[121] It is now certain that Joaŏ Felix had at least that number.
[122] See Southy's Brazil, for the manners of the Tupayas. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the filiation of the Indian tribes, to know what relation the Botecudos bear to the Tupayas.
[123] Perhaps all the Indians may have been so far cannibals, as to taste of the flesh of prisoners taken in battle, or victims offered to the gods; but I cannot believe that any ever fed habitually on human flesh, for many reasons. But their traducers had their reasons for inventing and propagating the most atrocious falsehoods, as a sort of excuse for their own barbarity in hunting and making slaves of them. These practices, indeed, were so wicked, and so notorious, that in 1537, the Dominican Frey Domingos de Becançoo, provincial of the order in Mexico, sent Frey Domingos de Menaja to Rome to plead the cause of the Indians before Paul III.; who having heard both sides, pronounced that "The Indians of America are men of rational soul, of the same nature and species as all others, capable of the sacraments of the holy church, and consequently free by nature, and lords of their own actions."
[124] To this collection is a printed and engraved title-page, as follows: "Noticias Historicas e Militares da America Collegidas por Diogo Barboso Machado Abbade da Igreja de Santo Adriano de Sever, e Academico da Academia Real. Comprehende do Anno de 1579 até 1757." It contains twenty-four pamphlets, &c. The Abbade Machado's name is in almost all the historical books I have yet seen in the library. I know not how the collection of the author of the Bibliotheca Lusitania became part of the royal library.
Traducçăo.
Já do ether fugio ventosa inverno,
E da florida primavera a hora
Purpurea rio: de verde herva mimosa
A Terra denegrida se corôa,
Behem os prados já liquido orvalho,
Com que medraŏ as plantas, e festejaŏ
Os abertos botŏes das novas rosas.
Com as asperos sons da frauta rude
Folga o Serrano, o Pegureiro folga
Com as alvos recentes cabritinhos.
Jú sulcaŏ Nantas estendidas ondas;
E Favonio innocente as velas boja.
As Menades, cubertas as cabeças
Da flor d'hera, tres vezes enrolada,
Do uvifero Baccho orgias celebraŏ:
A Geraçaŏ bovina das abelhas
Seus trabalhos completa; j'a produzem
Formoso mel; nos favos repousados
Candida cera multiplicaŏ. Cantaŏ
Por toda a parte as sonorosas aves:
Nas ondas o Aleyaŏ, em torna aos tectos
Canta a Andorinha; canta o branco Cysne
Na ribanceira, e o Rouxinol no bosque.
Se pois as plantas ledas reverdecem;
Florece a Terra; o Guardador a frauta
Tange, e folga co'as maçans folhudas;
Se aves gorgeiaŏ; se as abelhas criaŏ;
Navegaŏ Nautas; Baccho guia as choros:
Porque naŭ cantará tambem o Vate
A risonha, a formosa Primavera?
[126] See the Emperor's speech on the 3d May.
[127] A wheel or revolving box, like that at a convent, into which the infants are put.
[128] See Tales of the Hall.—The Sisters.
[129] See the Appendix.