Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T04:01:12.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Return of the Bandeira: Economic Calamity, Historical Memory, and Armed Expeditions to the Sertão in Minas Gerais, 1750-1808*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Hal Langfur
Hal Langfur*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Historians of colonial Brazil have conventionally located the conclusion of the great era of bandeira-led conquest somewhere near the end of the seventeenth century. The onset of the colony's gold cycle, corresponding with a series of major inland mineral strikes, reoriented those most actively engaged in the bandeira enterprise. Concentrated in the southern coastal captaincy of São Vicente, later, São Paulo, these wilderness adventurers had explored Portuguese America's immense interior and hunted its indigenous inhabitants. When their accompanying search for alluvial riches finally had born fruit, the Paulista backwoodsmen remade themselves into miners and merchants. The bandeirantes had first discovered gold in 1693 in Brazil's southeastern interior, the region that would soon acquire the name Minas Gerais or the General Mines; they made secondary strikes far to the west in Mato Grosso and Goiás in 1718 and 1725. Many then found themselves quickly displaced by the tide of Portuguese fortune-seekers and their African slaves who followed the paths now opened to the mining zones. As gold and then diamonds flooded the Atlantic world in unprecedented quantities, the colony's subsequent historical legacy would accrue not to São Paulo's peripatetic rustics but to those who consolidated control over the flow of riches. During the second half of the eighteenth century, with the mineral washings already in decline, attention would shift still further away from wilderness exploits, supposed to reflect a bygone era, back toward the coastal agricultural export enclaves that had traditionally preoccupied the Portuguese crown. The scholarly concerns of a later era would generally follow suit. As a consequence, the persistence of armed expeditions of exploration and conquest, which continued to roam the unmapped interior of Portuguese America, would go all but unnoticed as a critical feature of the late colonial period.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 61 , Issue 3: Rethinking Bandeirismo in Colonial Brazil , January 2005 , pp. 429 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2005 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Mary Karasch, A. J. R. Russell-Wood, and the editorial board of The Americas for bringing to fruition the scholarly collaboration presented in this issue. Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende shared data that enhanced this study. John Monteiro's suggestions, as well as his published work on Paulista bandeiras, continue to enlighten. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Carter Brown Library, the American Historical Association, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for providing funding and other support. Abbreviations used in the footnotes are as follows: Anais da Biblioteca National do Rio de Janeiro (ABNRJ); Arquivo do Institute Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro (AIHGB); Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (AN); Arquivo Público Mineiro (APM), which houses a portion of the dispersed Arquivo Casa dos Contos (CC), and the Seção Colonial (SC); Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (BNRJ), Seção de Manuscritos (SM), Arquivo Conde de Valadares (CV); Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro (RAPM).

References

1 For scholarship on the Eastern Sertão during the colonial period and later, see Langfur, Hal The Forbidden Lands: Frontier Violence, Colonial Identity, and the Persistence of Brazil's Eastern Indians, 1750–1830 (Stanford: University of Stanford Press, forthcoming)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Uncertain Refuge: Frontier Formation and the Origins of the Botocudo War in Late Colonial Brazil,” Hispanic American Historical Review 82:2 (May 2002), pp. 215–56; idem, “Moved by Terror: Frontier Violence as Cultural Exchange in Late Colonial Brazil,” Ethnohistory (forthcoming); Baquiero Paraíso, Maria Hilda “O tempo da dor e do traballio: A conquista dos territorios indígenas nos Sertòes do Leste,” (Ph.D. diss., Universidade de São Paulo, 1998)Google Scholar; Chaves de Resende, Maria Leônia “Gentios brasílicos: Indios coloniais em Minas Gerais setecentista,” (Ph.D. diss., Universidade de Campinas, 2003), esp. pp. 71–92 Google Scholar, 120–39; Mercadante, Paulo Os sertões do leste; estudo de urna região: A mata mineira (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores, 1973);Google Scholar de Figueiredo Castro, Celso Falabella Os sertões de leste; Achegas para a historia da Zona da Mata (Belo Horizonte: Imp. Oficial, 1987)Google Scholar; Cambraia, Ricardo de Bastos and Mendes, Fábio Faria “A colonização dos sertões do leste mineiro: Políticas de ocupação territorial num regime escravista (1780–1836),” Revista do Departamento de História—FAFICH/UFMG 6 (July 1988), pp. 137–50Google Scholar. The present article builds upon the issues and evidence presented in Langfur, Forbidden Lands, chap. 5.

2 Quoted and translated by Richard, M. Morse, ed., The Bandeirantes: The Historical Role of the Brazilian Pathfinders (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), pp. 32–33.Google Scholar

3 For the prince regent's declaration of war against the Botocudo, see “Carta Regia [royal edict] ao Governador e Capitão General da capitania de Minas Gerais sobre a guerra aos Indios Botecudos,” 13 May 1808, in Legislação indigenista no século XIX: Urna compilação (1808–1889), ed. Carneiro da Cunha, Manuela (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 1992), pp. 57–60.Google Scholar

4 On the royal policy that restricted access to the Eastern Sertão, see Langfur, “Uncertain Refuge.”

5 Sources on the initial raiding by bandeirantes of native groups in Minas Gerais, as well as on the early exploration and occupation of the region in general, include de Lima Junior, Augusto A Capitania das Minas Gerais, rev. ed. (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1978)Google Scholar; Taunay, Afonso de Escragnolle Historia geraldas bandeiras paulistas, 11 vols. (São Paulo: Imp. Oficial, 1924–50)Google Scholar, vols. 9–10; idem, Relatos sertanistas (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1981); Diogo, [Luís de Almeida Pereira] de Vasconcelos, Historia antiga de Minas Gerais, 4th ed. (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1974);Google Scholar Carvalho Franco, Francisco de Assis Dicionário de bandeirantes e sertanìstas do Brasil: Século XVI, XVII, XVIII (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1989)Google Scholar; Resende, , “Gentíos brasílicos,” pp. 42–58 Google Scholar. The best recent revisionist history of the bandeira era in São Paulo is Monteiro, John M. Negros da terra: Indios e bandeirantes nas orígens de São Paulo (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994)Google Scholar. A brief bibliographic essay on earlier scholarship can be found in Morse, , Bandeirantes, pp. 213–15Google Scholar. Morse points out that the term bandeira, in the sense of a band of men entering the Sertão, was first being used in Brazil by the 1630s, whereas bandeirante first appeared a century later. Ibid., p. 23. On armações, see Metcalf, Alida Family and Frontier in Colo–nial Brazil: Santana de Parnaíba, 1520–1822 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1992), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

6 On gaps between captaincy and royal authority pertaining to a variety of frontier policy matters, see Langfur, Forbidden Lands, chap. 2. For a useful review of the historiographical debate over the rela–tionship between the colonial state and Paulista bandeira activity, see Fausto, Boris A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press (1999), pp. 32–34.Google Scholar

7 On captive Indians in eighteenth-century Minas Gerais, see Resende, , “Gentíos brasílicos,” pp. 188–91Google Scholar; Pinto, Renato Venâncio “Os últimos carijós: Escravidão indígena em Minas Gerais: 1711–1725,” Revista Brasileira de História 17:34 (1997), pp. 165–81Google Scholar. The 1808 declaration of war against the Botocudo permitted the enslavement of indigenous prisoners apprehended in military engagements. See Carta Régia, 13 May 1808.

8 “Ley porque V. Magestade ha por bem restituir aos Indios do Grão Pará, e Maranhão a liberdade das suas pessoas, bens, e commercio na forma que nella se declara,” Lisbon, 6 June 1755, facsimile reprint in Moreira Neto, Carlos de Araújo Índios da Amazônia: De maiorìa a minoria (1750–1850) (Petrópolis: Editora Vozes, 1988), pp. 152–63Google Scholar; Hemming, John Amazon Frontier: The Defeat of the Brazilian Indians (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

9 For the full text of the legislation, see “Directorio que se deve observar nas Povoaçoens dos Indios do Pará, e Maranhão em quanto Sua Magestade não mandar o contrario” (Pará, 1757), facsimile reprint in Moreira Neto, Índios da Amazônia, pp. 165–203. Scholarship on the Directory includes de Almeida, Rita Heloisa O Diretório dos Índios: Um projeto de “civilização” no Brasil do sécula XVIII (Brasilia: Universidade de Brasilia, 1997)Google Scholar; Domingues, Ângela Quando os Índios eram vassalos. Colonízação e relações de poder no Norte do Brasil na segunda metade do século XVIII (Lisbon: Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 2000)Google Scholar; Sommer, Barbara A. “Negotiated Settle–ments: Native Amazonians and Portuguese Policy in Pará, Brazil, 1758–1798” (Ph.D. diss., University of New Mexico, 2000)Google Scholar; Hemming, , Amazon Frontier, pp. 4–7 Google Scholar, 11–6, chap. 3; Barickman, B. J. “‘Tame Indians,’ ‘Wild Heathens,’ and Settlers in Southern Bahia in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries,” The Americas 51:3 (Jan. 1995), pp. 337–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Perrone-Moisés, Beatriz “Índios livres e índios escravos: Os princípios da legislação indigenista do período colonial (séculos XVI a XVIII),” in Historia dos Índios no Brasil, ed. da Cunha, Manuela Carneiro (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1992), pp. 115–32Google Scholar; MacLachlan, Colin “The Indian Directorate: Forced Acculturation in Portuguese America (1757–1799),” The Americas 28:4 (April 1972), pp. 357–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Abreu, João Capistrano Chapters of Brazil's Colo–nial History, 1500–1800, trans. Brakel, Arthur (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 155–65.Google Scholar

10 Langfur, , “Uncertain Refuge”; idem, “Moved by Terror.”Google Scholar

11 Much of the data in Table 1 were first presented in [Hal] Langfur, , “The Forbidden Lands: Frontier Settlers, Slaves, and Indians in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1760“1830,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, 1999)Google Scholar, chap. 2, and idem, “Uncertain Refuge.” Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende, studying detribalized Indians living in the towns and villages of colonial Minas Gerais, subsequently identified 12 additional expeditions to the Eastern Sertão. I then identified another three, bringing the total to 79. Resende's fine study, which encompasses all of Minas Gerais over the entire colonial era, lists yet another 14 expeditions heading to other destinations or occurring during earlier or later periods, for a grand total of 93. See Resende, , “Gentios brasílicos,” pp. 379–83.Google Scholar

12 On the gradual economic recovery beginning in the early 1780s, see Bergad, Laird W. Slavery and the Demographic and Economic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720–1888 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 163–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 da Rocha, José Joaquim Geografia histórica da Capitania de Minas Gerais (1780; reprint, Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, 1995), pp. 78–79.Google Scholar On the debate concerning whether Arzão was in fact the first to discover gold in Minas Gerais at Cuieté or some other location, see Franco, , Dicionário de bandeirantes, pp. 42–44.Google Scholar

14 Rocha, , Geografia histórica, pp. 78–81.Google Scholar

15 Costa, Joaquim Ribeiro Toponímia de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte: Imprensa Oficial, 1970), p. 215.Google Scholar

16 [Antônio Pereira da Silva] to Governor, n.p., ca. 1770, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 329; Antônio Cardozo de Souza to Governor, n.d., ibid., doc. 290. Governor Noronha later provided a less detailed account of the earliest settlers at Cuiéte. See Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 25 July 1775, AHU, Minas Gerais, ex. 108, doc. 48.

17 Governor, “Instrução que hade observar o Comandante distinado para o Destricto do Cuyeté a respeito do Arrayal que nelle se estabalece e de todos os moradores que no mesmo quizerem rezidir,” Vila Rica, 4 June 1765, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 203.

18 “Petição que fizerão e assignarão os moradores das freguesias ostilizadas,” ca. May 1765, APM, CC, cód. 1156, fls. 9–10.

19 Governor [Antônio de Noronha], “Conta que foi inclusa nas ditas cartas do sr. Marquês de Pombal e Martinho de Melo sobre a extinção das duas companhias de pedestres do Cuieté,” Vila Rica, 25 July 1775, APM, SC, cód. 212, fls. 72–73.

20 Governor, Tnstrução que hade seguir o Cap.am Antônio Cardozo de Souza,” [Vila Rica], [ca. 1767], BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 293.

21 Ibid.

22 The tax records are registered in “Providencias tomadas para a catechese dos Indios no Rio Doce e Piracicaba, Vila Rica, 1764–1767,” APM, CC, cód. 1156, fls. 2–3v.

23 Antônio Cardozo de Souza to Governor, Vitória, 15 Sept. 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 301.

24 [Manoel Vieyra Nunes], “Termo de reunião de conselho,” Barra das Larangeiras, 5 July 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 192.

25 Governor, “Instrução que hade seguir o Cap.am Antonio Cardozo de Souza,” [Vila Rica], [ca. 1767], BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 293. Crucial for understanding the nature and exact timing of the assault on the Eastern Sertão, these orders are undated but were likely issued in conjunction with the allocation of weapons to Souza's soldiers in 1767. See “Relaçao das Armas de fogo que se entregarão aos Cap.ens abaixo declarados,” n.d., ibid., doc. 268. This document, too, bears no date, but it specifies the year in which weapons were distributed as 1767.

26 Governor to Treasurer, Vila Rica, 28 July 1764, APM, SC, cód. 118, fl. 65v; Governor, “Rellação do que se deve apromptar na Provedoria da Fazenda Real para a expedição que se fás contra o Gentio,” ibid., fls. 65v–66; Governor, “Instrução que hade observar o Comandante distinado para o Destricto do Cuyeté a respeito do Arrayal que nelle se estabalece e de todos os moradores que no mesmo quizerem rezidir,” Vila Rica, 4 June 1765, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 203.

27 Governor, “Para a expulção dos Indios de S. Jozé da Barra Longa… ,” Vila Rica, 20 Feb. 1766, APM, SC, cód. 118, fls. 133–33v. Mentioned extremely rarely in the sources, the Taititûs do not appear in the most extensive catalogue of the indigenous groups of Minas Gerais. See José, Oiliam Indígenas de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte: Imp. Oficial, 1965), p. 37 Google Scholar.

28 Governor, “Orden para a entrada dos corpos de gente para a civilização dos gentíos silvestres Purîs e Buticudos,” Vila Rica, 21 Apr. 1766, APM, SC, cód. 118, fls. 148–50v; Governor to Antônio Pereira da Silva, Vila Rica, 28 June 1766, APM, SC, cód. 118, fls. 171v–72.

29 “Requerimento de Antonio Cardozo de Souza, morador no Rio Pardo da Comarca de Serro Frio, respectivo sobre a rodução de Indioz que circulâo a Otinga,” [1766], APM, SC, cód. 60, fl. 86; Governor to Souza, Vila Rica, 29 Aug. 1766, ibid., fls. 86–86v. Souza's destination, identified as Otinga in this source, may well have been the territory near the confluence of the Jequitinhonha and Araçuaí rivers, where the town of Itinga later formed, following subsequent exploration in the early nineteenth century.

30 The other three officers receiving weapons were the captains Jerónimo Martins Gomes and Francisco Alvarez Pereira and the sargento-mor João da Silva Tavares. “Relaçao das Armas de fogo que se entregarão aos Cap.ens abaixo declarados,” n.d., BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 268. Souza is identified as field commander in Governor, “Instrução que hade seguir o Cap.am Antonio Cardozo de Souza,” [Vila Rica, ca. 1767,] BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 293.

31 Patent of Antônio Pereira da Silva, Vila Rica, 2 Oct.? 1768, Registe de patentes de officiaes, 1769 [sic]–1770, BNRJ, CC, film MS-252, vol. 192, fl. 109v; Governor, “Conta que foi inclusa nas ditas cartas do sr. Marquês de Pombal e Martinho de Melo sobre a extinção das duas companhias de pedestres do Cuieté,” Vila Rica, 25 July 1775, APM, SC, cód. 212, fls. 72–73.

32 Governor Noronha appointed João da Silva Tavares regent of the Conquest of Cuieté in 1779; two years later, Governor Rodrigo José de Meneses designated Antônio Veloso de Miranda regent of the Conquest of Arrepiados. Campelo recounted the history of his own 1765 appointment, 1767 confirmation, and command at Cuieté in idem, “Representação,” n.d., BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,26, doc. 198. For his initial orders from Governor Silva, see Governor, “Instrução que hade observar o Comandante distinado para o Destricto do Cuyeté a respeito do Arrayal que nelle se estabalece e de todos os moradores que no mesmo quizerem rezidir,” Vila Rica, 4 June 1765, ibid., doc. 203, and Governor to Campelo, Vila Rica, 21 June 1767, ibid., doc. 204.

33 Antônio Cardozo de Souza to Governor, Vitória, 15 Sept. 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 301.

34 Furious at what they considered the lack of success in achieving this goal, Guimarães and his subordinates opted for the drastic measure of filing a formal eleven-point complaint against Captain Souza, denouncing him as a “cowardly” commander, “unworthy and useless for his lack of economy and prudence,” who left his men vulnerable and dispirited in the face of the enemy. Petition of Alexandre da Sylva Guimarães and soldiers to Paulo Mendes Ferreira Campelo, Cuieté, 12 Nov. 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 251.

35 [Manoel Vieyra Nunes,] “Termo de reunião de conselho,” Barra das Larangeiras, 5 July 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 192.

36 Governor, “Memoria do que deve observar na derrota que tem de seguir o Capitam Antonio Cardozo de Souza para a Conquista do Gentio a que vai destinado, e do que hade praticar,” Vila Rica, 9 Apr. 1769, BNRJ, SM, CV, cód. 18,2,6, doc. 306.

37 Governor, “Conta que foi inclusa nas ditas cartas do sr. Marquês de Pombal e Martinho de Melo sobre a extinção das duas companhias de pedestres do Cuieté,” Vila Rica, 25 July 1775, APM, SC, cód. 212, fls. 72–3 ; Diogo [Luís de Almeida Pereira] de Vasconcelos, , História média de Minas Gerais, 4th ed. (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1974), p. 203.Google Scholar

38 Governor to Viceroy, Vila Rica, 19 Nov. 1776, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 52–53.

39 Governor, Bando, Vila Rica, 15 Mar. 1776, APM, SC, cód. 50, fls. 168v–69; Governor, Bando, Vila Rica, 29 May 1779, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 222–22v. Copies of these edicts can also be found in APM, SC, cód. 214, fls. 2v–3, 7–7v.

40 Governor to Viceroy, Vila Rica, 19 Nov. 1776, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 52–53; Governor to João Rodrigues de Monteiro, Vila Rica, 3 Sept. 1778, ibid., fl. 178; Governor to João da Silva Tavares, 8 Sept. 1779, Vila Rica, ibid., fls. 228v–29v; Governor, Bando, Vila Rica, 15 Mar. 1776, APM, SC, cód. 50, fls. 168V–69; Governor, Bando, Vila Rica, 29 May 1779, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 222–22v. See also Vasconcelos, , História média, pp. 235–36.Google Scholar

41 Governor to capitães-mores, Vila Rica, 15 May 1777, with accompanying document, Bando, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fl. 121v–24.

42 Francisco [de Sales] Ribeiro to Governor, n.p., 24 July 1761, AN, cód. 807, vol. 5, fls. 81, 85.

43 Governor Noronha identified Manoel Pires Farinho as the captain's son; however, Governor Meneses and the captain himself referred to Manoel as his brother. See Governor to Jozé Leme da Silva, Vila Rica, 27 July 1778, and to Francisco Pires Farinho, Vila Rica, 27 July 1778, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 164–65v; Governor to Francisco Pires Farinho, Cachoeira, 13 Nov. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 227, fls. 13–13v; Petition of Francisco and Manoel Pires Farinho to queen, prior to 11 Dec. 1782, AHU, Minas Gerais, ex. 118, doc. 96.

44 Governor to Jozé Leme da Silva, Vila Rica, 27 July 1778, and to Francisco Pires Farinho, Vila Rica, 27 July 1778, BNRJ, SM, cód. 2,2,24, fls. 164–65v. Also see Barbosa, Waldemar de Almeida Dicionário histórico-geográfico de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1995), pp. 286–87Google Scholar; and Castro, , Os sertões de leste, pp. 11–15.Google Scholar

45 Vasconcelos, , História média, p. 252.Google Scholar

46 Governor, , “Exposição … sobre o estado de decadencia da Capitania de Minas-Geraes e meios de remedial-o,” Vila Rica, 4 Aug. 1780, RAPM, 2: 2 (1897), p. 314.Google Scholar

47 Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 31 Dec. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fls. 80v–86 (third of four letters written by the governor to the colonial secretary on this date). The seminal work on vadios in the mining zone is e Souza, Laura de Mello Desclassificados do ouro: A pobreza mineira no século XVIII, 3d ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Graal, 1990).Google Scholar

48 Veloso de Miranda to Governor, Presídio dos Arrepiados, 1 Nov., 23 Nov. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fls. 79–80v. Miranda's rank and commission as the region's top commander are recorded in Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 31 Dec. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fls. 74–78 (second letter of this date). Maximilian identified native “trumpets,” fashioned out of the tails of armadillos, as in use among the Botocudo in the early nineteenth century. See Maximilian, , von Wied, Prinz Viagem ao Brasil, trans. de Mendonça, Edgar Süssekind and de Figueiredo, Flávio Poppe (Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1989), 292 Google Scholar. He also provided a sketch of this and other Botocudo implements, ornaments, and arms, pl. 14, n. 1, between pp. 324 and 325.

49 Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 31 Dec. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fls. 74–78 (second letter of this date); Rocha, , Geografia histórica, pp. 191–92Google Scholar. The governor spoke of “more than three hundred land grants”; Rocha specified 373 land grants and mining claims.

50 Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 10 Apr. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fl. 20–20v.

51 Meneses also mentioned the problem of tropical fevers that attacked those who entered the zone. These, he argued, would disappear with settlement, as the clearing of forests allowed the air “to rarify more easily” and the channeling of streams did away with stagnant waters and their “infected vapors” that “were continually corrupting the atmosphere.” Governor to Colonial Secretary, Vila Rica, 31 Dec. 1781, APM, SC, cód. 224, fls. 80v–81 (third letter of this date). The governor's favorable assessment of the possibility of military conquest was directed to a Portuguese court increasingly willing to consider such aggressive tactics in other regions of the colony. In the 1780s, demands by colonists in the Amazon Basin for access to more indigenous labor than provided by village Indians under the Directory system led the crown to reinstate the practice of privately organized descimentos (literally, “descents”), that is, raids on and resettlement of unsubdued forest Indians. See MacLachlan, Colin “The Indian Labor Structure in the Portuguese Amazon, 1700–1800,” in Colonial Roots of Modern Brazil, ed. Alden, Dauril (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. 213.Google Scholar

52 Miranda to Governor, Presídio de São Lourenço, 20 Nov. 1783, APM, CC, film 523, planilha 20023, item 2. Also see Barbosa, , Dicionário histórico-geográfico, pp. 286–87.Google Scholar

53 Vasconcelos, , História média, pp. 275–76.Google Scholar

54 Conspirators taken prisoner after the failed 1789 plot were finally transferred from Vila Rica to the viceregal capital of Rio de Janeiro for a final round of interrogation in July 1791. Sentencing occurred in April 1792, followed by the execution of the dentist and lieutenant Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes. Throughout this period tensions remained high in both Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and trade between the two urban centers was severely disrupted. See Maxwell, Kenneth R. Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal: 1750–1808 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1973), pp. 192, 195.Google Scholar

55 Governor, “Portaria para íoaquim Correva Mosso commandar hum Esquadra para afugentar os Indios Bravos,” Vila Rica, 9 July 1792, APM, SC, cód. 259.

56 Petition of Jozé Bernardino Alves Gundim, Mariana, [1794], APM, SC, cód. 260, fl. 51v.

57 Gundim, “Plano … a respeíto da providencia que se deve dar as hostalidades e invazoens dos Indios barbaros no seu respeitivo Destrito,” Mariana, [1794], APM, SC, cód. 260, fls. 51v–52v. The aldeias referred to in this source, autonomous native encampments sometimes distinguished in the sources and especially the secondary literature as aldeamentos, are not to be confused with the state and Church-controlled missions at Rio Pomba, São João Batista do Presidio, and other sites.

58 Dispatch in reply to petition of Jozé Bernardino Alves Gundim, Mariana, 2 Sept. 1794, APM, SC, cód. 260, fl. 52v. The description of Amido is from Gundim's “Piano,” fl. 52, and the reference to the Puri can be found in Gundim, “Lista dos moradores do Turvo, destrito pobre que voluntariamente concorrem como interessados para a despeza das expediçoens que se hão de fazer contra os Indios Poris e Boticudos,” n.p., [1794], APM, SC, cód. 260, fls. 53–53v.

59 Cautious use of the evidence, therefore, required that Table 1 include only the three 1794 expeditions approved in the original plan.

60 Petition of João Damaceno dos Reis Vidal and other landholders with governor's reply, Vila Rica, 1 Nov. 1794, APM, SC, cód. 260, fls. 42v–43.

61 Some sources state that Mendonça erected as many as six presidios. Vasconcelos specifically identified three: Belém, on the Doce River east of Antônio Dias Abaixo, and Casca and Santana, on the rivers bearing the same names. de Vasconcelos, Diogo Pereira Ribeiro Breve descrição geográfica, física e política da Capitania de Minas Gerais (1807; reprint, Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, 1994), p. 155 Google Scholar. See also de Ataide e Melo, Pedro Maria Xavier “Sobre os Botocudos,” Vila Rica, 1 Feb. 1806, RAPM 3:3–4 (1898), p. 744 Google Scholar; Cambraia, and Mendes, , “A colonização,” p. 143.Google Scholar

62 Governor, Bando, 30 Mar. 1801, APM, SC, cód. 214, fls. 22v–23v. For statistics on the decrease in gold production and increase in agricultural exports during these years, see “Statistical Appendix,” in Maxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies, esp. graphs A, B, E, F, G, and I.

63 Vasconcelos, , Breve descrição, p. 155 Google Scholar n. 24. The 1808 declaration, then, constituted an expansion of this order, as well as similar ones issued to Bahian authorities in 1801 and 1806. See Barickman, B. J. “‘Tame Indians,’” p. 360 Google Scholar n. 98; Baquiero Paraíso, Maria Hilda “Os Botocudos e sua trajetória histórica,” in História dos Indios no Brasil, ed. da Cunha, Manuela Carneiro (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1992), p. 416 Google Scholar; Neto, Moreira Índios da Amazonia, p. 32 Google Scholar; Júnior, Caio Prado Formação do Brasil contemporáneo, 20th ed. (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1987), p. 103.Google Scholar

64 Governor to Luís Pinto de Souza Coutinho, Vila Rica, 17 Apr. 1801, APM, SC, cód. 276, fls. 82v–83. The governor acted in collaboration with a powerful member of Minas Gerais’ Portuguese-born elite, Antônio Pires da Silva Pontes Leme e Camargo, who in 1800 became governor of Espiríto Santo as it was elevated from the status of Bahian comarca to an independent coastal captaincy. On Pontes's efforts to increase commercial traffic on the Doce River and quell Indian resistance in Espiríto Santo, see de Novaes, Maria Stella Historia do Espiríto Santo (Vitoria: Fundo Editorial do Espiríto Santo, 1968), p. 105–9Google Scholar; Paraíso, , “O tempo da dor,” pp. 165–70.Google Scholar

65 Governor to Antônio da Silva Brandão, Vila Rica, 10 Feb. 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fl. 103v.

66 Governor to Luís Pinto de Souza Coutinho, Vila Rica, 17 Apr. 1801, APM, SC, cód. 276, fls. 82V–83.

67 Governor to Francisco Martins Penna, Vila Rica, 26 Jan. 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fls. 100v–l.

68 The southernmost of the two new roads would stretch through “virgin forest” from the town of Senhora do Porto to the Doce River and join an additional segment of road, providing the first reliable overland communications with Ferros. Migrants had first settled in Ferros in the 1770s but had been forced to flee in the face of the Botocudo offensive of 1794. The second more northerly road would incorporate, improve, and extend an existing route from Vila do Príncipe to Peçanha and, from there, proceed to the Suaçuí Grande River, navigable to the Doce River. Francisco Martins Penna to Governor, Tijuco, 17 Dec. 1801, APM, SC, cód. 277, fls. 99v–100v; Barbosa, , Dicionário histórico-geográfico, p. 133.Google Scholar

69 Governor to Manoel Rodrigues da Medeiros, Vila Rica, 14 Aug. 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fls. 111–11 v.

70 Duro to Governor, Antônio Dias Abaixo, 15 July 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fls. lllv–12v.

71 Governor to Duro, Vila Rica, 13 Aug. 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fls. 112v–13; Governor to Brandâo, Vila Rica, 13 Aug. 1802, APM, SC, cód. 277, fl. 113.

72 For the entire text of the plan, see de Ataíde e Melo, Pedro Maria Xavier “Sobre os Botocudos,” Vila Rica, 1 Feb. 1806, RAPM 3:3–4 (1898), pp. 743–48.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., 744; Vasconcelos, , Breve descrição, pp. 152–55.Google Scholar

74 On the prosecution of the war, see Barickman, , “‘Tame Indians,’” pp. 359–62Google Scholar; Lima, Oliveira, Dom João VI no Brasil, 3rd ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 1996), Dom João VI, pp. 487–93Google Scholar; Hemming, , Amazon Frontier, pp. 91–113Google Scholar; Paraíso, “O tempo da dor e do traballio,” pp. 211–51.Google Scholar

75 Ottoni, Jozé Eloi “Memória sobre o estado actual da Capitania de Minas Gerais,” Lisboa, 1798, in ABNRJ 30 (1908), p. 313 Google Scholar; Couto, José Vieira Memòria sobre a Capitania das Minas Gerais; seu territòrio, clima e produções metálicas (1799; reprint, edited by Furtado, Júnia Ferreira Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, 1994), pp. 53, 80Google Scholar; Vasconcelos, , Breve descrição, pp. 144–49, 157.Google Scholar

76 Ottoni, , “Memoria,” p. 313.Google Scholar

77 Resende, “Gentíos brasílicos,” pp. 112–20Google Scholar; e Souza, Laura de Mello “Violência e práticas culturais no cotidiano de urna expedição contra quilombolas, Minas Gerais, 1769,” in Liberdade por um fio: História dos quilombos no Brasil, ed. Reis, João José and Santos Gomes, Flávio dos (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1996), pp. 193–212.Google Scholar

78 See Hemming, , Amazon Frontier, pp. 111–16Google Scholar (São Paulo), 66–80 (Goiás), 56–61 (Rio Negro and Pará), 182–5 (Maranhão), 62–66 (Piauí), 88–91 (Bahia). On Mato Grosso's related river-borne commercial expeditions or monções, which began after gold was discovered and continued into the second half of the eighteenth century, see de Holanda, Sergio Buarque Monções, rev. ed. (São Paulo: Ed. Brasiliense, 2000)Google Scholar; Taunay, Afonso de Escragnolle História das bandeiraspaulistas, 3d ed. (São Paulo: Edições Mel-horamentos, 1975)Google Scholar, vol. 3. Buarque de Holanda considered these expeditions to be an outgrowth of ban-deirismo, adapted to the exigencies of river travel. See idem, “The Monsoons,” in Morse, Bandeirantes, esp. pp. 153–55. At the same time, in Mato Grosso itself, the term bandeira was used throughout the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century to describe expeditions that left the captaincy's settled towns to march into the Sertão. See Ricci Volpato, Luíza Rios Entradas e Bandeirantes (São Paulo: Global, 1985), pp. 97–98 Google Scholar. Bandeiras dispatched to capture runaway African slaves were also a feature of various captaincies during the second half of the eighteenth century. See Souza, “Violência e práticas culturais” for the case of Minas Gerais. For Mato Grosso and Goiás, see Luíza Rios Ricci Volpato, “Quilombos em Mato Grosso: Resistência negra em area de fronteira,” and Karasch, Mary “Os Quilombos do Ouro na Capitania de Goiás,” in Reis and Gomes, Liberdade por um fio, esp. pp. 222–27Google Scholar and 253–62, respectively.