Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-22
SAVAGE INDIANS OF BRAZIL.
Sanguinary Wars Marked Early Days
A Nation of 25,o00,00o.


dams Of Brazil are said to be fast
passing away. There are still 100000
of them in the whole of Brazil, occu-
plying the stretches OF that vast coun-
try almost exclusively. DR.. Lacerda
estimated, when he was director of
the National museum, that within a
century there would be not only no
Indians alive in Brazil, but the whole
colored population that originated
there in slavery days would have dis
appeared. The Brazilian Indians, de-
spite the work of the government and
the special missions that have been
organized to eivilize them, are for
the greater part savages, quite as
much so in some sections, it is said,
as when Amerigo Vespucci of Seville
was sent out with an expedition by
the king of Portugal in 1901. The first
grewsome chapter of Brazil's history
began then.
When the little fleet reached land
two of the party We're sent ashore to
negotiate with group of natives that
they saw congfegated on the hill. Sew
eral days passed and the sailors did
not return. Another was sent ashore,
and in sight Of the ships company
women came forward to meet him,
gathering about him and examining
him in evident curiosity and wonder.
Suddenly another woman came be-
hind him with a stake and dealt him
a blow which brought him to the
ground. Immediately, he was dragged
away, and the men among the Indian
women rushed down to the beach
cloud Of at
the sailors remaining in their boats.
Several guns were fired at the saw
ages, who fled to the woods. The In
dams cut the poor youths body in
pieces and boiled it within sight of
his enraged comrades.
In lis book on Brazil for 1911, which
the Pan-Ameriean Union is now dis
tributing, j. C. Oakenfull says of one
tribe of these Indians, who live in
rude bamboo huts about seven feet
high and nine feet wide in the for
ests:
They are not more than five feet
four inches in hight on an average,
and their lower limbs have generally
grown crooked They cut off their
coarse, black hair in front, and are
ornamented with toucan feathers,
stuck on with wax. Every Bugre
pulls out his eyebrows and eyelashes
and pulls down his under lip with a
huge appendage, besides ornamenting
himself, If fortune be kind, with a
necklace of rows of teeth. They still
carry stone axes, the counterparts of
those used in prehistoric times in Eu-
rope.
,,5
beings generally prove entirely vain.
"A peculiar characteristic part OF the
whole of the Indians is deep super
stition. They believe in lunar phan-
toms and beings of life, who are spir-
its of God. They are afraid of GER
tain dark, shadewy forms, sewers of
ILL., vengeful and awful, which it is nee
essary to prepitiate. These are sup
posed to be the souls of their ances
tors. They call God Tupa, and they
say that dead mems souls are con-
verted into demons. They also be-
liexe in= spirits of the deep waters.
and are afraid of bathing in the
dark, except in company, as tradi-
tions are current that many have been
dragged down into the lakes and riv-
ers, and never returned. In common
with other primitive races, their nat
ural powers of observation are very
highly developed. Many of the tribes
are capable of producing artistic GER
annie ware, and they have some ability
for wood carving and making gro
tesque masks Some of them weave
baskets and construct large canoes by
the following out process aided by
fire."
Portugal started the settlement of
this country when it dispatched Am
ergo Nespucci again from Lisbon in
1903, on a second expedition, with six
ships. Only two of the ships reached
the other side. The others were lost,
but the crew of one was saved. This
company remained five months on
friendly terms with the natives, and
then returned home laden with par
rots, monkeys and Brazil wood, leav-
ing behind them "a men who had
been saved from the shipwreck. These
were the original settlers, all Portu-
guese sailors, who are said to have
taken wives from among the native
women Piso, Dutch physician, says
that among the Brazilian Indians the
husbands go to bed when the child Is
born and eat the most nourishing
food they can get in order to recover
their lost strength"
1t appears. that the history OF Brazil
since these early days in it's relation to
the Indians is not very different from
that of our own country. The Indians
We're nondependable, turning from hot
to cold in their attitude toward the
white races, being extremely KIND
times and satanic at others. Mr. Oak
enfull says.
1.-The harmony which marked most
of the first intercourse between the
ahorieines and the discoveries did not
continue for very long. They found lit
tie reason to be satisfied with their
neighbors. and, like most savages,
passed from one extreme of attachment
and generation to that of hatred and
| fear and their minds were soon filled
with the idea of taking revenge for
provocation which they had sustained.
warfare of the most sanguinary
sort succeeded, and the Portuguese
were frequently defeated and suffered
such tortures as cannot be related. A
| temporary end was thus put to volun-