A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

In failure of male issue he was succeeded by his brother Jorge d’Albuquerque Coelho, father of Duarthe d’Albuquerque Coelho, who in the second year after the Dutch had possession of the captaincy arrived there with the Count Banholo, where he remained till the end of 1638, when he returned to Portugal. During his residence he kept a diary of the first eight years of the war.[36]

Duarthe d’Albuquerque Coelho had an only daughter, married to the Count de Vimiozi D. Miguel de Portugal, but neither he nor his heirs received any revenue from the captaincy, the dominion of which was disputed; for King John IV. who had expended large sums in its restoration, finding that the donatory had not forces sufficient to prevent the invasion of the enemy, should they make a second attempt, annexed the captaincy to the crown in the first year of its restoration. This the donatory opposed, and his heirs sustained an obstinate suit at law for many years, obtaining various sentences in their favour, which were always abrogated, till finally they desisted from the contest, surrendering whatever right they had to the province; and, in 1717, by the intervention and consent of John V. a convention was made between the Count de Vimiozi D. Francisco de Portugal and the attorney-general, in which it was agreed that the Count should receive in exchange for the captaincy the marquisate of Vallenca for himself and his son, the countship to pass to his son and grandson, and eighty thousand crusades, to be paid from the revenues of the province in ten years at equal payments.

The new colonists, who were sent to it immediately after the restoration of the province, gave it a rapid improvement. The Indians living towards the interior, the principal of whom were Tupinambas, and divided into numerous tribes, were by degrees surrendering the country and allying themselves to the conquerors, or retiring to the western districts. The latter were reduced about the years 1802 and 1803.

These Indians were divided into four nations, who have always exhibited the most irreconcileable hatred to each other, and to this day preserve their ancient animosity undiminished. They were distinguished by the appellations of Pipipan, Choco, Uman, and Vouvé. The language of each differed in idiom, but the general resemblance between them sufficiently demonstrated that they sprung from the same origin. They occupied a wild and uncultivated tract of country, of thirty square leagues, between the rivers Moxoto and Pajehu, near to the serra of Ararippa, a country sterile and deficient in water. All are wandering tribes, ignorant of any kind of agriculture, and support themselves on wild fruits, honey, and game; a hog, a deer, or a bird are all dressed with the hair, feathers, and intestines. The arms of the men are a bow and arrow, and they go perfectly naked. The women cover themselves with a small and elastic net, or with a deep fringe of thick thread much twisted, and made with considerable ingenuity. They inter their dead in a bent posture, having no instruments to make a grave sufficiently large to admit of the body lying at full length. They always bury under the most shady tree, preferring the ambuzo, if it be found near the spot. Of all savage nations they are perhaps the most remarkable for conjugal fidelity; polygamy and adultery are unknown among them, and the latter crime they abominate in their conquerors.

All these savages received baptism; and, after being formed into villages and rendered rather more civilized, they began to cultivate the most necessary provisions of life, as mandioca, Indian corn, gourds, and vegetables. But, notwithstanding their apparent improvement, they still retained their wild and savage propensities for hunting and general depredation: early accustomed to live on plunder, they conceived they had a natural right to the property of each other, and they frequently drove off and appropriated the sheep and oxen of the neighbouring farmers. Independently of these savage propensities to a wild and predatory life, their religious instructors gave them a very good character for innocence of general manners, in which they were said to resemble the primitive Christians.

They suppose, from the above circumstances, that the present race of these Indians are descendants of some who, after having settled in the villages and become Christians, had again returned to their native wilds; and, from a rooted propensity, which no art could remove, preferred the savage to the civilized state. Indeed, the opinion is supported by a fact, already alleged in this work, as well as by recent occurrences, in which individuals who have been civilized, on entering their native wilds, have again adopted their former rude habits.

This province of Pernambuco, which had formerly the title of countship, is bounded on the north by the provinces of Parahiba, Siara, and Piauhy; on the south by the river St. Francisco, which separates it from Seregipe and Bahia, and by the Carinhenha, which divides it from Minas Geraes; on the west by the province of Goyaz; and on the east by the ocean, with seventy leagues of coast from the river St. Francisco to the river Goyanna.

The river Pajehu, which rises in the serra of the Cayriris, and empties itself into the St. Francisco thirty leagues above the fall of Paulo Affonso, divides it into two parts—eastern and western; the latter forming an ouvidoria, which comprehends a great portion of the eastern, the sea-coast of which is divided into three comarcas, Northern or Olinda, Central or Recife, Southern or the Alagoas, whose common limits are in the vicinity of Rio Una, which enters the sea forty miles south of Cape St. Augustine.

This province lies between 7° and 15° south latitude, having a warm climate and pure air. The lands upon the whole extent of the sea-coast are low, with considerable portions of fruitful soil, and although it has many rivers, which are perennial and abundant, yet the inhabitants in many parts suffer from want of water. In the interior of the province the face of the country is very unequal, being in some places mountainous, and very deficient in water, and that which is met with, besides being extremely scarce, is never pure, being of the colour of milk, and drawn from wells where all kinds of animals go to drink, or else from pits dug in the sand. From the town of Penedo to the bar of Rio Grande, which travellers by the windings of the river compute at five hundred miles, there does not run towards the river St. Francisco a single stream in the dry season.

Mountains.—The serra of Borborema, which is the most majestic in the Brazil, has its commencement near the sea, in the province of Rio Grande, and, after having traversed that of Parahiba from north-east to south-west, turns to the west, separating the western part of Pernambuco from the preceding, and from Siara for a considerable space. It then inclines to the north, dividing the last from the province of Piauhy, varying frequently in altitude and name to its termination, where it is denominated Hibiapaba, in view of the coast between the rivers Camucim and Paranahiba. In some parts it is rocky, in others bare and barren, but the principal part is covered with beautiful woods, nourished by strong and fertile soils. In some places it has two or three leagues of luxuriant herbage on its summit.