The Story of the Nations: Portugal

by H. Morse Stephens

To turn from the history of Portugal in the eighteenth century to the history of the Portuguese possessions in India is a melancholy task; for these possessions instead of being a source of pride were a source of expense and anxiety to the home government, and they were maintained rather from a recollection of ancient greatness and as a base for mission work than for any actual advantage derived from them. In 1739 Bassein, the “Capital of the North” as it was called, a city which had been second only to Goa in commercial and political importance, was captured by Chimnājī Apā, a Marātha general, after a three months’ siege, and with it fell Thana and all the possessions of the Portuguese on the north-west coast except Daman and Diu. In 1741 the Marāthas and the Bhonslās of Sawantwārī over-ran the country round Goa and threatened the city, but in the moment of difficulty, the Marquis of Louriçal arrived with twelve thousand men, and first defeated the Marāthas at Bardez, and then made Khem Sawant, the ruler of Sawantwārī, tributary. His successes were followed by those of the Marquis of Castello Novo, who captured Alorna, Tiracol, Neutim, Rarim, and Satari; and the Marquis of Tavora, who took Sadashivgarh.

But the Portuguese Government had no desire to make fresh conquests which it would need fresh supplies of money from home to defend, and the Count of Ega was ordered to surrender most of the conquered towns to their former owners. Meanwhile commerce had entirely deserted the Portuguese possessions, which were given over to the Church; and Captain Hamilton in his travels, after speaking of the poverty of the Portuguese inhabitants, says that he counted no fewer than eighty churches and convents in Goa, and that there were no less than thirty thousand priests in the city and territory. Revenue there was none, and the two thousand European soldiers who defended the ancient capital of Alboquerque had to be paid out of the Portuguese treasury. The last blow was given to what little commerce still remained by Pombal’s suppression of the Jesuits, and in 1759 “Golden Goa,” which had become unhealthy and ruinous, was left to priests and monks, and the seat of government was removed to Panjim. Pombal, with his practical insight, saw that nothing was to be made out of the Portuguese possessions in India, and spent all his efforts in Asia in promoting the prosperity of Macao; and in 1794, when Portugal was in difficulties in Europe, the Viceroy of Goa asked for the protection of English troops, and Goa was garrisoned by the English East India Company throughout the continuance of the great war with France.

Very different was the history of Brazil during this century: while India was a source of expense, Brazil was the great source of wealth to the Portuguese treasury, and was to be the refuge of the royal family when it became impossible for it to remain longer in Lisbon. Throughout the century there was a steady influx of immigrants to Brazil from Portugal, and the population of the great colony rapidly increased in numbers. Most of these immigrants settled down as sugar or tobacco planters, and the labour upon the plantations was completely in the hands of the negro slaves, who were imported in vast numbers. The trade in slaves was kept entirely in the hands of Portuguese merchants, in spite of the efforts of the English slavers, and was not only looked upon as a lucrative calling, but as the chief employment for the Portuguese sailors. It was this trade alone which made it worth while for the Portuguese Government to keep up its establishments on the coast of Guinea, and Pombal encouraged it as the only means of supplying Brazil with labourers. The slaves in Brazil were not treated unkindly; their masters were bound to feed them; and were not only allowed, but were obliged to sell them their liberty, on the offer of a certain fixed sum of money. These freed slaves and the mulattoes, who were very numerous, often accumulated considerable wealth, and were treated as citizens in every respect, except that they could not hold any civil or municipal office. They were even enrolled as soldiers, but the mulatto regiments were kept distinct from the European, and officered from among the wealthy members of their own class. The native Brazilians were treated even more favourably, and by the great decree of 1755 they were not only forbidden to sell themselves as slaves, but were made citizens in every respect, and allowed to receive their education at the University of Coimbra. The importance of the discovery of gold in the interior has been mentioned, and the revenue to the Portuguese Crown from the king’s fifth, in spite of much fraud, was estimated at £300,000 a year. The opening up of the interior led, about the year 1750, to the conquest of the Paulist Republic. This curious little state had been formed round the city of St. Paul about the commencement of the eighteenth century by fugitives from Brazil and from the more oppressive Spanish Governments of Chile and Peru. The town was originally founded far up in the heart of the virgin forests beyond the jurisdiction of the Portuguese and Spanish officials, where the inhabitants led a wild, romantic life, tempered only by lynch law. But by degrees the march of civilization brought them in contact with the Portuguese Government, and the discovery of diamonds in the vicinity led to the suppression of the little republic. This discovery of diamonds further increased the wealth of the Portuguese Crown, and in addition to the royal right to every diamond above twenty carats weight, the king was estimated to make an income of £100,000 a year by a contract entered into with a syndicate of English diamond buyers. Nor were other precious stones lacking, for rubies, emeralds, and topazes were all discovered in such large quantities in the latter half of the eighteenth century as to seriously lower their price. The great colony was ruled most wisely; only a few of the superior officers were sent from Portugal, and most offices were filled from among the settlers themselves. It was not even found necessary to send troops from Portugal, for a regular army of sixteen thousand men, and a militia of over twenty thousand were easily raised and paid in the country itself. The only troubles which beset the colony were caused by the indefiniteness of its boundaries, and Portugal found it necessary to yield much territory, which has since developed into wealthy and prosperous republics to the encroachments of Spain. Its importance was recognized by the title of Prince of Brazil granted to the eldest son of the King of Portugal since the days of John IV., and it became a safe refuge for the exiled royal family when events in Europe made it necessary for it to fly from Lisbon.

In literature the Portuguese writers of the eighteenth century followed and imitated the French authors of the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. instead of striving to develop the characteristics of their own nation. The “Academia Real de Lisboa,” the “Academia Real de Portugal,” the “Arcadia de Lisboa,” and the “Academia Real das Sciencias,” which succeeded each other at short intervals, were all attempts to imitate the French Academy and its offshoots, and though they did good work in encouraging research and rewarding literary endeavour, they failed, as such institutions generally do fail, to produce great writers and thinkers. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, before the academies exercised their influence, the only literary productions in Portugal were lyric poems of no great merit, which were much admired by the members of numerous little literary clubs resembling the Italian arcadias, and which were chiefly imitations of the forms of verse most in vogue in France and Italy. But during the rule of Pombal a more healthy spirit appeared; the works of the French encyclopædists and their contemporaries were studied instead of tricks of versification, and a new departure was made alike in poetry and prose. The new poets did not confine themselves to lyrics; they attempted epics, dramas, and eclogues, all more or less based upon an imitation of the French, but yet possessing a more truly national ring than the lyrics of their predecessors. All these poets were not lovers of Pombal; the great minister was too heedless of hurting their susceptibilities and too sparing of his pensions for that; and the best known among them, Antonio Diniz da Cruz e Silva, who was termed the Portuguese Boileau, vehemently attacked the great man after his fall. The influence exerted by this poet on the progress of Portuguese literature was, however, slight compared to that of his successors, Francisco Manoel de Nascimento and Manoel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, whose followers under the names of the “Filintists” and “Elmanists” preached freedom from the rigour of the French canons of criticism, and adherence to national forms. Epic poetry was not neglected, though none of its writers can compare with the great Camoens, whose “Lusiads” were several times reprinted with notes during this century. The fame of the great Portuguese epic was indeed spread abroad throughout Europe; it was translated into French by Duperron de Castera and by the French critic La Harpe; into Dutch by L. S. Pieterzoon; and into English by Mickle who, as a translator of their master-poet, was cordially received at the Portuguese Court in 1780. Nor was the drama forgotten; the Portuguese stage was held by tragedies after the French classical model, the subjects of which were generally borrowed from the annals of the country, of which the titles of the three tragedies of Du Bocage, “Viriato,” “Affonso Henriques,” and “Vasco da Gama,” may be cited as a proof. In prose, the most valuable work was done in history, and the editions of the old Portuguese chroniclers, Ruy de Pina, Azurara, Fernão Lopes, and Acenheiro, edited for the “Academia Real das Sciencias,” by José Correa de Serra still remain the standard editions. Nor was science neglected in the country of Pedro Nunes; Bartholomeu de Gusmão is asserted to have discovered ballooning in 1709, years before the Montgolfiers commenced their experiments; and the botanists Felix de Avellar Brotero and Antonio Correa da Silva, to mention but one department of scientific activity, were well known throughout Europe, and were members of most of the scientific societies of the time. In the arts mention has already been made of David Peres, the musical composer, and of Joaquim Machado de Castro, the architect; the latter was in addition the best sculptor of his country, and Domingos Antonio de Sequeira, as a painter, will compare favourably with most of the contemporary artists in Europe.

But though the influence of France is to be perceived in every department of literature until the revival of national poetry by Nascimento and Du Bocage, the Portuguese people remained, owing to the Methuen treaty, on much more intimate terms with the English. The royal family might hanker after matrimonial alliances with Spain, a great minister, like Pombal, might resent the absorption of Portuguese trade by England; but, for all that, the people felt how close were their bonds with the English nation. Mention has been made of the influx of English capital, of the wine merchants of Oporto, and the English factory at Lisbon, and also of the power exercised by the English ambassadors. But there was a closer bond than that; Portugal became the sanitarium for England; it was to Portugal that the seekers after a milder climate resorted as they would now do to the Riviera, and it was to Lisbon that the great English novelist, Henry Fielding, to mention but one of many invalids, was sent; it was in Lisbon that he died, and he is buried in the cemetery of the English factory there. These were the bonds that bound the two peoples together, and the Portuguese people were justified in counting upon the armed help of England in the terrible struggle which they were now to pass through.