A Short History of Portugal by H. Morse Stephens

Author:H. Morse Stephens [Stephens, H. Morse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serapis Classics
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE PORTUGUESE IN BRAZIL.

THE history of the Portuguese in South America differs greatly from the story of the growth of their power in Asia; in America they found no wealthy cities and civilized peoples, only poor natives, and it was no wonder that their chief efforts in the sixteenth century were devoted to the development of the lucrative Eastern trade and to Asiatic exploration. Had any one told King Emmanuel that the country which Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered by a mere chance on his way to Asia, would prove of more enduring value to Portugal than the settlements in India, that monarch would not have believed him. Yet such has been the case. Whereas at the present time the Portuguese possessions in Asia have dwindled down to the settlements of Goa, Daman, and Diu in India, and the island of Macao, which are of very little value to the mother country, the great republic of Brazil has expanded into an independent state containing fourteen millions of inhabitants, or more than three times the population of Portugal. It is true that the governments of Portugal and her flourishing daughter across the Atlantic are separated, and that they are politically independent of each other, yet Brazil still continues in close alliance with Portugal, and receives from the mother country the crowds of sturdy immigrants, who are steadily expanding the resources of the greatest country in South America. Brazilians are as proud of the great deeds of their European ancestors as the Portuguese themselves, and even surpass the inhabitants of the mother country in their admiration for Camoens, and the assiduous study of his works. The story of the settlement and gradual colonization of Brazil cannot rival in romantic interest that of the Portuguese exploits in Asia, but it is nevertheless instructive to study the slow growth of the colony which has now become a mighty empire.

It was upon April 24, 1500, that Pedro Alvares Cabral, the admiral commanding the fleet which King Emmanuel had ordered to India, on receiving the news of the successful voyage of Vasco da Gama, caught sight of an unknown country towards the west He had stood out to sea after passing the Cape Verde Islands, or, according to some authorities, had been driven out to sea by a storm and had not expected to see land at all, so that the discovery, which proved of the greatest value to Portugal, was the result of chance, and not of deliberate exploration. He was unable to land at first on account of the surf, and it was not until he reached 15° north latitude, that he was able to find a harbour, to which he gave the name of Porto Seguro or Safe Port. He landed and took possession of the new country in the name of the King of Portugal, and after erecting a cross gave it the name of Santa Cruz, which remained its official name for many years, before the popular name of Brazil, which was given to it from the quantity of brazil-trees it contained, was adopted.

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