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The Entradas of Bahia of the Sixteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Alida C. Metcalf
Alida C. Metcalf*
Affiliation:
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
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When Pero Magalhães de Gândavo returned to Portugal from Brazil in the 1570s, he wrote two accounts about life in Brazil, both of which extol the possibilities for poor Portuguese colonists. In one treatise he proclaims that as soon as a colonist arrives, no matter how poor, if he obtains slaves “he then has the means for sustenance; because some fish and hunt, and the others produce for him maintenance and crops; and so little by little the men become rich and live honorably in the land with more ease than in the Kingdom.” In his history, published in 1576, Gândavo adds that many colonists in Brazil own 200, 300, or even more slaves. Although the Portuguese had pioneered the development of a slave trade from West Africa and despite the fact that the sugar plantations of Bahia and Pernambuco would become vast consumers of slaves from Africa, the vast majority of the slaves that Gândavo refers to were Indian, not African. But, in the 1570s, when Gândavo confidently predicted that even the poor could acquire slaves in Brazil, the reality was that the coastal regions around the Portuguese colonies, with the exception of a few friendly Indian villages, had been left “unpopulated by the natives.” Three powerful factors challenged the future of Indian slavery. One was epidemic disease, such as the smallpox epidemic of 1562 that was described as so terrible that in two or three months 30,000 died. The second was a Jesuit campaign against Indian slavery, which resulted in a new law signed by King Sebastião in 1570 that clearly stated that the Indians of Brazil were free. The third was a rapid increase in the number of slaves arriving in Bahia and Pernambuco from Africa. But while it might seem that high mortality, legal sanctions, and the increase of African slaves would limit the future of Indian slavery, it was not to be so. Instead, Indian slavery expanded dramatically after 1570, due to the emergence of a new, trans-continental, slave trade. Facilitated by mixed-race mamelucos, this trade brought Indians from the sertão (inland wilderness frontier) to the coastal plantations. This is the first manifestation of a phenomenon that would repeat itself in later centuries in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, and Amazonia. Known as bandeirismo, it would make Indian slavery an integral part of the colonial Brazilian economy and society. The expeditions from Bahia and Pernambuco from 1570 to 1600 descended thousands of Indians for the sugar plantations of the Bahian Recôncavo, reinforcing Indian slavery in spite of high mortality, royal laws to the contrary, and the increase of African slavery.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 61 , Issue 3: Rethinking Bandeirismo in Colonial Brazil , January 2005 , pp. 373 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2005 

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References

1 Gândavo wrote “Tratado da terra do Brasil” in 1574, which was not published during his lifetime, and História da Província Santa Cruz, which was published in Lisbon in 1576. Although scholars believe that Gândavo wrote to encourage the poor to settle in Brazil, and that his book was a propaganda piece, the book remained virtually unknown until the nineteenth century, a fact which suggests to scholars that the Portuguese crown suppressed the work. According to John Seton, who published a facsimile and English translation of História da Província Santa Cruz, and an English translation of “Tratado da terra do Brasil” in 1922, only seven copies of the book were known in 1922, and one of those was missing. See Seton's introduction to Gândavo, Pero de Magalhães, The Histories of Brazil, 2 vols, bound as one (New York: 1922; rpt: New York: Kraus Reprint, Co., 1969), I, pp. 13–44.Google Scholar One of the original copies of História da Província Santa Cruz is in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. The standard modern Portuguese edition of the works is Gândavo, Pero de Magalhâes, Tratado da terra do Brasil; história da Província Santa Cruz, Horizonte, Belo, Ed. Itatiaia, 1980,Google Scholar available online through Literatura Brasileira: textos literários em meio eletrônico http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~nupill/literatura/literat.html.

2 Seton's translation of Gândavo, “Treatise on the Land of Brazil” in Gândavo, , Histories of Brazil, 2, pp. 149.Google Scholar

3 Gândavo, , História da Província Sancta Cruz a que vulgarmente chamamos Brasil, (Lisbon: 1576), 15v.Google Scholar

4 Gândavo, , “Treatise on the Land of Brazil,” 2, pp. 165.Google Scholar

5 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Baía,” in de Anchieta, José, Cartas, informações, fragmentos históricos, e sermões (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1933; Reprint: Belo Horizonte: Editora Itatiaia, 1988), p. 364.Google Scholar Luís da Fonseca or Quiricio Caxa are probably the authors of this piece, not Anchieta, see de Anchieta, José, Textos históricos (São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 1989), pp. 31–34.Google Scholar

6 “Lei de 20 de Março de 1570 sobre a liberdade dos gentios,” in Thomas, Georg, Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil: 1500–1640, trans. Jesús Hortal (São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 1982), pp. 221–222.Google Scholar

7 Here I take exception to the argument advanced by Luiz Felipe de Alencastro that a viable trade in Indian slaves was not able to be established in Brazil due to a variety of reasons, among them epidemic disease, the social organization of indigenous groups, or the monopolization of trade by Portuguese merchant houses, see O trato dos viventes: formação do Brasil no Atlântico sul (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000), pp. 117–154.

8 The number rose to 3,500 slaves annually in 1510-1515, and to 4,500 slaves annually in 1516 to 1521, see Elbl, Ivanna, “The Volume of the Early Atlantic Slave Trade, 1450–1521,” The Journal of African History 38(1997), pp. 31–75; 74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 When the crown granted to Fernando Noronha the right to exploit the brazilwood trade in 1502, the contract contained a proviso that allowed him to trade for slaves; see Pedro Rondinelli to an unknown Italian, Seville 3 October 1502 in Amado, Janaína and Figueiredo, Luiz Carlos, Brasil 1500: quarenta documentos (Brasília: Editora UnB and São Paulo: Imprensa Oficial, 2001), pp. 267–272.Google Scholar The instructions for the nau Bretoa, a carrack from Brittany that partially belonged to Fernando de Noronha, instructed the captain that slaves could not be brought back except if ordered by the financial outfitters (armadores) of the ship. Still, those instructions left room enough for thirty-six Indian slaves to be brought back on the nau Bretoa in 1511, see “Llyuro da náoo bertoa que vay pera a terra do brazyll de que som armadores bertolameu marchone e benadyto morelle e fernã de lloronha e francisco miz que partió deste porto de Lix.a a xxij de feureiro de 511” in História da colonização portuguesa no Brasil: edição monumental comemorativa do primeiro centenário da independencia do Brasil, 3 vols. (Porto: Litografia Nacional, 1921–), II, pp. 343–347. In 1515, a Portuguese ship returned loaded not only with brazilwood, but with slaves; these slaves, according to a pamphlet publicizing the voyage, cost virtually nothing because parents freely gave their children to the slave traders, see A nova gazeta da terra do Brasil [1515], trans. Clemente Brandenburger (São Paulo: Livraria Edanee, 1922). In southern Brazil, a Portuguese degredado (criminal exile) known as “the bachelor” of Cananéia was supplying slaves in the 1520s, de Sousa, Pero Lopes, Diário da navegação de Pero Lopes de Sousa, 1530–1532, 2 vols. (Rio de Janeiro: Comissão Brasileira dos Centenários Portugueses, 1940), I, pp. 502.Google Scholar

10 Nóbrega to Simão Rodrigues (in Lisbon) Bahia 9 August 1549 in Serafini Leite, S.J. ed., Monu-menta Brasiliae, 5 vols (Rome: Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu, 1956), I, pp. 121–122.Google Scholar Duarte Coelho compared those living in the regions south of Pernambuco to pirates, informing the king that they sailed up and down the coast attacking and enslaving Indians. Duarte Coelho to King João III, Olinda 20 December 1546 in Gonsalves de Mello, José Antônio and de Albuquerque, Cleonir Xavier, ed., Cartas de Duarte Coelho a El Rei (Recife: Imprensa Universitária, 1967), p. 92.Google Scholar

11 Aquinas, Thomas, The Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 3 vols (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947),Google Scholar Secunda Secundæ Partis, (Second Part of the Second Part), Question 40, II. pp. 1359–1360. On the role of the Just War in the enslavement of Indians in Brazil, see Perrone-Moisés, Beatriz, “Índios livres e índios escravos: os principios da legislação indigenista do período colonial (séculos XVI a XVIII)” in História dos índios no Brasil, pp. 115–132,”Google Scholar ed. da Cunha, Manuela Carneiro (São Paulo: Editora Schwartz, 1992), pp. 123–127.Google Scholar

12 O'Callaghan, Joseph F., Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), p. 148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 On enslavement through resgate, see Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 48–49,Google Scholar and Moisés, Perrone, “Índios libres e índios escravos,” pp. 127–128.Google Scholar Because prisoners obtained through resgate were seen as “rescued” from certain death and cannibalism, the Portuguese and the French saw slavery as an act of charity, infinitely better than death through cannibalism. See, for example, de Léry, Jean, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, trans. Whatley, Janet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p. 121.Google Scholar

14 In 1555 Bishop Sardinha departed Salvador on a ship with one hundred persons. The ship headed north, but ran into storms near the Cururipe River in the coastal region inhabited by the Caeté Indians. The passengers and crew managed to save themselves, only to find themselves imprisoned by the Caeté, see “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Baia,” p. 364. See also the collection of documents on Dom Pedro Fernandes Sardinha published by Leite, Bertha in Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, IV Congresso de História Nacional, Anais 7 (1949), pp. 437–605.Google Scholar

15 de Soasa, Regimento de Tomé, 17 December 1548, in História da colonização portuguesa no Brasil, 3, pp. 348.Google Scholar

16 Nóbrega to de Sousa, Tomé (in Lisbon), Bahia 5 July 1559 in Monumenta Brasiliae 3, pp. 80–81.Google Scholar

17 Nóbrega proposed that the colégio (school and residence) of Bahia could be supported by ten slaves: five slaves would farm, while five would fish. See Nóbrega to Simão Rodrigues (in Lisbon), Salvador 9 August 1549, in Monumenta Brasiliae I, p. 126.

18 Alencastro, , O trato dos viventes, p. 389, n. 130.Google Scholar

19 “Carta Ânua da Província do Brasil, 1581,” in de Anchieta, José, Cartas: correspondência ativa e passiva, 2nd ed. (São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 1984), p. 312.Google Scholar

20 “Enformacion de la Provincia del Brasil para Nuestro Padre, 1583, Provincia Brasiliensis et Maragnonensis, hereafter Bras, 15, Archivum Romanum Societatis leus, hereafter ARSI.

21 Memoriale Visitationis Brasiliae, 1584, Lusitania Assistentia et Provincia, hereafter Lus, 68: 414–418, ARSI.

22 Leite, , Monumenta Brasiliae 4, p. 9,Google Scholar n. 20. Alden, Dauril and Miller, Joseph C., “Out of Africa: The Slave Trade and the Transmission of Smallpox to Brazil, 1560–1831,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18 (1987), p. 199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

23 Leonardo do Vale to Gonçalo Vaz de Melo, F., Bahia 12 May 1563 in Monumenta Brasiliae IV, pp. 9–22.Google Scholar

24 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” p. 364.

25 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” p. 388.

26 Carta Ânua da Província do Brasil, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 312.

27 Sarampão is defined by several Portuguese dictionaries as a more serious form of sarampo, rubella—measles, or German measles, see Silva, Antônio de Morais, Novo dicionário compacto da língua portuguesa, 10th ed., 5 vols (Lisbon: Horizonte Confluência, 1961);Google Scholar de Holanda Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque, Novo dicionário da lingua portuguesa, 1st ed (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1975);Google Scholar Houaiss, Antonio, Dicionário electrônico Houaiss da lingua portuguesa (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Objectiva, 2001).Google Scholar

28 Câmaras is defined by two Portuguese dictionaries to be a form of diarrhea see Houaiss, Dicionário electrônico and Holanda Ferreira, Novo dicionário Aurélio.

29 Carta Ânua da Província do Brasil, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 309.

30 Carta Ânua da Província do Brasil, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 308.

31 Beatriz Mendes described an illness in Pernambuco in 1594, which she named bexigas, describing it as poisonous and revolting, and pointing out that it had had carried away many of her own slaves. Bexigas is given as a variation of variola, commonly translated as smallpox, by several Portuguese dictionaries, see Moráis Silva, Novo dicionário Holanda Ferreira, Novo dicionário Aurélio, Houaiss, Dicionário electrônico. Confession of Beatriz Mendes, 10 December 1594, Tamaraca [Itamaracá], in Primeira visitação do Santo Oficio às partes do Brasil, denunciações e confissões de Pernambuco 1593–1595 (Recife: FUNDARPE, 1984), pp. 102–104. Alden and Miller cite the 1585 outbreak of smallpox in Ilhéus and the 1597 outbreak in Rio Grande do Norte, see “Out of Africa,” p. 216. By the early seventeenth century, smallpox in Brazil was associated with the African slave trade. Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão comments in his dialogue on Brazil that smallpox and measles particularly attacked the Indians of Brazil. He writes, [T]hese diseases, especially smallpox,” he writes, “are foreign diseases which generally are communicated to them [the Indians] from the Kingdom of the Congo and from Arda [Africa] by the blacks brought from there.” see Dialogues of the Great Things of Brazil (Diálogos das grandezas do Brasil) [1618], trans. Hall, Frederick Holden, William F. Harrison, and Dorothy Winters Welker (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), p. 107.Google Scholar

32 See Alencar's discussion of Indian mortality in O trato dos viventes, pp. 127–138. However, I disagree with his conclusion that this demographic decline doomed Indian slavery.Google Scholar

33 de Sousa, Gabriel Soares describes the well populated Rio de São Francisco in Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587, 4th ed (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1971), p. 63.Google Scholar

34 “Lei de 20 de Março de 1570 sobre a liberdade dos gentios,” in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 221–222.Google Scholar

35 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” pp. 374–378. See also Gândavo's account in História da Província Santa Cruz, pp. 45v–46. At this time, there were two governors of Brazil, a governor of the north, Luís de Brito Almeida (1573–1578), based in Salvador, and a governor of the south, Antonio Salema (1574–1578), based in Rio de Janeiro.

36 The events of Rio Real are described by Hemming, John, Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazil-ian Indians (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 173–176 Google Scholar; Serafim, Leite S.J., História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil, 10 vols. (Lisbon: Livraria Portugalia, 1938–1950), I, pp. 339–448,Google Scholar and in “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” pp. 379–385. The events of Rio de Janeiro are to be found in the Ânua of 1576 written by Ignacio Tolosa, Bras, 15–2 284–286, ARSI, see also Leite, , História 1, pp. 426–431.Google Scholar

37 “Articles touching the dutie of the King Majestie our Lord, and to the common good of all the estate of Brasili,” attributed to Férnão Cardim, in Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrims (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906), Vol. 16, pp. 505–507.Google Scholar I have modernized the archaic English quoted in the text. Fernão Cardim arrived in Brazil with the Jesuit visitor Cristóvão de Gouveia in 1582 and remained there until 1598 when he traveled to Rome, where he lived for three years representing the province of Brazil. On the way back to Brazil the English pirate Francis Cook captured him and took him to England where his manuscripts were later published by Samuel Purchas, who claimed that he bought the manuscripts for twenty shillings. Purchas thought the author to be “a Portugall Frier (or Jesuite) which had lived thirtie yeares in those parts.” The first manuscript was Cardim's Tratado da terra e gente do Brasil, the second is this “Articles touching the dutie of the Kings Majestie our Lord, and to the common good of all the estate of Brazill,” which Purchas thought to have been written by the same author. It bears no date, but Cardim's Tratado was written in 1583. See Ana Maria de Azevedo's introduction to Cardim, Fernão, Tratados da terra e gente do Brasil (Lisbon: ComisSão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1997), pp. 12–14;Google Scholar 21–22 as well as Garcia's, Rodolfo, “Introducção geral,” to Cardim, Fernão Tratados da terra e gente do Brasil, 2nd ed., (São Paulo: Companhìa Editora Nacional, 1939), pp. 7–28.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” p. 363.

41 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” p. 364.

42 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” pp. 385–386.

43 Província do Brasil, Carta  nua da, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 311;Google Scholar John [João] Yates [Vicente] to Richard Gibbon, in Madrid, 1592, summarized in Britain, Great, Public Records Office, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth, 1547–[1625] (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1856–72) Vol. 245, p. 354;Google Scholar First interrogation [sessão] of Francisco Pires in trial of Francisco Pires, 13 March 1592, Inquisição de Lisboa, hereafter IL 17,809, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, hereafter ANTT.

44 “Articles touching the dutie of the King Majestie our Lord,” in Purchas his Pilgrims, pp. 505–507.

45 Gândavo, , “Treatise on the Land of Brazil, Brazil,” 2, p. 175.Google Scholar

46 História da Província Santa Cruz, p. 46.

47 Gândavo, , “Treatise on the Land of Brazil, Brazil,” 2, p. 175.Google Scholar

48 These included the first histories of Brazil, of the Jesuit mission, of indigenous groups. The writ-ings of Gouveia's companion, Fernão Cardim, are particularly important as are a series of texts was authored by Jesuits long resident in Brazil, among them “Informação do primeiros aldeamentos da Bahia,” “Informação do Brasil e de suas Capitanias,” “Informação dos casamentas dos Indios do Brasil,” and “Informação da Provincia do Brasil para Nosso Padre.” On Gouveia, see Manuel Espinosa, J., “Gouveia: Jesuit Lawgiver in Brazil,” Mid-America, An Historical Quarterly 24 (1942), pp. 27–60.Google Scholar

49 “Informação dos primeiros aldeamentos na Bahia,” p. 386.

50 “Articles touching the dutie of the Kings Majestie our Lord,” in Purchas his Pilgrims, pp. 505–507..

51 Manoel Teles Barreto to King Phillip, Bahia 25 February 1584, “Copia de alguns capítulos de cartas de Manoel Teles Barreto, governador do Brasil,” Corpo Cronológico, maço 20, doc. 54, ANTT.

52 Ibid.

53 The books of confessions and denunciations from the 1591 visit of the Holy Office have been published and have become an important source for Brazilian history. The confessions and denunciations form a large part of the documents created by the visiting inquisitor in Brazil, but not all. The full trials are housed in the Arquivo da Torre do Tombo of Lisbon, under the collection titled “Inquisição de Lisboa.” In this paper I cite the manuscript trials, but many of the confessions and denunciations can be found in the published materials. The first edition of the confessions of Bahia appeared as Primeira vis-itação do Santo Oficio às partes do Brasil pelo Licenciado Heitor Furtado de Mendonça. Confissões da Bahia 1591–1592 (Rio de Janeiro: F. Briguiet, 1935). A new edition, edited by Ronaldo Vainfas is: Inquisição de Lisboa, Santo Oficio da, Confissões da Bahia (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1997).Google Scholar The denunciations of Bahia appear as Primeira visitação do Santo Oficio às partes do Brasil pelo Licenciado Heitor Furtado de Mendonça. Denunciações da Bahia 1591–1593 (São Paulo: Paulo Prado, 1925); while the confessions and denunciations of Pernambuco may be found in Primeira visitação do Santo Oficio às partes do Brasil. Denunciações e Confissões de Pernambuco 1593–1595 (Recife: FUNDARPE, 1984). The Inquisition records have been a very important source for Histórians interested in the late sixteenth century, among the important works based on the inquisition records are: Siqueira, Sonia, A Inquisição portuguesa e a sociedade colonial (São Paulo: Ática, 1978)Google Scholar; Vainfas, Ronaldo, Tropico dos pecados: moral, sexualidade e Inquisição no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus, 1989)Google Scholar and A heresia dos Índios: catolicismo e rebeldía no Brasil colonial (Rio de Janeiro: Companhia das Letras, 1995), Melo e Souza, Laura de, O diabo e a terra de Santa Cruz: feitiçaria e religiosidade popular no Brasil colonial (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1986)Google Scholar and Inferno atlàntico: demonologia e colonização, séculos XVI–XVIII (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1993).

54 Pires was the son of a Portuguese farmer and his Indian slave, Catarina. At the time of his con-fession in 1592, he was a farmer on the Sergipe do Conde plantation in Bahia, see Confession of Francisco Pires, in trial of Francisco Pires, 1592, IL 17,809, ANTT.

55 He declared before the inquisitor that he was the son of Afonso Rodrigues, whom he defined as a “white man” and his wife Luzia Álvares a mameluca daughter of Diogo Álvares by an unnamed Indian woman. See trial of Álvaro Rodrigues, IL, 16897, ANTT. Diogo Álvares had married the daughter of a local chief, thereby becoming linked through kinship to many Indians. When the Portuguese began to settle, he became an important go-between who used his facility with languages and cultures to enable the first Portuguese settlements of Bahia, first at Vila Velha and later at Salvador, to thrive. There is an extensive literature on Álvares, also known as Caramuru, beginning with the sixteenth-century colonist de Sousa's, Gabriel Soares Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587, 4th ed. (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1971), p. 74 Google Scholar, and continuing in the work of the eighteenth-century genealogist Maria Jaboatào, Antonio de S., Catalogo genealogico das principaes familias que procederam de Albuquerques e Cav-alcantes em Pernambuco e Caramurús na Bahia [1889] (Bahia: Imprensa Oficial da Bahia, 1950),Google Scholar and in the nineteenth century with de Cerqueira e Silva, Ignacio de Accioli, Memorias históricas e políticas da provincia da Bahia [1835–1852], 6 vols (Bahia: Impresa Official do Estado, 1919), I, pp. 177–202.Google Scholar See also the modern analyses by Calmon, Pedro, História do Brasil: século XVI, as orígens (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio, 1959), 1, pp. 148–150;Google Scholar Dias Tavares, Luís Henrique, História da Bahia, 10th ed. (Salvador: Editora da UFBA and São Paulo: Fundação Editora da UNESP, 2001 ), pp. 67–68;Google Scholar and Carneiro, Edison, A cidade do Salvador (1549): urna reconstituição histórica, 2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1980), p. 29.Google Scholar On the role played by Álvares and others as go-betweens, see my Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil: 1500–1600 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005).

56 Domingos Fernandes Nobre declared before the inquisitor that he was born in Pernambuco, the mameluco son of Miguel Fernandes, a white man, and Joana, “a black woman of the people of this land.” See trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, ‘o Tomacaúna,’ IL 10,776, ANTT. Domingos Fernandes Nobre's confession is published in Confissões da Bahia, and an English translation by Sandra Lauderdale Graham may be found in Mills, Kenneth, Taylor, William B., and Graham, Sandra Lauderdale, eds. Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002), pp. 236–241.Google Scholar

57 Gabriel Soares de Sousa describes the entrada of Antônio Dias Adorno, as well as the well popu-lated Rio de São Francisco and trading for slaves there in Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587, pp. 63; 64; 81; 86; 89-90. Both Domingos Fernandes Nobre and Álvaro Rodrigues came before the visiting Inquisitor in Salvador in 1592, see the confession of Domingos Fernandes Nobre in the trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, and the first interrogation [sessão] of Álvaro Rodrigues, in trial of Álvaro Rodrigues, IL 16,897, ANTT.

58 Confession, Domingos Fernandes Nobre, and confession, Francisco Afonso Capara in trial of Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

59 In my book, I identify three types of go-betweens—physical and biological, transactional, and representational. Transactional go-betweens are translators, mediators, and cultural brokers. Because of their facility with language and because of their familiarity with indigenous customs, the mameluco transactional go-betweens were powerful figures in sixteenth-century Brazil. See Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil.

60 Confession, Domingos Fernandes Nobre, in Trial of Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

61 Confession of Sebastião Madeira, in trial of Sebastião Madeira, IL 11,212, ANTT.

62 Denunciations of Marçal de Aragão and Sebastião Madeira in trial of Lázaro da Cunha, 1L 11,068, ANTT.

63 Denunciations of Marçal de Aragão and Sebastião Madeira in trial of Lázaro da Cunha, IL 11,068, ANTT.

64 Confession of João Gonçalves, in trial of João Gonçalves IL 13,098, ANTT; Confession of Sebastião Madeira, in trial of Sebastião Madeira, IL 11,212, ANTT; Denunciation of Marçal de Aragão in trial of Lázaro da Cunha, IL 11,068, ANTT; Confession of Thomas Ferreira, in trial of Thomas Ferreira II 11,635, ANTT; Confession and first interrogation of Manoel Branco, in trial of Manoel Branco IL 11,072, ANTT; confession of Gonçalo Álvares in trial of Francisco Pires, IL 17,809, ANTT.

65 Many others in Bahia denounced Domingos Fernandes for his tattoos, see trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

66 Confession of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT and Confession of Francisco Afonso Capara, in trial of Francisco Afonso Capara IL 17, 813, ANTT.

67 Confession of Domingos Fernandes Nobre in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

68 Pedro Bastardo's Indian name, as well as its meaning, is recorded in the transcript of his confession: “e tomou nome como eles costumant tomar e se chamou Aratuam, que quer dizer Arara, que é um pássaro grande de côres,” Confession of Bastardo, Pedro, Confissões de Fernambuco, p. 28.Google Scholar The Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa defines Arara as a word of Tupi origin which is a “design, comum de algumas aves psitaciformes da fam. dos psitacídeos (Anodorhynchus, Ara e Cyanopsitta), que ocorrem na América Latina, possuem grande porte e São dotadas de bico alto, recurvado e de cauda longa” while the Oxford English Dictionary describes the macaw as “Any of various large long-tailed parrots (often with vivid plumage) belonging to the genus Ara and certain related genera, native to tropical and subtropical America.”

69 Denunciation of Adão Vaz 14 January 1592 in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10.777; Validation [Ratificação] of Francisco Pires, 17 January 1593 in trial of Lázaro da Cunha, IL 11,068; Confession of Sebastião Madeira 9 March 1592 in Trial of Sebastião Madeira, II 11,212; confession of Gonçalo Álvares in trial of Francisco Pires, IL 17,809, ANTT. My translation of these names comes from definitions given in the text: Pinasamoquu is said to mean “linha comprida”—literally “Long Line;” Jocorutu/Jucurutu is defined as “curuja,” i.e., coruja, “Owl.” Jabotim is defined in the text as “cagado,” which translates as “Turtle”—the Dicionário Houaiss gives the derivation of jabuti as “tupi yawo'ti herp ‘rèptil quelônio da família dos testudinídeos.’”

70 Confession of Domingos Fernandes Nobre in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

71 Confession of Domingos Fernandes Nobre in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre, IL 10,776, ANTT.

72 “Articles touching the dutie of the King Majestie our Lord,” in Purchas his Pilgrims, pp. 505–507. I have modernized the archaic English text.

73 This idea did resonate with Indians, in part because of the existence of long migrations in search of a promised land in their mythology. Periodic migrations undertaken by the Tupi-Guarani speaking peoples in search of a “land without evil” have been documented by a number of sociologists, anthropologists and Histórians. On the Tupi-Guarani tradition of migration, the concept of a “land without evil,” and messianism see Nimuendajú-Unkel, Curt, Los mitos de creación y de destrucción del mundo como fundamentos de la religión de los Apapokuva-Guaraní, ed. Juergen Riester, G. (Lima: Centro Amazónico de Anthropología y Aplicación Práctica, 1978);Google Scholar Métraux, Alfred, “Migrations historiques des Tupi-Guaraní” Journal de la Société des Américanistes de París 19 (1931), pp. 1–47;Google Scholar Métraux, Alfred, La Religion des Tupinambo et ses rapports avec celle des autres tribus Tupi-Guarani (Paris: E. Leroux, 1928), pp. 201–252;Google Scholar Métraux, Alfred, “Messiahs of South America,” The Interamerican Quarterly 3:2 (1941): 53–60;Google Scholar Schaden, Egon, Aculturação e messianismo entre Índios brasileiros (São Paulo: Escola de Communicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo, 1972),Google Scholar and Clastres, Hélène, The Land-without-Evil: Tupí-Guaraní Prophetism, trans. Brovender, Jacqueline Grenez (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995).Google Scholar Within the literature there is disagreement over whether the prophetic movements existed before colonization or emerged as a result of it, see Carlos Fausto's discussion in “Fragmentos de História e cultura Tupinambá: da etnologia como instrumento critico de conhecimento etno-histórico,” in da Cunha, Manuela Carneiro, ed. História dos índios no Brasil (São Paulo: Editora Schwarcz, 1992), pp. 385–387.Google Scholar

74 There are few studies of the mamelucos involved in this trade; see Raminelli, Ronald “Da vila ao sertão: os mamelucos como agentes da colonização,” Revista de História 58(1993/1994), pp. 209–219;Google Scholar Metcalf, Alida C., “Álvaro Rodrigues: um intermediario no mundo português,” in Sexualidade, família e religião na colonização do Brasil, ed. Nizza da Silva, Maria Beatriz (Lisbon: Libros Horizonte, Lda., 2001), pp. 37–45;Google Scholar Hemming, , Red Gold, pp. 151–160.Google Scholar

75 The four mameluco interpreters denounced by João Vicente were Domingos Fernandes Nobre, Lázaro da Cunha, Afonso Pereira, and Mateus Antunes, see trial of Lázaro da Cunha IL 11,068, ANTT.

76 Giving arms to Indians hostile to the Portuguese was expressly forbidden by the crown, see the Regimentó de Tomé de Sousa, 17 December 1548, in História da colonização portuguesa no Brasil, III, pp. 348.

77 Confession of Francisco Pires, in trial of Francisco Pires, IL 17,809, ANTT.

78 Confession of Bastardo, Pedro, Confissões de Pernambuco, p. 28;Google Scholar Confession of Sebastião Madeira in trial of Sebastião Madeira, IL 11,212, denunciation of Tristão Rodrigues and confession of Lázaro da Cunha in trial of Lázaro da Cunha, IL 11,068, ANTT.

79 “Inventário do Engenho de Sergipe por Morte de Mem de Sá (1572)” in Engenho Sergipe do Conde: espolio de Mem de Sá (1569–1579), vol. III of Instituto do Açúcar e do Álcool, Documentos para a História do açúcar (Rio de Janeiro: Serviço Especial de Documentação Histórica, 1963), pp. 37–68.

80 Gouveia sent a detailed proposal to Rome about how these missions ought to work: a priest of great confidence together with a reliable companion would be given the responsibility to visit each plantation yearly; on arrival at the plantation, they would take a census of all the slaves and indicate who had been baptized, who was married, and who had made confessions; they were not to leave until all slaves had received the help and correction needed; they were to say mass in the morning on saints days because those were the days that the slaves and Indians had off; after mass they were to teach the doctrine before the slaves left to work their own gardens; they were to encourage the establishment of the confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary; at night, or during the evening meal, they were to teach the doctrine to the Indians and slaves using the approved catechism. See Gouveia, , “Visitas dos Padres,” Bras 2: 139–149, ARSI.Google Scholar

81 [Cardim] “Enformacion de la Provincia del Brasil para Nuestro Padre, in Mauro, , Le Brésil au XVlle siècle, p. 143.Google Scholar See also the annual letters of de Anchieta, José, “Carta Ânua da Província do Brasil, de 1583,” in Cartas de Anchieta, pp. 344–361 Google Scholar and Carta Ânua de 1584, ou breve narração das coisas atinentes aos colégios e residências, existentes nesta Província do Brasil,” in Anchieta, , Cartas de Anchieta, pp. 368–386.Google Scholar The Jesuit visitor to the missions also comments repeatedly about the mission of Jesuits to slaves, see Cristovão de Gouveia to Claudio Aquaviva 1 November 1584 Lus 68: 407–409, ARSI, and Gouveia's report of his visit to Brazil “Visitas dos Padres,” Bras 2: 139–149, ARSI.

82 “Inventário do Engenho de Sergipe,” in Engenho Sergipe do Conde, p. 61.

83 Carta Ânua da Provincia do Brasil, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 308.

84 Carta Ânua da Provincia do Brasil, de 1581, in Cartas de Anchieta, p. 308.

85 Gouveia remarked in his letter to the Jesuit General in Rome that in the captaincies of Ilhéus and Porto Seguro the number of Portuguese men who confessed with the Jesuit priests was few, if any. See Gouveia to Claudio Aquaviva 25 July 1583, Lus 68: 337, ARSI. In his final report the Visitor makes clear that no Jesuit father may confess a person who participates in the practice of bringing Indians from the sertào in the customary, but illicit manner, for in such a case, the father may not give absolution, except if the individual has truly given up such practices and has restored to the Indians that which the law requires, see “Visita do Padre Christóvão de Gouveia,” in Visitas dos Padres Visitadores, Bras 2: 253–274 or 2:139–149v, ARSI.

86 The uprising, which led to conflict in the town council and which involved the bishop, occurred before 1579, see Everard Mercurian to José de Anchieta, Rome 15 January 1579, BRAS 2:45–46v, ARSI.

87 Cristóvão de Gouveia to Claudio Aquaviva, Salvador 25 July 1583, LUS 68: 337, ARSI. That the Jesuits placed limits on the amount of service that colonists could demand from mission Indians, and that the Jesuits had several land disputes with colonists were two other reasons why the colonists increasingly complained about the Society.

88 Cardim, , “Enformacion de la Provincia del Brasil,” in Mauro, , Le Bresil au XVIIe siècle, p. 164.Google Scholar

89 “Memoriale Visitationis Brasiliae,” 1584 Lus 68: 414–418, ARSI.

90 “Lei que S. M. passou sobre os Indios do Brasil que não podem ser captivos e declara o que o podem ser,” Thomas, , Politica indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 222–224.Google Scholar King Phillip of Portugal was Phillip II of Spain, who ruled Portugal after 1580.

91 “Lei que S. M. passou sobre os Índios do Brasil que não podem ser captivos e declara o que o podem ser,” Thomas, , Politica indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, p. 223.Google Scholar

92 Confession of Gonçalo Alvarez in trial of Francisco Pires, IL 17,809, ANTT.

93 Confession of Sebastião Madeira in trial of Sebastião Madeira, IL 11,212, ANTT; Denunciation of Marçal de Aragão, denunciation of Baltasar Camelo, denunciation of Adão Vaz, denunciation of Simão Dias, all in trial of Domingos Fernandes Nobre IL 10,776, ANTT.

94 “Lei sobre se não poderem captivar os gentíos das partes do Brasil, e viverem em sua liberdade, salvo no caso declarado na dita lei,” 11 November 1591, in Thomas, , Politica indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 224–225.Google Scholar

95 “Lei de 26 de Julho de 1596 sobre a liberdade dos Índios,” 26 July 1596 in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 225–226.Google Scholar

96 “Lei de 26 de Julho de 1596 sobre a liberdade dos Índios,” 26 July 1596 in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 225–226.Google Scholar

97 Relação de Pero Rodrigues, 1597, Bras 15, reel 159, Vatican Film Library, St. Louis University.

98 “Alvará, Gentios da terra São livres, [1609]” in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, p. 227.Google Scholar

99 “Carta de lei—declara a liberdade dos gentíos do Brazil, exceptuando os tomados em guerra justa etc [1611]” in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 229–233.Google Scholar

100 These entradas would later be known in the eighteenth century as bandeiras, but in the seventeenth century, they were referred to as entradas, as the King does in a royal decree dated 1638 in which is referenced the “entradas” made from São Paulo into Paraguay. See “Real Cedula al Virrey del Peru, Marques de Mansera para remedio y castigo de los portugueses de San Pablo del Brasil, 1638–9–16,” in Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, p. 236.Google Scholar

101 The classic history of the bandeirantes is Taunay's, História geral das bandeiras paulistas, 11 vols. (São Paulo: Typ. Ideal H. L. Canton, 1924–1950).Google Scholar For a modern introduction into the topic, see Monteiro, John, Negros da terra: Índios e bandeirantes nas origins de São Paulo (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994)Google Scholar and “Os Guarani e a História do Brasil meridional: séculos XVI-XVII,” in História dos índios no Brasil, pp. 475–498; my Family and Frontier in Colonial Brazil: Santana de Parnaíba, 1580–1822 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 43–65, and Thomas, , Política indigenista dos Portugueses no Brasil, pp. 163–212.Google Scholar

102 Cohen, Thomas M., The Fire of Tongues: António Vieira and the Missionary Church in Brazil and Portugal (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), pp. 54–66.Google Scholar

103 See Perrone-Moisés, “Inventário da Legislação,” for a full index of official laws, decrees, letters, etc. pertaining to Indian slavery in the eighteenth century.

104 Miguel García was one Jesuit in Brazil who argued so vehemently against the immorality of Indian and African slavery in Brazil that he was sent back to Portugal. See Cristóvão de Gouveia to Claudio Aquaviva (in Rome), Bahia, 15 July 1583, Lus 68: 337, ARSI; Miguel García to Claudio Aquaviva (in Rome), Bahia, 26 January 1583 Lus 68: 335–336v, ARSI. See also the recent work of Carlos Alberto Zeron, “Les Jésuites et le commerce d'esclaves entre le Brésil et L'Angola à la fin du XVIe Siècle,” www.ceveh.com.br/biblioteca/artigos/ca-f-a-jesuites.html, accessed September 2, 2001.