Tupi-Sprache
The inhabitants of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, called Paulistanos, were very poor. Some men started explorations, called "Bandeiras," in search of precious metals and stones, runaway slaves, and to capture Amerindians to sell in the domestic slave trade. The men were known as the "bandeirantes"; they included allied indigenous Brazilians and spoke Língua Geral. In contrast, the priests had established their mission aimed at converting the Tupi–Guarani indigenous Brazilians to the Catholic faith. They tried to acculturate them to Portuguese ways. From the beginning of the colony, the Jesuit goal of evangelising the Amerindians was opposed by many settlers, who used enslaved the Amerindians as labourers and profited also from the slave trade in Indians.