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enlightened member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon *. 

 He fully exposes the inconsistencies of Vaissette and Charlevoix, in 

 ascribing the origin of St. Paul's to a band of refugees, composed of 

 Spaniards, Portuguese, Mestizos, Mulattos and others, who fled 

 hither from various parts of Brazil, and established a free-booting 

 republic; and he satisfactorily shews that the first settlers were Indians 

 of Piratininga and Jesuits, and that the city from its first founda- 

 tion never acknowledged any other sovereignty than that of Portugal. 

 The veracity of this account is further supported by the predominant 

 character of the Paulistas, who, far from inheriting the obloquy which 

 an ancestry of rogues and vagabonds would have entailed upon them» 

 have long been famed throughout all Brazil for their probity, their 

 industry, and the mildness of their manners 'f. 



* Fr. Caspar da Madre de Deos. 



f I may also add their public spirit in resenting injuries done to individuals, and in 

 supporting the cause of the oppressed ; a singular instance of which I have often heard 

 related. Some seventy years ago one of their governors, who was a nobleman, had an in- 

 trigue with the daughter of a mechanic; The whole town espoused the cause of the injured 

 female, and compelled the governor, at the iperil of his life, to marry her. 



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