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  • The Forbidden Lands: Colonial Identity, Frontier Violence, and the Persistence of Brazil's Eastern Indians, 1750-1830
  • John Hemming
Langfur, Hal . The Forbidden Lands: Colonial Identity, Frontier Violence, and the Persistence of Brazil's Eastern Indians, 1750-1830. Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2006. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 408 pp.

During the sixteenth century, the Portuguese overcame or won over Tupi-speaking Indians along the entire Atlantic seaboard of Brazil. But although they came to control the entire coast, they could do little about fierce and elusive peoples of the forested hills inland of what is now the state of Espírito Santo. These peoples – Goitacá (which probably included Coropó and Coroado – meaning [End Page 136] 'crowned' because of their haircuts) and Camacã, Pataxó and Maxacali (some of whom used botoque lip-discs and were therefore known as Botocudo) – fought so effectively that for two centuries they confined the colonists to the coastal strip north of Rio de Janeiro towards Salvador da Bahia. Contemporaries told how these tall, handsome Indians were lethal archers, semi-nomadic with no large villages that could be attacked, brilliant at camouflage among sforest leaves, swift runners, and masters of the guerilla tactics of hit-and-run ambushes.

In the early eighteenth century, the Portuguese discovered the world's then-largest gold deposits near the source of the São Francisco river, in what became known as Minas Gerais (General Mines). The greatest strikes were at Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto). But these momentous discoveries were made by bandeirantes exploring north from São Paulo and the gold caravans reached the Atlantic south-eastwards – first to Parati and after 1760 through the Serra dos Órgãos to Rio itself. The forested hills between Minas Gerais and the ocean remained a no-go sertão wilderness dominated by these tribes. Hal Langfur's The Forbidden Lands tells how this frontier was conquered and partially settled in the period roughly 1760 to 1810.

To prevent gold being smuggled to the sea across this 'Eastern sertão' the colonial government declared it a forbidden buffer zone. But Langfur shows how belligerent governors of Minas Gerais, Lobo da Silva and his successor the Count of Valadares, were determined to conquer and settle the area. These officials deliberately misinterpreted Pombal's Law of Liberty (1755) which had ordered different treatment of uncontacted and assimilated indigenous peoples. So campaigns were launched to eradicate the Botocudo and plant forts, such as Cuieté on the upper Doce river, in their territory.

Langfur's meticulous research tells us much about the nature of colonial society in Brazil, with tensions between the white ruling class, the indigenous people, and the black and mixed-race wandering poor. It was the latter who bore the brunt of this colonization, and the resulting Indian attacks. There is much detail about frontier warfare, with both sides learning tactics from one another. Not surprisingly, soldiers marching into the forests were easily ambushed or evaded by the Indians. The colonial authorities used propaganda to justify their aggressions. Their standard accusation was that the heathen were cannibals who attacked settlers in order to rob and eat them.

The anti-Indian hysteria culminated in 1808 with the proclamation of all-out war against the Botocudo, with the enslavement of captives who survived the attempted genocide. This was the last such decree in Brazil, where enslavement of Indians had been forbidden for many decades. When Napoleon's army occupied Lisbon in 1808, the royal family fled to Brazil. Soon after his arrival, the Prince Regent Dom Pedro sent an unqualified official called Navarro de Campos to report on the situation on the coast north of Rio de Janeiro. Campos listened to the most reactionary settlers, with their gory stories of 'barbarous anthropophagy,' and persuaded his ruler to issue the infamous order. German and English travelers in Brazil in the following decade reported that the decree represented [End Page 137] 'open season' against all Indians and was frequently used to justify enslavement of indigenous tribes and their children.

Langfur has done fine research among documents rarely used by other historians. He writes elegant and refreshingly jargon-free prose, and he makes many important observations about life...

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