SOUTH AMERICA. 



199 



patience. The Paulistas first engaged in war against 

 the enemies of their allies, and afterwards on their 

 own account, on finding it advantageous. They estab- 

 blished a regular trade with the other provinces whom 

 they supplied with Indian slaves. They by this 

 time acquired the name of Mamelukes, from the pe- 

 culiar military discipline they adopted, bearing some 

 resemblance to the Mamelukes of Egypt. 



The revolution in Portugal, when Philip II. of 

 Spain placed himself on its throne, cast the Paulistas 

 in a state of independence, as they were the only set- 

 tlement of Brazil, which did not acknowledge the new 

 dynasty. From the year i580, until the middle of 

 the following century, they may be regarded as a re- 

 public, and it was during this period they displayed 

 ihhi active and enterprising character for which they 

 were so much celebrated. They discovered and work- 

 ed the gold mines of Jaragua near St. Pauls; they es- 

 tablished colonies in the interior at the numerous 

 mines which they discovered; and their exploring par- 

 ties were sometimes absent for years, engaged in wan- 

 dering over this vast country. While a Spanish king 

 CK^cupied the throne of Portugal, they attacked the 

 Spanish settlements on the Paraguay, alleging that 

 the Spaniards were encroaching on their territory, and 

 destroyed the Spanish towns of Villa Rica, Ciudad 

 Real, and Villa de Xerez, besides a number of smaller 

 settlements. They attacked the Jesuit missions, 

 which by the most extraordinary perseverance, after 

 repeated trials during a hundred years, had been at 

 last established. As they had fixed themselves east 

 of the Parana, the Paulistas laid hold of this as a 

 pretext. They carried away upwards of two thou- 



