PROVINCE OF ESPIRITO SANTO. 



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Branco succeeded him in the government, and the Goytacaze tribe, having- 

 formed a confederacy with the Tupininquins, they attacked the colony under 

 his temporary jurisdiction with so much fury and effect as to destroy every 

 edifice and to counteract all the efforts of the Portuguese to retain the footing 

 they had made, so that the remains of the colony, finding that the Indians gave 

 no quarter to any individual, were compelled to seek refuge upon the margins 

 of the river Cricare. 



Coutinho returned from Portugal soon after this event, with all the assistance 

 he could collect, and finding his capitania deserted, he solicited succours from 

 Mendo de Sa, the governor-general at Bahia, which were promptly despatched 

 under the command of his excellency's son, Fernando de Sa, who uniting his 

 force to the fugitives, near the Cricare, an assault was made upon the Indians 

 with considerable advantage, but a body of the enemy fell upon them in turn, 

 and did not allow time for the whole to save themselves by flight to the ships ; 

 Fernando de Sa, the commander was amongst the number that perished. 



Ultimately, sixty-eight Europeans, the remains of so many people who had 

 in the course of thirty years repaired to this capitania to establish themselves, 

 attacked the Indians with desperate bravery, and gained a complete victory. 

 This fortunate circumstance, aided by the religious instruction with which the 

 Jesuits enlightened and made friends of a considerable portion of those savages, 

 who served to reinforce the small number of whites, enabled the donatory to 

 restore the capitania to the state in which he had left it. 



The padre, AfFonso Braz, who founded the college of the town of Victoria, 

 in 1551, was the first missionary who arrived in this province. 



The Indians did not supply the want of Europeans, who were prevented 

 from coming here by hearing of the calamities of their countrymen. 



Reverses of fortune reduced Coutinho to a state which precluded all possi- 

 bility of deriving any advantage from the capitania ; and one of his descend- 

 ants, being equally unfortunate, sold it, for forty thousand crusades, to Fran- 

 cisco Gil d'Araujo, who established himself in it, animated with various pro- 

 jects, but which he soon abandoned in despair. One of his heirs, after using 

 every endeavour, relinquished it under similar circumstances, and sold it to the 

 crown in the reign of John V. for the sum which it cost. This province cannot 

 be said to have experienced any considerable amelioration since the period of 

 its reversion to the crown, nor does the dominion of the Indians reach to a 

 much less extensive tract of territory, which may be attributed to the present 

 scanty population, and the want of energy on the part of the government; it may 



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