1831.] 
MO DE JANEIRO. 
45 
rors were soon appeased, and their confidence restored. A mutual 
good understanding now prevailed between the natives and the 
Portuguese, who found the country to be extensive, fertile, and 
finely wooded, particularly with that valuable species now known 
by the name of Brazil wood. Cabral immediately despatched 
one of his vessels back to Portugal to communicate the news 
of his discovery, and then proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, 
and to his original destination. 
Don Emanuel, the King of Portugal, immediately sent out 
ships to explore the coasts of this new country, and to plant colo- 
nies in several places, for the avowed purpose of converting the 
natives to the Christian faith. These new settlements, however, 
soon dwindled away, and were finally broken up. The zealous 
monarch, still anxiously solicitous for the salvation of the heathen, 
and willing to relieve them of some of the mineral treasures with 
which it was expected their country abounded, hit upon a new 
plan of colonization. He decreed that all convicted felons under 
sentence of death, should be banished thither — all who were ob- 
noxious to the Holy Inquisition — all who were suspected of her- 
esy, sorcery, witchcraft, and, above all, of Judaism ; — in short, all 
the outcasts and dregs of society, were doomed to perpetual exile 
on the shores of Brazil. To the Jews, indeed, banishment was 
a welcome sanctuary from the injustice and rapacity they con- 
stantly experienced at home ; and neither they nor their compan- 
ions in exile had any reason to complain of the arrangement. To 
all of them, emigration was emancipation from tyranny and op- 
pression. * 
As these new settlers treated the natives kindly, they were well 
received, and soon found their situation much improved. The 
fame of the new colony, as being productive of excellent sugar,- 
and several other valuable articles, gradually attracted to its coast 
many adventurers from Portugal and elsewhere, and several settle- 
ments were soon formed in its vicinity. So rapidly did it increase 
under the good management of these banished outlaws, these 
dregs of humanity, as they were considered, that in less than fifty 
years from its commencement, the mother country began to yearn 
with tenderness towards her transatlantic children, and she at 
length resolved to take them under her own protection, and into 
tier own especial keeping. For this purpose, Thomas de Souss 
