SOUTH AMERICA. 197 



well as mischievous. They are also represented as 

 forming a kind of military republic, like that of early 

 Rome, composed of out-casts and adventurers from all 

 countries, under a nominal subjection to the Portu- 

 guese, in virtue of which they paid a small tribute of 

 gold and diamonds. A Portuguese writer has under- 

 taken to do away these errors, and vindicate them from 

 these imputations. Mawe, who is among the few Eng- 

 lishmen who have visited their capital, speaks of them 

 in the highest terms, and seems indignant at the ca. 

 lumnies which have been circulated respecting them. 

 He places them above all the people he saw in Brazil^ 

 for their highly polished manners, and manly frank- 

 ness of character, traits by which they are every where 

 distinguished; but he does not reflect that a centu- 

 ry, or even half a century, might produce a very mate- 

 rial change in their character.* The accounts given 

 of these people, as well as of their enemies the Jesuits, 

 by Southey, is certainly the most fair and satisfactory. 



The celebrated republic of St. Paul, as it is usually 

 denominated, had its rise about the year 1531, from a 

 very inconsiderable beginning. A mariner of the 

 name of Ramalho, having been shipwrecked on this 

 part of the coast, was received among a small Indian 

 tribe called the Piratininga, after the name of their 

 chief. Here he was found by De Sousa some years 

 afterwards, and contrary to the established policy of 

 permitting no settlement excepting immediately on the 



*The author of the Corographia comes nearer the truth, ds 

 Paulistas de hoje passam por uma boa genfe,- mas seus avoengos 

 nao 0 foram certamente. The Paulistas of the present day pass 

 for a very good people, which was certainly not the case with re- 

 pect to their ancestors. 



