I 
INTHODL'CTION. 21 
rroin the period of the discovery of Brazil liy the Portuguese* to 
the Declaration of Independence in 1822, it Avas always kept under hy 
the mother country, to the extent indeed of preventing all progress. 
Xo less a personage than a Portuguese king himself, Don Joao IV. 
(who died in 106(1), in a conver.sation Avith the Prench ambassador, 
Avith singular sincerity called Brazil his vaca de leite (milch-coAv). Every 
measure that might haAm tended in the least to strengthen the colony, 
Avas strictly supprosse<l, hoAvever advantageous it might have provtal. 
Of course nothing was done for schools, Portugal never having distin- 
guished itself in that respect ; and, in the most inconsiderate fashion, 
immense tracts of land, so calk'd capitauias, Averc given away to courtiers 
Avho never intended doing anything in the way of colonising or culti- 
vating them, or to young noblemen aaEo had become objectionable to 
their families by the extravagance of their lives, and Avho, of idl men, 
were least fit for the difficult duties of colonisation and administration, 
though it must be remarked that, among these first Donatarios, there 
Averc some excellent men, siich as Duarte Coelho, founder of Pernambuco, 
and Martm Affon^o do Souza, reuoAvnod for his deeds iu India, and 
founder of the city of Sao Paulo. 
One of the privileges of the.se Donatarios Avas to enslave “ Indios 
or Gentios,” Avliercver they or their subordinates could get them, and 
to sell certtun numbers of them “ tax-free ” at Lisbon. Of course, the 
settlers made large use of this right ; and, also of course, the Indians 
sought to revenge themselves by sudden attacks and all sorts of cruelties; 
for Avhich they Avere, in their turn, pursued only the more pitilessly. 
By-and-byo the Order of the Jesuits, that soon after its establishment 
had got a siu-e footing in Drazil, — especially at Bahia,- — became a mighty 
aid to the settlers, protected their run-away slaves, and generally 
kueAV how to arrange things so avcU that a Carta Kcgia (Order of the 
King) gave them the right to plan laAVS for their regulation. In due 
time these appeared, and were not to the disadvantage of the Padres, 
as may be imagined. They ordained, for example, among other things, 
that any settler asserting a claim to a slave, AAdthout being able fully 
* Alvares de Cabrai lauded, iu l.AOO, first near Monte Pascal, close to Porto Seguro, 
and, in tbe following year, he and tlie Italian, Amorico Vespucci, set out with a small 
liotilla to sail round the supposed isle. They went aloug the whole west, and dis- 
covered, iu .Tonuary, 1502, the maguiliccat bay of liio do Janeiro, which they believed to 
be the mouth of a huge river. This error generated the uame of the city and 
jirovinco. 
