r/PortugueseEmpire

On March 17, 1560, a Portuguese military contingent led by the then Governor-General of Brazil, Mem de Sá, attacked and destroyed "Fort Coligny." Located on what is now Villegagnon Island (then known as Serijipe Island) in Rio de Janeiro, the fortification had been built by a group of French colonists led by Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon. They had named the region "France Antarctique" (1555–1560) in an attempt to establish a French colony in Brazil.

Alerted to the French presence in Rio de Janeiro, the Portuguese assembled a fleet of 26 warships to retake Guanabara Bay.

The Portuguese account of the confrontation comes from the writings of José de Anchieta, who was part of Mem de Sá's expedition. With a force of 120 Portuguese soldiers and the support of 140 Indian allies (Tupinambá and Temiminó) armed with arrows and traveling in canoes, they surrounded the island—where approximately 75 Frenchmen were entrenched, supported by about a thousand Tamoio warriors. They called upon the French colonists to surrender, but the latter refused. After a prolonged siege, a Portuguese sailor swam to the island and blew up the gunpowder magazine, forcing the French to abandon the fight and flee; most returned to France, while about 20 escaped to the mainland, taking refuge among allied indigenous settlements. The fortification thus captured (March 16) was razed, as Mem de Sá—hampered by damaged ships and a shortage of men—lacked the resources to establish a permanent settlement in Guanabara Bay; he returned to Salvador on April 3.

Despite being driven out of the city, the French did not abandon their efforts to conquer the site where Rio was founded. The two years following the Portuguese conquest were marked by intense attacks from the enemy. To assist the Captain-Major in maintaining control over the former France Antarctique region, a fleet from the Northeast, commanded by Cristóvão de Barros, arrived in Rio on January 20, 1567. This reinforcement proved crucial to the victories in the battles of Uruçumirim and Paranapuã Island, which were taking place at the time.

In 1556, during his missionary work among the Indians of the São Paulo Plateau, José de Anchieta was troubled by terrible news: the ritual murder of two children, aged 3 and 10, whom he had baptized days before in a village a few kilometers from the Pátio do Colégio.

Anchieta attributed the children's martyrdom to the actions of "sorcerers," the Tupi shamans, who were the main obstacles to religious missions among the indigenous people: "The sorcerers persecute us, whenever they can they prevent us from baptizing children and the sick, they hate us because we always discover their tricks."

Anchieta wrote in a letter to Manuel da Nóbrega. While investigating the ritual of human sacrifice against children, the Jesuit realized that they were mutilated but not devoured. “The sorcerers said that Christian baptism was a curse and therefore the children needed to die, but their bodies should not be consumed.” After discovering their bodies, Anchieta buried them in the Church of the Pátio do Colégio.

Nóbrega (Letter XXIX) recounts that he was going to baptize a sick boy, but the parents opposed the idea, out of consideration for the sorcerer. In another case, after a chief lost one of his sons without baptism, he was “severely reprimanded,” with the recommendation “that he be taken to the governor in chains.” This did not happen due to the acclamation of other Indians who knelt down, but the author concludes that “in this way their custom is being removed, and they are gaining obedience and becoming annoyed with the sorcerers.”

With their deceptions and lies, the shamans sought to resist catechization. Anchieta (Letter XVIII) acknowledged the rivalry between the missionary work and the karaí, "whom everyone follows and venerates as a saint," and who allegedly intended to destroy the Catholic Church. Nóbrega (Letter IV) accused the shamans of spreading the rumor that baptismal water caused diseases.

Incidents like this helped the Jesuits reinforce the idea of ​​creating missionary settlements, where baptized Indians would have protection against attacks from shamans hostile to the Jesuit Missions.

In Brazil, the Jesuit priest primarily used the curumim, the indigenous boy, for the catechization of the villages, and collected from his mouth the material with which he formed the Tupi-Guarani language – the most powerful instrument of intercommunication between the two cultures.

Source(s):

.- Casa-grande & senzala: formação da família brasileira sob o regime da economia patriarcal, by Gilberto Freyre.

.- Os Índios nas Cartas de Nóbrega e Anchieta. Filipe Eduardo Moreau e Anchieta, by Celso Vieira.

Image: A Morte do Indiozinho (The Death of the Little Indian). Drawing by Álvaro Marins, the "Seth". Book: Anchieta. Renato Sêneca Fleury.