Journal of a Voyage to Brazil | Page 8

Maria Graham
begun; the
whole was defended by a mud wall. The next year supplies of all kinds
arrived from Lisbon, and the year after that several female orphans, of
noble family, were sent out as wives for the officers, with dowries in
negroes, kine, and brood-mares.
About this time, a Spanish expedition destined for the river Plata
miscarried; one of the ships was wrecked off St. Vincent's, and to Hans
Staade, one of the crew who survived and after various adventures fell
into the power of the Indians, we are indebted for the most authentic
and particular account of the Brazilian Savages.[9] It is curious that the
Indians of the new world, should so very far exceed all the savage
tribes of the old in barbarity. But it is certain that no authentic accounts
of cannibals have ever been brought from Africa; whereas, none of the
early writers on Brazil and its inhabitants have failed to dwell upon
their love of human flesh, as characteristic of the people.
[Note 9: In the Historia da Provincia Sancta Cruz, by Pero de
Magalhaens de Gandano, 1576, there is an account sufficiently tallying
with that which Southey has compiled from Hans Staade and De Lery.
But it is far from being so disgusting. There is a copper-plate
representing the dragging the prisoner with cords, and felling him with
a club. The author gives a short account of the then known plants and
animals of Brazil, and concludes with the hope that the mines believed
to exist may speedily be found.--See the collection of tracts by Barbosa
Maehado.]
The year 1552 is distinguished by the arrival of the first bishop in
Brazil. His see was fixed at St. Salvador's, or, as it is generally called,
Bahia. In the next year, Thome de Souza retired from his government,
and was succeeded by Don Duarte da Costa, who was accompanied by
seven jesuits, among whom was the celebrated Anchieta.[10] The chief
of the order, Loyola, was still alive, he erected Brazil into a new
province, and appointed Nobrega and Luis de Gran, who had been
principal at Coimbra, joint provincials. From that moment the labours
of the fathers for the real good of the country commenced. And
whatever may be the opinions entertained, as to their politics and

ultimate views, there is not a doubt but that the means they employed to
reclaim and civilise the Indians, were mild, and therefore successful;
that while they wrought their own purposes, they made their people
happy; and that centuries will not repair the evil done by their sudden
expulsion, which broke up the bands of humanised society which were
beginning to unite the Indians with their fellow creatures.
[Note 10: Anchieta was not only a man of extraordinary firmness of
mind and real piety, but a politician of no common cast, and his civil
services to the Portuguese government were equal to those of the
greatest captains, while his labours as a missionary and teacher were
beyond those of any individual of whom I have ever read. His merits as
a christian apostle and a man of literature, have disarmed even Mr.
Southey of his usual rancour against the Roman Catholic faith. That
excellent writer's book on Brazil is spoilt by intemperate language on a
subject on which human feeling is least patient of direct contradiction,
so that the general circulation of it is rendered impossible, and the good
it might otherwise do in the country for which it is written frustrated.
Oh, that Mr. Southey would remember the quotation which he himself
brings forward from Jeremy Taylor! "Zeal against an error is not
always the best instrument to find out truth."]
In 1553, the first school was established in Brazil, by Nobrega, in the
high plains of Piratininga, about thirteen leagues from the colony of
San Vicente. Anchieta was the school-master. The school was opened
on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and the establishment, and
the infant colony rising round it, received the name of the saint. St.
Paul's has since grown to be one of the most important towns in Brazil.
Its rich minerals, its iron-works, and other manufactures, but, above all,
the high and free spirit of its inhabitants, who have taken the lead in
every effort for the good of the country, distinguish it above all the
southern towns of Brazil.
Anchieta, while he taught Latin to the Portuguese and Mamalucos,[11]
and Portuguese to the Brazilians, learnt from these last their own
tongue, and composed a grammar and dictionary for them. He had no
books for his pupils, so that he wrote on separate leaves, in four

different languages, the daily lesson for each. He served as physician,
as well as priest and school-master, and practised and taught the most
useful domestic arts. But
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