Chap. IIL &/ BRAZIL by the PORtUGUEZE. 
j 67 
them entirely out of^veezA, 16. T^he Hifiory of this Colony continued from thence down to the prefent Times ^ 
with fome curious Remarks on the Gold and TGiamond Mines difconoered there, j y. Objervations and Refec-^ 
tions upon the principal Events in the foregoing SeShon. 
I. TF we confider the admirable Situation of this Coun- 
^ try, its great Extent, and other Advantages de- 
rived from Nature, we might readily pronounce, that a 
Settlement there mull be attended with almofl: all the 
Benefits that Men ufually feek or defire in fuch Eftablifh- 
ments ; and though it be very true, that this Country 
was not only difcovered and fettled by the Europeans^ 
near two hundred Years before any important Difcovery 
was made of the rich Gold Mines which it contains, yet 
this only fhews, that Judgments built upon Reafon, and 
the natural Strudure of this terraqueous Globe, are not 
only as found and certain, but even more fo than 
fuch as are grounded on Experience. If towards the 
Middle of the laft Age, a Man of the greatefi: Read- 
ing, and foundeftUnderftanding, had declared, that there 
were Gold Mines in this Country, he would have been 
looked upon as an Enthufiafb, one of thofe whom too 
much Learning had made almofl: mad ; for it would have 
been faid, That after inhabiting this Country for near 
two Centuries, the Europeans would certainly have dif- 
covered fuch Mines, if they had been there ; but the 
Fad comes out quite otherwife : Thofe Mines were there, 
and yet they were not difcovered ; and it feems to be a 
very high Refledion upon the boafted Knowledge of 
Mankind, that, with refped to Europeans as well as In- 
dians^ mofl; of thefe valuable Difcoveries have been 
made by Chance. 
If thofe Relations which are printed under the Name 
of Americus Vefpucius were really his, we mufl: be obliged 
to own, that he pretended, amongfl: other Things that he 
never performed, to the Difcovery of this Country ; 
but the Matter of Fad is, that all the Dates in thefe Pieces 
fo manifeftly give the Lye to the Matters contained in 
them, that the only Way to fave the Honour of this 
famous Man is, to deny that they are his : Some alledge, 
that the old Admiral, Columbus gained fome Knowledge 
of the Coafl; in the Year 1499, in his third Voyage j 
but, not to dwell upon Uncertainties, we will fix the Dif- 
covery to the fucceedingYear, wherein we have the con- 
current Authority of both Spanijh and Portugueze Writers 
to fupport us ; and we fliall next enter into a regular and 
fuccind Hiflory of this Colony from that time to this, 
which is certainly a Thing not to be met with in our 
Language, or perhaps in any other. 
2. Don Pedro Alvarez, CahraU a Man of Quality as 
well as of great Abilities, failed in the Month of March, 
1500, with a Fleet of thirteen VelTels of various Sizes, 
for Sofala ; from whence he was to have continued his 
Courfe to the Coafl: of Malabar ; but, after palling the 
Cape de Verd Elands, he flood fo far out to Sea, in order 
to avoid the Calms, fo common on the Coafl of Africa, 
that on the 24th of April, he fell in with an unknown 
Coafl on the Wefl, and as the Sea ran very high he was 
obliged to fail along that Coafl as far as the Latitude of 
15 Degrees South, where he found a good Haven, to 
which he gave the Name of Porto Seguro, or the Safe 
Port, and the Country itfelf he called, the Land of the 
Holy Ghoft, which Name was afterwards changed for that 
of Brazil, on account of its abounding with a kind of 
Wood of that Name, which had been fo called in 
Europe about three hundred Years before this Country 
was difcovered. Don Pedro having fent People on Shore, 
to examine this new Land, and they reporting that it 
w'as extremely well watered, very fertile, full of Fruit- 
Trees, and inhabited by a mild and gentle People, he 
refolved to land his Men there, in order to refrelh 
them. 
He did fo accordingly, and found it exa6lly a- 
greeable to what his People had reported ; and that the 
Savages were fo far from offering any Infult to the Por- 
tugueze, feat they received them with more Kindnefs and 
Good-will than they had Reafon to exped:. It fofell out, 
that DonPedro had with him fome condemned Criminals, 
whofeSentence, by the Clemency of the King of Portugal, 
had been changed from Death to Tranfportation ; of thefe 
he thought fit to leave two in the Country, to learn 
the Language, to make farther Difcoveries, and to ac- 
quire the bell Knowledge they could of the Land, and 
its Inhabitants ; but believing, as he very well might, 
from the very firfl: View of this Country, that the Dif- 
covery he had made v/as of very great Importanccj 
he refolved to lofe no Time in giving an account 
thereof to his Maflier, and therefore difpatched imme- 
diately one of his Veffels back to Lifbon for this Purpofe^ 
with fome Perfons on board upon whofe Fidelity he could 
depend, together with one of the Savages of that 
Country] to be inffruded in the Portugueze Language, 
to facilitate the perfed Knowledge of this new found 
Land. He likewife fet up a Stone Crofs, as a Monument 
of his having been there, and of his having taken Pof- 
feffion of that Country in the Name, and on the Behalf, 
of his Majefty the King of Portugal, a Thing at that 
Time the more neceffary, becaufe of the Difputes that 
were then fubfifting between th&Spaniards eLnAPortugueze^ 
about their Difcoveries. 
It was in confequence of this Account, that the King 
of Portugal fent feveral Perfons to difeover upon thefe 
Coaflrs ; who very foon found that this was Part of the 
Continent of America •, upon which, as might have been 
very eafily forefeen, there arofe great Difputes be- 
tween the two Crowns, about the Extent and Boundaries 
of this Country ; but at lafl; it was fettled, that from the 
River of Maranon to the River of PlaAe^ fliould be 
yielded to the King of PortugaU 
3. It cannot be fuppofed that thefe firfl Difeoverers 
could form any diftind or juft Notion of the Nature 
and Importance of fo vaft a Country, which, according 
to its prefent Boundaries, may be fairly reckoned two 
thoufand four hundred Miles, from North to South ; 
and two thoufand from Eaft to Weft; tho’ th.& Portugueze 
have fcarce penetrated five hundred Miles, any where, 
even to this Time. The Northern Parts of the Country 
lie near the Equator, are fubjed to great Rains and va- 
riable Winds, more efpecially about the Months of March 
and September, when they are frequently difturbed with 
mofl: dreadful Hurricanes and Tempefts, by which the 
Country is frequently under Water, and muft confe- 
quently be very unwholfome. Here, therefore, the 
Portugueze content themfelves with the bare Edge or 
Sea-Coaft, without endeavouring to penetrate deeper into 
the Country, defiring only to maintain their prefent 
Poffeffions and thereby keep out Foreigners. 
In the middle Part of Brazil, from the Latitude of five 
Degrees South to the Tropic, it is obferved that the 
Winds and Seafons are the Reverfe of thofe in other 
Parts of the World within the fame Latitudes ; for 
whereas in them a dry Seafon comes on when the Sun 
goes Northward, and the wet Seafon begins when the 
Sun returns to the Southward ; here the wet Seafon begins 
in April, when the South- eaft Winds fet in with violent 
Tornadoes, Thunder and Lightning ; and in September, 
when the Wind fhilts to Eaft-north-eaft it brings with it 
a clear Sky and fair Weather; and this is the Time of 
their Sugar Harveft. There are but two Winds blow 
upon this Coafl: ; viz. the South-eaft from April to 
September, and the North-eaft from September to April 
again ; but thirty or forty Leagues at Sea they meet with 
the conftant Trade-vfind, which blows in the Atlantic 
Ocean all the Year round, from the Eaftward, with very 
little Variation. There is no Country, between the 
Tropics, where the Heats are more tolerable, or tlie Air 
more healthful than this, being conftantly refrefhed with 
Breezes from the Sea, and abounding with Lakes and 
Rivers, which annually overflow their Banks ; and in 
the Inland Part of the Country, the Winds from the 
Mountains are ftill cooler than thofe that blow from the 
Ocean. 
That part of Brazil which lies ftill more to the 
South, and without the Tropic of Capricorn, is one of 
the finefl; in the known World, in all Refpefts ; but 
the 
