A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

It was the Dutch who next had a shot for the prize of supremacy in Brazil, and a very successful shot it was. Spain had by this time passed the zenith of her prosperity, and was “hasting to her setting.” Holland was becoming a predominant maritime power in Europe, and her companies and adventurers were resolutely determined to establish empires both in the Orient and the Western Hemisphere, and some of the settlements which they founded in those vigorous years own allegiance to the Dutch flag to-day.

Holland sent her best sailors to Brazil, and for a time it looked as if the dominion not only of Spain but of Portugal also was ended in that quarter of the globe. For a time the Dutch were practically complete masters of many of the principal provinces. But the Brazilians had a spirit of their own, and never at any time showed a disposition to submit tamely to the encroachments of the Dutch. When the successful revolution in Portugal threw off the Spanish domination in 1640, and the Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King of Portugal, under the title of Dom João IV, and was recognised as the rightful sovereign to all the Portuguese possessions not under Dutch control, an armistice was signed between Holland and Portugal. But that did not affect the Brazilians overmuch; they continued their strenuous attempts to get rid of the Dutch. The people of Maranhão rose in revolt in 1642, and the Pernambucans followed suit in 1645. The battles that followed were adverse to the Dutch arms, and finally the commander, General van Schoppe, had to capitulate, all the fortresses still occupied by the Dutch being turned over to the King of Portugal.

It is perhaps as well for both countries that Holland had to relax her hold, for the Brazilians were separated from their Dutch conquerors by the differences of language, and the still more vital differences of religion. Protestantism is not understood in the South American republics, and therefore any attempts by Holland to make the Brazilians conform to the tenets of the Reformed Church could only have ended in signal failure. The fierce Latin spirit was well manifested by the great leader of the Brazilian revolt, Juan Fernandez Vievia, when at the battle of Tabocas he urged his troops against the alien invaders with the words, “Portuguese! At the heretics! God is with us!”

THE RAILWAY UP TO CORCOVADA.

Out of this victorious struggle with the Dutch, Brazil emerged a nation, though it was not for some time yet that she was to forswear the suzerainty of Portugal and declare her own autonomy.

The next stage in her variegated history is a quiet one. During the remainder of the seventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth century the connection with Portugal was maintained undisturbed, and the period of calm was occupied by the colonists to penetrate farther and farther into the interior, spreading agriculture, increasing existing crops and raising new ones.

COMING DOWN FROM CORCOVADA.

A big development came during the early years of the nineteenth century. The Napoleonic wars had caused all kinds of disruptions and complications, and naturally Portugal, which was in the thick of the struggle, could not escape them. The Prince Regent, Dom João VI, began to find Lisbon too hot to hold him, and he transferred the Court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808. The Brazilians received him well, but his reign there was not happy. When affairs in the home country became more quiet the monarch’s counsellors in Lisbon urged his return, and with that request he complied, his son, Dom Pedro, remaining at Rio as Prince Regent. Signs were abundantly evident that the spirit of nationhood had established itself very firmly in the hearts of the Brazilian people, and that they were not prepared to brook interference from the Court in Lisbon, which was constantly acting in a high-handed and arbitrary manner. Many national leaders of eminence arose, and it was not long before a declaration of independence was made, and Portugal did little or nothing to prevent the severance. But Dom Pedro, who, whatever his faults may have been, had a national resilience of mind, determined to stop with the reformers, and his reward came when he was promoted to the headship of the State under the imposing title of Emperor.