The vice of intoxication is very general among sa vages. The vacuity of their minds, the want of regular amusement and occupation, makes them eagerly grasp at whatever can give an impulse to the animal spirits. The Brasilians had invented a species of fermented li quor, the manner of preparing which we have described above ; and they indulged in it with an excess and fury of which civilized nations can with difficulty form an idea. Days and nights were consumed in the gratifica tion of this propensity ; and so long as a drop remained, they never desisted. Lery, after enumerating all the nations most noted for drinking, calls upon them to yield the palm to the Brasilian savages.
On fixed days, they assembled for the purpose of dancing, which, as formerly o0erved, served at once as an amusement, and as a religious ceremony. It was practised in a manner extremely singular and uncouth. The men, women, and children, formed three separate parties, who were each placed in a house by themselves. They began with wild howlings, which were soon follow ed by softer and sweeter notes ; they then arranged themselves into circles, and without moving from the spot, placed themselves in a variety of attitudes, mixed with leaps and gestures. In the midst of each circle stood a juggler, who performed a multitude of supersti tious ceremonies, which have been described under the head of religion. They were continued usually for six or seven hours.
The Brasilians lived in villages, two or three of which constituted a nation. In each village there were only three or four houses; but these structures were extend ed to a great length, and contained sixty or seventy families. Each family had a certain space allotted to it, but without any partition to separate it from the rest. One village, seen by a traveller of the name of Knivet, though consisting only of four houses, arranged in the form of a square, was estimated to contain 4000 inhabitants. The interior of these houses presented a singular spectacle, from the multitude of human beings crowded together, with their arms,pimplements, and grotesque ornaments, irregularly disposed. The out side was covered with grass and shrubs.
A traveller has given us some specimens of their lan guage, which, like all savage dialects, is extremely concise. The tenses of their verbs are as numerous as those of most other languages ; and they have even the optative mood, which is wanting in the Latin, and in the languages of modern Europe. These tenses, however, are formed, not by inflexions of the verb, but by parti cles added. Thus Aiont, I come ; Aiont aquoelq, I came (veniebam); Aiont aquoemene, I came (veni); Aiont vien, I will come ; Aiont momen, would I could come. They had no names for numbers above five ; if they wished to express any higher, they pointed to thcir fin gers ; or, if these were insufficient, collected the fingers of the bystanders, till they amounted to the proposed number.
The Brasilians were divided into an immense variety of tribes, many of which have been enumerated by dif ferent travellers. Our readers, however, would not, we presume, think themselves obliged to us for calling over a roll of barbarous appellations. There were several races, however, which, while they retained a common name, had branched out into a variety of different tribes. Of these the most noted were the Taperyas and Topi• namboux. The former were chiefly found on the north ern frontier, though they had extended themselves along the whole coast of Brasil ; the latter had their chief settlements in the bay of St Salvador. The Mo lopagues and Motayes had established themselves on the river Paraiba, in the captainship of Spiritu Santo. There were minute shades of difference in the charac ter and habits of all those people ; but the general as pect which they all presented was very nearly the same.
Brasil was not among the first discovered countries of the new world. Columbus, in his search after the East Indies, then accounted the grand source of wealth, land ed first among the islands in the Gulf of Mexico; and having once formed an establishment there, he made it the centre of his farther discoveries. He contented him self therefore with exploring the coasts of the continent around that gulf; and when, in his third voyage, he had proceeded as far as the Oronooko, and had landed on the island of Trinity, he immediately measured back his steps. After the golden treasures of Mexico and Peru had opened themselves to Spanish avidity, the efforts of adventure were entirely turned in that direction ; and it was left to chance to discover all the other regions of the new continent. Chance accordingly led Europeans into Brasil. There are some intimations of Vincent Ya nec Pinzon, one of the companions of Columbus, having touched on the coast in 1499; where, however, he was prevented from landing by the.ferocity of the inhabi tants. The solid discovery of Brasil, however, was made in the following year by Pierre Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese navigator. Vasco de Gama having, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, opened a new way to the East Indies, Cabral was dispatched with a considera ble squadron to improve this discovery, and to form a settlement in these celebrated regions. The discovery of the compass had now emboldened navigators to ven ture far into the open sea ; and Cabral, wishing to avoid the calms which reign along the coasts of Africa, steer ed so far west, that on the 24th April 1500, he came in sight of an unknown coast ; and after sailing along it for a considerable space, reached a harbour, the commo dious appearance of which tempted him to land. He called the country Santa Cruz, (the Holy Cross,) and the harbour Porto Seguro ; and then, according to that ill authorised right which Europeans had assumed to them selves, he took possession of the whole in the name of his master. The natives were at first alarmed, and fled to their hills ; but the Portuguese, having secured two, presented these with mirrors, brass rings, and bells, which were found to be the ornaments most agreeable to them. Cabral then allowed them to rejoin their countrymen, whose fears were immediately dissipated by this friendly behaviour, and who flocked to the ves sel with as much delight and confidence, as they had formerly testified suspicion and aversion. They ap proached singing and dancing, with all the uncouth gesti culations of savage joy ; and an intercourse was imme diately opened between them and the Portuguese. Clothes, however ornamental, were found to be of no value in treating with a people who considered the wearing of them as an intolerable hardship ; but every article which was capable of being converted into brace lets, necklaces, and other fantastic ornaments, in which they delighted to array themselves, was eagerly prized.
In return, the Portuguese received cotton, maize, orna mental woods, and a variety of rare and beautiful birds. Although there was yet no appearance of those treasures which were chiefly prized by European cupidity, and which Brasil was afterwards found to produce in such abundance, yet the extent of the country, its beauty and evident fertility, gave it such importance in the eyes of the Portuguese commander, that he immediately sent back one of his vessels to Europe, to give a report of his new discovery. Emanuel, the most illustrious and renowned of the Portuguese monarchs, was then seated on the throne ; and though his views were chiefly direct ed towards conquest in the East, yet the addition of so extensive and fine a country to his dominions, could not fail to excite his ambition. Navigators were therefore sent to explore its coasts ; and settlements were formed on different parts of their wide extent. It was soon dis covered, however, that the sanguine hopes of wealth, which the first settlers carried out with them, were lit tle likely to be realized. Gold and silver were no where to be seen : and though the land was profusely fertile, it was totally uncultivated ; nor could it be cleared and brought under cultivation, without enormous labour. Parrots indeed and coloured woods might be had un bought, and yielded a considerable profit in Europe, where they were yet rare ; but these articles could not he made the foundation of any extensive commerce. What completed the disgust of Europeans at this new territory was, that their slender profits could be earned only by encountering the most formidable dangers. The harmony which had reigned at the first interview between the natives was soon interrupt ed. The former, we may well believe, found little rea son to congratulate themselves on the acquisition of these new neighbours ; and passing, with the impetuosi ty of savage minds, from the extreme of attachment to that of hatred and vengeance, they commenced a furious warfare on the European settlements. Savage valour, even without discipline, rendered the encounters despe rate and bloody ; the Portuguese were not always victo rious; and for those who fell into the hands of the ene my, was reserved a fate at which humanity shudders.. Such occurrences soon put an end to voluntary emigra tion into Brasil; all who pursued the prizes of wealth and ambition, crowded to the more splendid theatro of India, every region of which was then the theatre of Portuguese triumphs. Brasil seemed likely to revert into its original state of desertion ; but the Portuguese court, anxious by any means to make something of their acquisition, adopted the scheme of peopling it out of the refuse of the mother Wretches, who had forfeited their life to the laws, were, in mitigation of punishment, sent to this new colony : a destination which, as matters then stood, was considered rather as a re prieve from death, than a final deliverance. The In quisition had just been established in Portugal; and that barbarous tribunal, by creating a variety of factitious crimes, had augmented in an extraordinary degree, the number of persons amenable to the laws. From such causes, the population of Brasil was gradually augment ed ; settlements were formed in different parts of the coast ; and the new planters, doomed alternately to wield the ploughshare and the sword, became a fierce and hardy race, fitted to contend with the difficulties of their situation. The Indians, wrought to the highest pitch of exasperation, exhausted on their invaders all the furies of savage war; while the latter, as if fearing to be outdone, committed atrocities, not perhaps sur passed by those, by which their more celebrated neigh bours had marked their conquest over the golden re gions of Mexico and Peru. By the relations of travel lers which have been handed down to us, it appears to have been their regular practice on storming a savage village, to put to death the old men, children, and all who could be of no use ; and to carry the rest into slave ry. In process of time, the skill and discipline of the .Portuguese prevailed over the savage fierceness of their opponents; plantations were extended, and the sugar cane being introduced from Sicily and Spain; succeeded. in a wonderful degree, and brought large profits in the markets of Europe. The attention of the Portuguese court was at length arrested by the flourishing state of its new colony ; and it began seriously to consider, how the greatest could be derived from it. The former contempt, however, in which this settlement was held, had led to masures, which threatened to frus trate the hopes now entertained from it. A grant of land, even on the most extensive scale, had been thought of so little value, as to be readily bestowed on any one who thought it worth the asking. From this reason, al most the whole of that fine settlement had been alienated from the crown, and was in the hands of different indi viduals. The remedy applied by John HI. who now reigned in Portugal, was more conformable to the max ims of state necessity, than to the strict rules of justice. In the year 1549, he revoked, without ceremony, all the grants that had been made by himself or his predeces sors ; and having equipped a fleet of six vessels, with a number of troops and officers, he gave the command of it to Thomas de Sousa, who went out with the appointment of governor general. He established his capital at St Salvador, in one of the noblest and most beautiful bays in the world, with an admirable harbour, and in the richest part of Brasil. Six Jesuits went out along with the fleet, for the purpose of converting the natives ; and the judi cious and benevolent labours of these missionaries were not altogether unattended with success. The increase of force, and the regular establishment of law and govern ment, which were the result of these measures, were effi cacious in fixing and extending the prosperity of the co lony. This very Arosperity, however, exposed it to new dangers. The other European powers, all alive to the advantages that were to be derived from establishments in the new world, saw in the wealth and defenceless state of this vast territory, an opportunity of gratifying their ambition. Civil war and religious persecution, which then raged throughout all Europe, produced a vast mul titude of refugees, who were anxious to find shelter at the greatest possible distance from their native country. France, accordingly, which was the peculiar theatre of these calamities, was the first country which contested with the Portuguese the possession of Brasil.