² As late as 1712 the mines of Minas Gerais were considered to be dangerously near Peru. See the report (consulta) of the Overseas Council (Conselho Ultramarino) of Lisbon, June 22, 1712, in the Arquivo Histórico Colonial of Lisbon, Codex 233, L° 2° das Consultas do Rio, fo. 35 et seq. The Arquivo Histórico Colonial will hereafter be indicated with the initials A.H.G

³ These needs grew out of the wars against the Dutch (who occupied areas of North Brazil from 1630 to 1654 and who attacked other parts of the Portuguese Empire in Africa and the Orient) and the long, bitter war against Spain which resulted from the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy in 1640. It will be remembered that the sovereigns of Spain were also sovereigns of Portugal during the period 1580–1640.

⁴ Vasconcelos, Simão de S.J., Chronica da Companhia de Jesu do Estado do Brasil e do que obraram seus filhos n’esta parte io Novo Mundo em que se trata da entrada da Companhia de Jesu nas partes do Brasil, dos fundamentos que n’ellas lançaram e continuaram seus religiosos, e algumas noticias antecedentes, curiosas e necessárias das cousas d’aquelle estado (ed. of Lisboa, 1865), I (L° I^o das Notícias), §§85–86 Google Scholar.

⁵ Magalhães, Pero de [Gandavo], History of the Province of Santa Cruz, trans, by Stetson, John B. Jr. (New York, 1922), ch. 14Google Scholar.

⁶ Varnhagen, Francisco Adolfo de (Visconde de Porto Seguro), ed., “Tratado Descriptivo do Brasil em 1587, obra de Gabriel Soares de Sousa,” in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geogràfico Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro), XIV, 41–42 Google Scholar.

⁷ Salvador, Frei Vicente do O.F.M., Historia do Brasil, ed. by Abreu, Capistrano de and Garcia, Rodolfo (3rd ed., São Paulo, n.d.), Bk. I, ch. JGoogle Scholar. In connection with the above paragraph, the reader will find it useful to consult Rev. Zahm, J. A. C.S.C., The quest of El Dorado: the most romantic episode in the history of South American conquest (New York, 1917)Google Scholar.

⁸ Diário da Navegação de Pero topes de Sousa 1530–1532, ed. by Castro, Eugenio de, I (2nd. ed., Rio de Janeiro, 1940), 210–212 Google Scholar. See also História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil (Pôrto, 1921–1924), III, ch. 3Google Scholar.

⁹ “…eu nom ey de fallar mais em ouro se não se o mandar a V.A.” Letter of July 18, 1551, in História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil, III, 361 Google Scholar. The discovery of mineral wealth was probably one of the purposes of the expedition which the governor sent by sea to explore the coast between Baía and Pernambuco in 1550. Ibid. The plans laid by Tomé de Sousa finally materialized during the administration of the second governor-general, Dom Duarte da Costa, in the abortive expedition headed by Francisco Bruza de Spinosa and Father João Aspilcueta Navarro. See Magalhães, Basílio de, “Espinosa e Aspilcueta Navarro,” in Congresso do Mundo Português, X (Memórias e comunicações apresentadas ao Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de História, Tomo 2°, Lisboa, 1940), 67–68 Google Scholar.

¹⁰ On July 12, 1552, the Bishop of Baía wrote to the king that gold in considerable quantities had been found in São Vicente. “Ontem que foram 11 deste julho chegou hum navio da capitania de São Vicente que deu certa nova que era muito ouro achado pela terra dentro e que eram la idos muitos portugueses.…” História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil, III, 363–364 Google Scholar. This information was confirmed by Father José de Anchieta in his triennial letter of May-September 1554 written from Piratininga in which he stated that “agora finalmente descobriu-se uma grande cópia de ouro, prata, ferro e outros metaes, até aqui inteiramente desconhecida (como affirmam todos).…” Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, I, 75 Google Scholar.

¹¹ Calógeras, João Pandiá, Aí Minas do Brasil e sua Legislação (Rio de Janeiro, 1904), I, 21 Google Scholar.

¹² “Quis noso Senhor que o achou em seys partes trinta legoas desta Vila tão bom como ho da mina e dos mesmos quilates.” Calógeras, op. cit., I, 22 Google Scholar. The Mina Coast is, of course, in Africa, where the Portuguese had for a number of years been getting gold.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ Calógeras, op. cit., I, 23–24.

¹⁵ Gandavo, op. cit., ch. 9. See Calógeras, op. cit., I, 24–2J. Although his efforts to unearth the coveted green stones were abortive, upon his return Carvalho reported the existence of certain “rich mines” of gold which he assertedly found during the course of his long trek.

¹⁶ Varnhagen, he. cit., pp. 60–61; Calógeras, op. cit., I, 380 et seq. See also Oliveira Martins, J. P., O Brazil e as Colonias Portuguezas (5th ed., Lisboa, 1920), p. 78 Google Scholar. Although Gabriel Soares de Sousa, the chronicler of the expedition, does not tell us the purpose of the undertaking, it’ is reported that Tourinho, upon his return, announced the discovery of emeralds and other precious stones. Few details of Tourinho’s expedition are known. An excellent account of its course is, however, given in an anonymous early eighteenth century manuscript, “Descrição do Mapa q. comprihende os Limites do Governo de S. Paulo e Minas, e també, os do Rio de Jan.^o”, in the Ajuda Palace Library of Lisbon. This account is confirmed on the whole by a French map of 1749. In it the geographer Robert de Vaugondy places the discovery in a mountainous triangle formed by the Rivers Doce and Aceci, indicated with the legend “Mines trouvées par Seb. Tarinho.” This map is reproduced above.

¹⁷ Calógeras, op. cit., I, 388; “Historia de la fundacion del Collegio de la Baya de todos los Sanctos, y de sus residencias,” Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XIX, 108 Google Scholar; Varnhagen, he-cit., pp. 66–67; Frei Vicente do Salvador, op. cit., Bk. III, ch. 20; “Descrição do Mapa,” doc. cit.

¹⁸ Varnhagen, loc. cit., p. 42. See also Frei Vicente do Salvador, op. cit., Bk. III, ch. 20; and Calógeras, op. cit., I, 390.

¹⁹ Frei Vicente do Salvador, op. cit., Bk. IV, ch. 24. The extensive powers and privileges for the expedition that Gabriel Soares de Sousa secured from the crown are listed in A.H.C., Codex 112, L° 1^o de ofícios, 1597–1602, fo. 42 et seq.

²⁰ From a study of various sources Calógeras, op. cit., I, 394, placed the expedition between the years 1592–1612, but this is not true. The report of the Overseas Council of November 15, 1644, in A.H.C., Codex 13, L^o; 1^o de Consultas Mixtas, fo. 144 verso, makes it clear that the expedition left about the year 1614.

²¹ Calógeras, op. cit., I, 395 et seq. Important documentary material will be found in the report of the Overseas Council of June 22, 1712, in A.H.C., Codex 233, L° 2° das Consultas do Rio, fo. 35 et seq.

²² Dom Francisco’s commission of office (carta patente) of December 1, 1590, is given in A.H.C., Codex 112, L° I^o de Ofícios, 1597–1602, fo. 50. See also Antonio Pais de Sande, governor of Rio, to the Overseas Council, 1693 (?), in A.H.C., Doc. of Rio, N° 1837; and Frei Vicente do Salvador, op. cit., Bk. IV, ch. 23.

²³ It will be remembered that the crown was entitled to the quint on gold. See Cardozo, Manoel S., “The collection of the fifths in Brazil, 1695–1709,” in The Hispanic American Historical Review, XX, No. 3 (August, 1940)Google Scholar.

²⁴ “Creia-me V. M. que as verdadeiras minas, são açúcar e pau brasil, de que V. M. tira tanto proveito sem lhe custar da sua fazenda um só vintém.” Azevedo, João Lúcio de, Épocas de Portugal Económico (Lisboa, 1929), p. 306 Google Scholar. See Varnhagen, Historia do Brazil (2nd ed.), I, 437.

²⁵ Report of his grandson, Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides to the Overseas Council, May 3, 1677, in A.H.C., Codex 253, L^o I^o das Consultas da Baía, fo. 43 et seq.

²⁶ “…as minas teem ouro e são muitas, e cada dia de novo se descobrem mais.” A.H.C., Doc. of Rio, N° 2.

²⁷ His checkered career in Brazil came to an end in 1662, when, as the result of his removal from the office of governor of Rio de Janeiro, he sailed for Portugal. Upon his return to the mother country, Salvador eventually found his way to the Overseas Council, where he sat as a councilman for a number of years. In 1688 death closed the career of one of the most colorful figures in Brazilian seventeenth-century history. See Sampaio, Albino Forjaz de, Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides, o restaurador de Angola (Lisboa, 1937), p. 8 Google Scholar. Jaboatão, in his “Catalogo genealogico das principaes familias que procederam de Albuquerques e Cavalcantes em Pernambuco, e Caramurus na Bahia,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, LII, 360, says that Salvador died in 1685.

²⁸ This authority in part permitted him to appoint the director or proveedor of the Paranaguá mines, and thus gave him a measure of control over a section of the country which heretofore had depended, in questions of mining administration, on the administrator of the São Paulo mines and, in his absence, on the chancellor of the Rio exchequer. Mendonça’s commission of office (carta patente) is dated July 16, 1670. A.H.C., Codex 118, L° J° de Ofícios, fo. 39 verso.

²⁹ From São Paulo set out the celebrated bandeiras or expeditions that seriously interfered with the expansion of the Jesuit missions of Paraguay, especially during the first half of the seventeenth century. Consult d’Escragnolle Taunay, Afonso, Historia Geral das Bandeiras Paulistas escripta á vista de avultada documentação inedita dos Archivos brasileiros, hespanboes e portuguezes (7 vols., São Paulo, 1924–1936)Google Scholar; Franco, Carvalho, Bandeiras e bandeirantes de São Paulo (São Paulo, 1940)Google Scholar.

³⁰ On October 20, 1671, Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça thanked Pais for his offer and promised him honors and rewards in the regent’s name. The governor’s letter is enclosed in the petition of Garcia Rodrigues Pais, A.H.C., Doc. of Baía, 1679. See Pais’s letter to the regent, August 12, 1672, cited in A.H.C., Codex 223, L^o I^o das Cartas do Rio, fo. 2 verso et seq.; and in the regent’s reply published by Capistrano de Abreu in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XIX, 38–39. In this connection see also Paulo, Actas da Cámara da villa de S. 1653–1678, VI (São Paulo, 1915), 283–284 Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as Actas.) The best life of Pais is by d’Escragnolle Taunay, Afonso, A Grande Vida de Fernão Dias Paes (São Paulo, 1931)Google Scholar.

³¹ Almeida Pais Leme, Pedro Taques de, “Copia de informação sobre as minas de S. Paulo e dos Sertões da sua capitania desde o anno de 1697 até o presente 1772,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, LXIV, Parte 1 ^a, 28 Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as Taques, “Copia de informação.”)

³² Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 28. Many of those who offered to lead expeditions were probably more interested in capturing Indians for their plantations or to sell in the São Paulo slave market than to prospect for mineral wealth.

³³ To Pascual Pires da Costa on March 23; to Dom Francisco de Lemos, Estêvão Fernandes Porto, and Mateus Nunes de Siqueira on February 23; to Fernão Dias Pais, acknowledging his letter of August 12, 1672, on February 2$; and to João Leite da Silva and Lourenço Castanho Taques on February 28. A.H.C., Codex 223, L° I^o das Cartas do Rio, fo. 2 verso et seq. In addition to the above, Taques “Copia de informação,” p. 28 also gives the following names: Paulo Rodrigues da Costa, Manuel de Brito Nogueira, Francisco Dias Velho, Cornelio de Arzão, and Manuel Rodrigues de Arzão.

³⁴ The letter is cited in the report of the Overseas Council, December 7, 1674, in A.H.C, Codex 232, L^o I^o das Consultas do Rio.

³⁵ The letter is cited in the report of the Overseas Council, November 22, 1674, in A.H.C, Codex 2J2, L^o I^o das Consultas da Baia, fa 18 verso.

³⁶ See the report of the Overseas Council, January 8, 1693, in A.H.C., Codex 232, cit., fo. 84 verso.

³⁷ Calógeras, op. cit., II, 449–450. See also Southey, Robert, History of Brazil (London, 1817–1819), II, 568–569 Google Scholar.

³⁸ Calógeras, op. cit., II, 450.

³⁹ Registo geral da cámara municipal de São Paulo 1661–1709, III (São Paulo, 1917), 254 Google Scholar et seq. (Hereafter cited as Registo geral.) Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 31 et seq., gives the date as June 2. See also “Sobre os gastos que fizeraõ para o intabolam. to das Minas de Taboyana, a que foy D. Rodrigo de castello Branco com os papeis que acuza,” A.H.C., Codex 252, L^o 1° das Consultas da Baia, fo. 13 verso (report of the Overseas Council of January 29, 1674). Jorge Soares de Macedo, whose exploits will become familiar to the reader in the course of this paper, in his declaration to the governor of Buenos Aires, Don José de Garro, May 28, 1680, said that Dom Rodrigo was his “primo hermano.” Luna, Carlos Correa, Campaña del Brasil antecedentes coloniales, I (Buenos Aires, 1931), 186 Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Registo geral, p. 254 et seq.

⁴¹ Varnhagen, Francisco Adolfo de (Visconde de Pôrto Seguro), Historia Geral do Brazil (3rd ed., São Paulo, n.d.), IV, 145nGoogle Scholar.

⁴² Report of the Overseas Council, January 29, 1674, doc. cit.

⁴³ Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 145 n.

⁴⁴ This may be inferred from a letter written by the Count of Óbidos on January 2, 1674. Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 145–146.

⁴⁵ See Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 38 Google Scholar; Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 146; and the report of the Overseas Council, May 3, 1677, “Sobre a Jornada de Dom Rodrigo de castel Branco as minas do Brasil com os papeis do que nellas se tem obrado e do que se deve faser,” in A.H.C., Codex 252, I^o 1^o das Consultas da Baia, fo. 43 et seq.

⁴⁶ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 38; Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 146.

⁴⁷ Report of the Overseas Council, May 3, 1677, doc. cit.

⁴⁸ Report of the Overseas Council, November 13–14, 1674, “Sob re as Minas de prata do distrito de Perneguá e vão os papeis, e consta que se acusaõ que vay registada neste L.° fl 16,” in A.H.C., Codex 252, L^o I^o das Consultas da Baía, fo. 16 verso et seq. See also report of the Overseas Council, November 22, 1674, “Sobre os Jogos de ferros Pineiros de Arame e outras cousas que se devem remeter ao Brasil para as minas de Pernegá,” in A.H.C, Codex 252, cit., fo. 18.

⁴⁹ “…que o estado do Brasil, esteja prevenido para qualquer emvasaõ que os Inimigos nelle queiraõ faser, naõ por so terem as noticias das minas, mas dos mais géneros que produs.” Report of the Overseas Council, November 13–14, 1674, doc. cit. The council’s recommendations were approved by the prince regent on November 17, 1674.

⁵⁰ A.H.C., Codex 252, L^o I^o das Consultas da Baia, fo. 43 et seq.

⁵¹ The importance of the Plate River to contemporaries must not be under-estimated. Many were convinced that it was the dividing line between Brazil and the semi-mythical country of Peru. The thought that the discovery of mines might be, as a consequence, more probable from that end of Brazil may not have been foreign to the council’s reasoning. For the importance of the River Plate in this connection see Guerreiro, Fernão S.J., Relação anual das coisas que fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus nas suas missões Do Japão, China, Cataio, Tidore, Ternate, Ambóia, Malaca, Pegu, Bengala, Bisnaga, Maduré, Costa da Pescaria, Manar, Ceilão, Travancor, Malabar, Sodomala, Goa, Salcete, Labor, Diu, Etiopia a alta ou Preste João, Monomotapa, Angola, Guiné, Serra Leoa, Cabo Verde e Brasil nos annos de 1600 a 1609 e do processo da conversão e cristandade daquelas pautes: tirada das cartas que os missionários de lã escreveram (2 vols., Coimbra, 1930), I, Bk. IV, ch. 1Google Scholar.

⁵² Similar instructions had been given him for the Itabaiana mines.

⁵³ “Pellas Cartas me escrevestes, fiquey entendendo o zello q tendes do meu serv^o, e como tratáveis o descobrim.to da Serra de Sabara busû, e outras Minas desse Certaõ, de q enviastes as amostras de christais, e outras pedras.…” Letter of the prince regent, to Fernão Dias Pais, December 4, 1677, in A.H.C., Doc. of Rio, N° 2434, published in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro (Belo Horizonte), XIX, 39, and in Pedro Taques de Almeida Pais Leme, “Nobiliarchia paulistana genealogia das principaes familias de S. Paulo Colligidas pelas infatigáveis diligencias do distincto paulista,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, XXXV, 104–105. (Hereafter cited as Taques, “Nobiliarchia paulistana.”) See also Magalhães, Basilio de, “A lenda de Sabarabuçú,” Congresso do Mundo Português publicações, X (Memórias e comunicações apresentadas ao Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de História, Tomo 2.°, Lisboa, 1940), 57–66 Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ A.H.C, Codex 252, cit., fo. 43 et seq.; Registo Geral, p. 18J.

⁵⁵ “…tendo consideração ao que se me representou pelas experiencias que se fizeram nos cerros de Pernaguá, nas capitanias da Repartição do Sul, e serra de Sabarabuçú em que em uma e outra parte se diz haver minas de prata, e ouro.…” Registo geral, pp. 246–247 Google Scholar. See also Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 37 et seq. On the same day several other ordinances were passed in Dom Rodrigo’s favor. Registo geral, pp. 183–188, 246–251.

⁵⁶ Registo geral, pp. 188–191. See also Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 30 et seq. Compare the report of the Overseas Council, October 29, 1677, “Sobre se formar em comp.^a os 50 infantes q haõ de passar cõ D Rodr.⁰ de Castelbranco, e Jorge soares de Macedo ao descobrimento das minas de Pernaguay, e forma em q os omciaes della deve ser pagos,” in A.H.C., Codex 252, L^o I^o das Consultas da Baia, fo. 46 verso.

⁵⁷ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 41 et seq. See also Registo geral, pp. 191–192.

⁵⁸ Taques, “Copia de informação,” pp. 38–39. See Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 147.

⁵⁹ See Registo geral, pp. 195–196. When the Dutch were finally expelled from Brazil in 1654 and the war against Holland was brought to a close, a large indemnity, to be paid by Portugal, was included in the treaty of peace signed between the two nations. In 1662 Catherine of Bragança married Charles II of England, and with the Portuguese princess went a handsome dowry. Both of these obligations overtaxed the mother country’s budget, especially in view of the fact that the war against Spain was still in progress, and it was decided that part of the money for this double encumbrance should be collected in Brazil. In 1666 the captaincy of Rio, for example, was taxed four hundred thousand cruzados for this purpose, to be paid in twenty-four annual installments. See report of the Overseas Council, October 3, 1692, in A.H.C., Codex 232, L^o I^o das Consultas do Rio.

⁶⁰ See note 53.

⁶¹ Letter of Dom Rodrigo to the SSo Paulo Town Council, Baía, April 22, 1675, Registo geral, pp. 199–200.

⁶² He was in Rio at least as early as September 30, 1678. Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 42.

⁶³ Letter of Dom Rodrigo to the regent, February 16, 1679, cited in the report of the Overseas Council, October J, 1679, in A.H.C., Codex 232, L^o I^o das Consultas do Rio. This report, as published in Publicação official de documentos interessantes para a historia e costumes de São Paulo, LIII (São Paulo, 1931), 33–34 Google Scholar, is dated October 1. Another copy of the same report, in A.H.C., unclassified papers of São Paulo, 1619–1721, gives the date of Dom Rodrigo’s letter as February 26.

⁶⁴ See Dom Rodrigo’s letter of April 22, 1678, cit.

⁶⁵ After the departure of the expedition Dom Rodrigo wrote to the home government on February 16, 1679, cit., “… e partira [i.e., Jorge Soares de Macedo] p.^a o Rio de Buenos ayres, e às Ilhas de Saõ Gabriel e daly penetrar o çertaõ daquellas bandas da Coroa de V.A. taõ perto as do Peru que achava por impossível naõ haver nellas minas.…” This is a paraphrase of Dom Rodrigo’s letter. The proclamation of November 29, 1678, signed by the aldermen of the São Paulo Town Council and Macedo, says in part that the latter had been entrusted by the regent with “o cuidado e diligencia do descobrimento das minas de prata que houver neste sertão até o rio de Buenos Aires.…” Registo geral, p. 197. Costa Rêgo Monteiro, Jónatas da, in his A Colonia do Sacramento 1680–1777 (2 vols., Porto Alegre, 1937), I, 62 Google Scholar, adds that Macedo had been “mandado a estudar o rio da Prata e escolher ponto para uma povoação.…” In his declaration to Don José de Garro, governor of Buenos Aires, May 28, 1680, Macedo made it clear that the purpose of the expedition had been to find a “puerto fasil p.ra desembarcar La gentte en las ttierras del brasil de dhos. minerales…” Correa Luna, op. cit., I, 186. But he may not have been willing to tell the whole truth to the Spaniard, whose prisoner he then was.

⁶⁶ Instructions (regimento) of Dom Manuel Lobo, November 18, 1678, published in Monteiro, op. cit., II, 5–6. A good account of Macedo’s expedition will be found in Porto, Aurélio, História das missões orientais do Uruguai (Rio, 1943), p. 256 Google Scholar et seq. It varies in some particulars from the results of my own investigations.

⁶⁷ The prohibitive order was signed on September 30, 1678. Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 42. See also Registo geral, pp. 183–186, 196–199.

⁶⁸ Letter of Dom Rodrigo to the regent, February 16, 1679, cit. Macedo was also provided with quicksilver and iron implements. Correa Luna, op. cit. p,186.

⁶⁹ See note 59.

⁷⁰ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 45, is in error when he says the expedition left on March 10, 1679. Jorge Soares de Macedo, in his declaration to Don José Garro of May 28, 1680, cit. deposed that he left Santos in February of the previous year. When Dom Rodrigo wrote to the regent on February 16, 1679, cit., the expedition had already left.

⁷¹ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 45. Friar Lourenço later deposed that there were about 300 Indians on the expedition. Declaration to Don José de Garro, governor of Buenos Aires, May 28 1680, in Correa Luna, op. cit., p. 183.

⁷² Not to be confused with the river of the same name in North Brazil.

⁷³ Correa Luna, op. cit., p. 183.

⁷⁴ Letter of Jorge Soares de Macedo to the regent, Buenos Aires, December 15, 1682, in Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XXXIX, 162.

⁷⁵ The checkered history of Nova Colônia do Sacramento has been treated very well by Monteiro, op. cit. See also the excellent work by Correa Luna, op. cit.

⁷⁶ Monteiro, op. cit., I, 39–40. His official instructions or regimento for the office are dated January 7, 1679. A copy of the document may be found in A.H.C., Codex 169, L^o I^o de Regimentos, fo. 73 verso.

⁷⁷ This work is outlined in Dom Manuel’s regimento of November 18, 1678, published by Monteiro, op. cit., II, 5–16.

⁷⁸ By decree of November 12, 1678. Monteiro, op. cit., I, 41.

⁷⁹ “O Governador Dom Manoel Lobo vos hade dar conta de hum negocio de meu serviço, que pondose em effeito dedundará [sic] em augmento de meus vassalos, principalmente dos q vivem nessa repartição do Sul…” A.H.C., Doc. of Rio, N° 2434. The letter refers to the southern captaincies of Brazil. It is published in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XIX, 39; and in Taques, “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” p. 106.

⁸⁰ Monteiro, op. cit., I, 42.

⁸¹ Letter of Jorge Soares de Macedo to the regent, Buenos Aires, December 15, 1682, doc. cit.; Correa Luna, op. cit., p. 183. ‘

⁸² Correa Luna, op. cit., p. 183.

⁸³ Was Nova Colônia do Sacramento founded, perchance, partly as a base of supplies for Portuguese explorations in that area? It is true that no mention of these plans is made in Dom Manuel’s regimento for the office of governor of Rio; the twenty-seventh clause of the document instructs the governor to assist all those who should volunteer to discover mines, but this alone is insufficient to connect the founding of Nova Colônia with the widespread search for mineral wealth. Yet such a conjecture does not seem to be entirely unfounded. Years later, on January 8, 1693, the Overseas Council, voicing the opinion of the procurador of the exchequer, wrote “that when the hope was lost of finding mines in our colony, it had seemed advisable to make way through Nova Colônia in order to profit from those of Castile.…” (“…q perdida a esperança de achar Minas em nossa Conquista parecera bem fazer caminho p.la Nova Collonia a aproveitarmonos das de Castella.…” A.H.C., Codex 232, L^o I^o das Consultas do Rio, fo. 84 verso.)

⁸⁴ See p. 146 above.

⁸⁵ Letter of Dom Rodrigo to the regent, February 16, 1679, cit. These were probably the mines of Nossa Senhora da Graça do Itaïbé, Ribeiro de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, and Peruna, among others, discovered by Paulistas toward the end of the year 1678. Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 52.

⁸⁶ Registo geral, pp. 207–208.

⁸⁷ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 52.

⁸⁸ “… e que elle Dom R.° sahia dentro de tres dias a Pernagua.…” Report of the Overseas Council, October 5, 1679, paraphrasing Dom Rodrigo’s letter of February 16, 1679, cit.

⁸⁹ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 48.

⁹⁰ Ibid., p. 58.

⁹¹ Miners were obliged by law to bring their gold to this establishment, where their ore was melted into bars and where the tax on gold (quint or quinto) was paid to the crown. The Paranaguá Smelting House was established to take care of the needs of the surrounding area.

⁹² Taques, “Copia de informação,” pp. 58–59.

⁹³ Ibid., p. 59. See also report of the Overseas Council, October 7, 1680, “Sobre o que escreve o administrador g.al das Minas, Dom R.° de castel Branco acerca do que tem obrado, e de como detrimina partir para a Serra de Sabarabusú,” in A.H.C., Codex 252, L^o 1 ° das Consultas da Baía, fo. 62 verso.

⁹⁴ Report of the Overseas Council, October 7, 1680, doc. cit.

⁹⁵ Ibid.

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ An order to this effect was signed by Dom Rodrigo on November 13, 1679. Taques, “Copia de informação,” pp. 59–60.

⁹⁸ On February 20, 1680, Dom Rodrigo ordered Manuel Vieira da Silva to send all materials on hand by water to Santos. Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 60.

⁹⁹ Report of the Overseas Council, October 7, 1680, doc. cit.

¹⁰⁰ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 60.

¹⁰¹ Actas, pp. 61–62; and Registo geral, pp. 266–267.

¹⁰² Taques, in his “Copia de informação,” p. 47, writes that Dom Rodrigo had ordered Antonio da Cunha Gago, Simão da Cunha Miranda, Bartolomeu da Cunha Gago, and Manuel Cardoso de Almeida to plant corn and beans in the Sabarabuçú and Caeté areas the year before, during the Spaniard’s first stay in São Paulo, before his departure for Paranaguá.

¹⁰³ Actas, pp. 63–64. The proclamation was published on July 4. Registo geral, pp. 266–267.

¹⁰⁴ Dom Rodrigo again appeared before the São Paulo Town Council on July 21, 1680, to ask for assistance. Adas, pp. 64–65.

¹⁰⁵ We refer, of course, to the South-American winter.

¹⁰⁶ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 60. Gold in appreciable quantities was later found in the same vicinity. See Antonil, André João, pseud., Cultura e Opulencia do Brasil por suas drogas e minas (São Paulo, 1923), p. 206 Google Scholar. According to the Registo geral, pp. 266–267, Dom Rodrigo asked the São Paulo Town Council on October 6 for Indians to discover gold in Jaraguá.

¹⁰⁷ Upon his arrival at Santa Catarina Island, Macedo constructed barracks for his company and other buildings to store his supplies. Men were also put to work sawing lumber for the new settlement of Nova Colônia. These activities were abruptly interrupted by an urgent call for aid from Dom Manuel Lobo, who was at that time besieged by the Spanish from Buenos Aires. Leaving the Indians and a number of soldiers in Santa Catarina under the command of Captain Manuel da Costa Duarte, Macedo and his party set sail for Nova Colônia at the end of February or first part of March 1680 in the ship which Dom Manuel had sent to the island for reinforcements. An extraordinary ill fortune dogged them all the way. Shipwrecked near Cape Santa Maria, only twentyfour of the men on board, including Macedo, his chief lieutenants, Arzão and Vidal, and Frei Lourenço da Trindade, O.F.M., were saved. Even so, some of the survivors, including Macedo, decided to continue overland to the River Plate. Their advance, however, was cut short at the Yapejú Spanish Jesuit Mission. Arrested by the provincial, Father Cristóbal Altamirano, they were later sent to Don José de Garro, the governor of Buenos Aires, who threw them into prison. The group probably arrived in Buenos Aires some time during the month of May 1680. See Correa Luna, op. cit., pp. 165–187; and Actas, p. 68 et seq.

¹⁰⁸ Taques, “Copia de informação,” pp. 46–47.

¹⁰⁹ Monteiro, op. cit., I, 78–86, passim.

¹¹⁰ Taques, “Copia de informação,” p. 61.

¹¹¹ Dom Rodrigo’s affidavit of December 31, 1680, passed in favor of the council, praised the aldermen for their help. Registo geral, p. 282.

¹¹² Registo geral, pp. 297–298.

¹¹³ Taques, “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” pp. 126–127; Registo geral, pp. 386–387.

¹¹⁴ On February 20, 1681. Registo geral, pp. 299–300.

¹¹⁵ “Snor. meu. Em todas as occaziões que se tem offerecido de tres annos a esta parte (que he o tempo em que passei a estas bandas do Sul) tenho escrito a V.S^a. e de nenhuma tive a fortuna de ter resposta.…” Dom Rodrigo to Fernão Dias Pais, Paraopeba, June 4, 1681, in A.H.C, Doc. of Rio, N° 2434, published in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XIX, JO.

¹¹⁶ See note 53.

¹¹⁷ On January 25, 1681, the council prohibited the residents of São Paulo from taking Indians with them to the hinterland on the pretext that such Indians were needed by Dom Rodrigo. Registo geral, pp. 288–287. On February 5, 1681. the council, by proclamation, prohibited the hiring out or use of Indians until after the departure of Dom Rodrigo for Sabarabuçú. Ibid., pp. 287–288.

¹¹⁸ Registo geral, pp. 290–291.

¹¹⁹ Actas, pp. 113–114.

¹²⁰ “…o tal D. Rodrigo foi um patarata que só entreteu o tempo aproveitando-se das honras que desfructou e dos dinheiros que com liberalidade consumiu.” “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” p. 128.

¹²¹ Taques, “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” p. 128.

¹²² See Calógeras, op. cit., I, 48.

¹²³ Actas, p. 117. For the course of the expedition see Abreu, Capistrano de, Caminhos antigos e povoamento do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1930), pp. 69–70 Google Scholar.

¹²⁴ Taques, “Copia de informação,” pp. 63–64. The same author, in his “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” pp. 125–126, mentions the names of Matias Cardoso de Almeida, Antônio Afonso Vidal, and André Furtado. See also Actas, p. 114.

¹²⁵ On this day he signed a receipt in favor of Captain João Pais Rodrigues in return for a Negro slave which the former had in keeping for Dr. João da Rocha Pita, a circuit judge (desembargador sindicante). Registo geral, pp. 293–294.

¹²⁶ “…fio, que com a asistencia de V.S.^a hemos de achar o que se pretende.…” Letter of June 4, 1681, doc. cit. It is very likely that Pais, having been informed, either through Dom Rodrigo’s letters or through other sources, of the Spaniard’s stop-over in Paraopeba, sent a messenger to inform him that he (Pais) was returning from the interior with specimens of “emeralds.”

¹²⁷ Death occurred approximately seven years after his departure from São Paulo on the most ambitious single prospecting expedition ever undertaken in Brazil, some time after March 27, and before June 26, 1681. The approximate time of his death may be deduced from two sources: letter of Fernão Dias Pais of March 27, 1681, in A.H.G, Doc. of Rio, N° 2434, published in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XIX, 52–53; and Registo geral, pp. 307–308.

¹²⁸ See Registo geral, pp. 307–308, and affidavit signed by Dom Rodrigo, Sumidouro, October 8, 1681, in A.H.C., Doc. of Rio, N° 2434 (enclosures), published in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XX, 161–162.

¹²⁹ The stones were sent in two separate parcels, one through the Guaratinguetá Town Council and the other through the São Paulo Town Council. Affidavit of October 8, 1681, doc. cit. See also Registo geral, pp. 309–310, and Actas, pp. 136–137.

¹³⁰ See affidavit of October 8, 1681, doc. cit.

¹³¹ Registo geral, pp. 311–312.

¹³² Ibid., pp. 310–311.

¹³³ Actas, pp. 134–136.

¹³⁴ Registo geral, pp. 331–332.

¹³⁵ A.H.C, Codex 223, L^o I^o das Cartas do Rio, 1673–1700, fo. 35 verso.

¹³⁶ Letter of Duarte Teixeira Chaves to the regent, November 2J, 1682, cited in the report of the Overseas Council, April 29, 1683, in A.H.C., Codex 232, L^o I^o das Consultas do Rio, fo. 38 verso. The report is published in Varnhagen, op. cit., IV, 150. Few details are known of Dom Rodrigo’s untimely death. Pedro Taques de Almeida Pais Leme, whose aversion to the Spaniard is generally admitted, wrote that Manuel de Borba Gato, Fernão Dias Pais’s son-in-law, criticized Dom Rodrigo for the latter’s asserted lack of interest in the proposed discoveries, accusing him of concerning himself only with hunting parties for the provisioning of his table. Out of the misunderstanding, Taques says, developed a charged atmosphere which led Borba Gato to such an excess of anger that he pushed the ill-fated Spaniard over a precipice. “Nobiliarchia paulistana,” pp. 162–163. The manner in which Dom Rodrigo met death, as described by Taques, is at variance with the information contained in the letter of Duarte Teixeira Chaves, doc. cit. According to the latter, Dom Rodrigo was shot to death by a man or men hidden in the brush. Chaves wrote that three shots were fired. Be that as it may, there seems to be no doubt that Dom Rodrigo’s violent death may be directly or indirectly laid to Manuel de Borba Gato. The latter, too, seems to have been conscious of his guilt, for he sought to avoid possible criminal prosecution by hiding in the then unexplored areas of the interior. A few years later he was to discover important gold deposits in Minas Gerais.