22 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIllA UIVERS. 
to substantiate it, sboukl lose it eiitu'oly, and that tlie slave sliould 
tlien be the property of the Order; and as, besides, by another Carta 
Eegia, only the Indians captured in “just” Avar could be considered 
as slaves, the colonists Avere entirely in the hands of the Holy Pathers, 
and naturally embraced A\ath great zeal the proposal of the “philan- 
thropic” Mexican bishop. Las Casas, to import African slaves, the 
right of Avhose possession it Avould bo easier to prove. They availed 
themselves, on a large scale, of the permission given in 1511 of intro- 
ducing negro slaves, Avithont payment of any duties, into the noAV colony; 
the more so as, from continual pursidt and ill-treatment, the Indian 
tribes living near the sea either Avere annihilated or had retii-ed to the 
forests of the interior. Nor Avere they in security there, for, in sj)ite 
of Papal Bulls A\’hich declared them to be free, greedy hordes of 
I’aulistas (doAvn to the seventeenth ccntiuy) made great raids as fax- 
as the Jesuit Missions on the Parana and Uruguay for the purpose of 
fetching Indian slaves ; and, even to the present day, many an Indian 
child is sold in the forests of the Amazon and Para for a knife, or a 
hatchet, or a few beads. 
The difficulties of the young colony Avere soon inci-eased by outAvard 
foes. The Governador Geral, Men de Sa, appointed in 1549, and 
residing at the Cidade do Salvador (the present Bahia), had immediately 
to make preparations against the French ; Avho, ixnder the leadership of 
the Huguenot Yillegaignon, and with the aid of some Indian tribes, their 
allies, had erected an intrenched camp on the bay of Eio de Janeiro 
(then Cidade de Sao Sebastiao). In January, 15G7, a great battle Avas 
fought there, which cost the brave Men de Sa, nephcAV to the 
Governador, his life, and Avhich ended in the defeat of the French ; and 
Maranhao, Avhich they had taken in 1G14, Avas re-conquered by the Por- 
tuguese.* 
The Dxitch were more pertinacious in their desire for annexation. In 
1G24 they took Baliia ; in 1G30 Pernambuco, Avluch began to prosper 
Avell imder the brief rule of the Prince Maurice of Nassau ; and in 1641 
Maranhao ; but, as they were not seconded sufficiently by the mother 
couuti’y, just Avhen difficulties arose, the Portuguese succeeded, Avith 
* During tlie -war of the Successiou to the Spanish throne tJiey revenged them- 
selves, however, for all these failures. In 1710 there came a Ereiich fleet under 
tiuclerc ; and, in 1711, a strmiger one imder Duguay-Trouiu, who honiharded, ran- 
sacked, and plundered Eio do Janeiro. 
