Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1

CHAPTER IX.

BRAZIL; FAILURE OF THE FRENCH AT RIO DE JANEIRO

1510-1570

In following the progress of discovery in South America it is necessary to turn to another direction. The main centres from which discoveries were made may for general purposes be set down as three, namely:—(1.) From the Isthmus of Panama by the Spaniards; (2.) From the river Plata by the Spaniards; and (3.) From Bahia, on the coast of Brazil, by the Portuguese. We have now to turn to the last-named point.

1510.

The date at which the first Portuguese settler established himself in Bahia was about 1510. The name of this pioneer was Diogo Alvarez, the sole survivor of a crew wrecked to the north of that beautiful bay. He made himself useful to the natives, and being the fortunate possessor of a musket and some gunpowder, he so impressed their imaginations that they presently made him their chief. After a time, taking advantage of the visit of a French vessel, he was enabled to return to Europe and to initiate a trade between France and the region in which his lot was cast. He likewise desired that his countrymen should colonize the province; but the Portuguese Government were disposed rather to lend assistance towards establishing a trade between their own and distant countries than to encourage agricultural settlements abroad. For this reason, Brazil, which, from the nature of its population, offered but scanty inducements to traders, was neglected for many years after its discovery. At length, however, it became of sufficient importance to attract attention, and the system was adopted, which had succeeded in other Portuguese settlements, of apportioning it out into captaincies, extending, as a rule, each for fifty leagues along the coast.

1531

The first person who took possession of one of these captaincies was Martim Affonso de Sousa, afterwards governor of the Portuguese possessions in India, and who had the distinction of carrying St. Francis Xavier to the East. He has the honour of having discovered the bay on which was to rise the future capital of Brazil, and which, under the belief that it was the estuary of a river, he named Rio de Janeiro, having discovered it on the first of January.

Having surveyed the coast southward to the Plata, he selected as a spot for a settlement an island in the twenty-fourth degree of southern latitude, and was fortunate enough to conciliate the good-will of the neighbouring population through the medium of a ship-wrecked Portuguese sailor whom he found amongst them. This colony soon removed to the island of S. Vicente, from which the captaincy was named. Here Martim Affonso introduced the sugar-cane, and reared the first cattle known to that region.

Amongst the other captaincies founded about this period were those of S. Amaro, which adjoined S. Vicente, and Espirito Santo to the north. Next came the captaincy of Porto Seguro, where Cabral had landed on first taking possession of Brazil. Here sugar-works were established with considerable success. Beyond came the captaincy of the Ilheos or Isles, so called from a river with three islands near its bar. The town of old S. Paulo was soon afterwards founded.

The coast from the San Francisco river to the point of Padram de Bahia was granted to Francisco Coutinho, a distinguished Fidalgo, to whom was likewise assigned that beautiful bay with its surrounding creeks and hundred islands. It may be mentioned, as showing the mixture of Portuguese and native blood which from the earliest settlement existed in the Brazilian race, that two of Coutinho’s followers married daughters of the first Portuguese settler, Diogo Alvarez, the mothers of whom were native women. A son of one of the neighbouring chiefs having been killed by the Portuguese, the savages attacked Coutinho, and after seven years of hostilities compelled him to abandon his settlement and retreat to the adjoining captaincy of the Isles. He was afterwards treacherously slain.

One other captaincy was established about this time—that of Pernambuco, the chief town of which, from its lovely situation, received the suggestive name of Olinda. The tribe occupying the vicinity were called Cahetes, and have handed down to this day the remarkable wicker-work catamarans, which those who have landed at Pernambuco are not likely to forget. From this savage tribe, Coelho, to whom the grant was assigned, had to conquer by inches what had been granted to him by leagues; he was even attacked and besieged in his town. By degrees, however, and by the aid of an alliance with another tribe, he at length established himself in his captaincy.

The captaincy of Maraham was assigned to John de Barros, the historian, who, dividing his grant with two others, undertook a scheme of conquest as well as of colonization, sending out from Portugal an expedition of nine hundred men. Fortune, however, did not smile upon the enterprise. The fleet was wrecked on some shoals, and the survivors escaped to the island which bears the above-mentioned name.

It does not lie within the compass of this work to go into the condition of the native tribes in any part of South America previously to the arrival of the Spaniards and Portuguese. It will be sufficient to indicate the materials, whether European, native, mixed, or African, of which the several States of South America were composed at the period of their declaring themselves independent of Spain and Portugal, respectively. We therefore pass over much that is interesting, as told by the early writers, of the condition of the tribes as they were found by the settlers in Brazil, a résumé of which may be found in the pages of Southey. There is not much of an active nature to relate in the history of the several captaincies at this period beyond a tale of successive little wars, in which the Portuguese were for the most part allied with some one native tribe against another.

1549.

It was not until the lapse of half a century after the discovery of Brazil that the Portuguese possessions in that region came to be looked upon as being of real importance to the mother country. It then began to be perceived that the system of having so many captaincies or separate governments, under no supreme authority nearer than Lisbon, was one likely to be productive of considerable inconvenience and confusion. The lives and property of the colonists were at the mercy of the several governors, and serious complaints of this state of things reached the king of Portugal. It was resolved, therefore, to revoke the powers of the captains, whilst leaving them their grants, and to appoint over them a governor-general. The person chosen for this high office was De Sousa, who was instructed to establish himself at Bahia, which place he was to put into a state of defence against all enemies. He took with him the great Nobrega and some other Jesuit Fathers, the first of their order who proceeded to South America. A new town was now built at Bahia. A hundred houses arose within four months, and De Sousa’s fleet was followed at no great distance of time by another, bearing a number of maidens of noble family, who were to be given in marriage to the officers and to receive dowries from the royal property. Young orphans were likewise sent out year by year to be educated by the Jesuits, who at once began the system of beneficence towards the natives from which they never deviated; but they could not here, as they had done elsewhere, engraft the principles of Christianity upon the existing religion and manners of the country. It was impossible to come to any compromise with cannibalism, and almost impossible to wean the natives from this custom. The Jesuits, however, persevered in the face of all difficulties; they built churches; they established schools for children; they taught these to read and to write; and they made themselves acquainted with the native tongues, into which they translated the prayers of the Church. They had considerable difficulties, however, to encounter in reconciling their teaching with the practice of their fellow-countrymen; for it must be remembered that, during the half century that elapsed between the discovery of Brazil and the arrival of the Fathers, the colonists had been without religious guides. In one respect the Jesuits’ work was easy. The youthful Brazilians showed themselves passionately fond of music, and were in this branch of education eager and apt pupils.

1552.

The number of Jesuits soon increased, and in the year 1552 Nobrega received the title of Vice-Provincial of Brazil. Two years later that government became the seat of a bishop, to whose arrival Nobrega anxiously looked forward for support against the easy-going priests, who, far from being imbued with the zeal of the Jesuits, connived at their countrymen enslaving the Brazilians and making their women their concubines. A Jesuit College was established in the plains of Riatininga, about thirteen leagues from S. Vicente, to which thirteen of the company were sent, and which received the name of S. Paulo, a name shared by the town which arose adjoining it. The chief of this establishment, the celebrated Anchieta, devoted himself by day and by night to the instruction of the numerous pupils who came to him from the neighbouring settlements, whilst at the same time he did his best to acquaint them with the arts of civilization.

1558.

From the time of the discovery of Brazil the French had occasionally visited that coast, and about the year 1558 they attempted to establish themselves at Rio de Janeiro under Villegagnon, the same who had conveyed Mary Queen of Scots from Scotland to Brittany, eluding the vigilance of the English. He had obtained the permission of his sovereign to undertake an expedition to America, having given his assurances to Coligny that he would protect Protestants in the new colony. He received two large vessels and a store-ship, together with all that was necessary for the furtherance of his project. Being well received by the natives at Rio de Janeiro, who were hostile to the Portuguese, he took up his position on an island in the noble bay, not far from the entrance. Here he erected a small fortification, to which he gave the name of Coligny; in choosing a spot for a settlement, however, he had overlooked one great disadvantage, the absence of water. His expedition had been badly provided with stores; in consequence, his men were immediately on their arrival made to subsist upon the food of the country, and the result was a conspiracy against him. It was, however, thwarted by the fidelity of three Scotchmen whom Villegagnon reserved as his guard. Coligny was indefatigable in supplying the wants of the colony, but he had been deceived by Villegagnon’s protestations of zeal for the reformed religion, which had been feigned for the purpose of gaining the admiral’s influence. In Brazil he threw off the mask, and those who had joined his settlement for the sake of liberty of conscience found themselves even worse off than they had been in France.

The Portuguese permitted the French colony to remain for four years unmolested, and had it not been for the treachery and double-dealing of Villegagnon, Rio de Janeiro might have remained a permanent French settlement. Some ten thousand Huguenots were ready to emigrate, with their arts, had they been sure of meeting with toleration; but the governor’s arbitrary proceedings ruined the project. The court of Lisbon was at length aroused by Nobrega to the dangerous rivalry of the French, and orders were issued to destroy their fortifications at Rio de Janeiro, two ships of war and a number of merchantmen being fitted out for the purpose. Two days and nights were expended in battering the fortresses. The Portuguese, after much waste of their resources, at length succeeded in carrying the largest of the outworks, and likewise the rock on which the magazine was situated. During the ensuing night the French and their native allies fled, either to the ships or to the mainland. The Portuguese, not being in sufficient strength to enable them to retain the island, demolished the works, and sailed for Santos, carrying off the artillery and stores. The credit of this successful expedition is entirely due to the indefatigable Nobrega.

During this decisive affair Villegagnon was absent in France, where he proposed to raise a fleet for the purpose of destroying the Portuguese settlements in Brazil; but his previous treachery stood in the way of his effecting his purpose.

The history of the early Portuguese in Brazil is in some respects far more satisfactory, if it be less exciting, than that of the Spaniards in Peru. They were there for the legitimate purpose of colonizing and cultivating a portion of a vast region where there was ample room at the same time for them and for the tribes in their neighbourhood; and if the colonists, on the one hand, were ever ready to enslave the natives, the Churchmen who followed in their wake were, on the other hand, as ready to denounce the practice, and to sow the seeds of real Christianity amongst the savages. The foremost name in the records of this good work is that of Nobrega, than whom a more sincere, self-denying, and enlightened missionary was never sent forth by any branch of the Christian Church.

The Jesuits in Brazil began their efforts where all missionary efforts that are to succeed must begin, with children. Their unprejudiced minds were open to teaching, and they were at an age to acquire the Portuguese language, and thus to become interpreters for the Fathers. The sick were visited, and the death-bed was soothed. Nobrega and his companions commenced their work with the tribes near San Salvador or Bahia. These they tried their best to persuade to live in peace and to be reconciled to their enemies. It may seem to us somewhat strange that while the Fathers are recorded to have succeeded in inducing their converts to abstain from excessive drinking, and to take to one wife alone, they should still have found it impossible to induce them to abandon the supreme luxury of feeding on the flesh of their enemies. In one instance a missionary is said to have succeeded where others failed, by flagellating himself before the doors of the cannibals until he was covered with blood, telling them that he thus punished himself to avert the punishment of God upon them for their sins.

Being aided by a zealous governor in the person of Mem de Sa, the Jesuits carried on their labours with considerable success, forming a number of settlements of converted natives. But the character of their progress was not unvaried. They had to contend with hostilities, which, though originating in the proceedings of their countrymen, and in nowise in their own conduct, still recoiled upon them. The small-pox, too, which spread from island to coast, is said, though perhaps with some exaggeration, to have carried off thirty thousand of the Indians who had been their converts.

In the face of these disasters, Nobrega proclaimed aloud that the Portuguese were but suffering the righteous judgment of Heaven. They had broken treaties; they had enslaved prisoners; they had connived at cannibalism on the part of their allies. He was no mere eloquent declaimer. His words were followed by the most signal and heroic proof that they came from his innermost soul. He himself, with his colleague Anchieta, resolved to put themselves into the hands of the natives in order to obtain peace; and it speaks volumes for the character of the Fathers that, in the face of Portuguese treachery, the habit of their order was a safe passport amongst the savages.

It is true that twelve native youths were sent to S. Vicente as hostages; but in face of the excitement and prejudice which prevailed, it is probable that the two Fathers, who really deserved the name of holy men, owed their safety, and what they valued infinitely more, the success of their mission, rather to their own saintly and irreproachable conduct than to the guarantee of hostages. They nobly refused to accept peace on the condition of recommending their governor to give up three native chiefs who had allied themselves with the Portuguese, and who had accepted Christianity: their countrymen’s first duty, they said, was to keep faith inviolate, and if they should betray their allies, how could they now be trusted? The reply of the chief with whom they parleyed was, that if the Portuguese should decline to give up these men whom, according to their code of honour, it was incumbent they should receive, there should be no peace. A reference to the governor was agreed upon on both sides; but Nobrega, with a patriotic spirit which recalls that of the Roman Regulus, warned him emphatically against concluding peace on disgraceful terms under the apprehension of what might befall himself and his colleague. For two months the missionaries remained in this position. At the end of that time Nobrega was permitted to return, to consult with the governor, whilst Anchieta remained as a hostage; but after three months thus passed by the latter, he too for the time failed to win the crown of martyrdom; and a reconciliation was effected, chiefly through the efforts of Nobrega.

The small-pox about this period seems to have produced enormous havoc in certain of the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, where some three-fourths of the natives were carried away by it, or by the pestilence which followed in its wake. Six of the settlements which had been founded by the Jesuits had to be abandoned; and the Portuguese, we are told, profiting by the misery of their neighbours, gave food in exchange for slaves. Certain starving individuals sold their own persons, whilst others parted with their children. But although the lawfulness of these purchases was not questioned, the consciences of the purchasers were somewhat ill-at-ease in the matter. They, it seems, really thought it unfair and unchristian-like to claim men as their slaves, over whom they had no other right save that acquired by giving them food to save their lives. Yet they were unwilling to let them go free, if for no other reason than that their souls would be no longer in the way of salvation. In this dilemma a compromise was hit upon between God and Mammon; the slaves were told they were no longer slaves; but still, that they must continue to serve their possessors for life, to receive yearly wages. Should they escape, they would be pursued and punished; but the masters were not to sell or otherwise part with them.

1564.

The Portuguese Government were not satisfied that the possession of Villegagnon’s island at Rio de Janeiro should not have been retained; and a good opportunity of regaining it seemed to offer on the peace with the Tamoyos, which had been procured by Nobrega and his companion. Accordingly, the nephew of the Portuguese governor was sent to Bahia with two vessels, and with orders for his uncle to supply him with the force requisite for this purpose. Estacio de Sa reached his destination in February 1564, and in accordance with the advice of his uncle, before commencing operations, summoned Nobrega to his councils. They learned from a Frenchman that the tribe of Tamoyos had already broken the recent peace, and were the allies of his countrymen. This unexpected news completely upset the plans of the Portuguese commander, for the French vessels were protected by the Tamoyos at every point where an attack was possible. They declined to put out to sea, and, for want of small craft, he could not attack them at close quarters. Under these circumstances, and having learned that S. Vicente was beset by the savages, he thought it prudent to proceed to the latter place; he was, however, driven back by a storm to Rio de Janeiro.

It was now resolved by Estacio de Sa, in consultation with Nobrega, to proceed to Santos, where they found to their relief that those natives with whom the latter had been a hostage remained true to their engagements; and his presence and influence materially contributed to strengthen the force. These preparations, however, consumed the remainder of the year, and it was not until the following January (1565) that the expedition, consisting of six ships of war with a proportionate number of smaller craft, was ready to put to sea. But so unfavourable were the winds that, although they sailed from Bertioga on the 20th of January, it was the beginning of March when they reached Rio de Janeiro.

The troops were landed at Villa Velha, beneath the “Sugar Loaf.” Hardly had they intrenched themselves when they were attacked by the Tamoyos, who, however, were routed. The war was carried on with dilatoriness, a quality which has not unfrequently distinguished the military operations of Portugal and of Brazil. More than a year was wasted in petty skirmishes; at the end of this time the governor, Mem de Sa, appeared in person on the scene, exactly two years after the expedition had sailed from S. Vicente. On St. Sebastian’s day the French stronghold was assaulted: not one of their native allies escaped; two Frenchmen were killed, and five, who were made prisoners, were hanged. The victors then proceeded to another fortress of the enemy on Cat Island. After a bombardment this too was carried, but in the assault Estacio de Sa received a mortal wound. Most of the French escaped, and having with their allies been totally defeated, sailed in their four vessels to the province of Pernambuco, where they took possession of Recife. They were, however, attacked by the Portuguese governor of Olinda, and were compelled again to have recourse to their ships. Thus was Rio de Janeiro finally lost to the French. Those of the sons of France who should have formed the enduring colony marked out by Coligny were, through the treachery of Villegagnon, employed in bearing arms against their countrymen in France.

According to his instructions, the governor’s first act was to lay the foundations of a city, which, in honour of the Portuguese monarch and of the saint on whose day the victory had been won, was called S. Sebastian. The fortifications commanding the entrance to the harbour were completed by the natives, under the eye of the Jesuits, without any cost to the state; and it was but fair that the company should have assigned to it the space within the city for a college, together with a donation sufficient for the support of fifty brethren.

The French soon afterwards made an attempt to establish themselves at Paraïba, where for some time they carried on a profitable trade, and where they became allied with the natives; but they were not more successful in maintaining themselves here than they had been at Rio de Janeiro, and Paraïba too became a Portuguese settlement.

1570.

The Order of the Jesuits was at this time all-powerful in Brazil, where they had indeed rendered great services to the crown as well as to the Church; and a fresh accession to their strength was despatched with the new governor, Luiz de Vasconcellos, who, in 1570, was appointed to relieve Mem de Sa. The reinforcement which he brought with him was headed by Azevedo, who was appointed Provincial. Nine and thirty brethren embarked with Azevedo in the “St. Iago,” half of which vessel was freighted for them, the other half bearing cargo for the island of Palma in the Canaries. The vessel had halted at Madeira, and as the passage to Palma was considered to be dangerous on account of French pirates, Azevedo was entreated not to expose himself unnecessarily. For himself he declined to take the advice given him, but he permitted his comrades to exchange into another vessel. Only four novices, whose places were quickly supplied by others, thought fit to do so; for the rest, the near probability of the crown of martyrdom had an irresistible charm. On the day after their departure five French ships appeared. Vasconcellos at once put to sea; but the Frenchmen declined action, and stood off towards the Canaries. The squadron was from La Rochelle, and was commanded by a Huguenot. After seven days, Azevedo reached the island of Palma, at three leagues’ distance from the town, to which he was urged to proceed by land. The advice was disregarded, with the result that, when he and his friends were off Palma, the French appeared in sight. The Portuguese mariners made unavailing resistance, and one alone of the Jesuits, being in lay costume, escaped the death which for them had not only no terror, but seemed to be an object of desire.