BEAZIL— GENEEAL SUEVEY. 79 



Portugal to be engraved, and Spain, unaware of the true character of this "island" 

 of Vera Cruz, made no claim to its possession. In any case, it lay to the east, that 

 is, to the Portuguese side of the line drawn by Pope Alexander VI. between the 

 two halves of the globe assigned to Spain and Portugal. 



But the " island " expanded with subsequent discoveries, and soon extended 

 westwards beyond the conventional line laid down by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 

 1494 between the Spanish and Portuguese hemispheres. The name of Vera Cruz 

 given to the land by Cabrai, and afterwards changed to Santa Cruz, was not 

 extended with the western discoveries, but remained restricted to a river and a 

 settlement in the neighbourhood of Porto Seguro. The popular name of Brazil, 

 previously applied to a mysterious land in which were supposed to grow the trees 

 alread}^ known as Brazil or Brasil, at last became permanently attached to the new 

 region, which thvis took its name from the dyewood, not the dyewood from the 

 country. Next year (1501), Andrea Gonçalvez Amerigo Vespucci reached the 

 bay of Todos os Santos, where now stands the city of Bahia. 



Progress of Portuguese Settlement. 



Once revealed to the outer world, this seaboard received numerous visitors, 

 amongst others de Gonneville and other Dieppe navigators. By 1503 the Normans 

 had already made several voyages, especially *' in quest of the braisil, which is 

 a wood for dyeing in red." In 1509 the whole seaboard had been explored as far 

 as the Plate estuary, which was entered by Vicente Pizon and Diaz de Sols. A 

 barter trade was opened with the natives, and in 1532, Martin Aifouso de Souza 

 founded the two colonies of S. Vicente and Piratininga in the present province of 

 S. Paulo, and not far from the modern city of Santos. 



Other groups of Portuguese established themselves at various points along the 

 coast, and by the year 1534 the royal domain had already been divided into vast 

 hereditary " captainries " granted to great lords with almost regal powers on the 

 condition of introducing settlers and maintaining trade relations with the mother 

 country. In order to consolidate his power and keep these great vassals in due 

 control. King John III. created a government general for Brazil in 1549, with 

 capital Salvador, the present Bahia, so named from the Bahia (" Bay ") de Todos 

 OS Santos. 



Colonisation continued to spread inland less by alliances with the natives than 

 by conquest. Nevertheless, in 1549 the Jesuits had already penetrated inland to 

 convert the Indians, and thus was begun the network of explorations which even- 

 tually brought them in peaceful contact with the Guarani of Paraguay, and with 

 the Mojos and Chiquitos about the sources of the Madeira. But on the other hand 

 the Mamelucos {Memhyrnca), white and Indian half-breeds of S. Paulo and the 

 other captainries in the south, looked on the aborigines as mere slaves, and hunted 

 them down like so much game. 



North of Bahia also armed expeditions spread havoc along their line of march 

 to the conquest of the boundless Amazonian regions. By the close of the sixteenth 

 century Sergipe, North Parahyba, Natal, and the Cape S. Poque district had been 



