A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

“Carboreto.” These are only a few of the many results of these strange alliances, for there are hundreds of variations resulting from further matrimonial complications. Yet the Brazilian claims them all as comprising one nation. Further, there are to-day many strong and settled colonies of Germans, Italians, and Spaniards in different localities, particularly in the south, which are at present entirely free from the admixture of the diverse strains that run all through the central and northern States. All over Brazil pure negroes still exist, as well as undiluted Indians, and they have the same rights and privileges as their lighter-skinned neighbours, and mix with them with a freedom that is scarcely found in any other country. There is no colour question in Brazil, no antagonism as in the United States of the north, and it seems extremely likely that the merging of the diverse races will go on uninterruptedly until a new type is evolved. When one looks back and considers the problems that confronted the mere handful of adventurous Portuguese pioneers who first settled upon this vast continent, it does not seem at all remarkable that they should have mingled with the races they found and with the slave women they imported. The rough adventurers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries went out to seek their fortunes in wild countries, and they would hesitate to take their womenfolk, even if the latter were not loath to go. This led to their alliances with native and foreign races, and to the population which was destined to hold, if not to develop, the vast country which lay around them. The negro, who has a reputation for laziness, has not transmitted to his descendants any remarkable qualities for activity, unless it be the irrepressible emotionalism which is characteristic of many of the inhabitants of Brazil. Nor has the Indian who for such long ages lived in the most primeval fashion transmitted much initiative. So that what there is of activity and progress in the race to-day must come from the Portuguese and other European ancestry. It is an interesting study, full of suggestion, this of pedigree, even if the student is unsuccessful in arriving at any definite conclusion. The resources of the country are enormous, diverse, and practically inexhaustible, but they have been lying for all the ages hardly touched and generally inadequately worked. The mixed inhabitants are settled upon lands which shelve down from the mountains to the Atlantic coast, or along the banks of the mighty rivers which flow through the impenetrable forests out to sea. There are vast districts of virgin forest and trackless wild where white man has never penetrated, and where the aboriginal Indian is just as savage and untamed as were his ancestors upwards of four centuries ago when European mariners first landed on their shores. Brazil, as we know it to-day, or at least the civilised portion of it, was created by Portugal, and it was one of the distinguished sons of that little nation who had the honour of being its discoverer. In the year 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral, sailing from Lisbon ostensibly to make an all-sea voyage to India, diverted his course off the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to the south-west. Forty-two days after leaving Portugal the eyes of the adventurous seaman rested upon Mount Paschoal in the State of Bahia.

BEAUTIES AT PERNAMBUCO.

The event was momentous and the hour propitious, for everything favoured Portuguese expansion. The independence of the little kingdom was an accomplished fact, and the possibility of absorption of it by Spain was a remote contingency. The Moors, driven out of the Iberian Peninsula and hurled back to their native Africa, were no longer a menace. In addition to this the Portuguese were quick to perceive that a new era was dawning upon the world, and they were determined to have a hand in the shaping and controlling the future destinies of the newly discovered continent. The conquest and colonisation of Brazil were a national corollary to the earlier discoveries of Portuguese navigators. Cabral, with his companions, was at first inclined to believe that they had struck upon another island similar to those recently discovered in the Caribbean seas by their Spanish rivals, and he christened it, after the fashion of the period, “The Island of the True Cross,” and it was only when the geographical error was realised that the name was altered to Brazil. This name had been used long before, for a western island of the Azores was named “De Brazi,” being derived from the red dye woods which grow so plentifully in tropical latitudes.

NEAR RIO.

Following immediately upon the discovery of “Brazil” by Cabral and the nominal possession of it by the Crown of Portugal, expeditions were sent, and in two of these the celebrated Amerigo Vespucci took part. He built a fort at Cape Frio, and was so struck by the loveliness of the surrounding country that he thought he was in the region of an earthly paradise. Voyagers on their way to the Indies began to touch upon the Brazilian coast, and it soon became explored by navigators of different nationalities. Portugal, jealous of her rights, had to protect it from the traders of France, who were beginning to have dealings with the natives upon its shores, and in 1527 a post was established for the protection of Portuguese interests. This fort or garrison at Pernambuco was the scene of one or two raids by both French and English seamen, and which hastened the Portuguese Crown to take serious steps to occupy the new territory in a more imposing manner. In 1531 Martin Affonso, with a fleet and about 300 colonists, landed at Pernambuco, and coasted down in the Bay of Rio, and to the mouth of the bay where Santos now stands. On behalf of the Crown he divided the land out into sections, running from the coast into the interior indefinitely, and these were granted to nobles of the Court, who were so unsuccessful in developing their concessions that they were allowed to revert to the Crown. The Portuguese, unlike their Spanish rivals, made no great expeditions into the hinterland of their new colony, and were slow to bring the Indians under their rule. The vastness of the country, and the ease with which the natives could withdraw from the invaders, made it necessary for the governors who were planted up and down the coast to have recourse to the importation of negro slaves from Africa to the northern provinces. Gradually the traders made journeys into the interior, generally along the rivers, to trade with natives, and villages took root; but the greater part of the population settled upon the coasts in such towns as Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio, Espirito Santo, São Paulo, etc.

Of course there were rapacious traders who tried to exact too much from the natives, but a salutary check against their tyranny was soon provided by the Jesuits. These enthusiastic and energetic followers of Loyola have left a deep and abiding mark on nearly all the South American communities. They built churches, founded schools, and taught the Indians the arts of agriculture, and all that they asked in return was obedience and conformity with the rites of the Church. The “Paulistas,” as the lay settlers were termed, saw in Jesuit influence an obstacle to their own domination over the supply of native labour, and conflicts between the religious and secular powers lasted for more than a century, the mother country sometimes siding with one faction and sometimes with the other. But the priests persisted with that zeal which is the traditional mark of their order, and suffered persecution, privation, and even death, rather than relinquish their mission. Vestiges of their work are still to be found in many parts of Brazil and neighbouring States, notably in the place-names, which are often derived from the saints, symbols, and sacraments of the Church.

In the welter of South American politics Brazil has suffered those frequent changes of government which have been the fate of every republic existing in the sub-continent to-day. The first European country to contest the claim of Portugal to this vast territory was France. But although an island in the Bay of Rio was occupied by some French troops in 1515, the danger of permanent French rule was never a strong probability, and it was not long before the invaders were dislodged. A more serious phase of its history was when, in the year 1581, Philip II of Spain united the two kingdoms in the Peninsula, and the affairs of the Brazilian colony were directed from headquarters at Madrid.