CHAPTER XVI
THE EMPIRE
The history of Brazil contains more exciting chapters, and has been the most chequered of the South American republics. Its territory has been the battleground of Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Indians and negroes. It has been successively a capitancia, a province, an empire and a republic. And yet, with all these changes and admixtures, the language, customs, religion and laws of Brazil are substantially those of Portugal. Rome gave these things as a heritage to that country, and she in turn transmitted them to her colony in the New World.
Early in the year 1500, one Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese nobleman, sailed from Lisbon for the East Indies. Owing to some peculiar instructions that had been given to him by the King of Portugal, he sailed far west of the usual route for vessels bound to those islands. One bright morning, during Easter week, land was sighted, and his little fleet came to anchor off the coast of what is now the state of Bahia. Believing that this was only an island he named it the “Island of the True Cross,” and took formal possession of it in the name of his sovereign. On Easter Sunday a landing was made, and the first mass was held. A few days later the entire fleet departed, leaving only a couple of mutinous sailors on shore.
The news of the discovery of this new land soon reached Portugal, and the Crown of that country immediately made formal claim to the territory. Expeditions were sent out by King Manuel to explore this supposed island. One of these expeditions was in charge of Amerigo Vespucci, and it was he who ascertained, after a careful examination, that this new land was a continent and not an island. Wherever the Indians were seen they were questioned about gold and silver, but, although the natives told marvellous tales of wealth, no mines were located. The only object of commercial value seemed to be the dyewood, known as brazil-wood; and, in spite of the efforts of the Church to name the country Santa Cruz, the holy cross, the name Brazil soon supplanted all other names, and has clung to the country ever since, although religious names abound in the geography of Brazil. Scores of ships of various nationalities soon sought these shores for this precious wood, the commerce of which was exceedingly profitable. For a quarter of a century this land, teeming with fertility, remained unsettled, although explorations had been made from the mouth of the Amazon as far south as the Rio de la Plata. The resources of the country were fully appreciated, and Vespucci himself is credited with saying, that if Paradise did exist on this planet it could not be far from the Brazilian coast.
The earliest permanent settlers of Brazil were mutineers from the ships bound for India. One of these, Diego Alvarez, was put ashore at Bahia; another, John Ramelho, was left at Santos; and the third, Aleixo Garcia, found his unsought habitation still farther south. Each of these men married daughters of local chieftains, and they, and their descendants, aided greatly in the final subjugation of the country, for they allied themselves with the incomers. The first serious effort to colonize the country was begun near Pernambuco, where an attempt was made to establish a sugar plantation. This, however, was soon destroyed by some French brazil-wood hunters. An expedition, consisting of four hundred persons, was sent out under Martino Affonso de Souza a short time afterwards. After sailing along the coast he finally dropped anchor, and established the little settlement of São Vicente, near the present city of Santos, in 1532.[6] It was not long after this that the Crown divided up the whole Brazilian coast into parallel strips, each extending fifty leagues along the coast, and running inland as far as the power of Portugal extended; and these sections, called capitancias, were given to court favourites. The grantee was given practically sovereign powers over this territory in return for a certain tax which he was expected to pay. As a result of this arrangement a number of permanent colonies grew up on Brazilian soil. Of all the capitancias, that which included Pernambuco became the most prosperous because it was in the track of all the vessels from Europe, and also because it was found so well adapted to the cultivation of the sugar cane, which, at that time, was very profitable. Furthermore, little or no trouble was experienced with the Indians, who had become allies of the white men. By the middle of the sixteenth century this settlement was a flourishing one, and there were a half dozen or more communities south of it.
The capitancia system was not a success. Some of the grantees did not succeed; others grew to be arrogant. This aroused the jealousy of the Portuguese government, which began to make efforts to centralize the colony, and sent out a governor-general with plenary powers and explicit directions. A capital was built in the beautiful bay of Bahia, and the success of sugar cultivation on these shores made this settlement prosperous. Negroes were imported as slaves, and Bahia continued a great distributing point of these human chattels for centuries. By the year 1585, it was estimated by a priest, that there were twenty-five thousand white people in Brazil, twelve thousand of whom were in Bahia, and eight thousand at Pernambuco. Rio de Janeiro, at that time, had a population of less than a thousand.
A TYPICAL BRAZILIAN STREET.