The Story of the Nations: Portugal

by H. Morse Stephens

Of the aboriginal inhabitants of this vast country, curious accounts were written by the first Portuguese explorers. They were reported to be partly nomadic, and to live chiefly on fish and fruit, and on the game which they killed in their forests with bows and arrows. They wore little or no clothes, and generally painted their bodies, and some tribes used to smear themselves with gum, and stick beautiful feathers all over them, which made them look at a distance more like great birds than human beings. They grew no corn, but made cakes of cassava root, and used to drink either the pressed juice of fruit or an intoxicating liquor made from honey. They understood how to spin and weave, and build huts; they were great smokers of tobacco, and had some knowledge of the usefulness of the medicinal herbs and drugs which abound in Brazil. Their country, though fertile, seemed destitute of everything of value to Europeans, and it was at first thought that the discovery of Cabral would in no way contribute to the wealth or prosperity of the Portuguese people.

So firmly was this believed, and so absorbed were the king, nobles, and people of Portugal in their Asiatic explorations and conquests, that for many years no attempt was made to form settlements in South America, and no effort to explore the interior of the continent. Two royal ships only for a long time were despatched to Brazil every year to take out and land there condemned convicts and women of bad character, and to bring back parrots and different varieties of wood, notably the brazil wood which gave the new country its popular name. A few families of settlers, partly from Madeira and partly from northern Portugal, also went out on their own account, and established themselves in various chosen spots, where they introduced agriculture and tried in vain to make the natives work for them as slaves. No attempt was made by the Portuguese monarch to superintend these infant settlements, or to decree any form of government for the stray colonists and convicts, who did what seemed good in their own eyes, and in many instances treated the natives with the utmost severity. While soldiers, governors, and officials were despatched in numbers to Asia, there was no thought taken of America; and as one instance of the manner in which Brazil was treated, it may be mentioned that the importation of ginger from that country was prohibited in order not to infringe the Indian monopoly.

This neglect suddenly ceased about the year 1530, when the rumour spread throughout Portugal that Brazil abounded in gold, silver, and precious stones. The natives had made no attempt to work mines, for they attached no value to these commodities, but the knowledge that the precious metals abounded in Peru caused people to believe that they also existed in other parts of the South American continent. The discovery of gold in small quantities, and the rumours of an El Dorado in the interior, soon attracted crowds of adventurers from all parts of Europe; many families from Portugal were then encouraged to emigrate in order to counterbalance these adventurers, and the settlement of the new country was thus commenced in earnest. King John III. was as much excited by the news of the discovery of gold as his courtiers and people, and he sent over to Brazil in 1531 the first royal governor, Martim Affonso de Sousa, with instructions to assert the royal power over the rapidly increasing population of colonists and adventurers, and to arrange for the future government of the country. Martim Affonso de Sousa, who was afterwards Governor-General of Portuguese India, was a wise and prudent statesman; though unsupported by any soldiers he made a sort of royal progress through Brazil, and he strongly advised the king to let the country develop by itself without interference from home. For government, he advised that the form of administration which had sprung up in the various settled districts should be confirmed and not interfered with. This form of government was simply the combination of all the inhabitants of each settlement into a sort of little state, which elected an officer called captain, who exercised a sort of patriarchal authority, and superintended measures of defence against either natives or other colonies of settlers. These captains held no royal commission, and imposed no taxes; every man was able to do pretty much what he liked in his own house, and each settlement was ruled not by law, but by the general sentiment of the community. These captains had no authority but what they derived from the willing obedience of the settlers, and every captain exercised more or less authority according to his personal character. Martim Affonso de Sousa saw the advantages of such a system for a new colony, and he advised the king not to send out royal officials from home whose authority would probably be ignored, but to confirm these captains in their authority, and that the settlements already made should be recognized as “captainships.” This was accordingly done; the king was only too glad not to have to despatch soldiers to America as he wanted all he could raise for Asia, and he sanctioned the measures taken by his representative. But he further subdivided the country into three vast “chief captainships,” which he granted to João de Barros, the Portuguese Livy and historian of the Portuguese in Asia, Ayres da Cunha, and Fernão Alvares de Andrade, with instructions to search for gold mines and to exercise a general supervision over the government of the country.

The colonists, who flocked to Brazil from Portugal at this time, were of a very different type to the Portuguese who were sent to Asia. The latter were chiefly soldiers, sailors, and officials, despatched to India and the settlements in the East in royal fleets as servants of the Crown, who, while acknowledging themselves servants of the king, yet went to the East with the idea of making their own fortunes, and eventually returning home to Portugal, while the Brazilian colonists went out at their own expense with their wives and families, and made their homes in their adopted country. These men were invaluable to a new country; they went out with no intention of ever returning home, and with the power and will to labour with their hands. Throughout the sixteenth century a steady succession of Portuguese emigrants made their way to Brazil, either on account of the favourable report of its climate and resources, which they received from their friends or relations already settled there, or in order to escape the misfortunes impending on their own country, and more especially the heavy hand of the Inquisition. Mention has been made of the vast importation of slaves into Portugal; this employment of negro labour threw a number of agricultural labourers out of work, who did not care to enlist as soldiers for the East, and could not make a livelihood in cities, and from this class many of the first colonists to Brazil came. Some weight, too, must be attached to the adventurous nature of the Portuguese people; and this side of their character, which showed itself in individuals in the East, made men who loved a family life better than fighting find their way to the western continent. The colonization of Brazil was essentially popular; it was not initiated by king, priests, or nobles; and illustrates the extreme self-reliance and daring which made Portugal so great at this period. The one blot upon the careers of these early settlers was their treatment of the natives. Accustomed to the existence of slavery at home, they tried to make the natives work for them, and this attempt brought about a bitter hatred between the aboriginal races and the immigrants, which showed itself in murder and massacre. The steady tide of emigration to Brazil did not at this time contribute to the wealth of the mother country; on the contrary, it must be noted as one of the chief causes of that depopulation of Portugal, which has been spoken of as the germ of the decadence of the Portuguese power.

It has been said that some of the emigrants from Portugal to Brazil were moved by a fear of the Inquisition, and hoped to escape from it by going to the New World. Especially was this the case with numbers of the “novaes Christiãos,” or half-converted Jews. This class comprised many families of wealth and influence, who, when they saw the rapid approach of persecution, removed en masse to Brazil. In the new country they thought themselves free, and were joined by many of their unconverted brethren, who had been expelled by King Emmanuel. As usual, even if not wealthy, these people were able to raise money, and they brought into the new colony, what it most needed, capital. Many of the greatest families in Brazil trace their descent from these laborious and hard-working colonists, who, as in every other place, gave an impulse to trade and industrial development unfelt before. It was owing to their perspicacity that the sugar-cane, the greatest source of Brazilian wealth, was introduced into the colony from Madeira in the year 1548, and they started the direct slave trade with the Guinea Coast, recognizing both the impossibility of reducing the aboriginal races into a state of servitude, and the advantages of negro labour. From all these causes, Brazil was growing a wealthy colony by the middle of the sixteenth century, possessing many well-populated and well-cultivated districts upon the sea coast, surrounding the various ports and harbours, where prosperous towns had sprung up, of which may be noted at this time Pernambuco, Tamacara, Ilheos, Porto Seguro, and St. Vincent.

The prosperity of Brazil attracted the attention of John III., and he at last decided to establish a viceroyalty there, instead of leaving the colonists to govern themselves, and for the first governor-general he selected a nobleman of talent and experience, Dom Thomas de Sousa. At the same time the king revoked his decree forming the three “chief captainships,” and granted his representative full powers to arrange for a new system of administration. In 1549 Dom Thomas de Sousa arrived in Brazil with a fleet of six ships of war, many officials for the new government, a strong force of soldiers, and the first contingent of Jesuits, who were despatched with the especial purpose of converting the natives. Fortunately for Brazil, Thomas de Sousa was a great statesman; he made no attempt to enforce his powers unduly; he carefully avoided interfering with the subordinate captainships, and left the system of local government established in each without modification; he made no attempt to levy taxes or to interfere with the liberties of the people, and even avoided quartering his soldiers in any of the existing towns. He perceived that the weak point of the existing administration was that the captainships were too independent of each other, scattered as they were down the coast like little states, and he therefore determined to found a capital, and to establish a central government, which, without interfering with local liberties, should become a court of appeal, and regulating power over them. The place he selected for his capital was at the head of All Saints Bay, better known as the Bay of Bahia, where he erected the city of San Salvador. This town he made the headquarters of his troops, and the seat of the central government, and the Jesuit fathers also made it their point of departure. The most important question that Thomas de Sousa had to face was the treatment of the aboriginal tribes. The attempts of the Portuguese settlers to reduce them to slavery had been met with stubborn resistance, and a chronic war raged along all the landward boundaries of the captainships. The natives did not often attack the settlements of the Europeans, but they resisted any advance towards the interior, and small parties of Portuguese attempting to settle in the interior were often massacred. Dom Thomas de Sousa determined to check this continuous guerilla warfare by both warlike and peaceful measures. He sent his troops, and led them himself, against tribes which had committed any particular act of atrocity, and punished them severely, and at the same time he gave all the help in his power to the measures of the Jesuits for civilizing them.

The history of the Jesuits in Brazil is far more glorious if less interesting than that of the Jesuits in India. In America they had not to contend with the trained and subtle intellects of the Hindus, who were able and ready to meet them in the most abstruse philosophical arguments, but with simple-minded savages willing to be taught. The success of the famous Society was unbounded; the teachings of Christianity did far more to quiet the aboriginal inhabitants than the swords of De Sousa’s soldiers, and in a comparatively short space of time, either Jesuits, or native emissaries trained and taught by them, had penetrated many miles into the interior of the continent. The rapid conversion and civilization of the native tribes produced many fortunate results: the great domain of Portugal in South America was saved much of the terrible warfare with savages, which marks the history of the English settlers in North America; but, on the other hand, peace between the two races brought about intermarriage, and produced a class of mestizos, or half-breeds, which now includes about a quarter of the population. This conversion to the Christian religion was not hastened or in any way assisted by the terrible power of the Inquisition. That institution, which did so much to weaken the influence of Christianity in India, by its auto-da-fés and its persecution of the Nestorian Christians was never allowed to take root in Brazil, and the atrocities of Goa were not imitated at San Salvador or Rio de Janeiro. Many reasons have been given for the non-establishment of the Inquisition, but the chief credit is undoubtedly due to Dom Thomas de Sousa, who was well aware of the services rendered to Brazil by the “novaes Christiãos” and other persons, whose orthodoxy could be impeached, and who urged at the Court of Lisbon, that it would be impossible to establish such a hated institution as the Inquisition against the will of the people of the captainships without the assistance of a powerful army, and as the king wanted all his soldiers for India, he gave up the idea of setting up an offshoot of the Holy Office in America.

The establishment of the Jesuits in Brazil, the foundation of a central authority to superintend but not harass the captainships, and the pursuance of a steady and uniform policy towards the natives, are the points which mark the government of Dom Thomas de Sousa. That of his successor, Duarte da Costa, was less important than his predecessor’s. He followed De Sousa’s example, and the prosperity of Brazil became so obvious that emigration from unhappy and declining Portugal continued to such an extent that the Europeans in the colony doubled in number during his administration. One point of his administration deserves notice, namely, that he superseded the old earthen fortifications round the principal towns by walls, and erected forts to guard the most important harbours, mounted with artillery. These precautions show that there was fear of foreign aggression; other European nations heard of the wealth and fertility of Brazil, and coveted its possession, and a systematic attempt to oust or conquer the Portuguese was made in the next century by the Dutch. During the sixteenth century, however, only one nation, the French, attempted to make a settlement in Brazil, and their effort deserves a brief notice.