Account of Brazile.
Newhoff, who gave the best Account of Brazile at that time, assigns the following Causes for so easy a Reconquest of it by the Portuguese: 1. The Dutch took no care to have sufficient Colonies of their own Natives, nor to keep strong Garisons in the Country. 2. They left the Portuguese in possession of all their Sugar-Mills and Plantations, which hinder’d the Dutch from getting any considerable Footing in the open Country. 3. The Plantations and Sugar-Mills that fell into their hands by Forfeiture or otherwise, they sold at such excessive Rates, and laid such Taxes on the Product, that the Dutch did not care to purchase them. 4. The States of Holland, instead of reinforcing the Garisons of Brazile, according to Prince Maurice’s Advice, reduc’d them lower, notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of the Company to the contrary; for they were so intent upon their Conquests in the East-Indies, that they seem’d willing to be rid of Brazile, which is now a vast and populous Country, and employs a great number of large Ships yearly from Portugal, who carry home an immense Treasure of Gold, besides all other Commodities of that Country.
Whilst Prince Maurice was in Brazile, the Dutch fitted Ships thence for Chili, which arriv’d there: but wanted a sufficient Force to withstand the Spaniard, while they could be recruited, or gain an Interest amongst the Natives, which they might have easily done, could they have settled, because at that time the Spaniards had not conquer’d the Indians of Chili; so the Dutch being too weak, were forc’d to return without effecting any thing. I shall conclude this Head with a brief Account of the Natives of Brazile from Newhoff, whose Authority, as I have said already, I found upon Inquiry to be very good. They are divided into several Nations, and speak different Languages. They are generally of a middling Size, well-limb’d, and their Women not ill-featur’d. They are not born black, but become so by the Heat of the Sun. They have black Eyes, black curl’d Hair, and have their Noses made flat when young. They come soon to Maturity, yet generally live to a great Age, without much Sickness; and many Europeans live here to above a hundred Years old, which is ascrib’d to the Goodness of the Climate. The Portuguese cut off such multitudes of ’em, that they perfectly hate that Nation, but were civil enough to the Dutch because they treated them kindly. Such as live next the Europeans, wear Shirts of Linen or Callico, and the chief of ’em affect our Apparel; but those within Land go for the most part naked, covering their Privities slightly with Leaves or Grass fasten’d about them with a string, and the Men exceed the Women in Modesty. Their Hutts are built of Stakes, and cover’d with Palm-tree Leaves. Their Dishes and Cups are made of Calabasses, being the Shells of a sort of Pompions. Their chief Furniture is Hammocks of Cotton made like Network, and these they fasten to sticks, and use them for Beds; and when they travel, tie them to Trees. The Wives follow their Husbands to War and elsewhere, and carry their Luggage in a Basket, with a Child hung about them in a piece of Callico, a Parrot or an Ape in one hand, and leading a Dog by a string in the other; while the idle Lubber carries nothing but his Arms, which are Bows and Arrows, Darts or Wooden Clubs. They know nothing of Arithmetick, but count their Years by laying by a Chesnut in the Season. Those who inhabit the inland Parts know scarce any thing of Religion; yet they have a sort of Priests, or rather Conjurers, who pretend to foretel what’s to come. They have a Notion of a Supreme Being more excellent than the rest; some reckon this to be Thunder, and others Ursa Minor, or some Constellation. They fancy that after Death their Souls are transplanted into Devils, or enjoy all sorts of Pleasures in lovely Fields beyond the Mountains, if they have kill’d and eat many of their Enemies; but those that never did any thing of moment, they say are to be tormented by Devils. These People are much afraid of Apparitions and Spirits, and make Offerings to pacify ’em. Some of ’em are mightily addicted to Sorcery, to revenge themselves upon their Enemies; and they have others who pretend to cure those that are so bewitch’d. The Castilians converted some of ’em, but the Dutch Ministers were more successful, till they were hinder’d by the Revolt of the Portuguese. The Brazilian Women are very fruitful, have easy Labour, retire to the Woods where they bring forth alone, and return after washing themselves and their Child; the Husbands lying a bed the first 24 hours, and being treated as if they had endur’d the Pains.[101]
The Tapoyars, who inhabit the inland Country on the West, are the most barbarous of the Natives, taller and stronger than the rest, and indeed than most Europeans. They wear little Sticks thro their Cheeks and Under-Lips, are Maneaters, and use poison’d Darts and Arrows. They change their Habitations according to the Season, and live chiefly by Hunting and Fishing. Their Kings and Great Men are distinguish’d by the manner of shaving their Crowns, and their long Nails. Their Priests are Sorcerers, make them believe that the Devils appear to ’em in form of Insects, and perform their diabolical Worship in the night, when the Women make a dismal howling, which is their chief Devotion. They allow Polygamy, yet punish Adultery by Death; and when young Women are marriageable, but courted by no body, their Mothers carry ’em to their Princes, who deflower ’em; and this they reckon a great Honour. Some of these People were much civiliz’d by the Dutch, and very serviceable Account of the River Amazons. to them, but still kept under Subjection to their own Kings. For the extraordinary Animals, Plants, &c. of Brazile, I refer to Newhoff; being sensible that the Descriptions of such things are not my Province, but I thought it convenient to give this Hint for the Diversion of such Readers as may relish it better than a Mariner’s bare Journal.
The River of the Amazons being the Northern Boundary of Brazile, I shall describe it here.
According to most Geographers it rises in the Mountains of Peru, and is compos’d at first of two Rivers, one of which begins about Lat. 9. S. and the other about 15. The Sansons call the latter Xauxa or Maranhon, which communicates its Name to the other. ’Twas call’d Amazons, not because of any Nation of Virago’s, who as some fancy are govern’d by a Queen, and have no Commerce with our Sex; but at certain times, when they make an Appointment with the Males of neighbouring Nations, and if they prove with Child, keep the Daughters and send away the Sons, as the Greeks fabled of their Amazons. But the true Reason of the Name is, that the Spaniards, who first discover’d it, were told of such a terrible barbarous Nation of Women by some of the Natives, on purpose to frighten them, and that they did actually on several places of this River find their Women as fierce and warlike as the Men; it being their Custom to follow their Husbands, &c. to War, on purpose to animate them, and to share in their Fate, as we find was antiently practis’d by the Women of Gaul, Germany, and Britain.
But to return to the Course of the River. The Sansons[102] give us a Map of it from the Discoveries of Texeira, who sail’d up and down the same in 1637, 1638, and 1639. The River, he says, begins at the foot of a Chain of Mountains nam’d Cordelera, about 8 or 10 Ls. East of Quito in Peru. It runs first from West to East, turns afterwards South; and then after many Windings and Turnings holds its main Course East, till it falls into the Atlantick Sea. Its Fountains and Mouth are very near under the Equator, and the main of its Stream is in the 4th and 5th deg. of S. Lat. The Rivers which fall into it on the North side, rise about one or two deg. N. Lat. and those on the South side, some of them begin in 10, some in 15, and others in the 21 ft of S. Lat. Its Channel from Junta de los Reyos about 60 deg. from its Head, till it is join’d by the River Maranhon, is from one to two Leagues in breadth. From thence, say the Sansons, ’tis from 3 to 4, but grows larger as it advances towards the Atlantick, into which it falls by a Mouth from 50 to 60 Leagues broad, betwixt Cape Nort on the Coast of Guaiana, and Cape Zaparara on the Coast of Brazile. Its Depth from Junta de los Reyos to Maranhon is from 5 to 10 fathom, from thence to Rio Negro from 12 to 20, and from thence to the Sea from 30 to 50, and sometimes a great deal more. ’Tis always of a good depth near the Shore, and has no Sand-Banks till it come towards the Sea. Its running in a continu’d Descent from West to East, makes the sailing down it very easy; and the East Winds, which last most part of the day, are very commodious for those who sail up this River. From the Fountain to its Mouth ’tis 8 or 900 Leagues in a direct Line, but the Windings and Turnings make it about 1200. Some compute it at 1800, and others 1276; but then they derive its Source from the Lake Lauricocha near Guanuco in Peru about Lat. 10. Authors differ whether this River or La Plata be the greatest, which I shall not take upon me to determine. The Rivers which run into it on the right and left, have their Courses from 100 to 600 Leagues in length, and their Banks are well inhabited by multitudes of People of different Nations, not so barbarous as those of Brazile, nor so polite as the Natives of Peru. They live chiefly upon Fish, Fruit, Corn and Roots; are all Idolaters, but pay no great Respect to their Idols, nor perform any publick Worship to them, except when they go upon Expeditions.
Texeira[103] and his Fellow-Discoverers say, that most of those Countries enjoy a temperate Air, tho in the middle of the Torrid Zone. This is probably owing to the multitude of Rivers with which they are water’d, the East Winds which continue most of the day, the equal Length of the Days and Nights, the great numbers of Forests, and the annual Inundations of the Rivers, which fructify this Country, as that of the Nile does Egypt. Their Trees, Fields, and Flowers are verdant all the Year, and the Goodness of the Air prevents their being infested so much with Serpents and other dangerous Insects as Brazile and Peru. In the Forests they have Store of excellent Honey, accounted very medicinal. They have Balm good against all Wounds. Their Fruit, Corn, and Roots, are not only in greater plenty, but much Account of the River Amazons. better than any where else in America. They have vast number of Fish of all sorts in the Rivers and Lakes; and among others, Sea-Cows, which feed on the Banks, and Tortoises of a large Size and delicate Taste. Their Woods abound with Venison, and afford Materials for building the largest Ships. They have many Trees of five or six fathom round in the Trunk, and inexhaustible Stores of Ebony and Brazile Wood, Cocoa, Tobacco, Sugar-Canes, Cotton, a Scarlet Dye call’d Rocon, besides Gold and Silver in their Mines and the Sand of their Rivers.
The Nations who inhabit about this and the other Rivers that run into it, are reckon’d by Sanson and others 150, and their Villages so thick in many places, that most of ’em are within Call of one another. Among those People, the Homagues who live towards the Head of this great River, are mostly noted for their Manufactures of Cotton; the Corosipares for their Earthen Ware; the Surines who live betwixt Lat. 5 and 10. and Long. 314 and 316, for their Joyners Work; the Topinambes who live in a great Island of this River, about Lat. 4. and Longit. 320. for their Strength. Their Arms in general are Darts and Javelins, Bows and Arrows, with Targets of Cane or Fish-Skins. They make war upon one another to purchase Slaves for their Drudgery, but otherwise they treat them kindly enough.
Among the Rivers that fall into it on the North side, the Napo, Agaric, Putomaye, Jenupape, Coropatube, and others, have Gold in their Sands. Below Coropatube there are Mines of several sorts in the Mountains. In those of Yagnare there are Mines of Gold; in Picora there are Mines of Silver; on the River Paragoche there are precious Stones of several sorts; and Mines of Sulphur, &c. near other Rivers. Those of Putomaye and Caketa are large Rivers: the latter is divided into two Branches; one falls into the Amazons River, by the name of Rio Negro, which is the largest on the North side; and the other, call’d Rio Grande, falls into the Oronoko. The chief Rivers that fall into it on the South side, are Maranhon, Amarumaye, Tapy, Catua, Cusignate, Madere or Cayane, and many other large ones.