However, if the king doesn’t feel like making that sort of investment in time and manpower, he assures the king of the value of the land either through trade or as a temperate, friendly way station for travelers. They do not bother to cover their bodies, and show their private parts as readily as they show their faces. He must have felt this demonstrated a readiness on the part of the natives to believe in Christianity, which would facilitate integration into a Portuguese empire. Nevertheless, they are sturdier, and sleeker than we are despite all the wheat and legumes we eat. I mention this, because the page numbers in the text below won’t correspond to the page numbers in the linked book.
Walking among them there were three or four women, young and gentle, with their hair very black and very long, loose to their backs; their private parts, so prominent and so neat, and so clean of their hairs that we, by very much looking at them, did not get ashamed. Some of them, because the sun was great, when we were communing, got up, and others stood and stayed. In his letter to Manuel I of Portugal, Pêro Vaz de Caminha gives what is considered by many today as being one of the most accurate accounts of what Brazil used to look like in 1500. 1. Other early accounts of the New World emphasized on the idea of prosperity and use adjectives and hyperbole to describe the quantity and quality of its bounty. One thing that Caminha seemed especially interested in was the potential presence of silver and gold in the discovered land. The admiral named the mountain Easter Mount and the country the Land On this day we saw them more closely and more comfortable as we walked almost all together. He excuses their differences, such as nakedness and body paint, as innocence and incomprehension of European modesty and emphasizes that they could easily accept European values of morality, if given the chance. A sedentary population is more easily managed and tracked than a nomadic one, and a sedentary lifestyle lends itself to agriculture, the possibility of which Caminha also hints at. "Arvoredo Tanto, e tamanho, e tão basto, e de tanta folhagem, que não se pode calcular", which roughly translates as "Such vastness of the enormous treeline, with abundant foliage, that is incalculable", is one of Pêro's most famous descriptions.
He tells the king, “The country is so well-favoured that if it were rightly cultivated it would yield everything, because of its waters” (59). In his letter to Manuel I of Portugal, Pêro Vaz de Caminha gives what is considered by many today as being one of the most accurate accounts of what Brazilused to look like in 1500. Their languages were divided in four major families with many isolates, and even related languages and dialects were likely to not be mutually intelligible, so they had to communicate through actions and sign languages. Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha REF No 2004-45 PART A - ESSENTIAL INFORMATION 1 SUMMARY Porto Seguro, Island of Vera Cruz, Brazil, 1 May 1500 – Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha to the King of Portugal, Manuel I.
He tells the king that the natives trade their bows and arrows for “hats and linen caps and whatever else we could give them” (50).
Sir: This page was last edited on 25 January 2020, at 17:30. The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha (part 8) They were thus with us until the communion was over, after which these religious and priests and the Captain communed with some of us others. Caminha also spends quite a bit of time in his letter detailing the amount of trade between the Portuguese and the natives.
He goes on to say that he believes they would come to enjoy wine as well (55). He focuses mostly on the trade of bows and arrows and exotic birds, though he does mention beads as well. He also says, “our men exchanged some varvels and other small things of little value… for some very large and beautiful red parrots and two small green ones, some caps of green feathers, and a cloth of many colours, also of feathers, a rather beautiful kind of material…” From these quotes, Caminha apparently places greater value on the items being received by the sailors than what they’re giving up in trade. He does this by slowly revealing over the course of his letter how easy it is to train the local population. They do not bother about to cover or to uncover their bodies, and show their private parts as readily as they show their faces. [5] There is a general tone of optimism that Brazil will provide both spiritual and material gifts. Caminha’s purpose here is to show that the natives are easily trainable and easily disarmed without the need for violence. It is rich in detail and shrewd observations that make us feel we are eyewitnesses of the encounter. [5], Apart from being the first ever literary description of Brazil, what sets Caminha's letter apart from other documents like it was his style of writing. A CARTA DE PERO VAZ DE CAMINHA Senhor: Posto que o Capitão-mor desta vossa frota, e assim os outros capitães escrevam a Vossa Alteza a nova do achamento desta vossa terra nova, que ora nesta navegação se achou, não deixarei também de dar disso minha conta a Vossa Alteza, assim como eu melhor puder, ainda que — para o bem [2], The admiral of the ship that sailed to Brazil sent Nicolau Coelho out to interact with the natives. Caminha made sure to note that many natives attended the mass, even without being able to understand the language, and that afterwards, one man seemed to be trying to explain to others what was going on (57). Immediately after this, he tells the king that he should think first and foremost about ensuring the salvation of the people, but his intent is probably to leave the king with the idea that Portugal’s economy could benefit greatly from introducing agriculture to the natives. Many historians have debated on the authenticity of this discovery; some have reason to believe that Portugal had prior knowledge of Brazil's existence. The original of this 27-page document can be found in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon. The people they encountered when they arrived in Brazil lived by a mix of hunting-gathering and agriculture. He describes in a diary form the first journey from Portugal to Brazil and their arrival in this country. Also, there is no preview in Google Books for “Portuguese Voyages: 1498-1663,” the source I used for the letter, so the link above goes to another book that also contains the document. In the introductory paragraph, Caminha humbly introduces himself and makes light of his ability to write. Caminha goes on by telling the king that the natives have a poor diet of mostly roots and seeds, but took quite readily to European foods, “especially cold boiled ham and rice” (53, 55). This letter is considered the first document of the Brazilian history as much as its first literary text. Timber was an important resource to secure for the building of ships and permanent settlements. He plays on the king’s desire to convert people to Christianity by emphasizing how easy it would be to bring the natives into the Christian fold. In that I am convinced they are like birds, or mountain animals, with whom the "air" (referring to refreshing hygiene habits) does better to feathers and hair than the comfort [of the lack of regular washing and grooming], because their bodies are so clean and so plump and in such nice shape that could not be better! The natives turned the work into a sport and enjoyed themselves, vying with the Portuguese to see who could load the most wood (54).
Caminha has already told the king there are no native crops to speak of, so he presents an opportunity for immediate returns by stating twice that the land is already rich in dates which he describes as both good and fine (51, 56). "Arvoredo Tanto, e tamanho, e tão basto, e de tanta folhagem, que não se pode calcular", which roughly translates as "Such vastness of the enormous treeline, with abundant foliage, that is incalculable", is one of Pêro's most famous descriptions. The letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha sent to King Manuel about the discovery of Brazil, is the document in which Pero Vaz de Caminha recorded his impressions of the land that would later be called Brazil. UNESCO » Communication and Information » Memory of the World » Register » Full list of Registered Heritage » Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha. However, a footnote added when the letter was added to the anthology Portuguese Voyages: 1498-1663 (edited by Charles David Ley), lets the reader know that Caminha is a highly trained and professional scribe. After careful reading, the letter appears to be a finely crafted piece of persuasive writing that gives the king every reason he needs to order the colonization of the newly discovered area. Pêro Vaz de Caminha was an official who had been commissioned to report on the voyage of the India-bound fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha History and analysis of the text The famous "Letter from the Discovery of Brazil" was written by Pero Vaz de Caminha in Porto Seguro, between April 26 and May 2, 1500. He describes in a diary from the first journey from Portugal to Brazil and their arrival in thi… Pêro Vaz de Caminha started his Letter on 24 April and finished it on 1 May, the date when one of the vessels of the fleet sailed for Lisbon to announce the good news to the King. The clerk just stopped work on the 29th, when he helped the Captain-General to reorganize the supply of the fleet.
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