panied that celebrated navigator, obtained a commission for him self and his nephew Arias, to go in search of new countries, and to trade in any which Columbus had not previously appropriated. In Dec. 1499, they set sail with four caravals from the port of Palos, and were driven by storms from the Cape de Verd is'ands to Cape St. Augustin's on the Brazil coast, on Jan. 26, 1500. They landed and took possession of the country for the crown of Castile. Proceeding thence, they coasted round northwards to the country of Maranham, and the mouth of the vast river Amazon. But before Pinzon could return to Europe, a fleet was fitted out at Lisbon, under the command of Pedro Álvarez Cabral. Its destination was for the East Indies, but being driven out of its course by a tempest he arrived on the coast of Brazil three months only after Pinzon had first discovered it. Cabral took possession of the country in the name of the crown of Portugal, and called it Santa Cruz, which name however was, in a few years, merged in that of Brazil, by which this territory is still known, though no satisfactory ctymology has hitherto been assigned for such appellation. Cabral was soon followed by the celebrated navigator Amerigo Vespucci; to whom the honour is due of haying formed the first set tlement in the country. "It does not appear that any farther attention was at this time, paid to it. No gold had been found, and it produced no articles of commerce which could be thought worthy the notice of a government, whose coffers were overflowing with the produce of the spice trade, and the riches of the African mines. But the cargo of Brazil which Vespucci had brought home, tempted private adventurers, who were content with peaceful gains, to trade thither for that valuable wood; ard this trade became so well known, that in consequence the coast and the whole country obtained the name of Brazil, notwithstanding the holier appellation which Cabral had given it. Parrots and monkeys also were brought home for the ladies. It was convenient for these traders to have agents living among the natives, and adventurers would not be wanting who would willingly take up their abode with friendly savages, in a plentiful and delightful country, where they were under no restraint. These were not the only colonists. Portugal had taken possession of Brazil, and meant to maintain it. It was the system of the Portuguese government to make its criminals of some use to the state; a wise 'system if wisely regulated; in that kingdom it obviously arose from the smallness of its territory, and lack of population to support its extensive plans of ambition. Hitherto they had been degraded to the African frontier, and more recently to India also. In these situations they certainly served the state; yet this service was not without heavy disadvantages. The usual offences which were thus punished, were those of blood and violence: ferocious propensities, which were not likely to be corrected by placing the offenders in situations where they might indulge them with impunity, and consider the indulgence as meritorious. torious. This system was immediately extended to Brazil: -the first Europeans who were left ashore there were two convicts. In Africa or in India the exile was sent to bear arms with his countrymen, who would not regard him as disgraced, because they were obliged to associate with him. To be degraded to Brazil was a heavier punishment; the chance of war could not enrich him there, and there was no possibility of returning home with honour for any signal service. They were in one point of view better disposed of, inasmuch as in new colonies ordinary men are of greater value than they can be elsewhere,----but they became worse subjects. Their numbers bore a greater proportion to the better settlers; and they were therefore more likely to be encouraged in iniquity than reformed by example; to communicate evil than to learn good. Their intercourse with the savages produced nothing but mischief: each made the other worse; the cannibals acquired new means of destruction, and the Europeans new modes of barbarity. The Europeans were weaned from that human horror at the bloody feasts of the savages, which ruffians as they were, they had at first felt, and the natives lost that awe and ve neration for a superior race which, might have been improved so greatly to their own advantage." "The first settler in Babia was Diogo Alvarez; who with that spirit of enterprize which was then common among his countrymen, embarked to seek his fortune in strange countries. He was wrecked upon the shoals on the north of the bar of Bahia. Part of the crew were lost, others escaped this death to suffer one more dreadful: the natives seized and eat them. Diogo saw that there was no other possible chance of saving his life. than by making himself as useful as possible to these cannibals. He therefore exerted himself in recovering things from the wreck, and by these exertions succeeded in conciliating their favour. Among other things he was fortunate enough to get on shore some barrels of powder and a musket, which he put in order at his first leisure, after his masters were returned to their village; and one day when the opportunity was favourable, brought down a bird before them. The women and children shouted Caramuru! Caramuru' which signified a man of fire! and they cried out that he would destroy them; but he told the men, whose astonishment had less of fear mingled with it, that he would go with them to war and kill their enemies. Caramuru, was the name which from thenceforward he was known by. They marched against the Tapuyas; the fame of this dreadful engine went before them, and the Tapuyas fled. From a slave Caramuru became a sovereign. The chiefs of the savages thought themselves happy if he would accept their daughters to be his wives; he fixed his abode upon the spot where Villa Velha was afterwards erected, and soon saw as numerous a progeny as an old patriarch's rising round him. The best families in Bahia trace their origin to him. "At length a French vessel came into the bay, and Diogo resolved to territories, fortified his little eapital. to take that opportunity of once more seeing his native country. He loaded her with brazil, and embarked with his favourite wife Paraguazu, the Great River. The others could not bear this abandonment, though it was only to be for a time; some of them swam after the ship in hopes of being taken on board, and one followed it so far, that before she could reach the shore again her strength failed her and she sunk. They were received with signal honour at the court of Francey Paraguazu was baptized by the name of Catharina Alvarez, after the Queen, and the King and Queen were her sponsors. Her marriage was then celebrated. Diogo would fain have proceeded to Portugal, but the French would not permit him to go there. These honours which they had shown him were not to be gratuitous, and they meant to make him of use to them in his own domicions Ry means however of Pedro Fernandez Sardinha (then a young man who had just completed his studies in Paris, and afterwards the first bishop of Brazil he sent the information to Joam III. which he was not permitted to carry, and exhorted bim to colonize the delightful province in which bis lot had been so strangely cast. Aftern some time he covenanted with a weal- dAt length, this country became "But the Portuguese government, wholly occupied with the affairs of India, thought little of a country in which, whatever profits were to be acquired, must come from agriculture, not from commerce with the inhabitants; for commerce was what they sought as eagerly as the Spaniards hunted for gold. Brazil was left open like a common, and all the care which the court bestowed upon it was to prevent the French from trespassing there, by representations of their ambassador at Paris, that were never regarded, and by treating them as enemies whenever they met them. Individuals meantime being thus left to themselves, settled in the harbours and islands along the coast; and little towns and villages were growing up." at We shall not trouble our readers with the dates or succession of the other different settlements, or the particulars of their first founders to for these we refer them toother work itself, which will amply repay the perusal. It may be observed however, that thirty years elasped after the discovery and settlement of Brazil, before the Portuguese government beestowed any serious attention on its colonies in the western world. thy merchant to take him back, of suffitientimportance to obtain and leave him the artillery and some consideration at court, and ammunition oford ships, with an order to forward its colonizastore of such thingsnasi were use- tiong the same plan wasiadopted ful for traffic with the natives, in which had succeeded well in; Mareturn for which he undertook to deira, and in the Azores, that of load both vessels with brazilu The dividing it into hereditary capbargain was fairly performed, Jand-Maincies and granting them to Diogo having returned to his such persone as were willing to 1 embark adequate means in the adventure, with powers of jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, so extensive as to be in fact unlimited. This method was thought to be the easiest, and least expensive to government. The difference between desert islands and a peopled continent, had not been considered. The captains of the islands might easily settle lands in which there could be no opposition, and easily at any time assist each other with supplies; if the means failed they could even borrow from Portugal, those places being so near that they were regarded almost as things within the country. But when Joan divided the coast of Brazil into great captaincies, each extending along fitty leagues of coast, large tribes of savages were in possession of the country; Portugal was far distant, and the settlements so far asunder, that one could not possibly afford assistancelotodanother... t the colonists were at the mercy of their lords; and the people groaned under their intolerable oppression. At length their complaints reached the king, who, in 1549, revoked the powers of the several captains, leaving them in the possession of their proprietary grants; and constituted Don Thome de Sousa, governor-general, with viceregal authority. For this high and important situation he was every way qualified: he founded the city of St. Salvador in the Bay of All Saints, in April 1549, and took out with him six Jesunts, as missionaries for the conversion and civilization of the Brazilians. Previously to his narrating this event, Mr. Southey, in conformity with the plan announced in his preface, has interrupted the series of his history of Brazil, in order to give minute and highly interesting details of the discovery of the river Plata, of the first settle-ments formed on its banks, by the Spantards, and also on the banks of the rivers Paraguay and Parana. In these details our limits forbid us to follow him; as well as in his interesting account of the voyhage of Orellana down the river of Amazons, tor which we must refer the reader to Mr. Southey's volumeЛА The consequences of this injudicious plant were such as might veasily have been foreseen: Nambers of the grantees were ruined by the expenses of fitting out, while fmany others found them-selves amablento maintain their widelynextended properties against the disadvantages incident to their situation, and alldof them, with mitheo view of repairing their exbaustod fortunes, and making the - most of their dearly purchasedes betaressin the least possible period, adopted and exercised a system roofs the most Avexatious tyranny -overy their subject settlersinthe ethli savage race of cannibals; We now return to the principal object of this work the History hof Brazils It will be recollected that Done Thome, de, Sousa took out with him a small number of @Jesuitisenthese had difficulties to encounten of no common kind, governor of every captaincy ex- byet, bnotwithstanding the impedi*ergised uncontrolled authority; hents that, lay in their way, they A the property, honour, and lives of did succeed in civilizing the bar barians area, i barians by methods which cannot fail to command our esteem. On this interesting topic Mr. Southey shall speak tor bimself. * "They began by winning the affections of the children, giving them store of trifling presents; by this sort of intercourse they ac quired some use of the language themselves, and soon qualified these little ones for interpreters. They visited the sick, and when they believed that every one they sprinkled at the hour of death was a soul rescued from the devil, the charitable services which accompanied such conversions were not lost upon the living. The Portugueze on their arrival in Brazil, had been welcomed by the natives as friends: but when the original possessors of the land perceived that their guests were becoming their masters, they took up arms, suspended their internal quarrels, and attempted to expel them. European fire-arms repulsed them, and European policy soon broke their short-lived union. But even peace with the Portugueze settlers afforded them no security; when it is permitted to reduce enemies to slavery, no friends can be secure. It was in vain that humane edicts were enacted in Portugal; while the atrocious principle is acknowledged, that man can by any circumstances lawfully be considered as the slave of man, all edicts and all formalities will be ineffectual protections against violence and avarice. Many tribes were in arms against this oppression when the Jesuits arrived; won first by the first report that men were come who were the friends and protectors of the Indians, and af .. terwards by experiencing their good offices, they brought their bows to the governor, and solicited to be received as adies a "These missionaties were every way qualified for their office. They were zealous for the salvation of souls; they had disengaged themse ves from all the ties which attach us to life, and were therefore not merely fearless of martyrdom, but ambitious of it; they believed the idolatry which they taught, and were themselves persuaded that the sprinkling dying savage, and repeating over him a form of words which he did not understand, they redeemed him from everlasting torments, to which he was otherwise inevitably, and according to their notions of divine justice, justly destined. Nor can it be doubted that they sometimes worked miracles upon the sick; for when they believed that the patient might be miraculously cured, and he himselfexpected that he should be so, faith would supply the virtue in which it trusted. "Nobrega and his companions began to work with those hordes who were sojourning in the vicinity of St. Salvador; they persuaded them to live in peace, they reconciled old enemies, they succeeded in preventing drunkenness, and in making them promise to be contented with one wife; but the cannibalism they could not overcome: the delight of feasting upon the flesh of their enemies was too great to be relinquished. efforts at abolishing this accursed custom were in vain. One day they heard the uproar and rejoicing of the savages at one of these sacrifices; they made way into the All |