Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1 of 2

by Robert Grant Watson

The growth of the colony of Brazil had been so rapid during the fourteen years’ able administration of Mem de Sa that it was now thought advisable to divide its territory into two governments, S. Sebastian, or Rio de Janeiro, being the capital of the second government, which was to include all the settlements to the south of that place. This subdivision, however, was not found convenient, and at the end of two years the southern government was made subordinate to the northern. At this precise period the succession to the crown of Portugal was in dispute; and Philip II. of Spain, one of the claimants, offered the entire Brazilian colonies, with the title of King, to the Duke of Braganza, which offer, however, was not accepted.

It may be of interest here to give a brief account of this splendid colonial empire, as it was represented, for the information of the Portuguese Government, by one who had resided seventeen years in the country. In the year 1581 the city of S. Salvador, now Bahia, contained eight hundred inhabitants, and the whole Reconcave, or the coast-line of the surrounding bay, about two thousand, exclusive of negroes and native Indians. Five hundred horse and two thousand foot could be brought into the field; whilst three caravels and fourteen hundred boats were available for the king’s service. The cathedral church could boast five dignitaries, six canons, two minor canons, four chaplains, and one curé and his coadjutor. There were no less than sixty-two churches in the city, together with three monasteries. In this respect S. Salvador had certainly no cause of complaint. The country for two miles round was covered with plantations. In the Reconcave there were fifty-seven sugar-works, the quantity annually exported amounting to about two thousand four hundred hogsheads. Cattle and horses, which had been imported from the Cape de Verdes, increased in prodigious numbers. There were persons who possessed forty or fifty brood mares, which might sell at Pernambuco for thirty ducats a-piece; sheep and goats likewise flourished, having been imported from Europe.

Oranges and lemons, which the settlers had introduced, had become plentiful. The palm-tree was grown, and likewise the cocoa plant; the melon, the pomegranate, and the vine were not cultivated with such success, being unable to withstand the ravages of the ant. The tea plant had been discovered at Bahia, where coffee likewise was grown. Ginger throve so well that in one year four thousand arrobas were preserved. The sugar-cane is indigenous in Brazil, and was found in plenty near Rio de Janeiro. The parasites which fill up the interstices of the Brazilian forests were put to various uses; their juice was applied for the purpose of tanning, and their branches were woven into wicker-work or beaten into tow. These plants form a remarkable feature in Brazilian scenery. They encircle the trees up which they climb only to regain the ground; the same plant there takes root again, crossing from bough to bough and from tree to tree, wherever they may be carried by such breezes as may pierce the almost impermeable jungle.

In some portions of the Reconcave saltpetre was to be found; but for lime the colonists were dependent on oyster shells, which, however, were at some points procurable in great abundance. Fish of various kinds abounded, and oil was extracted from the liver of the shark. At one or two places ambergris was found. The rumours of wealth in the precious metals and stones which were then in circulation have since been amply confirmed.

1582.

In Bahia there were then said to be more than a hundred persons enjoying an income of five thousand cruzados, or two thousand five hundred ducats; whilst some settlers possessed plate and gold to a great value. They were supplied with wine from Madeira and the Canaries. The settlement of Pernambuco was not less flourishing; there were fifty sugar-works, the tenths of which were leased for nineteen thousand cruzados, or half that number of ducats. Olinda might contain seven hundred inhabitants, not including those who dwelt in the villas and works in the gardens of its vicinity. Three thousand men could be brought into the field; and it may be noted that as early as 1582 between four and five thousand African slaves were employed in the Captaincy. About five-and-forty ships came annually for sugar and brazil-wood.

S. Vicente likewise flourished. This Captaincy was situated sufficiently far to the south to admit of the cultivation of wheat and barley. It might also produce wine. Espirito Santo and other portions of Brazil did not fare so well as those above mentioned. The early settlers in the colony are said to have suffered much from the jiggers and other insects of the country, and it was only with time that they learned the remedies which the natives were accustomed to apply to the attacks of these tormentors. The fleets which had formerly been sent out each year with a reinforcement of young settlers now no longer arrived; and, wholesome as the air of Brazil for the most part is, it proved hurtful to many Europeans. The admixture, too, of the three different races, European, Brazilian, and Negro, was said to have generated certain new diseases, or at least new constitutions, in which old diseases took a new form. Complaints of the liver were prevalent, as were those of the eye. But on the whole it was said that in no instance have Europeans suffered so little by transplantation from their own country into one of a very different climate as did the Portuguese in Brazil. It may be remarked, however, that the term Brazil is a very wide word indeed, comprising as that empire does a space equal to about two-thirds of Europe, and that there are probably far greater variations of climate between its northern and its southern portions, as well as between its highlands and lowlands, than exist between the climate of Lisbon and that of its southern provinces. As to the moral quality of the early settlers, seeing that they comprised a considerable portion of the banished criminal population of the mother country, it is not surprising that the average of crime should for some time have been greater in the colony than in Portugal. The energy of the race, however, at this its heroic period, found ample scope, and as years rolled on the resources of the magnificent territory which had fallen under the Portuguese sceptre were gradually unfolded.

It was long before the French could be persuaded to give up the hope of establishing themselves somewhere in Brazil. They made the Paraïba their favourite port of trade, where they allied themselves with some savage neighbouring tribes, and caused such trouble to the Portuguese that they themselves resolved to establish fortified settlements on the above-named river. The governor of San Salvador deputed this task to Flores de Valdes, who had been sent by Philip II. of Spain, with a fleet of twenty-three vessels, to secure the Straits of Magellan when Drake had alarmed him for the safety of his possessions on the Pacific. Valdes had been foiled in his attempts to reach the Straits, and had been driven back to Bahia with only six ships. With these and two others he sailed to Pernambuco. There were four French vessels in the Paraïba. The French themselves, however, set fire to them, and then joined the savages on shore. The Spanish and Portuguese troops landed without opposition and constructed a fortress; but its commander could not long maintain it against the Pitagoares, and made a hasty retreat to Itamaraca. It was, however, again recovered by means of a fresh reinforcement from Pernambuco.

The name of England is at this period for the first time brought into prominent notice in connection with Brazil, which, being a colony of a country now under the Spanish crown, was subject to the warlike operations of the enemies of Spain. In 1582 an English expedition, destined for the East, and commanded by Admiral Fenton, reached the coast of Brazil and anchored off San Vicente, where an English vessel had previously come to trade. Indeed a trade had some time since sprung up between Plymouth and Southern Brazil, the first merchant navigator mentioned being the father of Sir John Hawkins, who made two voyages, in 1530 and 1532, respectively. The expedition under Fenton merely called for peaceful objects, and did not commit any act of hostility; but the proceedings of Drake had already drawn down the hatred of all Spaniards on his countrymen; and Flores, having been informed of the presence of English vessels at San Vicente, made for that place and prepared to attack them. The action began in the evening and was fought by moonlight. One of the Spanish ships was sunk, and in the course of the following day the English vessels put to sea. It is recorded to the credit of their humane commander that he refrained from sinking another of the Spanish vessels, not wishing to cause a needless loss of life.

1586.