Notions on the chorography of Brazil / by Joaquim Manoel de Macedo ; translated by H. Le Sage.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notions on the chorography of Brazil / by Joaquim Manoel de Macedo ; translated by H. Le Sage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    1500 and Diego de Lepe in February or March of the same year, had reached certain points of this part of the South American continent, before the renowned Portuguese cap- tain, still history conferred on Pedro Alvares Cabral the title of discoverer of Brazil, not merely because he really was such, but because the acknowledgment of the rights of the Portuguese crown to the possession and dominion of the newly found land was immediately and uncontestedly declared in Europe. The Portuguese on their arrival found Brazil sparsely populated by numerous tribes of savages: they appeared to belong to two distinct nations, one of which, the Taj)uya^ shewed that they were advancing from the North towards the South, and pursuing with hostility the other, the Txi-py or Guarany, which tribes still commanded a great extent of the seaboard, and country to the South; they were, however, all uncivilised, and went about in a state of nu- dity, more or less complete, merely wearing ornaments made of feathers, or of other rude materials; they lived a wandering life, changing their places of abode within short intervals of time; they subsisted by the chase, and by fishing, as well as on roots and fruits: they had no regular government, neither had they a religion or social ties; they were ignorant of the rights of property; they frequently made war, one upon the other, having for arms bows and arrows, and the club or mace which they called tacape; some of them were cannibals from a horrible likins; for hu- man flesh; and all of them devoured their prisoners from a vengeful spirit; they were above all things jealous of their independence, notwithstanding their being incapable, through their profound ignorance, of maintaining the same, as well as through their being subdivided into small clans, and from the animosities which still further separated them. Don Manoel paid but slight attention to Brazil, which, beyond some little known and inefficient explorations of its
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