ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



741 



^ulge them with impunity, and 

 consider the indulgence as meri- 

 torious. This system was imme- 

 diately extended to Brazil : — the 

 first Europeans who were left 

 ashore there were two convicts. 

 In Africa or in India the exile 

 was sent to bear arms with his 

 countrymen, who would not re- 

 gard him as disgraced, because 

 they were obliged to associate with 

 him. To be degraded to Brazil 

 was a heavier punishment ; the 

 chance of war could not enrich 

 him there, and there was no pos- 

 sibility of returning home with 

 honour for any signal service. 

 They were in one point of view 

 better disposed of, inasmuch as in 

 new colonies ordinary men are of 

 greater value than they can be 

 elsewhere, — but they became 

 worse subjects. Their numbers 

 bore a greater proportion to the 

 better settlers ; and thej'^ were 

 therefore more likely to be en- 

 couraged in iniquity than reform- 

 ed by example ; to communicate 

 evil than to learn good. Their in- 

 tercoursewith the savages produc- 

 ed nothing but mischief: each 

 made the other worse ; the can- 

 nibals acquired new means of de- 

 struction, and the Europeans new 

 modes of barbarity. The Euro- 

 peans were weaned from that hu- 

 man horror at the bloody feasts of 

 the savages, which ruffians as they 

 were, they had at first felt, and 

 the natives lost that awe and ve- 

 neration for a superior race which 

 might have been improved so 

 greatly to their own advantage. 



" The first settler in Bahia was 

 Diogo Alvarez ; who with that 

 spirit of enterprize which was 

 then common among his coun- 

 trymen, embarked to seek his 



fortune in strange countries. He 

 was wrecked upon the shoals on 

 the north of the bar of Bahia. Part 

 of the crew werelost, othersescap- 

 ed this death to suffer one more 

 dreadful: the natives seized and eat 

 them. Diogo saw that there was 

 no other possible chance of saving 

 his life, than by making himself 

 as useful as possible to tbese 

 cannibals. He therefore exerted 

 himself in recovering things from 

 the wreck, and by these exertions 

 succeeded in conciliating their fa- 

 vour. Among other things he 

 was fortunate enough to get on 

 shore some barrels of powder and 

 a musket, which he put in order 

 at his first leisure, after his mas - 

 ters were returned to their village; 

 and one day when the opportunity 

 was favourable, brought down a 

 bird before them. The women 

 and children shouted Cararauru ! 

 Caramuru ! which signified a man 

 of fire ! and they cried out that 

 he would destroy them ; but he 

 told the men, whose astonishment 

 had less of fear mingled with it, 

 that he would go with them to 

 war and kill their enemies. Ca- 

 ramuru, was the name which from 

 thenceforward he was known by. 

 They marched against uieTapuyas; 

 the fame of this dreadful engine 

 went before them, and the Tapu- 

 yas fled. From a slave Caramuru 

 became a sovereign. The chiefs 

 of the savages thought themselves 

 happy if he would accept their 

 daughters to be his wives ; he 

 fixed his abode upon the spot where 

 Villa Velha was afterwards erect- 

 ed, and soon saw as numerous a 

 progeny as an old patriarch's ris- 

 ing round him. The best fami- 

 lies in Bahia trace their origin to 

 him. 



