpment across the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Physically and geographically this state is different from the rest of Brazil. Most of its area is drained to the Uruguay river and its natural relations and affinities are with the Republic of that name. Rio Grande's 95,000 square miles contain over a million inhabitants and the open rolling plains nowhere much elevated above the sea are excellently adept to cattle. The northern portion is higher, more broken and more wooded than the southern and agriculture has made greater progress. The climate is distinctly that of the temperate zone hot in summer, cold in winter and subject to sudden variations on account of the winds which sweep up from the vast Argentine Pampas. The inhabitants are big, vigorous and hardy and great riders. All the products of the temperate zone including the cereals, flourish and this part of Brazil seems destined to great things in the near future. From Bolivia around to Uruguay sweeps in a large semi-circle convex to the north a plateau that nearly unites the Andes with the eastern Cordillera and forms the watershed between the Amazon and the plate. Its eastern horn has already been described as forming the states of Sao Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina. Its western and central portions form the great interior state of Matugrossu. Here the headwaters of the Madeira, Tapagos and Shingu, tributaries of the Amazon intertwine with those of the Paraguay and Paraná. The narrow depression which the upper Paraguay forms across it is the only portion that has yet been described. The rest of the 410,000 square miles of Matugrossu is abandoned to Indians and wild beasts. Only enough is known of these solitudes to prove that in the center of the continent exists a well-watered, fertile and healthful region capable of sustaining an immense population but which is shut off from development by lack of means of communication. The northwestern part could be reached from the Amazon if the falls of the Madeira could be overcome. A route which would also open up a great and now inaccessible portion of Bolivia. End of section 26 Section 27 of the South American Republics Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Pietronater. Part 4 Brazil Chapter 5 Early Colonization The permanent settlement in Brazil was begun by deserters and mutineers set on shore from ships on their way to India or to cut Brazil wood. In 1509 a certain Diego Alvarez nicknamed by the Indians Caramuru or Man of Lightning, landed at Bahia and escaped being eaten by frightening the Indians with his musket. He married a chief's daughter and when a real colony was established years later he and his numerous half-breed descendants proved of great use to his compatriots. Two years later John Ramalho did much the same near Santos, hundreds of miles to the south. The story of the last of the three authentic degradados is even more romantic. His name was Aleixo Garcia and with three companions he landed about 1526 in the present state of Santa Catarina. Collecting an army of Indians he led them on a conquering and gold-hunting expedition over the coast range, across the Great Plateau into the valley of the Paraguay and even penetrated ten years before Pizarro into territory tributary to the Incas of Peru. He finally perished in the center of the continent but when years afterwards the Spaniards penetrated the valley of the Parana they found that the Indians already knew of white men and firearms. As early as 1516 the Portuguese government offered to give farming utensils free to settlers in Brazil and it is probable that shortly afterwards some sugar was planted. The first serious and official effort to cultivate sugar was made in 1526. Cristóvão Jacques founded a factory on the island of Itamarica a few miles north of Pernambuco. It was shortly destroyed by the French-Brazilwood hunters and the settlers fled to the side of Pernambuco and renewed the effort pending the arrival of reinforcements. Seekers of Brazilwood hailing from on-flow and the app were swarming along the coast. The value of the region for sugar-raising began to be appreciated. When the news came of the failure of the Spanish expedition which Cabots had led to the plate the Portuguese government determined to fit out a considerable expedition composed of colonists and families as well as soldiers and adventurers. Seduced by the cry quote we are going to the silver plate and quote 400 persons enlisted. The five vessels were commanded by Martim Afonso da Souza a great general and navigator who had already proved his capacity and who later went to the very top in the East Indian wars. He was instructed to expel all intruders and establish a permanent fortified colony. Early in 1531 he reached the coast near Pernambuco captured three French ships laden with Brazilwood and sent to Caravelles north to explore the coast beyond Cape São Roque while he himself sailed south with the idea of founding a colony on the plate. But after passing Santa Catarina he was unfortunate in losing his largest ship with most of his provisions and deemed it safer to return towards the north. At São Vicente, now a little town near the great coffee port of Santos he dropped anchor and there, January 1532 founded the first Portuguese colony in Brazil. Near this point lived the solitary Portuguese John Ramalho surrounded by his half-breed descendants and he gave his countrymen a glad reception. He soon showed them the way up the mountains to the high plateau which begins only a few miles from the sea. Another settlement was founded on these fertile plains near the site of the present-day city of São Paulo. In the west of Brazil the settlements were established at a striking distance from the coast but in São Paulo the colonists could more easily spread over the open plains of the interior than along the mountainous coast. On top of their plateau they were cut off from ready communication with the mother country. They struck out for themselves and their development was something like that of the British in North America. They were the pioneers of Brazil corresponding closely in character and habits in the virtues of daring, hospitality and in devices of cruelty, rudeness and ignorance with the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley. The Paulistas were all profoundly influenced by their intimate association with the Indian tribes. In the early days intermarriages were frequent but the continual reinforcement of the European element and the inferiority in capacity of reproduction which the Indian has shown in Brazil make the traces of that intermixture hard to discover at the present time. The Paulistas and their descendants in the interior states are taller, slenderer, darker and more active and graceful than the modern Portuguese. Their hands and feet are smaller, their movements more nervous, their manners more self-confident. The successful founding of a considerable colony in Brazil aroused interest at home and many countries solicited the crown for grants. It was decided to partition the whole coast into feudal fiefs, each proprietor undertaking the expenses of colonization and being given virtually sovereign powers in return for attacks on the expected production. Each of these capitances measured 50 leagues along the coast and extended indefinitely into the interior. In 1534 12 such fiefs were created, covering the whole coast from the mouth of the Amazon to the island of Santa Catarina, these being the points where the Tordesillas line met the seaboard. Six of these proprietors succeeded in establishing permanent colonies. Martim Afonso's settlement has already been described. In 1536 his brother, Perolopes, established Santo Amaro within a few miles of São Vicente. Naturally its history soon became confounded with that of the larger settlement. Duarte Coelho founded Pernambuco in 1535 and in it was soon absorbed Itamarica, the second of the two colonies founded by Perolopes in 1536. The other three permanent settlements were Victoria, the nucleus of the present-day state of Espíritu Santo, Porto Seguro and Iliós. No one of them prospered and their territories are still among the most backwards part of the Brazilian coast. The donatory of the territory which included the Bay of Bahia started a town, but it was destroyed by Indians. The other five captaincies were not taken hold of seriously by their proprietors. The four nuclei for the settlement of Brazil were São Paulo, Pernambuco and the later colonies of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Martim Afonso wrecked little of his faith or its revenues and left his Paulistas to work out their own destiny. Pernambuco was on the track of every ship which came to South America. The neighboring interior was level and easily accessible from the coast. The soil and climate were suitable for sugar and from the beginning relations with the mother country were intimate and continuous. Its proprietor Duarte Coeio determined to devote himself to his colony and he personally headed a numerous and carefully selected colonizing expedition. He spent the rest of his life there and died twenty years later surrounded by a large and prosperous colony which was already a self-supporting state with all the elements of permanence. A good businessman and liberal for that age he granted land on easy terms. Its possession was secure, contributions were moderate and he resolutely defended himself and his grantees from the exactions of the crown. The Portuguese occupation of Brazil was induced solely by commercial considerations. Explorers and emigrants went out to make their fortunes not to escape religious or political tyranny. When the first voyagers were disappointed in not finding gold mines they turned their attention to Brazilwood. Soon the suitability of the territory for sugar was discovered. The European demand for this luxury was increasing and the Portuguese had become familiar with its culture in Africa. Cain was taken from Madeira and decayed Verdes to Brazil before 1525 and there is a record of exportation at least as early as 1526. Here was found the basis for the real colonization. From the very start the industry prospered in Pernambuco and Brazil became the main source of the world's supply. Near Pernambuco little trouble was experienced with the Indians. Many of the tribes were allies of the Portuguese, though the fierce Aymores fought the settlers and once reduced the infant colony to the verge of destruction. Although the law of Portugal forbade the enslavement of Indians except as a punishment for crime they were reduced to bondage on a large scale in Pernambuco and the Paulistas never paid any attention to this prohibition. By the middle of the 16th century Brazil contained one rapidly expanding colony of sugar planters Pernambuco which gave sure promise of wealth if not attacked from without. A half dozen moribund settlements on the thousand miles of coast to the south and an isolated but vigorous and self-sufficing group in São Paulo whose inhabitants produced little for export but who were reducing the aborigines to slavery in an expanding circle. In the last there was a considerable proportion of Indian blood and in the first a large number of Negroes. The small captaincies were little more than resorts for pirates and contraband traders in Brazil would. The settlers were powerless to prevent the French expeditions which yearly became more numerous. Serious apprehensions were felt that the French would occupy the coast and make Brazil a basis for attacks on Portugal's African and Indian empires. The best blood of the Portuguese nation was being drained away in exhausting wars and expeditions to India and Africa. Absolute government was sapping civic vitality. The extravagances of court and nobles were impoverishing the country. However, enough vitality remain before the terrific destruction of Portuguese power and pride at Alcácer Quibir in 1580 to secure such a firm establishment of the Portuguese race on the whole coast of Brazil that it never has been dislodged and only once seriously threatened. This result was largely due to the founding of a strong military and naval post at Bahia around which grew up a prosperous colony and under whose protection Pernambuco spread out over the northeast coast, Sao Paulo developed uninterruptedly and Rio Bay was saved from the French. The first proprietary settlement in Bahia-Bay had been destroyed by the Indians, but this magnificent and central harbor was manifestly the most convenient point when to send assistance to the other settlements and guard the whole coast. In 1548 the king determined to build a fortress and city there. Thomas da Sousa, the illegitimate scion of a great house, was chosen the first governor general. He sailed in April 1549 with six vessels and accompanied by 320 officials and a number of colonists. The new capital commanded the entrance to a magnificent inland sea which offered splendid facilities for the establishment of a flourishing state. Bahia-Bay is nearly a hundred miles in circumference. Its shores are fertile and penetrated by rivers. Each plantation has its own wares. Within a few months a town of a hundred houses had been built surrounded by a wall and defended by batteries. A cathedral, a custom house, a Jesuit college and a governor's residence were underway. Thomas da Sousa was instructed to strike at the root of the difficulties that were supposed to have prevented the success of the proprietary capitances. He was the direct representative of the king and had supreme supervisory power. Other officers however were associated with him who were independently responsible in judicial, financial and naval matters. He was closely bound by instructions covering every detail that could be foreseen and these instructions clearly show the centralizing and jealous spirit of Portuguese institutions and ideas. Few Portuguese of that age were able to rising to an appreciation of the economical advantages of freedom. The liberal concessions to the original proprietors free trade with the mother country, the right of communication with foreign countries and judicial and administrative independence availed nothing. Neither colonists, proprietors nor the central government could understand or apply them. Brazil was subjected to a systematic and continually more rigorous exploitation by the home government and to the irresponsible and uncontrolled military despotism of little satraps. In Bahia, as in Pernambuco, the sugar industry prospered from the beginnings. Bahia is close to Africa and navigation across is safe and easy. The importation of blacks began immediately, and the port continued to be the greatest entrepôt and distributing point for the trade during three centuries. Bahia's population is more largely black than that of any other city in Brazil and the pure African type is frequently seen on its streets. The local cuisine includes many dishes of African origin, and the local dialect many African words. Certain African dialects are spoken to this day, and a few Mohammedan negroes there still perform the rites of the Quran in the most absolute secrecy. The municipal government of the town, though under the overshadowing power of the governor showed some vitality and independence. The fertile island of Itaparica, just opposite the city, had been granted to the mother of a minister. Though the donation was repeatedly confirmed by the king himself, she and her heirs were never able to put their agents in possession. The municipal council successfully insisted that the original royal instructions to the governor required all grantees to occupy their estates in person. End of section 27. Section 28 of the South American Republics Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Pietronater. Part 4 Brazil. Chapter 5 The Jesuits One of John III's strongest reason for undertaking a more extensive colonization of Brazil was the pious conviction that it was his Christian duty to promote the dissemination of the true religion in dominions which he owed to the gift of the Holy Father. He was the first and most steadfast friend of the Jesuits, then just organized, and San Francisco Xavier, the Apostle of the East Indies, was sent out to one hemisphere, while the conversion of the Brazilian Aboregines was determined upon in the other. With Thomas da Souza sailed an able Jesuit Manuel Dobrega, accompanied by several other fathers. They began a carefully planned campaign to convert the Indians and, incidentally, to exploit them in the interests of the Order. It is impossible not to admire the courage, shrewdness and devotion of the Jesuits. They went out alone among the savage tribes, living with them, learning their languages, preaching to them, captivating their imagination by the pomp of religious paraphernalia and processions, baptizing them, and exhorting them to abandon cannibalism and polygamy. Tireless and fearless, they plunged into an interior, hitherto unpenetrated by white men. The reports they made to their superiors frequently afford the best information that is yet extant as to the customs of the Indians and the resources of the regions they explored. The Indians were easily induced to conform to the externals of the Christian cult. Wherever the Jesuits penetrated, the Aboregines soon adopted Christianity, but to hold the Indians to Christianity, the fathers were obliged to fix them to the soil. As soon as a tribe was converted, a rude church building was erected, and the Jesuit installed, who remained to teach agriculture and the arts, as well as the rituals and morals. His moral and intellectual superiority made him perforce an absolute ruler in miniature. Thus, that strange diocracy came into being, which, starting on the Brazilian coast, spread over most of the Central America. In the early part of the 17th century the theocratic seemed likely to become the dominant form of government south of the Amazon and east of the Indies. The Jesuit wanted the Indian to himself, and fought against the interference or enslavement by the lay Portuguese. The colonists wanted the Indians to work on their plantations to incorporate them as slaves in the Portuguese capacity, with the white man's industrial and civil organization. The home government stood by the Jesuits, but the colonists constantly evaded restrictions, and steadily fought the priests. The encouragement of the Negro slave trade was an attempt at a compromise, intended to induce the colonists to leave the Indians alone by furnishing another supply of labor. Primarily, at least, the Jesuit purpose although the material advantages and the fascination of exercising authority were soon potent motives. The Jesuits gave the South American Indian the greatest measure of peace and justice he ever enjoyed, but they reduced him to blind obedience and made him a tenant and a servant. Though virtually a slave he was however little exposed to infection from devices and diseases of civilization. He was not put at tasks too hard for him, and under Jesuit rule he prospered. On the other hand, if this system had prevailed there would have been little white immigration, the Indian race would have remained in possession of the country, and real civilization would never have gained a foothold. Immediately after the founding of Bahia, Nobrega sent members of the order to the other colonies. He himself visited Pernambuco, where the stout old proprietor met him with effective opposition. Duarte did not welcome a clergy responsible solely to a foreign corporation, and over which he could have no control. In Bahia and the South the Jesuits however prospered amazingly. In Sao Paulo they labored hard, spread widely, converted a large number of Indians and perfected their system, but it was there they came most sharply in conflict with the spirit of individualism and there they suffered their first and most crushing overthrow. Thomas da Souza labored diligently during the four years of his administration, fortifying posts, driving away contraband traders, dismissing incompetent officials, and even building jails and straightening streets where the local authorities had neglected them. He visited all the captaincies south of Bahia and entered Rio Bay, then the principal rendezvous for the French privateers and traders. He appreciated its strategic and commercial importance and was only prevented by lack of means from establishing a strong post there. In Sao Paulo he prohibited the flourishing trade which had grown with the Spaniards in Paraguay in Buenos Aires. Duarte da Costa his successor was accompanied by a large reinforcement of Jesuits. Among them was Anceta, one of the most notable men in history of the order whose genius, devotion and pertinacious courage laid the foundations of Jesuit power so deeply in South America that its effects remained to this day. This remarkable man was born in Tenerife, the son of a banished nobleman who had married a native of the island. Educated at home from his infancy he showed marvelous talents. At fourteen his father, not daring to risk his son's life in Spain sent him to the Portuguese University at Coimbra. His career was so brilliant the reputation he acquired for profound and ready intelligence, his eloquence and his pure and elevated ideals so remarkable that he attracted the attention of Simon Rodriguez, John III's great Jesuit minister who, like all the leaders of the order was on the watch for talented young men. The ardent youth was easily convinced that no career was so glorious as that of a missionary and when only twenty years old he solicited and obtained permission to go to Brazil. Nobrega, the provincial selected him to go to Sao Paulo to establish a school to train neophytes and proselytes into evangelists. His own letter to Nobrega best tells what a life he found and what sort of man he was. Here we are, sometimes more than twenty of us together in a light hut of mud and wicker, roofed with straw, fourteen paces long and ten wide. This is at once the school, the infirmary, dormitory, refractory, kitchen and storeroom. Yet we covet not the more spacious dwellings which are brethren have in other parts. Our Lord Jesus Christ was in a far straighter place when it was his pleasure to be born among beasts in a manger and in a still straighter when he deigned to die upon the cross. End quote. They herded together to keep warm for in winter it is cold on the Sao Paulo Plateau. They had no food except the mandioc flour, fish and game which the Indians gave them. To the little college came creoles and half-breeds and learned Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and Tupi. Ancieta was indefatigable. Within a year he had acquired a complete mastery of the Indian tongue and had devised a grammar for it. He wrote his own text books and employed his great poetical talents in composing hymns and verses to be chanted to the pupils recounting the stories of holy scriptures. He visited the most savage tribes in person and acquired a marvelous moral supremacy over them. When the Tamoyos attacked the Portuguese and the destruction of all the southern settlements seemed inevitable he fearlessly went to the Indian camps and persuaded the chiefs to consent to a truce while he remained among them three years as a hostage to guarantee its faithful performance by his countrymen. The savages regarded him as more than human and tradition tells of the miracles he performed. It is related that during these three years of solitary captivity he composed without the aid of pen or paper his Latin hymn to the virgin celebrated as one of the masterpieces of a basiastical poetry. He and his companions did not disdain to labor with their hands. They used the spade and trowel, made their own shoes, taught the Indians agriculture, introduced new plants from Europe, practiced medicine, and studied the botany topography and geology of the country. The villages of converted Indians under their government and protection rapidly spread over the Sao Paulo Plains and they were refuges for Indians flying from slavery on the plantations. The colonists pursued their fugitive slaves and soon were at open war with the Jesuits. In the course of this conflict the original Halfbreed settlement on the plateau was destroyed and the lay Portuguese came in here being wiped out. Peace was temporarily patched up but the Paulistas soon turned the tables and compelled the Jesuits to devote themselves to their educational institutions in the towns or to withdraw farther and farther into the wilderness. End of section 28 Section 28 of the South American Republics Volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 4 Brazil, Chapter 6 French Occupation of Rio During Duarte's administration troubles with the Indians broke out along the whole coast. In Bahia itself the new governor had disobeyed the orders of the home government to protect the Indians. He joined with the colonists in exploiting them. A formidable Indian conspiracy was formed and the settlements on both sides of the city were simultaneously attacked. Many farms and villages were sacked but soon the Indians were finally and defeated. The coast towns of São Paulo were menaced by a great confederation of tribes who used war canoes and had learned to overcome their terror of firearms. At Espírito Santo the Indian slaves rose en masse, killed most of the Portuguese and destroyed the sugar plantations. A more serious danger was the settlement of the French at Rio de Janeiro. They had formed friendly relations with the Indians and the name was sufficient to ensure good treatment from most of the tribes while that of Portuguese was a signal for its bearer to be killed and devoured. This was the epoch of the religious wars in France and the traders to Brazil came mostly from the Huguenot ports. Admiral Collini conceived the idea of establishing a Huguenot settlement in South America and Rio was chosen as the most available site. In 1555 a considerable expedition was sent under the command of Nicolae Viegagnon a celebrated adventurer who had distinguished himself in escorting Mary Queen of Scots from France to Scotland. He fortified the island in Rio Harbour that still bears his name, a barren rock which commanded the entrance and was safe from attacks by land. The French kept on good terms with the neighbouring Indians and remained unmolested by the Portuguese for four years. But Viegagnon was not faithful to his employers though most of his party were Protestants and Huguenot leaders had furnished the money for the expedition. He quarreled with the Huguenots and finally gave up the command and returned to France in the Guise interest. Collini's project of establishing a new and protestant France in South America lost its very good chance of success. It is interesting to conjecture what would have been the history of Brazil if Viegagnon had stuck to the Huguenot side. In all probability reinforcements would have been sent and San Bartolomius Day, fourteen years later, might have been followed by a great immigration like that which went to New England during the law persecution. Rio and perhaps the whole of South Brazil would have become a French possession or a French speaking state. Not until 1558 was a strong and able Portuguese governor selected and vigorous measures taken to expel the French. The new governor was Mem de Sa, a nobleman of the highest sort, a soldier a scholar and an experienced administrator. His name will always be associated with the establishment of the Portuguese power in Brazil on a footing, firm and broad enough to enable it to withstand the Dutch attacks and the linears of Spanish domination. Upon his arrival he took measures to quiet the unslavery question by reducing the import duties on black slaves and by aiding each planter to acquire as many Negroes as he needed to work his plantation. When his ships and armament arrived he proceeded to the south. He found that the French though weak in numbers could count on Indian allies. As he himself writes to the court quote, the French do not treat the natives as we do. They are very liberal to them and treat justice so that the commander is feared by his countrymen and beloved by the Indians. Measures have been taken to instruct the latter in the use of arms and as the Aborigines are very numerous the French may soon make themselves very strong. End quote. He harassed the French and destroyed their fortifications but could not completely dislodge them and returned to Bahia with his work only half accomplished. Porto Seguru and Ilios were attacked by the ferocious Aymores and with difficulty saved from total destruction and the south another great Tamoyo confederation had been formed with the deliberate purpose of rooting the Paulistas out of the country and putting a stop once and for all to their slave hunting. When all seemed lost Ancieta intervened and succeeded in fixing up a peace. The Tamoyos were cajoled into becoming allies of the Portuguese in an attempt to expel the French from Rio. Memdaça's nephew appeared with a considerable fleet and after a desultory campaign of a year the French were obliged to retire. Friends did nothing to prevent or recover this inestimable loss and Memdaça immediately laid out and fortified a city on a site which today is the business center of the capital of Brazil. From the time of its founding Rio was the most important place in southern Brazil and the key to the whole region but its great prosperity dates from 150 years later when gold was discovered in Minas Gerais. Memdaça continued to rule Brazil until his death in 1572. The work of centralization went on a pace. Fiscal and administrative officers were multiplied and taxes and restrictions imposed at will. The Lisbon government laid restrictions of that restrictive system which finally confined Brazil to communication with the mother country. Nevertheless, most of the settlements grew rapidly. Sugar planting, cattle raising and general agriculture flourished. The Indians were expelled or reduced to impotence within striking distance of the centers of population. At Memdaça's death the civilized population numbered about 60,000 of whom 20,000 were white. The provinces of Pernambuco and Bahia had each 25,000 inhabitants. Rio had some 2,000 and São Paulo, perhaps 5, the remainder being divided between the smaller settlements Paraíba, Rio Real, Ilhaos, Porto Seguru and Espírito Santo. Except in São Paulo most of the inhabitants were engaged in sugar raising. The 120 plantations produced annually 45,000 tons of sugar and these goods to the value of a million dollars a year were imported. A sugar fazenda or plantation constituted a little independent village where the owner lived surrounded by his slaves in their cabins, his shops and stables, mills and bandyock fields. The grantees had paid no purchase price for the land and held it on condition of paying a tenth of the product and a tenth of that tenth. Only it is now called an export duty of 11%. Land was not otherwise taxed and to this day direct taxes on farm property are almost unknown though imposts of every other conceivable kind have been multiplied. The tracts granted were large, the owner could hold them unused without expense the most powerful incentive to sale and division of land did not therefore exist. Brazil became and remains a country of large rural proprietorship. Landowners are reluctant to sell or divide their estates. Taxes on transfers are excessive and land is not freely bought and sold. Consequently, the rural population is widely scattered grants extend far beyond the limits of actual settlement there are few small farmers and very little careful culture. Brazil is a country of staple crops and non-diversified culture. A fail in sugar or coffee produces a disproportionate disturbance in financial conditions and land not suitable to the staple crop of a region is left to lie idle. Immigration has been retarded because land has been hard to obtain except by special government concession and because private owners do not care to sell their land to settlers. Except in restricted cases the rural immigration, Negro and South European has been for the purpose of furnishing labor for the large proprietors and not to form a land owning and permanently established population. The Jesuit travelers describe the Brazilian people in 1584 as pleasure loving and extravagant. In the sugar provinces fortunes were very unequal. In Pernambuco alone more than 100 planters had incomes of $1 a year. Their capital, Olinda, now the northern suburb of the city of Pernambuco was the largest town in Brazil and the one where there was most luxurious living and the most polite society. In general the people were spent drifts and notwithstanding large incomes were heavily in debt. Great sums were spent on fates, religious processions, fairs and dinners. The simple Jesuit fathers were shocked to see such luxurious beds and silks, such luxurious beds of crimson damask, such extravagance in the trappings of the saddle horses. Carriages were unknown and instead, litters and sedent chairs were used and these remained in common use in Bahia until very recent times. From Pernambuco and Bahia communication with the mother country was constant and easy. Sao Paulo however differed radically from the sugar districts Barley and European fruits grew on the Sao Paulo Plateau but there was little export to Portugal and imported clothes were scarce and dear. The Paulistas were constantly on horseback and wore the old Portuguese costume of cloak and clothes fitting doublet long after it had been disused at home. Bahia and Pernambuco were fairly well built towns though unfortunately in the Portuguese style of architecture whose solid walls, few windows and contiguous houses make it ill-adapted to a tropical climate. In spite of its unsuitability it was universally adopted and even yet largely prevails in Brazil. End of section 29 Section 30 of the South American Republics Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pietro Natter Part 4 Brazil Section 7 expansion In 1581 Philip II of Spain succeeded in establishing himself on the throne of Portugal as the successor of the Raj Sebastian dead fighting the Moors at Alcácer Cabir The decadent and demoralized Portuguese nation made hardly the semblance of a struggle for its independence. The very ease with which Philip obtained the kingdom left him no pretext for depriving it of administrative independence. Native Portuguese continued to hold office in the colonies and to enjoy a monopoly of Brazilian commerce. Internally therefore the change did not much affect Brazil. But in foreign relations the effect was profound. Brazil became a part of well-nigh universal monarchy and one of the battlefields of the struggle which had begun between Spain and the Protestant powers. All South America was now under monarchy. Boundary questions between Portuguese and Spanish America apparently ceased to have any importance. The enormous extension of Brazil towards the interior over territory formerly conceded to be Spanish occurred during the 60 years of Spanish domination. The Spanish monarch did not have time to spend on Brazilian matters and the colonists were less interfered with from Lisbon and Madrid than might have been expected. Portuguese historians have much exaggerated the evil effects of the English, Dutch and French half filibustering, half trading descends on the coast which occurred during this period. The pillage of a few towns was more than compensated by the commerce that sprang up. Much Brazilian sugar escaped paying the heavy export duties. Settlement extended rapidly over new territory and the importation of negroes continued. As early as 1575 a settlement had been made in Sergipe. But the great expansion over northern Brazil began under the rule of Philip's first governor general. In 1583 he sent troops to take possession of the important port of Paraíba where some French traders had obtained a foothold that prevented the inhabitants of Pernambuco from spreading north beyond Itamarica. The Spanish mercenaries were at first successful but they could not stifle the serious war which broke out. The Pernambucanos had better success because they knew how to take advantage of the dissensions among the savages. Fortifying a town at Paraíba they permanently established their sugar plantations in its neighborhood and then these indefatigable and land-hungry creoles pushed on farther to the north. In 1579 Geronimo de Albuquerque the greatest of the Brazilian colonial generals attacked and defeated the powerful Pitagoares Indians and established the colony of Natal the nucleus of the present state of Rio Grande do Norte. This brought the Pernambucanos to Cape Sao Roque. To the south they had spread as far as the south Francisco river there meeting the Bayanos who by 1589 had taken possession of the present state of Sergipe. North of Sao Roque the Portuguese had so far had done nothing except make some desultory voyages of observation though they claimed the coast to and beyond the mouth of the Amazon. The donatories of the captaincies in that region had not succeeded in establishing any settlement. In 1541 Orellana one of those recklessly heroic Spaniards who had helped Pizarro conquer the empire of the Incas was a member of an expedition which crossed the Andes near Quito and descended into the forested plains looking for another Peru the fabled Eldorado. They finally found themselves on a great river flowing to the east and since their provisions were exhausted boats were built and Orellana was sent on ahead to try to find supplies. He could not find enough to feed the main body and decided to float on down the river, well knowing it must finally bring him to the ocean. After a voyage of more than 3000 miles he came to the great estuary of the Amazon and then made his way to Spain. No important results followed this wonderful discovery. Orellana himself shortly returned to the mouth of the river but he could not find his way up the labyrinth of waters. To reach the plains from the Pacific or Caribbean settlements is nearly impracticable and the Amazon valley remained unsettled. Meanwhile the seed planted by Old Duarte Coelho germinated and grew into a vigorous tree whose branches were spreading out over all north Brazil. The 17th century had hardly begun when the hardy Pernambucanos invaded the country lying north and west of Sao Roque hunting Indian slaves and good places for cattle and sugar raising. In 1603 Perocoelho, an adventurous Brazilian then living at Paraíba made a settlement far to the northwest of Natal on the coast of Seara and penetrated 800 miles from Pernambuco. Unreasonable aggressions against the Indians brought on temporary reverses but the Pernambucanos persevered and the Jesuits also established missions. By 1610 the region was pretty well under white control, the Indians being incorporated to a greater extent than was usual in the settlements farther south. The next forward movement was precipitated by a formidable French attempt to colonize Maranhão. J. Vardier, a hugamate nobleman conceived the idea of carrying out on the north coast Colini's plan of a French protestant colony. In 1612 he landed on the island of Maranhão with a large and well appointed expedition. Geronimo de Albuquerque fortunately happened to be on the north coast when news came of this alarming intrusion, sending his ships on to ascertain the truth of the report he hastened overland to Pernambuco to get a force together. With 300 whites and 200 Indians he started to expel the French. An assault on a front defended with artillery was out of the question so in his turn he fortified himself, cut off the French from access to the sea and ambushed their foraging expeditions. In such a game his men enured to the climate had an immense advantage. Forced to assault Albuquerque's position the French were repulsed. They backed for a truce and went home at the end of a year. Albuquerque took possession of the French town and in 1616 secured all the rest of the northern coast to Portugal by founding Pará, just to the south of the mouth of the Amazon. Several settlements were made along the coast east of Pará and also west in the estuary itself. The Indians proved docile and were easily incorporated to so great an extent that the Indian element is more predominant in Pará than in any other state on the Brazilian littoral. On the island and around the bay of Maranhão, a Prosperus colonium grew up, certain enterprising businessmen made a contract with the government and started a regular propaganda for immigrants and induced a large number to come from the Azores. The state thus founded was one of the most Prosperus in Brazil and was especially celebrated for the tightness and cultivation of its inhabitants. Some of the greatest names in Portuguese literature are those of Maranhenses. It is commonly said that the best Portuguese is spoken in Maranhão and not in Lisbon, Rio or Porto. Just as the English of Dublin, Aberdeen or Boston is considered better than that of London or New York and the Spanish of Lima and Bogota better than that of Madrid, Barcelona or Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, population and wealth had been increasing satisfactorily in the older provinces south of Cape Sao Roque. By 1626, Pernambuco and Bahia had grown to be the towns of something like 10,000 inhabitants and the people of the respective provinces numbered about 100,000. Iliéos, Porto Segur and Espírito Santo had made no progress, but Rio had become a city of 6,000 while the shores of her bay and the adjacent coast were now fairly settled. Rio and Santos really performed the function of ports for the foreign commerce of Paraguay and the Argentine because the Spanish laws did not permit these colonies to have ports of their own. Campos was now settled and its sugar industry was prospering. On the Sao Paulo plains, the Paulistas had spread to the northeast to the headwaters of the Paraíba and borders of the present state of Rio and northwest down to the Pabiltiete, along which they found an easy track for their expeditions in search of slaves. The Jesuits had long since been unable to control or check the Paulistas and had abandoned the missions near the coast. In the remote interior, along the Paraná and its great tributaries the defeated priests thought that they would be safe and about the end of the 16th century they entered that region by way of Paraguay. The Paulistas were little of the government, especially now that the king was Spanish and advancing the claim that Spanish Jesuits had established missions on Portuguese territory they proceeded to wipe out the new missions. It seems incredible that their little bands could have penetrated such distances and accomplished such results, but it is on record that they tracked nearly to the Andes and practically exterminated the aboriginal population of half Brazil. The Jesuits tell us that between 1614 and 1639 400 Paulistas with 2000 Indian allies captured and killed 300,000 natives. In 1632 they utterly destroyed the great Jesuit settlements on the Upper Paraná though this involved an expedition of 1500 miles, much of which is to this day rarely penetrable. One of their expeditions was like an ambulating village. Women, children and domestic animals accompanying it. They sometimes were obliged to stop, sow a crop and wait for it to mature before they could proceed. For the time being these predatory Paulistas almost reverted to the nomadic stage. Naturally no complete record of these expeditions survives. Their members were not literate men and it is only when they fought the Jesuits or when they discovered minerals that a record of their roots had been preserved. We know that before 1632 they had traversed all of southern Brazil and Paraguay and even eastern Argentina and Uruguay. Incursions to the north and west followed shortly. There is an authentic record of an expedition reaching Goya's as early as 1647 and it is probable that by that time they had penetrated the central plateau which stretches across to the Andes, had seen the headwaters of the southern tributaries of the Amazon and had followed the eastern mountain chain almost to the northern ocean. The Paulistas secured to their country and their race more than a million square miles of fertile and salubrious territory. End of section 30 Section 31 of the South American Republics, Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Jonathan Natter. Part 4 Brazil. Chapter 8 The Dutch Conquest By the end of the 16th century Holland was practically independent and the quote beggars of the sea were carrying her arms and trade all over the world. Numerous private companies of Dutch merchants made war against Spain on their own account and great fortunes were made in the capture of Spanish fleets and in trade with Spanish and Portuguese. The Dutch East India Company, within a few years possessed itself of the better part of the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean and the West India Company was organized to do the same in South America. Incorporated in 1621 it included various smaller companies already engaged in trade and privateering and was an immense corporation which finally owned more than 800 ships and sent to Brazil more than 70,000 troops. Although protected, subsidized and conceded a monopoly by the Dutch government, it always remained essentially a company for private profit. The company's primary object was to capture the Spanish treasure fleets. Its secondary object was to conquer the possession of Spain and Portugal in South America. Brazil furnished the best base for the operations that were intended to make the South Atlantic a Dutch lake. Asia and Pernambuco were near Europe, had good harbors, lay on the direct route to the plate and the Pacific and from them Africa could be conveniently attacked. The sugar trade was a large thing in itself and the daring Dutch traders believed that the Portuguese colonists might welcome a deliverance from Spanish domination. Spain's power was a rotten shell and impulse lying deep in the national spirit pushed the Dutch on to aggression. The peoples of western Europe had finally felt all the stimulating influences of the Renaissance, of the Lutheran and Jesuit reformations and of the era of discovery. It was the epoch of the Thirty Years' War of the League of Avignon and of that confused fighting caused by more vigorous peoples grasping for a share of the spoils of the new world. In 1623 news came of the equipping by the West India Company of an organization whose destination was manifestly to be Bahia. The Spanish government took no measures for defense. The local authorities half-heartedly began to fortify the city but there were no troops except militia to mend the works and when the Dutch fleet hove inside a panic ensued. The governor was captured but many of the inhabitants fled into the back country and a guerrilla warfare was kept up which shut up the Dutch inside the fortifications. They made use of their time in improving the defenses and soon made Bahia the best fortress in South America. The news of the capture created consternation in Lisbon. Great exertions were made by the Portuguese merchants as well as by the Spanish government and the most formidable armament which up to that day had crossed the equator was prepared. It was composed of 52 ships and of 12,000 men the latter being mercenaries gathered from every country in Europe. The Dutch commander had not yet been reinforced and made little resistance when such an overwhelming force arrived in Bahia Harbour. He surrendered with the owners of war and the Spanish fleet retired. In a few weeks another Dutch fleet appeared bringing provisions and reinforcements. It was too late however and the Dutch did not venture to attack an enemy whom they themselves had furnished with such excellent support. The Dutch, driven from the land, remained undisputed masters of the sea and the Spanish and Portuguese could no longer trade except in convoys. In 1627 the celebrated Piet Heijn the Dutch Sir Francis Drake sailed boldly into Bahia Harbour and despising the fire of the 40 guns of the forts captured 26 ships within pistol shot of the shore cannon. He ran his own ship right in between the two best Portuguese men of war. The fort did not dare to fire for fear of wounding their own men. The Portuguese flagship was sunk and the rest surrendered in terror. Among the spoils were 3,000 hawksheds of sugar which Piet Heijn sent home at his leisure while he ravaged the shores of the bay. The following year he fell in with the Mexican treasure fleet and captured it boldly. This was the greatest capture ever made at sea. The West India colony declared a dividend of 50% after paying the expenses of the unsuccessful Bahia expedition and resumed its plans of conquest with more vigor than ever. After careful consideration Pernambuco was selected as a more vulnerable point of attack than Bahia. The fortifications were feeble and there were numerous Jewish merchants in the city whose friendship could be counted on. Once more the Spanish government did nothing to avert the threatened blow and in February 1630 a Dutch fleet of 50 sail with 7,000 men arrived in front of Pernambuco. 3,000 men were landed to the north of the town and easily defeated the militia which tried to prevent their taking the place from the rare. The inhabitants fled to the interior and after a creditable resistance the forts fell. The property captured was estimated at nearly 10 million dollars. In the meantime Albuquerque the Brazilian commander had retired to a defensible ranch commanding the road between Recife and Olinda and once communication could be kept up with the sea by way of Cape Sound Augustine. This ranch is celebrated in Brazilian tradition as the quote Areal de Bom Jesus end quote. The Brazilians rallied and from the advantage ground began to harass the Dutch. The promises of commercial, religious and political tolerance had produced little effect on the more ardent spirits. The Indians remained faithful to the Portuguese and with the Negroes did good service in the guerrilla warfare. For the first two years the Dutch could accomplish little except to improve the fortifications around the town and the Brazilians acquired a confidence in their own ability to make head against regular troops which later stood them in good stead. In 1631 a fleet of 20 ships appeared from Spain but the Dutch admiral sailed boldly out and gave them battle. The net results to the Spaniards were the landing of only a thousand men who after some difficulty joined the militia at Bom Jesus. But the seeds of this content were germinated among the Brazilians. On closer contact the heretics proved to be human. The planters wanted peace and an opportunities to sell their sugar. The Indians, Negroes and other adventurous spirits composing the guerrilla bands robbed both friend and foe. The soldiers were tired of serving without pay. A half-breed named Calabar, a man of remarkable bravery, cunning and skill and woodcraft deserted to the Dutch and gave them valuable assistance. Reinforcements came from Holland and under Calabar's guidance the Dutch learned the value of ambuscading and made sudden expeditions which took the important settlements by surprise. In 1633 two special representatives of the company came with instructions to prosecute the war vigorously and to endeavor to conciliate the Brazilians. The latter's resistance weakened. Many of Albuquerque's volunteers deserted. The Dutch expeditions up and down the coast were successful. The island of Itamarica, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and the settlements in Alagoas were successively reduced. Resistance was soon confined to the country just back of Pernambuco itself and in 1635 the last posts which held out, Bom Jesus and San Augustine surrendered. The whole post from the San Francisco river north to Cape San Roquet was in the hands of the Dutch. There was nothing for it but submission or emigration. Many laid down their arms but Albuquerque and his faithful lieutenants, Lodias and the Indian Kamarrao, reluctantly took their way towards Baia, the only place of refuge. The Brazilians historians claim that 10,000 Pernambucanos, men, women and children accompanied Albuquerque preferring to leave their homes, property and friends rather than accept the foreign and heretic yoke. A sweet bit of revenge awaited them on their journey and countering and overpowering a small Dutch garrison at Calvo, they took its members' prisoners and among them found the traitor Calabar. Him they hanged while the Dutchmen were let go unharmed. When Albuquerque reached the San Francisco he was replaced by a Spaniard, Rojas, who had brought reinforcements of 70 hundred Spanish troops. The new commander gave battle to the Hollanders but in the first action was utterly defeated and lost his own life. For the next two years Pernambuco was ravaged by the most frightful burnings and massacres. The Spanish mercenaries and the bands of Negroes and Indians scoured the interior and the Dutch retaliated with the same methods. The prosperous colony was fast being depopulated and its industries ruined. It became manifest that the policy at once vigorous and conciliatory was necessary and the company determined to send out a governor general with vice regal powers. The merchants of the directory chose Count John Maurice of Nassau Ziegen a scion of the reigning house and a descendant of William the Silent. A more fortunate selection could not have been made. Though only 32 years old Count Maurice had already proved himself a brave and skillful soldier, he was a man of culture, a thorough son of the Renaissance, a lover of the arts and, like most of his house religiously tolerant and liberal to an extent extraordinary for that bitter age. He was one of those few spirits in advance of their time, to whom Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile were the same, to whose instincts religious and commercial intolerance was repugnant. He arrived in 1637 and his keen eye at once saw that the two obstacles to pacification were the military raids which the new Spanish commander Bagnoli was directing from his position near the San Francisco and the fear of the Pernambuco sugar planters that Dutch dominion meant their forcible conversion to Calvinism. The Dutch troops were now well equipped and seasoned for warfare in the tropical woods and their officers had learned how to exercise their trade under these difficult circumstances with all the coolness, shrewdness and steadiness of their race. They easily inflicted a crushing defeat upon the motley crew Bagnoli had been able to gather. The whole country north of the San Francisco fell into Maurice's hands and he crossed that river and destroyed the Brazilian base of supplies in Sergipe. The next year he was ordered by the directory to attack Bahia with insufficient forces and was compelled to retire after a 40 days siege. Two years later however his fleet defeated and nearly destroyed the largest naval force Spain had sent out since the invincible Armada. Of the 6,000 soldiers on board who had been expected to drive him from Brazil, only 1,000 were landed away north of Cape Sao Noque when they barely managed to reach Bahia after a march of over a thousand miles through the wilderness suffering the most frightful hardships. Maurice followed up this victory by occupying Sergipe in 1640 and Maranhão in 1641. Seara had fallen into his hands in 1637. The whole of Brazil from the 3rd to the 12th degree of latitude, a solid body of territory containing more than two thirds of the population and developed resources was apparently irretrievably lost to the Portuguese. They only retained Bahia and they isolated settlements in Pará and in the southern provinces. In internal administration Maurice was equally vigorous. He suppressed the exactions of Dutch soldiers and functionaries and established law, order and justice. Agriculture, industry and commerce flourished as never before. He found Recifee a miserable port village and left it a city of 2,000 houses. He does not seem to have made any special exertions to secure Dutch immigration. The Brazilians were not displaced as landed proprietors and most of the plantations confiscated from the persistently rebellious were resolved to Brazilians who accepted the Dutch rule. He permitted to Romanists and Jews the free and public exercise of their faith. Many Jews came to Pernambuco and with their characteristic capacity soon became prominent and useful in the commercial life of the colony. The courts were so organized as to secure representation for Brazilians. He summoned the board of legislature of the principal colonists, the first representative assembly on South American soil and put into effect the measures it proposed. Local administration was entrusted to Brazilians and his aim was evidently to make the colony self-governing. But this positivist of the 17th century, this genial pagan who had caught the essential spirit of the Renaissance and had the courage to put it into practice centuries before it became dominant even in the realm of thought was too far in advance of his time. His countrymen could not understand him or his ideas and the Portuguese colonists were equally incapable of appreciating what he was trying to do for them. His edifice scattered like a card house the moment he left. To all appearances every vestige of his work was swept away. It is only a memory and an example a wave that dashed far up the beach at the beginning of the flood tide leaving a mark that long served only to show how far the water had once come. It remained for the 19th century and another nation of shopmen to put into practice on a scale large enough to convince the world the great principle of non-interference by the central government with the religious beliefs and the local self-government of colonies. The monit aristocrats of the West India Company distrusted Morris as a member of a reigning family which was maintained in power by its popularity with the masses. The directory wanted immediate profits not an empire established on a broad and sure foundation. In their hearts they preferred a steward and bookkeeper to a prince and a statesman. The Calvinist clergy bitterly complained of the liberties conceded their Catholic competitors for tithes and succeeded in imposing on Morris the execution of the prohibition against religious processions then as now so near to the Brazilian heart. Spice were sent out to report on him and he was continually hampered. Among the Brazilians he was equally misunderstood while personally so popular that no one of their chroniclers had a word of dispraise for him they could not forget that he was of a different race and religion and he did not succeed in converting his ideas. His best personal friends were among those most influential after his departure in staring up the exclusive Brazilian feeling. Morris was not a man to be easily daunted for seven years he remained in office fighting the directory the Calvinist ministers the corrupt officials trying to reconcile the jealousies between Dutchmen and Brazilians and to create a homogeneous community but after the power of the Nassau family declined with the rise of the Vite oligarchy the directory determined to be rid of him. In 1644 he made a vigorous demand for more troops and when it was refused sent in a Bismarckian resignation which to his surprise was immediately accepted with many polite protestations of thanks for his services. End of section 31 Section 32 of the South American Republics volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Pietronater Part 4 Brazil Chapter 9 Expulsion of the Dutch Four years before Morris's retirement Portugal broke loose from Spain and that part of Brazil which had escaped conquest by the Dutch promptly threw off the Spanish yoke. In Europe Holland and the new Portugal were naturally in alliance but the former was not magnanimous enough to stop her aggressions in Brazil and the latter was too weak to resent them. Among the Brazilians the satisfaction began to brew as soon as Morris left. The prohibition of religious processions the severe financial crisis among planters who were unable to pay off the heavy mortgages which they had given when they purchased confiscated plantations the low price of sugar and the impulse to national feeling given by the news of the success of the mother country in achieving independence all cooperated. The opportunity brought forth the man the head of the rebellion was John Fernandes Vieira who is the great creator of the Brazilian nationality a native of Madeira he ran away as a boy to seek his fortune in Brazil engaged at first in menial employments his honesty and capacity soon enabled him to strike out for himself as a sugar planter when the Dutch attacked Pernambuco in 1630 he took up arms and only surrendered when Bom Jesus fell convinced that further resistance was useless he returned to his business and within 10 years was the richest man in the colony though a devoted Catholic and a patriotic Portuguese he was one of Morris's most trusted advisors when the prince departed John Fernandes then's forth devoted his life to the expulsion of the Dutch the first revolt occurred in Maranhão where the small Dutch garrison had to abandon that captaincy as early as 1644 in Pernambuco John Fernandes organized a formidable conspiracy and letters were dispatched to the new Portuguese king asking his aid John the fourth did not dare to comply openly for such action might have involved him in a war with the states general but the governor general at Bahia was as unscrupulous as he was patriotic and secretly afforded the conspirators every facility in his power the celebrated chiefs of the guerilla fighting of 1630 to 1635 Vidal, Camarral and Dias were only too anxious to have another chance and gathered their bands in the wilderness arms were obtained from Bahia and in 1645 the insurrection broke out the first move was to have been the massacre of the principal hollanders but the plot was discovered and the conspirators fled for their lives to the interior at a place called Tabocas John Fernandes gathered a motley crew a few hundred together only 300 of his followers had muskets but they were protected by marshy ground in front and the hill was surrounded by almost impenetrable cane breaks there on the 3rd of August the Dutch troops to the number of a thousand found and attacked the Brazilians the bulk of the population was standing aloof his camp was full of mutiny nevertheless John Fernandes stood firm the Dutch charged confidently but they could not use their firearms to advantage and the Brazilians showed the traditional valor of their race in the use of pike and sword the Dutch were not able to dislodge the rebels and after losing 170 men they retreated to Pernambuco leaving the insurgents with all the moral prestige of victory the whole province rose the troops which had come from Bahia ostensibly to aid the Dutch in pacifying the province went over Elmas to the patriots the Dutch garrisons in the outlying towns were everywhere attacked and everywhere retreated a few grudgingly paid mercenaries were not the material with which to defend such an empire within a few months the Dutch were expelled from the interior and shut themselves up in the fortified seaports waiting for reinforcements the Indians and Gerias spread fire and destruction through Itamarica, Paraiba, Rio Grande de Norte and Seara in spite of this sudden success the position of the patriots was very critical without the aid of regular troops they could hardly hope to make head against the Dutch so soon as the latter received adequate reinforcements the news of the insurrection aroused great indignation in Holland the house of the Portuguese ambassador was surrounded by an infuriated mob and his government had to disavow the rebellion willing as John IV might be to help the Brazilians he dare not by the middle of 1646 an able commander von Schopke arrived from Holland with a fine army at first John Fernandez and the militia did not dare meet him in the field the provincials hovered about the Dutch columns cutting off the touchments and burning sugar plantations in the line of March John Fernandez set the example by ordering the destruction of his own property in 1647 Barreto de Menenses an able professional soldier arrived in Brazil bearing a secret commission from the Portuguese king the bickering and despairing provincials made no difficulty about recognizing it and Barreto at once began uniting the scattered militia bands and the few regulars who had clandestinely come up from Bahia a few miles south of Pernambuco the low hills encroach on the coast plain leaving only a narrow pass between themselves and the marshes Schopke made a sortie along the coast road with the largest part of his force about 4000 men and there at the hills of Guanarapes found the Patriot army numbering 2200 encamped across the level ground they barred his way with the evident intention of giving him battle and there on the 18th of August 1648 was fought out the question whether Brazil should be Dutch or Portuguese the defeat of the Patriots would have meant the hopeless collapse of the rebellion and the giving up by poor little Portugal of the last vestige of her claim to Brazil success meant that they might prolong the war for years and finally tire out Holland or give the Portuguese government a chance to do something by negotiation the battle began with the Dutch taking possession of the higher ground when their artillery inflicted some damage but when they charged down the hill attempting to outflank and surround the Brazilians there ensued a confused and desperate struggle with cold steel the regulars proved no much for these farmers who were fighting for their homes and religion the Dutch battalions broke and fled up the hill followed by the Brazilians then the Dutch reserve came into action and the battle rolled back to the low ground where the result was decided face to face and man to man some of the braver of the Dutch imprudently went through the Brazilian lines into the marshes and they suffered terrible slaughter at the hands of the reserve more than a thousand hollanders perished with 74 officers 33 standards remained in the hands of the Brazilians and the remnants of the Dutch army fled to the shelter of the walls of Penambuco the cowardice shown by many of his troops is the only excuse offered by the Dutch general for the shameful defeat suffered at the hands of a militia inferior not only in equipment but in numbers and advantage of position the descendants of the victors at Guararapes have never forgotten that it was a Brazilian and not the Portuguese triumph the Brazilians proved to their own satisfaction that their resources were sufficient to defend their institutions and it has been well said that on that day the Brazilian nation was born the parsimonious merchants whose money was invested in the company and the half-hearted effort to retrieve this unexpected reverse but reinforcements were sent out so grudgingly that a similar sortie next year was even more overwhelmingly defeated at the very same place even then the Brazilian hopes of ultimate success would have been small if at this very juncture the world power of Holland had not received its first great check by the breaking out of the war with Oliver Cromwell British fleets sweeping the North Sea and Blake's cannon thundering at the Texel the state's general had no forces to spare on far away Brazil the patriots kept the Dutch shut up in Pernambuco and were undisputed masters of the rest of the province so long as communication by sea remained open the Dutch however could maintain themselves indefinitely reinforcements might come at any time from Holland and the negotiations by Portugal were uncertain and might indeed lead to Brazil's being exchanged for an advantage elsewhere John Fernandez steadfastly maintained the siege urging his followers not to lay down their arms so long as a Dutchman remained in Brazil the Pusilanimus Portuguese king did not dare help the Pernambucanos and neither was he honest enough to abide by the treaties he had made with Holland giving up the claim of Pusil matters remained in this anomalous position until 1654 when John Fernandez by a single audacious stroke cut through the tangle made by complicated and timid European diplomacy in the fall of 1653 the annual Bahia fleet sailed from the Tagus convoyed by powerful men of war the Dutch had no naval force on the South American coast able to cope with it the Brazilian commanders from their fortified besieging camp just to the south of the city entered into communication with the admiral John Fernandez begged the latter to lend him some cannon for a few days and meanwhile to blockade the port the patriot leader saw that the isolated garrison of mercenaries would have no heart to hold out for long the Portuguese admiral refused saying truly enough that he had no instructions to aid the insurgent Brazilians and that he did not care to risk his head by precipitating a war between Portugal and Holland Fernandez answered that with or without his aid the assault would be made and the admiral yielded to his natural feelings and lend the Brazilians some big guns John Fernandez planted them where they commanded an outlying fort he knew to be vital to the city's defences Shropka was compelled to retire within the central city the Brazilians made successful night assaults on several positions and drew their lines closer and closer until the place was attainable on the 26th of January 1655 the Dutch general signed a capitulation surrendering not only Pernambuco but all the other places held by the Dutch in Brazil his 1200 troops were given safe passage home and all resident hollanders were allowed 3 months to settle their affairs before leaving thus ended the Dutch dominion in Brazil 4 provinces, 3 cities, 8 towns 14 fortified places and 300 leagues of coast were definitely restored to the Portuguese crown a gigantic commercial speculation had failed before the obstinate resistance of a few farmers animated by a love of country and religion 25 years of bloody warfare or sulky acquiescence in alien rule had welded the Portuguese colonists along the Brazilian coast into a nation directly from the Dutch they had learned little or nothing rather were the trades which have ever since been the cause of Brazil's industrial backwardness intensified the characteristics of the leaders in the Pernambuco war of independence epitomized the races of Brazil Vidal is the type of a high class Brazilian generous generous, spent, thrift, proud intelligent, quick at expedience and not too scrupulous in his use of them Camarral, the Indian, perished before the final victory as if to show symbolically that his race had not the stamina to hold out in competition with white or black Diaz represents the negro unsurpassable infidelity and personal courage and needing only leadership to show transcendent military qualities John Fernandez was a curious mixture of the medieval and modern his wealth did not make him cautious where his country was concerned, he had been honored with the intimate confidence of those whom he fought, he was grave, silent reserved, strongest when others were most discouraged no feeling of vanity ever interfered with his purposes if another man could do a piece of work better than he, he stepped aside, when success was inside he impaired her bubbly, let show your man have the glory religious faith and feudal loyalty were the mainsprings of his nature nevertheless in war he was cautious, indefatigable and calculating, in crisis he struck like a sledgehammer though he could wait patiently and uncomplainingly for an opportunity his was not a pride that disdains artifices he conspired secretly and subtly and with all his apparent admiration of character he blindly and unreasoningly hated everything protestant and non-Portuguese on the hill at Tabocas his battle cry was quote, Portuguese, add the heretics goddess with us end quote when the Dutch made their last desperate charge and it seemed as if all was up with his band of insurgents he refused to flee but stood beside the crucifix calling on the virgin and the saints and supporting his companions to die rather than yield to the unbelievers when the Dutch gave back he fell on his knees and in tone a hymn with every new victory gained he vowed a church to the virgin when desperate over the hesitation of the admiral in the last scene of the war his final argument made in all sincerity was that failure to expel the Dutch meant exposing thousands of Catholics to the temptation of denying their faith by a renewal of the heretic rule and that for himself rather than share the responsibility for the murder of thousands of souls he would lead his Brazilians to certain death relentless to his enemies to his friends and dependents he was kindness itself it is related that a Portuguese landed with hardly clothes enough to cover him and seeking a protector was directed to Fernandez the latter was mounting his horse to go on a journey the man's offer of allegiance and appeal for help he answered quote I am going to my house ten miles away and have no leisure now to relieve you but follow me thither on foot if you are too weak to walk take this horse I am on if you are faithful you shall have support as long as my means hold out if they fail and there should be nothing else to eat I will cut off a leg and we will eat it together end quote he said with so grave a face and severe a manner that the poor Portuguese thought he meant to repulse him but on inquiry he found that Fernandez rarely smiled and that literally all that he had was at the service of his adherents end of section 32 section 33 of the South American Republics volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natar part 4 Brazil chapter 10 the 17th century in 1621 the northern provinces Seara, Maranhão and Pará had been separated from the rest of Brazil and erected into an independent government called the state of Maranhão in Seara the cattle industry flourished around the beautiful bay of Maranhão the Azorians multiplied their colonies cotton, mandioc and sugar were grown in large quantities the cotton manufacture soon became an important industry but the mysterious Amazon whose entrance was guarded by the town of Pará seemed most attractive of all no civilized man had penetrated its length since Oriana's adventurous voyage of a century before in 1638 Jacomé Raimundo an able Brazilian temporarily acting as governor of Pará determined to explore the Great River the expedition which he sent out found its way up the windings of the multitudinous journals and after 8 months reached the first Spanish settlement in the east of Ecuador the Spanish authorities at Lima and Quito saw no particular value in a route through a territory in which no gold or silver had been discovered and which by the Spanish policy could not be used for commerce but when two years later Portugal regained her independence the expedition turned out to have been of vast importance the Portuguese had found the practicable route into the Great River valley they controlled the mouth of the stream and though the whole territory lay west of the Tordesillas line Spain never asserted any effective claim to it meanwhile the conquest of the great interior plateaus to the south was rapidly proceeding the wars with the Dutch rather stimulated than retarded it for so long as the Dutch commanded on the sea the widely separated provinces were obliged to communicate by land and the Indian routes became better known to Brazilians settlers driven from the sugar plantations on the coast took up cattle raising in the interior of the northern provinces in the extreme south as early as 1635 the Paulistas had routed out to Jesuit settlements from the whole region of the Parana to the north they traversed the south and the plateau of Goias Manuel Correa explored the latter region in 1647 and in 1671 another Paulista, Domingos Georges penetrated with a force of subject Indians into the great treeless plains which extend beyond the mountain ranges bounding the San Francisco valley on the north these plains are now the state of Piawi at about the same time the cattle razors who had established themselves on the lower south in Bahia crossed over into the same territory of Piawi within a short time the Indians were reduced to submission and the cattle ranges were extended over the plains of Piawi, southern Seara and the adjacent provinces this great conquest completed the junction of southern and central Brazil with Maranhão and Pará long lines of land communication were established and over them travel was more frequent than would seem likely Piawi and Seara soon produced an enormous surplus of cattle whose export into other provinces brought about a revolution in the alimentation of the coast Brazilians the Indians along the northeast coast were gradually incorporated, destroyed or pushed back though it was not until 1699 that they were finally subdued in Rio Grande do Norte from this time dates the astonishing development of the population of Seara who during this century have furnished nearly all the labour for the gathering of rubber in the south settlements multiplied up and down the coast from Rio until nearly the whole of the present state was occupied Rio and Sao Paulo flourished with the profits of the clandestine trade with the Spanish colonies the Paulistas continued to spread in every direction by 1654 they had occupied the headwaters of the Paraíba as Saracaba during the period just following the expulsion of the Dutch the Portuguese government was not able to enforce its policy of commercial exclusivism treaties with Holland and England gave the citizens of those countries a right to trade with Brazil and the colonists kept up their commerce with the Spanish possessions municipal charters were freely grounded to Brazilian towns and the existing franchises reformed according to the most liberal model in Portugal that of Porto Brazilians were relieved of the absurd feudal distinctions which exempted nobles alone from liability to torture and regulated the clothes a man might wear the extraordinary rapidity of Brazil's increase in population and territory during the middle of the 17th century was largely due to comparative freedom from vexatious restrictions and exactions commercial and governmental by the end of the century there were three quarters of a million people in Brazil a five-fold increase in 70 years in spite of the fact that the most populous provinces had been the scene of war for 24 years of that time but the Portuguese government lost little time in returning to the old restrictive conditions since the loss of the Indies Brazil was Portugal's principal source of wealth and aristocracy and court made the most of the unhappy colony navigation companies were chartered and given a monopoly of all commerce export and import the Jesuits renewed their efforts to gain control of the Indians in Sao Paulo they had no chance of success but in the north the celebrated padre Antonio Vieira one of the greatest geniuses that Portugal has ever produced was given a free hand he nearly smothered the whites of Maranhão and Pará with a ring of missions and his successors established settlements on the Amazon which finally spread so as to communicate with the Spanish missions in Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay the Brazilians of Maranhão and Pará did not object to the occupation of the valley of the Amazon but they bitterly resented the Jesuit encroachments in their own neighborhood in 1684 a rebellion finally broke out in Maranhão under the leadership of Manuel Beckmann he paid the forfeit with his life but his work had warned the Portuguese authorities that they must not push their favors to the Jesuits too far during the long Dutch war many Pernambucan Negroes had fled into the interior where they had established themselves in independent communities and refused to recognize white supremacy they fortified their villages with palisades, obtained wives by raids on the plantations devised rude forms of administering justice and adopted a religion which was a mixture of the nature worship of their African ancestors and the outward forms of Christianity in spite of numerous efforts to destroy them these strange republics lasted 50 years it was not until 1697 that a Paulista chief Domingos Roche who was employed after the regulars had failed succeeded in shutting the Negroes up in their great palisade at Palmares 7000 men took part in the assault and of the 10 000 Negroes who defended it, none were spared this was the only serious attempt at revolt on the part of the blacks which ever occurred in Brazil except for a few easily suppressed insurrections which mostly occurred in Bahia among the recent arrivals the Negroes remained in abject submission until nearly the end of the 19th century the comparative mildness of the Brazilian treatment of Negroes the practice of voluntary manumission and the fact that no impenetrable race barrier existed all contributed to make slavery a less fearful thing in Brazil than in North America both Spain and Portugal claimed the coast between Santos and the river plate until the Treaty of Tordesillas but neither nation had made any serious attempt to take position up to the end of the 17th century as a matter of fact the Tordesillas line passed near the southern boundary of the Brazilian state of São Paulo but the Portuguese maps pushed all Brazil 8 degrees to the east and Portugal claimed that the line passed near the point where the Paraná and Uruguay unite to form the plate the Paulistas had made this claim effective over much of the disputed territory for a century after the foundation of Buenos Aires the Spaniards failed to occupy the north margin of the plate and in 1680 the Portuguese forestalled them by founding a colony and fort called Colonia directly opposite Buenos Aires the Spanish governor promptly resented this piece of audacity and captured the place but was compelled to restore it immediately by orders from Madrid Luis XIV who was then arbiter of Europe had no mind to allow a war to be precipitated over a so insignificant a matter as a post in an uninhabited part of South America however the question of right to the territory was left open for future determination Colonia at that time was chiefly valued as an outrepo for clandestine trade with the Spanish provinces but to its existence can be traced Brazilian possession of the great states of Paraná Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul and even Brazil's dominance in the Upper Paraná valley a dominance which would have been lost had Spain insisted upon the truth or the sea as line End of section 33