Page 59 - All About History - Issue 59-17

Time Traveller’s Handbook

Colonial Brazil

Who To BeFrienD Who To avoiD

antônio raposo Tavares Domingos Jorge velho
Although he is as much a slave hunter as his fellow bandeirantes, Antônio Representing a new generation of bandeirantes, Domingos Jorge
Raposo Tavares has also done more to expand Brazil’s borders than anyone Velho is one of the most ruthless. In the second half of the 17th
else. If you are in São Paulo in 1654, you might be able meet him as he century, many bandeirantes are acting less as entrepreneurs and
returns from his most recent expedition, which has taken seven years. explorers and more as enforcers for the local white landowners
Covering more than 10,000 kilometres, he and cattle ranchers of the northeast of Brazil. Velho has led
has pushed inland all the way to the multiple expeditions
Andes mountains. But of the 1,200 Fig.03 that have completely
men who set out with him, only exterminated
60 or so remain and Tavares is a several South
changed man. Exhaustion and American
malnutrition will kill him within tribes and
a few years, too. his brutality
extends
extra tip: to African
The bandeirantes are an slaves, too.
insular group who all know In 1694, this
each other. For example, cruel mercenary
the famous bandeirante will lead the Fig.04
Manuel de Borba Gato is the assault to crush
son-in-law of the even more a community
famous Fernão Dias Pais Leme. of more than
Tavares has been married 10,000 escaped
twice, both times to slaves at Palmares
the daughters of on Brazil’s
other bandeirantes. east coast.

Helpful skills If you plan to join one of the expeditionary bandeiras,
you’ll need more than just backwoods survival skills

Musketry
Whether you need to defend yourself against raiding native
tribes or mutinous bandeirantes, knowing how to prime, Fig.06
Fig.05 load and fire a flintlock musket will be essential once you
venture into the interior.

Geology
Fernão Dias Pais
Leme bankrupted Fig.07
his family to outfit
a bandeira in search
Lingua Geral of emeralds and
The ‘general language’, or Lingua came back almost
Geral, is a fusion of Portuguese and empty-handed after
the indigenous Tupi language. It’s so four years. But there
widespread that it’s the first language is gold in the Minas
of some of the bandeirantes. Gerais region.

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