664 



BllAZIL. 



speedily. By building St Salvador, in 15-1!), nt the 

 bay of All Saints, he established a central and nil ly- 

 ing point for the colony ; but the great object of 

 reducing the Indians to submission was effected by 

 the Jesuits, who gained their affections by presents 

 and acts of kindness. 



The increasing prosperity of IJ., which became 

 visible to Europe at the beginning of the 1 7th cen- 

 tury, excited the envy of the French, Spaniards, and 

 Dutch, successively. The latter, however, were the 

 principal enemies with whom the Portuguese had to 

 contend for the dominion of 1). Their admiral, 

 Willekens, in 1624s took possession of the country in 

 the name of the United Provinces. Having plun- 

 dered the people of St Salvador, he returned to 

 Europe, leaving a strong garrison. The Spaniards 

 next sent out a formidable fleet, laid siege to St Salva- 

 dor, and compelled the Dutch to surrender. When 

 the affairs of the Dutch assumed a more favourable 

 aspect at home, they despatched admiral Henry 

 l.onk. in the beginning of 1630, to attempt the entire 

 conquest of B. He succeeded in reducing Peniam- 

 buco, and, on his return to Europe, left behind him 

 troops which reduced, in 1633, 1634, and 1635, the 

 provinces of Temeraca, Paraiba, and Rio Grande. 

 These, as well as Pemambuco, furnished yearly a 

 large quantity of sugar, a great deal of wood for dy- 

 ing, and other commodities. The Dutch now deter- 

 mined to conquer all B., and intrusted Maurice of 

 Nassau with the direction of the enterprise. This 

 distinguished officer reached the place of his destina- 

 tion in the beginning of 1637, and subjected Seara, 

 Seregippe, ana the greater part of Bahia. Seven of 

 the fifteen provinces which composed the colony had 

 already submitted to them, when they were suddenly 

 checked by the revolution, which removed Philip IV. 

 from the throne of Portugal, and gave to the Portu- 

 guese independence, ana a native sovereign. The 

 Dutch, as enemies of the Spaniards, became friends to 

 tbe Portuguese, and the latter confirmed the title of 

 the Dutch to the seven provinces, of which they were 

 in possession. This division gave rise to the name of 

 the Brazils, in place of the former appellation. The 

 Dutch government soon began to oppress the Portu- 

 guese colonists, who, after an obstinate contest, drove 

 them out of several of the provinces. Finding they 

 were not able to retain possession of the country, the 

 Dutch ceded all their interest to the Portuguese for a 

 pecuniary compensation. The dominion of Portugal 

 was now extended over all B., which, during the 

 18th century, remained in the peaceful possession of 

 the Portuguese. 



The value of B. to Portugal has been on the in- 

 crease since the discovery of the gold mines, in 1698, 

 and the discovery of the diamond mines, in 1782. Up 

 to the year 1810, B. had sent to Portugal 14,280 cwt. 

 of gold, and 2100 pounds of diamonds, which foreign 

 countries, and especially Great Britain, at last suc- 

 ceeded in purchasing, at the Lisbon market. Rio 

 Janeiro now became the mart for the proceeds of the 

 Brazilian mines and native productions. But the 

 administration was any thing but adapted to promote 

 the prosperity of the country. The attention of the 

 government was turned almost exclusively to the 

 gold washings, and to the working of the diamond 

 mines ; and the policy of the administration consisted 

 in the exaction of taxes and duties, which were col- 

 lected from the fortified ports, to which trade was 

 solely confined. Foreigners were excluded, or jea- 

 lously watched, and trade was paralysed by numerous 

 restrictions. In the interior, the lands situated on 

 the great rivers, after being surveyed, were frequently 

 presented, after the year 1640, by the kings of the 

 house of Braganza, to the younger sons' of the Portu- 

 guese nobility, whom the system of entails excluded 



from the prospect of inheritance. These grantees 

 enlisted adventurers, purchased Negro slaves by thou- 

 sands, and subjected the original inhabitants, or drove 

 them from their districts, and ruled their dominions 

 with almost unlimited sway. The missions of the 

 Jesuits also received similar donations from the kings. 

 They organized a brave militia from the converted 

 savages and their descendants, and bore the sword 

 and the cross farther and farther into the interior. 

 Equally independent with the secular lords of the 

 soil, they united the converted savages in villages 

 and parishes along the rivers. The celebrated Je>u t 

 Vieyra introduced the cultivation of spices, in which 

 Holland alone had hitherto traded. As these Brazil- 

 ian proprietors defrayed, from their own means, the 

 above-mentioned indemnifications made to the Dutch, 

 the Portuguese government, in return, confirmed ami 

 enlarged all the privileges of the ancient planters, 

 extending them to the present and future possessions 

 of these noble families. But, in the end, the govern- 

 ment multiplied its own monopolies, and assumed 

 prerogatives interfering with the interests of the an- 

 cient and rich landlords. Even from 1808 to 1821, 

 as long as the court resided in Rio Janeiro, the Por- 

 tuguese by birth continued to have the preference, in 

 the high offices of state, before the chief native 

 families ; and the system of taxing the productions 

 of B., and the importation of articles needed by the 

 Brazilian nobility for themselves and slaves, was even 

 extended. The government finally placed obstacles 

 in the way of increasing the number of the latter, 

 which the rich landlords deemed indispensable for the 

 establishment of new plantations. The vassals, more- 

 over, always had a stumbling-block in their way in 

 the fiscal prerogative of the court, that the land which 

 the vassal called his own, but which he had hitherto 

 neglected to search for gold, or for diamonds, in case 

 of any future discovery of such treasures, should l>e 

 the property of the crown, or, at least, the object of 

 high taxation. In the grants of the ancient planta- 

 tions, the crown had not indeed provided for such a 

 contingency, and had reserved no such rights. Even 

 the humanity of the government, in attempting to 

 ameliorate by laws the condition of the slaves, was a 

 subject of offence, because it appeared to the lords to 

 be an injury to their legal property to proceed in such 

 a matter without their consent. Out of Rio Janeiro, 

 in the more northerly and more fertile section, the 

 number of young merchants in the large maritime 

 cities and their vicinity was greatly increased by 

 emigrations from states where more freedom of 

 thought was enjoyed than in B. Many came even 

 from Germany. These adventurers, bent on gain, 

 naturally felt burdened by the heavy system of taxa- 

 tion, and by the monopolies of the crown. They car- 

 ried on the smuggling trade to such a degree, that 

 they lived, in fact, in open war with the government 

 In addition to these malcontents, there were many 

 disbanded soldiers, who had embarked from Portu- 

 gal, in the hope of being rewarded by the court for 

 their services, but, from the poverty of the finances, 

 found that they could obtain nothing but land, which 

 was of no value to these warriors. Moreover, many 

 Europeans emigrated to Bahia and Pernambuco, who, 

 though destitute, were not altogether uninformed, and 

 who desired to make their fortune there some way or 

 other. The lower class of the native clergy, too, 

 were very much dissatisfied, because, even while the 

 court resided in B., Portuguese noblemen received 

 the most important ecclesiastical offices. Without 

 ascribing to the Brazilians any democratic propensi- 

 ties, all these circumstances must have awakened the 

 desire of independence in their breasts, as much as it 

 augmented their hatred of the Portuguese. From 

 these two causes a conflict ot parties of several 





