Chapter II: Part 2

But the French had renewed their attempts, and under Rifault and his successor De Vaux had succeeded in forming a settlement in the island of Maranham, 1611. And shortly afterwards Henry IV. sent Daniel de la Touche, Lord of La Rivardière[15], to examine the country, in order to form a permanent colony. His report was favourable; and though on his return to France Henry was dead, an expedition of three ships, containing 500 men, was fitted out, and in 1612 they arrived on the island, speedily conciliated the natives, and the colony promised to thrive. But the court of Madrid quickly sent out orders to the governor of Brazil to attack the intruders. Various accidents prolonged the warfare, and it was not until 1618 that they were dislodged, and a permanent Portuguese colony formed. Its distance from the seat of government determined the court of Madrid to erect Maranham and Para into a separate state, of which the capital was fixed at San Luiz, a town and fort built by the French on the island.

[Note 15: In Barbosa Machado's curious collection of pamphlets, in the library of Rio de Janeiro, is one by the Capt. Symam Estacio da Sylveira, printed in 1624. He had been at the taking of Maranham from the French, and his paper is evidently a decoy for colonists. He says, that Daniel de la Touche was induced to go thither by Itayuba of the _Iron arm_, a Frenchman who had been brought up among the Tupinambas. Is this Mr. Southey's Rifault?]

Meantime the Dutch had formed a West Indian Company, trusting that they would thereby be able to annoy the court of Spain in their American possessions, as they had already done in the East Indies. In 1624, a fleet under Jacob Willekins and the famous Peter Heyne was fitted out for that purpose. The ships having been separated in a gale of wind, Willekins made the Morro de San Paulo, about forty miles south of Bahia, where he waited for the rest of the convoy. When it arrived he sailed boldly into the reconcave, and St. Salvador was taken almost without a struggle. Vandort, the Dutch general, immediately began to fortify the place, and proclamations being issued promising freedom and redress of wrongs to all who should submit, many Indians, negroes, and Jews instantly joined him. But the Portuguese, who had hoped that the Dutch had only come to plunder the city, seeing that they were sitting quietly down as in a permanent establishment, roused themselves, and after some little disagreement as to who should command them, pitched on the Bishop Don Marcos Texeira. He fixed his head-quarters on the Rio Vermelho. The Dutch were weakened by the departure of Willekins for Holland, and of Peter Heyne for Angola, the plan of the West India Company being to secure that settlement, in order to have a certain supply of slaves for their new conquests in Brazil. Dort had been killed, and there was no competent commander. The Bishop's troops harassed those of the city in every direction, and the Dutch were prepared to become an easy prey to Don Fadrique de Toledo, who had been sent from Spain with a strong force to recover the capital of Brazil. They capitulated, therefore, in May, 1625, and conditioned for being sent to Holland with sufficient arms and their personal baggage, leaving the city and forts as they were.

The next year, however, Peter Heyne returned to the reconcave. Every precaution was taken against him by the governor. Four large ships with men and artillery were placed to intercept him; but in his single ship, the rest of his squadron not being able to come up with him, ran in between two of them, sunk one, and compelled several others to strike: his own ship, however, grounded, and he burnt her. He added four ships to his own fleet, loaded four others with prize-goods, and burnt the rest. Nor was this his only success; for although the Dutch had been baffled in several attempts on the coast, they sent home prizes enough to be of national importance.

But a conquest of infinitely more consequence was shortly made; that of Olinda, which, in 1630, was taken after a feeble resistance on the part of Matthias de Albuquerque. The Dutch general-in-chief was Henrik Loncq, the admiral was Peter Ardian, and Wardenburg commanded the troops. The latter landed at Pao Amarello, three leagues to the north, while the ships kept up a regular fire opposite to the place; consequently the Portuguese were surprised, and the towns and forts easily taken.

But the country around continued to be the theatre of a most cruel predatory war, during which atrocious cruelties were committed by both parties, but chiefly by the Dutch; and while these things were going on, a number of negroes had escaped from time to time into the great palm-forests, about thirty leagues inland, and had multiplied so that they are said to have amounted to upwards of thirty thousand. These men were governed by a chief whom they called Zombi: they had some laws, a shadow of the Christian religion, and were agriculturists. They harassed the Portuguese, and added by their depredations to the general misery.

At length the Dutch government sent out Count Maurice of Nassau, to take the command at Pernambuco. He arrived in 1537, and carried on the war so vigorously that the Portuguese retired out of the province. He also set about reforming the abuses which existed among the Dutch themselves at Recife, and having established himself firmly there, he sent one of his officers, Jan Koin, over to the coast of Africa, who took possession of St. Jorge da Mina, by which a supply of slaves was secured, and leaving a garrison there, returned to Recife. The next year, Maurice made an unsuccessful attack on St. Salvador. His fleet anchored in the bay of Tapagipe; but though he obtained at first some important posts, he was finally repulsed and returned with loss to Pernambuco. There he occupied himself in building a new town, and making the two first bridges that had yet been built in Portuguese America, besides planting trees, and improving the fortifications. In 1640 he sent the famous sea-warrior Jol into the reconcave, to lay it waste; and he accordingly burnt the whole of the sugar-works in the bay, while the Indians who were friendly to the Dutch, fell on the land-side of the captaincy, and harassed the unhappy settlers in an equal degree.

At length the court of Madrid began to be alarmed for the safety of Brazil, and fitted out a large armament for its relief. Storms and sickness diminished it, ere it arrived, to nearly one half. That half arrived at Bahia, in 1640, under D. Jorge de Mascasentras, Marques de Monte Alvam. Before he had time either to make open war, or to negociate, the revolution in Portugal, which placed Braganza on the throne of his ancestors, took place. The viceroy, unjustly suspected of adhering to Spain, was sent home, and a commission, composed of Barbalho, Correa, and the bishop, appointed in his stead.

One of the first acts of the restored Portuguese government was to make a ten years' truce with the Seven United States. But this did not prevent the continuance of hostilities in Brazil, and the other foreign possessions of Portugal. Serigipe was surprised, Maranham conquered, and Loanda in Angola and St. Thomas's taken.

Notwithstanding these successes, the Dutch government disapproved of Count Maurice's administration. Instead of sending home either to the States or the Company all the money and produce which he had gained in Brazil, he had laid out great part of it, as well as of his private fortune, in fortifying the mouths of rivers and harbours, particularly Recife, in repairing and beautifying the towns, and in other public works, which, looking forward to the permanent establishment of the Dutch in the country, he considered as absolutely necessary. He was accordingly recalled, and returned to Holland in 1644.

After the departure of Maurice the tyranny of the Dutch became so intolerable, that the Portuguese began to rise against it almost universally.

Maranham had already been wrested from their hands at the time of his returning, and that event seemed to be the signal for the long and calamitous struggle that ensued in Pernambuco and the neighbouring Captaincies. Joam Fernandes Vieyra, a native of Madeira, had, at a very early age, left his native island in hopes of bettering his fortune in Brazil. He had succeeded, and at the time we speak of, he was one of the richest Portuguese of Pernambuco, and highly esteemed by both his countrymen and the Dutch. Against the latter, however, he was animated both by patriotism and superstition. They oppressed his people, and they were heretics. After waiting for years for a proper opportunity to attempt their destruction, he seized the first months of Nassau's absence, and communicating his plans to none but to two friends, one of whom he commissioned to apply to the government of Bahia in person for succour, he waited patiently for an answer. This man, André Vidal de Negreiros, executed his commission exactly, and shortly afterwards Antonio Diaz Cardozo, and sixty soldiers, were sent to Vieyra. He concealed them in the woods in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, called the Varzea, which was on the plain to the westward of the city, and then summoned the Indian chief Camaram and the Negro chief Henrique Diaz[16], to his assistance, and communicated his designs to his neighbours.

[Note 16: The following is an extract from one of the letters of this Creole Negro: "Faltamos a obediença, que nos occupava no certam de Bahia, por naõ faltarémos as obrigaçoens da patria; respeitando primeiro as leys da natureza, que as do imperio."

_Castrioto Lusitano_.]

Early in 1645 the war began in earnest. The most shocking atrocities were committed by both parties, especially towards the Indians, who themselves as they were the most faithful allies, were also the most inveterate and cruel enemies. In the course of the struggle, which lasted until 1654, several leaders on both sides were slain, but none so remarkable as the Indian Camaram. He had been educated by the Jesuits; he understood Latin, wrote, read, and spoke Portuguese perfectly, but on all occasions of ceremony used an interpreter, that he might not in public do any thing imperfectly, and thereby derogate from the dignity of his chieftainship. When a number of Indians were taken among the Dutch, at one of the strong posts of the latter, a relation of Camaram's was found among them. These men had all been condemned to death. Camaram did not intercede for the life of his kinsman, but he saved his honour: he slew him with his own hand, and buried him decently. The rest were hanged by the common executioner, and left for the fowls of the air.

At length this horrible warfare was ended. The two battles of the Gararapes[17], had decided the fate of the Dutch in Brazil: but it was the co-operation of the fleet of the new Brazilian company that enabled Vieyra, who was the real commander in this war, although several military men of reputation, had, from time to time, had the nominal chieftainship, to reduce Recife, and on the 23d of January 1654, to present the keys of the city to the Royal Commander Francisco Beretto, and to restore to the crown of Portugal the empire of Brazil, after nine years of the most cruel war, during which the private fortune, and the determined spirit of individuals had sustained the conflict, generally without the aid, and often in direct opposition to the commands of the court. But men once determined on freedom, or on national independence, must in the end overcome all obstacles and vanquish every difficulty.

[Note 17:

Ves Agros Gararapes, entre a negra, Nuvem de Marte horrendo Qual Jupiter em flegra, Hollanda o vistes fulminar tremendo.--DINEZ.

The Portuguese reader will do well to read the whole of Diniz's fine ode to Vieyra, as well as that to Mem de Sa, on his conquests at Rio de Janeiro. This writer is one of the best of the Arcadian school.--But he wrote on subjects of a minor interest, while Guidi wrote to the "d'Arcadia fortunate Genti"--of the Eternal city, where every civilised being feels he has an interest.]

While these things were going on in the northern provinces, the Jesuits had formed their singular establishments in Paraguay, and endeavoured to stop, or at least limit the slave hunting of the Portuguese in the interior, though without effect. The best part of the colony of St. Vincent's had been removed to St. Paul's, a settlement on the plain of Piratininga, and had flourished surprisingly. The people had become hardy, if not fierce. They had distinguished themselves by the courage and perseverance with which they had explored the country in search of mines, and the activity with which they had brought in slaves for the new settlements. The consciousness of their strength begot in them a longing for independence, and seizing the opportunity of the accession of the House of Braganza to the throne of Portugal, they attempted to set up a king for themselves. Their attempt was baffled by Amador Bueno de Ribiero, the very person they intended for their monarch, who, when the people shouted "Long live king Amador," cried out "Long live Joam IV." and, being swift of foot, ran and took refuge in the Benedictine convent; and the same day, as there was no alternative, Joam IV. was proclaimed by all the people.

The low state to which Portugal was now reduced, was seen in its effects on the government of Brazil. When the appointed Governors, either on their own judgment, or in obedience to the orders of the court of Lisbon, attempted to carry any new measure into execution which the people disliked, it was seldom in their power to enforce it, and they could expect little assistance from home. The Jesuits had undertaken the defence of the Indians, and endeavoured by every means to restrain the practice of making slaves of them, and to mitigate the lot of such as were already enslaved. But the Franciscans and some other orders derived equal pecuniary benefit with the hunters from the sale of slaves, and therefore they opposed them with vehemence. Interest was on the side of the Friars, and the most disgraceful scenes took place in various captaincies between the parties, the Governors being either not able or not willing to interfere with effect.

Meantime, however, the people became accustomed to canvass and to understand public questions; their governors began to respect them as a real part of the estate; and a value for independence, and a feeling that to attain it was in their own power, grew out of these disorders.

Had it been possible to have purified their religion from some of its most superstitious observances, and to reform the moral habits of the people, the prosperity of the country would soon have been equal to its means; but wherever slavery is established it brings a twofold curse with it. It degrades both parties even where the slaves are imported. How much more then, as was the case here, when they were hunted on their own grounds, where all the details, disgusting and iniquitous as they are, of the seeking, capturing, and bending to the yoke, pass under the eye till the heart grows callous to the cry of the orphan, the grief of the widow, and the despair of the parent in being torn from whatever has been dear to them?

The history of the Jesuit Vieyra's mission to Maranham is as humiliating to human nature, as his sincere exertions in the cause of the suffering Indians is creditable to himself; but neither his exertions, nor the royal authority, could baffle the selfish cruelty and avarice of the people of that captaincy; they broke out into open rebellion in defence of their detestable practices, and even when they returned to obedience, there was a compromise between humanity and avarice, to which the Indians were again sacrificed.

Rio de Janeiro had enjoyed a greater degree of tranquillity during the eighty years since its foundation than any other settlement, and its trade had increased together with its population; but the southern part of its jurisdiction was little more peaceable than Maranham, and not at all more inclined to listen to the remonstrances of the friends of the Indians. The Paulistas were the most difficult of all to manage; they had been the most active and daring of all that hunted either for slaves or for mines, and they were not willing to participate with others, far less to resign the advantages they had gained by unwearied labour and great sacrifices. Their conduct on the restoration of Portugal had evinced a desire of more than the freedom of a colony, and their neighbours were little less disposed for independence than themselves. Santos, and even Rio, had joined them, and had shewn a disposition to depose the governor appointed by the crown; and nothing but the unimpeachable character and firm conduct of Salvador Correa de Sa e Benevides (1658) prevented him from falling a sacrifice to that disposition. Bahia continued to be the capital of the Brazilian states, and its inhabitants proceeded to beautify it with churches, and convents, and nunneries, while they defied the spirit of Christianity by the importation of African, as well as the kidnapping Indian slaves. Pernambuco was still undergoing the miserable effects of the long and desultory war it had sustained; all the bands of government had been loosed during that disastrous period; law and justice had fallen into disuse; and had there not been a redeeming virtue in the free spirit that lived on in spite of the evils among which it had sprung, its very emancipation from a foreign power might have been regretted. The negroes who had escaped to the Palmares, and whose depredations had been disregarded in comparison with the evils of a foreign government, had become a real source of ill to the Pernambucans. Although they cultivated maize, and mandioc, and plaintains, they wanted every other supply. They therefore robbed the Creoles of their cattle, their sugar, their manufactured goods, and even of their Mulatto daughters and female slaves; till at length the government resolved to free the country of them, and called in the aid of a Paulista regiment for the purpose. Ten thousand of the negroes bearing arms had assembled in their chief city, which was surrounded by wooden walls, leaving the lesser ones uninhabited. But their enemies had the advantage of cannon against them, and of supplies of every kind; yet once the negroes beat off their assailants. But numbers overpowered them, and being weakened by famine, their city was forced, and the inmates seized as slaves. Zombi, however, and the most resolute of his followers, threw themselves from a high rock when they perceived their condition desperate. The Portuguese abused their victory, and murdered the rest.

But there was an evil that affected Brazil generally--the too much and the too little power of the governors. They had too much power, if any appeal lay from them--too little, if they were absolute for the term of their government. They were also virtually free from responsibility; their opportunities, nay, their temptations to extortion were almost irresistible; and, to crown all, the corrupt administration of the laws kept pace with the vices and the irregularity of the government. In vain had the wisest regulations been made, and the most just decrees issued. The judges were in many cases parties concerned; they were so in all cases where Indians and negroes were the objects of their judgment, for they were possessors of both. Their salaries were insufficient, their fees arbitrary. What wonder then if the administration was corrupt!

The cultivation of sugar and cotton had proceeded silently amidst all this confusion. The discovery of the gold and diamond mines assisted the government, both in Brazil and in the mother country, to make a stand in the midst of the eminent peril which threatened, in consequence of the losses sustained in the east, while at home there was a scanty and impoverished population, ruined manufactures, and, above all, a neglect of agriculture, that rendered Portugal dependent on foreigners for corn. Every thing was wanted; there was nothing to return; and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Brazil may be truly said to have saved Portugal, by covering with her precious metals the excessive balance that was against her in every branch of commerce, in every department of government.

Yet, though absolute ruin was averted, the weakness of the crown rendered it impossible to defend its foreign possessions from the attacks of a daring enemy. In 1710, a French squadron, under Duclerc, appeared off Rio de Janeiro, but not daring to pass the forts, sailed on, and after making several attempts to land a force at the different inlets, where he was deterred by the appearance of the militia of the country, succeeded at Guaratiba, between thirty and forty miles from the city, and thence he marched upon it with about one thousand marines. The governor, Francisco Castro de Moraes, made no attempt to stop him until his arrival at the city. There the first check the enemy met was from F. Francisco de Menezes, a Trinitarian friar, who appeared every where, and did what the governor, who remained quietly intrenched in a flat space, where the place of the Rosario now is, between two hills, ought to have done. The French having divided, one party attacked the palace, but the students of the college defended it successfully; and after a short, but desperate struggle, the French were overpowered, and the victory disgraced by the inhuman conduct of the Portuguese. Duclerc and his people were imprisoned and harshly treated. Duclerc himself is said to have been murdered in his bed.

The next year drew on Rio de Janeiro a signal punishment for these proceedings. The famous Duguay Trouin undertook to inflict it; and accordingly, in August, 1711, one year after Duclerc's adventure, he arrived off the coast, and taking advantage of a fog, entered the bay, notwithstanding the fire of the forts.

The Portuguese government had notice of his design, and had sent out stores and ammunition to meet the attack, and had appointed Gasper da Costa commander of the troops. But the sudden appearance of the French actually within the harbour, seems to have palsied the understanding of every person on shore, whose business it should have been to oppose them, and the forts and the city were given up almost without a struggle.

It would, however, have been impossible for the French to maintain themselves in Rio; therefore Duguay Trouin, after refreshing his people, ransomed the city for 600,000 cruzadoes. Bad weather alone prevented him from laying waste the reconcave of Bahia, as he had done Rio: but he had fulfilled the ostensible purpose of his voyage by avenging the treatment of Duclerc and his people, and returned to France early in 1712.

These circumstances had awakened the greatest anxiety on account of Brazil in the cabinet of Lisbon: and at the peace of Utrecht, 1713, every precaution was adopted by the Portuguese ministers to avoid any expression that might seem to admit of a free trade by any power whatever to Brazil, notwithstanding the agreements to that effect actually existing at the time. Disputes without end arose between Portugal and Spain concerning the colonies adjoining to the Rio de la Plata, and it was especially stipulated that no other power, particularly England, should be allowed to form settlements there on account of the facilities such settlements might afford for smuggling the precious metals out of the country. These had now become the first object in Brazil. St. Paul's had been erected into a city, and the district of the mines had been formed into a captaincy: the inhabitants of the coast flocked to the interior, where new towns were daily springing up; all were desirous of a share in that lottery where the prizes were so enormous, that the great preponderance of blanks was overlooked. Great inconvenience must have been felt by the early adventurers to the mines: for so many hands were employed in searching for gold, that few remained to cultivate the soil, and provide the necessaries of life. Yet that insatiable thirst of gold is a stimulus which has led to useful and to honourable things: it is not the love of the metal, but the possession of it gives power, and that is the real object of most men's ambition: it is certainly that of the ambition of all nations, and this object is held legitimate: we account those base or wicked who seek the means; we admire those who attain the end. The philosophic historian and the poet are alike ready to condemn the man who first dug the ore from the mine: the panegyric in prose and in verse is lavished on the hero and the patron. But gold furnished the means for the hero's conquests and the patron's liberality, and gold, or the worth of gold, is the object of both; whether in the form of continued power, or of that fame which patronage can bring. Sad indeed has been the waste of human life in searching for gold: but have all the mines together consumed more men than the single revolutionary war? And have not the religious contests among Christians, and their persecutions and mutilations and burnings cost many more? I would not justify the gold finders; their actions were horrible, their oppressions atrocious; but let them have justice: the stimulus was great; urged on by it, they performed great things, they braved cold, and hunger, and fatigue, and persecution, and death; they persevered, they opened the way to unknown lands, they laid the foundations for future civilisation in countries which will have reason to bless their discoveries, when the effect of their evil deeds, as well as the memory of the brutal customs of the savages they so unjustly oppressed, shall have passed away.

But I have neither space nor inclination to follow their adventures, and must refer to Mr. Southey's elaborate and excellent account of them. Daniel Defoe alone could have so handled the subject as to make delightful so dull and so sad a tale. I am but a looker on to whom the actions of the present are more interesting than the past, but yet am not insensible to the influence that the elder days have had upon us.

Pernambuco had during the half century which had elapsed since the expulsion of the Dutch had time to recruit. The sugar plantations had reappeared, and the commerce of Recife had become extremely important. The merchants, and especially those from Europe, had settled there, and the town had increased till it became the second of Brazil; while Olinda gradually declined, having few inhabitants besides priests and the representatives of the old families of the province, who might be called its nobility: still Recife was but a village until, in 1710, it solicited and obtained the royal assent to its becoming a town, and having a camera or municipal council to govern its internal affairs. The jealousy of the people of Olinda and the other old Brazilians was violently excited by this concession, which they conceived would raise the plebeian traders and foreigners to an equality with themselves. After several tumultuous meetings on the subject, three of the ten parishes belonging to Olinda were assigned to Recife, and the governor, fearing to set up the pillar which marks a township openly, had it erected in the night. Fresh disturbances ensued, in which some of the magistrates were concerned, and there were not wanting voices to exclaim that the Pernambucans had shown they could shake off the strong chains of the Dutch, and that they could as easily shake off others and govern themselves. The seditious magistrates were arrested and thrown into prison. The soldiers were employed to disarm the people; but they had now advanced too far to be easily reduced. The governor was fired at and dangerously wounded, and proofs were not wanting that the judge and the bishop had at least consented to the attempt on his life. The most serious disturbances followed: the inhabitants of the whole district took up arms, some blood was shed in the course of their contentions with the soldiers, and Sebastian de Castro, the governor, weakened both in body and mind, was induced to fly to Bahia for safety. Six of the chief Pernambucans were now appointed to exercise the functions of a provisional government till orders should be received from Lisbon, and all Europeans were deprived of their offices and commissions.

But the bishop, who had been at Paraiba since the time when De Castro was wounded, now returned to claim his office as governor on the removal of the former one. He began to exercise his authority in the king's name, and his first act was to declare a general pardon. But he, however appears to have been a timid man: willing yet not daring to join the party who wished to shake off the yoke of Portugal, and by his vacillating conduct betraying both his friends in that party, and the trust reposed in him by the crown. At length, in 1711, these disturbances were quieted by a new governor, Felix Jose Machado de Mendonça. Brazil was not yet ripe for independence; nor indeed could so small and ill-peopled a state as Pernambuco have maintained its freedom even for a year unconnected with the other captaincies. While these things were going on in the captaincies of Brazil, the Jesuits were labouring in the interior to reclaim the Indians, with success far beyond the apparent means, and some towns, which have since become of importance, were built on the coast and on the shores of the Plata, particularly Monte Video, in 1733; but the border war, between the Spaniards and Portuguese, which was waged on account of these settlements, disquieted the neighbourhood for a time. Its importance, however, was soon forgotten in the disturbances caused by the treaty of division between Spain and Portugal, which forcing the Indians who had been reclaimed to emigrate, roused them to a vigorous but short and useless resistance, which only began the evils that the Jesuit missions were destined to perish under.

The Portuguese government, under the administration of Carvalho, afterwards Marquis of Pombal, had begun to attend to, and attempt to reform the abuses which existed throughout Brazil, but particularly in the newly founded captaincies and settlements, when the war with France and Spain broke out in 1762. For a time defence against a foreign enemy superseded every other consideration. The first act of hostility in the western world was the seizing of the Portuguese settlement of Columbia, in the Plata, by the governor of Buenos Ayres, before the squadron despatched by the governor of Brazil, Gomez Freyre, could arrive to protect it. That squadron consisted of the Lord Clive, of 64 guns, an English ship commanded by Capt. Macnamara; the Ambuscade, of 40 guns, in which Penrose, the poet, served as lieutenant; and the Gloria, of 38 guns. The Spanish ships retired before Macnamara, and he ran under the guns of the forts of Colonia, in order to retake the place. He had nearly succeeded in silencing the batteries, when, by accident or negligence, the ship took fire; the enemy renewed their fire; three-fourths of the crew of the Lord Clive, among which was the captain, were drowned. The other ships were nearly destroyed and obliged to retreat; but owing to the neglect of the Spaniards, they were able to refit and return to Rio. And this was the most remarkable action of the war beyond the Atlantic, and the first in which the English distinguished themselves in the defence of Brazil.

Pombal, meantime, having resolved on the suppression of the order of Jesuits, overlooked, in the ardour with which he pursued that measure, the important services they had rendered, and were daily rendering, to one of his favourite objects, namely, the improvement of the condition of the Indians. Their plan of discipline, indeed, hitherto had kept their pupils rather in a state of childish innocence than of manly improvement. Their fault was, that in order to secure obedience, they had stopped short of what they might have effected. Their dominion was an Utopia; and had it been possible to shut out every European and every wild Indian, it might have lasted. But such artificial polities can never be of long duration. Some convulsions either from without or from within must end them, and that with a more complete ruin than could befal states less curiously framed. But the well-intentioned labours of the missionaries had produced one decided good effect,--the habits of savage life were abandoned, and the advantages of agriculture and manufactures had been felt. The rock on which the education of the Indians split, was the community of goods. When a man has no property, but depends for the supply of his daily wants upon the providence of others, he has no incitement to particular exertion. The stimulus to industry cannot exist where a man has no hope of growing richer, no fear of becoming poorer, no anxiety about the provision of his family. His judgment in the portioning and disposing of his property is never called forth; all the qualities and virtues that arise out of the practice of domestic economy lie dormant, and the man remains an infant. It would have been easy to remedy this, by allowing the Indians to possess private stock, and to provide for their own families after the first generation. The newly reclaimed did require to be provided for, but the children growing up in the Aldeas might have been intrusted with their own property. They would have become men; and when the removal of their spiritual fathers took place, that wide and deep desolation would not have overwhelmed them, nor would Paraguay have gone back as it has done towards a savage state.

The Jesuits of Brazil were expelled in 1760, in the most cruel and arbitrary manner. Those of the Spanish American colonies eight years later. Whatever might have been their faults, or even their crimes, in other countries, in these their conduct had been exemplary. They had been the protectors of a persecuted race, the advocates of mercy, the founders of civilisation; and their patience under their unmerited sufferings forms not the least honourable trait in their character.

The history of Brazil, for the next thirty years, is composed of the mismanagement and decay of the Jesuit establishments; the enlargement of the mining districts, particularly in the direction of Mato Grosso; some disputes with the French on the frontier of Cayenne; and the more peaceful occupations of opening roads, and the introduction of new branches of commerce, and the improvement of the old.

This tranquillity was for a moment interrupted by a conspiracy in the province of Minas Geraes, headed by an officer named Joaquim Jose de Silva Xavier, commonly called Tiradentes. The project of the conspirators was to form an independent republic in Minas, and, if possible, to induce Rio de Janeiro to unite with it. But their measures were most inadequate for the end proposed, and their conduct so imprudent, that, although there was a pretty general feeling of discontent on account of the taxes and some other grievances, the conspirators were all seized before they had formed anything like a party capable of resistance, much less of beginning the meditated revolution.

The direct effects upon Brazil of the first thirteen years of the revolutionary war in Europe were confined to some slight disputes regarding the boundaries of the Portuguese and French Guiana, and concerning the limits of which, there was an article in Lord Cornwallis's negotiations with France, or rather the peace of Amiens in 1802.

The indirect effects were greater. Being a good deal left to themselves, the colonists had leisure to discover what sort of cultivation and crops suited best with the climate, and were fittest for the market; and some branches of industry were introduced, and others improved, to the great advantage of the province. Foreign ships, and even fleets, had also begun to resort thither[18]: so that, though the ports had as yet been closed against foreign traders, the entrance of men of war, and such merchant ships as could find no others to refit in, introduced a virtual freedom, which it would afterwards have been impossible not to have confirmed.

[Note 18: That under Sir H. Popham, on Sir D. Baird's expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, for instance, in 1805, and that of the French admiral, Guillaumez, in 1806.]

The court of Portugal meanwhile, as if infatuated by the negotiations of France, consented to buy a disgraceful neutrality at the price of 1,000,000 of livres or 40,000_l._ per month, besides granting free entrance to French woollens into the kingdom.

It was in vain that frequent representations were made to the ministry at Lisbon on the subject; that the armament at Bayonne, and the refusal of Spain to forbid the passage of French troops through her territories, were pointed out. The Portuguese forces were marched to the sea-coast, as if they apprehended an invasion from England; thus leaving the kingdom defenceless on the land side, and the ports were shut against English commerce, by a proclamation, dated 20th October, 1807. But the importance of Portugal to England, as neutral ground, or, in the event of a French government in Spain, as a point whence to attack the great enemy, was such, that the resentment which at another time would certainly have been openly declared, was suppressed; but a strong squadron was always kept up off the coast, partly to watch the proceedings on shore, partly to prevent the Portuguese vessels from coming out of port, and joining the French and Spaniards.

While this system of watchfulness was kept up in Europe, the English ministry was not less attentive to the designs of France on the South American colonies. As long as Spain and Portugal continued to pay the enormous price in money for their neutrality, which France had demanded, the views of Napoleon were better answered than they could have been by the possession of all their territory and all their colonies. But the moment in which they should become unable or unwilling to pay that price, would of course be that of aggression and invasion. So early as 1796, Mr. Pitt had contemplated the advantages that must arise to Britain from the possession of a port in South America, and particularly in the Rio de la Plata, nor did he ever afterwards lose sight of it. Some circumstances occurred in December, 1804, to draw his attention, particularly towards the subject, inasmuch as he had intelligence that France was about to attempt to seize on one of the Spanish settlements on the first opportunity. But we were then at peace with Spain, and however willing to prevent such an aggression on the part of France, and to assist General Miranda in his intended expedition to South America, it was impossible to co-operate with him, as he earnestly pressed the ministry to do, although the advantage to England of securing such a market for her manufactures was clearly perceived. Among the officers who had been most confidentially consulted by Mr. Pitt, on the practicability of obtaining a settlement on the La Plata, was Sir Home Popham; and it was probably his knowledge of the views so long entertained by that minister, that induced him to take the hazardous step, of leaving the Cape of Good Hope so soon after it had been occupied by the English forces, in 1806, and taking Buenos Ayres without orders to that effect. His immediate motive was, the intelligence he had procured, that the squadron of the French admiral, Guillaumez, had intentions of touching on the coast of Brazil, entering the La Plata, and, if possible, seizing, or forming a settlement there; and some North Americans whom he had met, encouraged the undertaking, by observing, that to throw open the ports of South America would be a common benefit to all commercial nations, but particularly to England.[19]

[Note 19: For the political and commercial views entertained with regard to the assisting Miranda, or obtaining for England a port in South America, see Lord Melville's evidence on the court martial on Sir Home Popham.]

In 1806, the demonstrations of hostilities against Portugal on the part of France were so evident, that Lord Rosslyn was despatched thither on a special mission, in which Lord St. Vincent and General Simcoe were joined with him. His instructions from Mr. Fox, then prime minister, were to lay before the ministry of Lisbon, the imminent danger which threatened the country, and to offer assistance in men, money, and stores from England, to put Portugal in a state of defence, in case the government should decide on a vigorous and effective resistance. If, on the other hand, Portugal should think itself too weak to contend with France, the idea that had once occurred to King Don Alfonso of emigrating to Brazil, and there establishing the capital of the empire, was to be revived, and promises made of assistance and protection for that purpose. If, however, Portugal insisted on rejecting assistance in either case, the troops under General Simcoe were to be landed, the strong forts on the Tagus occupied by them, and the fleet was to enter the river and secure the Portuguese ships and vessels, taking care to impress the government and people with the feeling that this was done from regard to the nation, and by no means for the sake of selfish aggrandisement on the part of England. It appears, however, that the French preparations for the invasion were not at that time so far advanced as had been imagined, and at the earnest entreaty of the court of Lisbon, the troops and the fleet were withdrawn from the Tagus.

On the 8th of August, the next year, however, (1807) Mr. Rayneval, the French chargé d'affaires at Lisbon, received orders from his court to declare to the Prince Regent of Portugal, that if by the first of September he did not declare war against England, and send back the English minister, recalling the Portuguese ambassador from London, and did not seize all the English residents, confiscate their property, and shut the ports of the kingdom against the English; and lastly, if he did not, without delay, unite his armies and fleets with those of the rest of the continent against England, he had orders to demand his passports and to declare war.

The Conde de Barca, then prime minister, was certainly aware of the preparations of the French government. But with that obstinate blindness which sometimes seems to possess men like a fate, he persisted in regarding them only as measures to intimidate and harass England. This nobleman had been ambassador at the court of St. Petersburg, and on his recall to take the first place in the cabinet at Lisbon, he was ordered to go by sea to London, and thence to Portugal, but he chose to perform the journey by way of Paris, where he saw and conversed both with Napoleon and Talleyrand. There cannot be the least doubt but that he was duped by those able men. Many considered him as a traitor. But the vanity of the Conde, who always said he had gone to judge of these men by his own eyes, though it makes him weaker, makes him less wicked, and was, perhaps, the true spring of his actions. He it was who carried the measures for the detention of the English, the confiscation of their property, and the shutting the ports against English commerce: adopting, in short, the whole of the continental system. The very day before Junot was to reach Lisbon, however, a Paris newspaper, written in anticipation of the event, announced that "_The House of Braganza no longer reigned_," and that its members were reduced to the common herd of ex-princes, &c., giving no very favourable description of them, and holding out no very flattering expectations for the future. This completely opened the Prince Regent's eyes, and he consented to that step, which D. John IV. and Don José had contemplated, namely, the transferring the seat of his empire to his Transatlantic possessions.

This was in the month of November, 1807, but the events of that month, the most interesting that had occurred to Portugal since the revolution that had placed Braganza on the throne of his ancestors, will be best understood by the following extracts from the despatches received by the British ministry from Lord Strangford and from Sir Sydney Smith at the time. On the 29th November, 1807, His Lordship writes, after mentioning the Prince's departure for Brazil:--

"I had frequently and distinctly stated to the cabinet of Lisbon, that in agreeing not to resent the exclusion of British commerce from the ports of Portugal, His Majesty had exhausted the means of forbearance; that in making that concession to the peculiar circumstances of the Prince Regent's situation, His Majesty had done all that friendship and the remembrance of ancient alliance could justly require; but that a single step beyond the line of modified hostility, thus most reluctantly consented to, must necessarily lead to the extremity of actual war.

"The Prince Regent, however, suffered himself for a moment to forget that, in the present state of Europe, no country could be permitted to be an enemy to England with impunity, and that however much His Majesty might be disposed to make allowance for the deficiency of means possessed by Portugal of resistance to the power of France, neither his own dignity nor the interests of his people would permit His Majesty to accept that excuse for a compliance with the full extent of her unprincipled demands. On the 8th inst. His Royal Highness was induced to sign an order for the detention of the few British subjects, and of the inconsiderable portion of British property which yet remained at Lisbon. On the publication of this order, I caused the arms of England to be removed from the gates of my residence, demanded my passports, presented a final remonstrance against the recent conduct of the court of Lisbon, and proceeded to the squadron commanded by Sir Sydney Smith, which arrived off the coast of Portugal some days after I had received my passports, and which I joined on the 17th inst.

"I immediately suggested to Sir Sydney Smith the expediency of establishing the most rigorous blockade at the mouth of the Tagus; and I had the high satisfaction of afterwards finding that I had thus anticipated the intentions of His Majesty: for despatches (which I received on the 23d) directing me to authorise that measure, in case the Portuguese government should pass the bounds which His Majesty had thought fit to set to his forbearance, and attempt to take any further step injurious to the honour or interests of Great Britain."--

----"I resolved, therefore, to proceed forthwith to ascertain the effect produced by the blockade of Lisbon, and to propose to the Portuguese government, as the only condition upon which that blockade should cease, the alternative (stated by you) either of surrendering the fleet to His Majesty, or of immediately employing it to remove the Prince Regent and his family to the Brazils."--

"I accordingly requested an audience of the Prince Regent, together with due assurances of protection and security; and upon receiving His Royal Highness's answers I proceeded to Lisbon on the 27th, in His Majesty's sloop Confiance, bearing a flag of truce. I had immediately most interesting communications with the court of Lisbon, the particulars of which shall be detailed in a future despatch. It suffices to mention in this place, that the Prince Regent wisely directed all his apprehensions to a French army, and all his hopes to a British fleet: that he received the most explicit assurances from me that His Majesty would generously overlook those acts of unwilling and momentary hostility to which His Royal Highness's consent had been extorted; and that I promised to His Royal Highness, on the faith of my sovereign, that the British squadron before the Tagus should be employed to protect his retreat from Lisbon, and his voyage to the Brazils.

"A decree was published yesterday, in which the Prince Regent announced his intention of retiring to the city of Rio de Janeiro until the conclusion of a general peace, and of appointing a regency to transact the administration of government at Lisbon, during His Royal Highness's absence from Europe."

Sir Sydney Smith writes on the first of December the following letter to the admiralty:--

His Majesty's Ship Hibernia, 22 leagues west of the Tagus, Dec. 1, 1807.

"Sir,

"In a former despatch, dated 22d November, with a postscript of the 26th, I conveyed to you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the proofs contained in various documents of the Portuguese government, being so much influenced by terror of the French arms as to have acquiesced to certain demands of France operating against Great Britain. The distribution of the Portuguese force was made wholly on the coast, while the land side was left totally unguarded. British subjects of all descriptions were detained; and it therefore became necessary to inform the "Portuguese government, that the case had arisen, which required, in obedience to my instructions, that I should declare the Tagus in a state of blockade."

(_Sir Sydney then repeats part of Lord Strangford's despatch._)

"On the morning of the 29th, the Portuguese fleet came out of the Tagus with His Royal Highness the Prince of Brazil, and the whole of the royal family of Braganza on board, together with many of his faithful councillors and adherents, as well as other persons attached to his present fortunes.

"This fleet of eight sail of the line, four frigates, two brigs, and one schooner[20], with a crowd of large armed merchant ships arranged itself under the protection of that of His Majesty, while the firing of a reciprocal salute of twenty-one guns announced the friendly meeting of those, who but the day before were on terms of hostility, the scene impressing every beholder (except the French army on the hills) with the most lively emotions of gratitude to Providence, that there yet existed a power in the world able, as well as willing, to protect the oppressed.--I have, &c.

"W. SYDNEY SMITH."

[Note 20: _List of the Portuguese Fleet that came out of the Tagus on the 29th of November, 1807._

Guns. Commanded by

Principe Real 84, Adm. Manoel da Cunha.
Capt. Manoel da Canto.

Rainha de Portugal 74, Capt. Francisco Manoel Soetomayor.
_The Princess Dowager and younger daughters
came in this ship._

Conde Henrique 74, Capt. Jose Maria de Almeida.

Medusa 74, Capt. Henrique de Souza Prego.

Affonso d'Abuquerque 64, Capt Ignacio da Costa Quinatella.
_The Queen and family in this ship._

D. Joam de Castro 64, Capt. Don Manoel Juan Souça.

Principe do Brazil 74, Capt. Garçaŏ.

Martim de Freitas 64, Capt. Don Manoel Menezes.

FRIGATES.

Minerva 44, Capt. Rodrigo Lobo.

Golfinho 36, Capt. Luiz d'Acunha.

Urania 32, Capt. Tancos, Conde de Viana.

Cherua Princesa S.S. 20, Commanded by a lieutenant.

BRIGS.

Voador 22, Lieut. Fs. Maximilian. Vingança 20, Capt. Nicolas Kytten. Gaivota 22.

SCHOONER.

Curiosa 12, _Hoisted French colours and deserted._

Of these vessels, the _Martin Freitas_ is now the _Pedro Primero_. The _Principe Real_ is the receiving ship at Rio. The _Rainha de Portugal_ is at Lisbon, as well as the Conde Henrique. The _Medusa_ is the sheer hulk at Rio. The three other line-of-battle ships either broke up or about to be so. Of the frigates, the Minerva was taken by the French in India. The Golfinho is broken up, and the _Urania_ was wrecked on the Cape de Verde Islands. The Voador is now a corvette. The Vingança is broke up, and the Gaivoto is now the Liberal.

_List of the Ships that remained at Lisbon._

Guns.

S. Sebastao 64, _Unserviceable without thorough repair._ Maria Prima 74, _Ordered for floating battery--not fitted._ Vasco de Gama 74,[21] _Under repair, nearly ready._ Princesa de Beira 64, _Ordered for floating battery._

FRIGATES.

Fenix 48, _In need of thorough repair_ (broke up at Bahia). Aamazona 44, _Do. Do._ (Do. at Lisbon). Perola 44, _Do. Do._ (Do. at Lisbon). Trítaõ 40, _Past repair._ Veney 30, _Past repair._

]

[Note 21: Hulk at Rio.]

Such are the public accounts transmitted by foreigners to their court of one of the most singular transactions that has occurred in the history of kingdoms and of courts. Yet such was the state of Europe at that time, so momentous the struggle between the principals in the mighty warfare that was going on, that the ancient house of Braganza left the seat of its ancestors, to seek shelter and security beyond the Atlantic, almost without notice and with less ceremony than had formerly attended an excursion to its country palaces.