1647-61]

The expulsion of the Dutch

In

675 to have intervened openly on their behalf, the success of the revolt might have been earlier assured, and years of devastating war spared the country. But Portugal, too weak to contend with a strong maritime Power for the recovery of her colonies while waging a war of independence with the Spanish monarchy, was bound to wait upon events. Meantime, in the Treaty of Münster, in 1648, the United Provinces asserted their colonial interests with no small success; and, among other concessions from Spain, received permission to regain, if they could, the ground which they were losing in Brazil. To Philip IV, intent on the subjugation of Portugal, it seemed good policy to let loose the Dutch on her possessions in America and elsewhere, provided that no injury was inflicted thereby on the commerce of Spain. But the course of events was slowly demonstrating that, in the suppression of the Portuguese rising, the Dutch Company was committed to a larger enterprise than it was capable of carrying through. From the time when, in 1647, Vieira decoyed a Dutch force into a narrow pass through the Guararapes hills, and inflicted upon it a severe defeat, circumstances began to combine irresistibly against the Dutch. 1649, the Portuguese Crown so far departed from its traditional policy as to permit the establishment of a Brazil Company on the lines of the great commercial companies of the day, which enlisted private enterprise in the struggle for national possessions. When, three years later, the Dutch were involved in war with the English, the end was near. Vieira concentrated his efforts on the capture of Reciff - through which the received reinforcements and supplies and, with the assistance enemy of the new Brazil Company's fleet, reduced it in 1654, thus expelling the Dutch from their last foothold in Brazil. Yet not until 1661 did the Dutch resign themselves to their loss. Brazil, with its excellent situation for the commerce of the world, its convenient havens for recruiting ships and equipping privateering expeditions, its sugars, the best then produced, its rare woods, was too dear to the merchant's heart to be surrendered so long as the least hope of its recovery could be cherished. But, when both Charles II and Louis XIV, having resolved that the Dutch should not recover Pernambuco, threatened to intervene if the war were continued, the States made peace, and recognised the restoration of Portuguese rule in northern Brazil, in return for a payment of four million cruzados in money or commodities.

The Dutch had failed, primarily, because they had not mastered the difficult art of conquest. Factories and forts, and small islands with their few inhabitants, might easily be passed from nation to nation; but the problem of subjecting a European community to a foreign rule was of another character. It needed the imagination, tact, and statesmanship of Count Maurice of Nassau for its solution. So long as he remained Governor of the conquered provinces, all seems to have gone well. His liberal dealing with the Portuguese planters enabled them to turn their attention to the cultivation of their estates, instead of plotting rebellion.

676 The expulsion of the Dutch.

The Indians [1650-1713

His noble palace in the midst of spacious gardens "stored with all kinds of trees, fruits, flowers and greens which either Europe, Africa or both the Indies could afford" suggested the splendour of a new era of prosperity dawning on the colony with the advent of Dutch energy. While he sought to win the loyalty of the Portuguese, and warned the Company of the instability of a dominion based on force alone, he did not forget the importance of introducing a Dutch population into the country. But, on his departure, the Company returned to their origi nal idea of the conquest as "a mere commercial speculation." In their desire for immediate profit they sacrificed their permanent interests. They weakened their military strength by frugal administration, and at the same time embittered their subjects by a harsh and oppressive policy. The result has been already told. Thus was terminated "the most striking and brilliant chapter in the annals of seventeenth century. colonial enterprise." What was more, with the expulsion of the Dutch from Brazil, there perished the fairest opportunity that has ever existed for the planting of a Teutonic community in a continent where the Latin races have held continuous sway, for bringing Teutonic persistence and endurance, in close co-operation with Latin versatility, to exploit the great resources of South America.

From this time for thirty years the growth of the colony proceeded quietly enough. Such difficulties as the colonists encountered were chiefly of internal origin. The prosperity of the northern provinces had been seriously affected by the long and devastating struggle with the Dutch, and Bahia began to take the lead in agriculture and commerce. Sugar remained the staple product. Both climate and soil favoured its cultivation. The many small streams that intersected the coast rendered important service to the planters, driving their mills and making it easy to convey the produce to the sea. Negro labour was obtainable through the Guinea trade and was in great demand. At each sugar-producing engenho, or mill, from fifty to a hundred slaves were required. At first Indians had been employed, but they were unwilling workers, and before the middle of the seventeenth century their numbers in the older captaincies had been exhausted. Slave-driving expeditions into the interior were frequently made, especially by the inhabitants of San Paulo, to stock the slave-markets of the coast; but the planters were obliged to rely more and more upon negroes brought from Africa. In defence of the Indians against their conquerors the Jesuits fought a hard battle. They desired to see the various tribes settled in orderly communities under ecclesiastical and not civil control, and to free them from slavery and from indefinite exactions of work, tantamount to slavery, on the Portuguese plantations. In this design they had the sympathy of the Crown; but they were contending against the relentless nature of the Portuguese planter and the hard facts of the economic situation. It is difficult to say how far the position of the Indian was improved by the continual legislation on his behalf. The

1650-1717] Negroes. -Commerce.

Social conditions 677

authority of the mother country was not often at this time very strongly asserted in Brazil, and repeated enactments of laws argue repeated breaches of them. But the introduction of negroes in increasing numbers must have relieved the Indians, and in the course of the eighteenth century their freedom became a reality. Negro labour was not without its problems. In the cities, and later at the mines, the negroes seem to have enjoyed much liberty; but that their life on the plantations was not an easy one may be concluded from the numbers that escaped into the interior. For more than half a century runaway slaves were permitted to collect in strength at positions on the San Francisco River, called from the groves which surrounded them the Palmairas. Here they organised formidable community, which, when it was broken up in 1695, was said to contain a population of eighty thousand.

Concentration on sugar production naturally affected other industries and other branches of agriculture. Tobacco-growing proved less profitable. The interesting experiments in the culture of spice-plants brought from the East Indies yielded little result, though for this the distraction from agricultural pursuits that followed the later gold discoveries was perhaps largely responsible. The wonderful facilities for horse- and cattlerearing which parts of the country possessed were not much developed, though Nieuhoff spoke of this resource, together with "the great plenty of fish," as "the two main pillars of the State of Brazil." Large quantities of provisions had always to be imported from Portugal, the Azores, and the Canary Islands, and the cost of living was in consequence very : high. But under the liberal commercial policy of the mother country the trade of the colony continued to flourish. No privileged Company at this time monopolised and limited it. Vessels sailed from Portugal in regular squadrons as from Spain; but they came in larger numbers, and called not at one or two but at several ports. Wines, some foodstuffs, and most kinds of apparel and utensils - for in Brazil there was little industry save shipbuilding at Bahia — were imported from Europe, and exchanged against the produce of the plantations, forests, fisheries, and mines of Brazil. A smaller class of ship traded with Guinea, "making very good returns." The mercantile spirit affected the whole population. Neither the clergy nor officials could be restrained from trading; and the latter, owing partly to their insufficient salaries, connived freely at the contraband with foreign vessels calling at the ports.

Though most of the noble houses of Portugal were represented in Brazil, there was no division into classes or castes such as existed in the Spanish colonies. Custom established firmly the idea of social equality. "Every barber, shoemaker and tailor struts with his sword and dagger, and looks upon himself as equal to any officer in the colony because his face is of the same complexion." So writes a French traveller in 1717. Printing was not permitted, and education was under the control of the Jesuits, whose college at Bahia was said to be "the largest, fairest and

678 Political disturbances.

Discovery of gold [1684-1720

most finished building in the city." The Church was rich and well organised; the clergy were exceedingly numerous; and there were many convents of the great religious Orders. The administration of justice was notoriously corrupt, and the authority of the Crown weak and often set aside. But, though order and security were at times wanting, the freedom from oppressive regulation which the colony enjoyed had been one of its principal attractions and had contributed to its progress in various ways.

It was partly in consequence of these political conditions that the peace of the provinces was occasionally broken. The Portuguese system of colonial government lent itself to oppression and corruption; and the colonists, possessing no representative institutions, expressed their sense of grievances in an uprising against the colonial authorities. It was seldom that they exhibited any disloyalty to the mother country. In 1684 a most serious outbreak - not the first - occurred in Maranhão, a young border settlement which lived a troubled life. The insurgents complained of a commercial monopoly in Maranhão and Para which had been granted to some Lisbon merchants, and of the influence of the Jesuits, who were endeavouring to protect the Indian population. In this case the difficulties of the home Government were complicated by the possibilities of French interference from Cayenne. In Gomes Freyre, however, whom they dispatched to the province, they found an officer of tact and strength equal to the occasion. He restored the authority of the Crown, but recommended the abolition of the monopoly and the introduction of negroes to meet the scarcity of labour from which the plantations were suffering. More injurious to Brazil was the civil war which distracted Pernambuco in 1710-1, originating in a long-standing rivalry between Olinda and Reciff. The latter, after several unsuccessful applications, had at last been promoted to the dignity of a town. Many of the Pernambucans resented the aggrandisement of Reciff, with its population of commercial immigrants, and ruined themselves in an unsuccessful struggle against the will of the mother country.

In the last years of the seventeenth century the long-hoped-for gold discoveries were made in San Paulo. It had been perhaps no disad vantage to Brazil that for two centuries the inhabitants had remained undisturbed by mining enterprises, and had concentrated their attention on the resources offered by its fertile soil, thus laying sure the foundations of an agricultural colony. A large influx of population into San Paulo resulted. Settlers, allured by the gold, pushed their way up to the source of the San Francisco. Mining camps became villages, and before 1715 several towns were created. In 1710 San Paulo was organised as a province; and, in 1720, Minas Geraes, the mining region. was detached from San Paulo and declared a captaincy. As was to be expected, a period of great disorder at the mines followed the discoveries. The mining population was divided into two parties. On the one side, the Paulistas, or natives of the province, a strenuous independent race, sprung

1640-1715] Period of the War of the Spanish Succession 679

from Portuguese convicts transported to Brazil, who had intermarried with the Indians, and whose numbers had been recruited by adventurers from all parts of South America; on the other side, the strangers who had flocked to the place, and who were collectively known as Forasteiros. Constant disputes between individuals of the two parties ended at last in a civil war, 1708-10, and in the improvisation of a Government by the leader of the Forasteiros, Manoel Nunes Viana. Finally, the Governor of the Rio, Antonio de Albuquerque, restored order; and the authority of the Crown was for the first time enforced in San Paulo.

The gold discoveries, though they did not prove of very great importance, affected the whole life of the colony. Planters found it difficult to procure labour for their plantations, and more profitable to employ their slaves at the mines. The cultivation of sugar, tobacco, and other agricultural crops suffered in consequence, and the exports of agricultural produce soon showed a serious falling off. This was of course much to the advantage of the West India Sugar Islands, whose great age began now to dawn. To the concern of the Portuguese, the gold which was conveyed to Europe passed on from Lisbon through the ordinary channels of commerce to the English and Dutch, who provided the larger part of the commodities which the colony imported. Moreover, when treasure fleets began to sail from Rio de Janeiro, pirates began to infest the coasts continuously. The Portuguese suffered especially during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1710 a French expedition under Du Clerc made an attempt upon Rio. It failed disastrously, but in the following year a second expedition under the command of Du Guay Trouin, fitted out as a speculation by a syndicate of private persons, proved more successful. In the presence of a considerable Portuguese force the town was pillaged and held to ransom for 600,000 cruzados. This discreditable incident advertised the weakness of the colony, and it is not surprising that in 1714 the French prepared to repeat their venture. But Du Cassard, who commanded the third fleet, was content to molest some of the smaller sugar islands.

If the whole period be considered, Brazil was fortunate in its comparative immunity from attack, and in the expansion and definition of its boundaries. In the north, settlement was extended in Maranhão and Para, and the conquest of Piauhi was undertaken. The apprehensions awakened by the French in this neighbourhood were removed; for by the Peace of Utrecht they resigned all claim to the country between the Amazon and the Wiapoc, and acknowledged the sovereignty of Portugal over both banks of the great river. Exploring expeditions in search of trade or slaves penetrated far into the interior, and disturbed and repelled the Jesuit missions to the Indians, which were advancing inland from Quito and civilising the tribes on the Maranon, the Huallaga, and the Ucayali. The design which the Spaniards had entertained in 1640 of occupying the valley of the Amazon, and using this great stream as