HISTORIA das Missoes Orientais do Uruguai by Aurelio Porto (review)

106BOOK REVIEWS sanctity. He indicates that she is a Saint who can easily be approached through her attractive personality. Who can not be won over by her utter simplicity, deep sincerity and hatred of every kind of pretensiousness ? How truly St. Teresa can be called "Mother of Carmel"! Her own nuns called her "Our holy mother" in her own day. She can well be called Mother by all today who are concerned with their own advance in prayer and seek for her guidance! Vianney Thibedeau, O.F.M. Cap. St. Lawrence College, Mount Calvary, Wis. Os Protomartires do Brasil. By Frei Odulfo, O.F.M. Reprint from Revista Eclesiástica Brasileña, V, 3, September, 1945. Pp. 568-591. This article by Friar Odulfo gives a critical evaluation of the historical sources concerning the martyrdom of the protomartyrs of Brazil. Prior to the year 1550 there is absolute silence regarding this martyrdom in the civil and ecclesiastical histories of the country. Jesuit Fathers make mention of it in their relations of 1550, 1584, and about 1592. The Franciscan sources mention it the first time only as late as 1621. Yet the martyrdom is established beyond a shadow of doubt. The martyrs were two Franciscan friars of Portuguese nationality, but their names are unknown. They were put to death by Tupiniquin Indians at Porto Seguro on the coast of Brazil, but the exact date is not known. Friar Odulfo rejects the dates assigned by modern historians to this tragic event, namely, arrival in Brazil in 1503, and martyrdom in 1505. He holds that the martyrdom did not occur prior to 1516, and not later than 1521. This belated date robs the Brazilian martyrs of the honor of protomartyrs of ALL America. At any event, Friar Odulfo has conclusively proved that the date 1505, accepted by Friar M. A. Habig (Heroes of the Cross, revised edition, Paterson, pp. 24 et seq.) and others, is now untenable (pp. 582-587). John M. Lenhart, O.F.M. Cap. St. Augustine's Friary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. HISTORIA das Missoes Orientais do Uruguai. Publicaçoes do Patrimonio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, N. 9· By Aurelio Porto. Rio de Janeiro : Imprensa Nacional, 1943. Pp. ix+621. This imposing book is the first of two volumes which purport to treat of the subjects: I. Jesuit Civilization in the missions of Eastern Uruguay (the present volume), and II. Jesuit Art monuments in the same territory. The initial purpose of the author was to write a modest study on art in the Jesuit civilization of the missions. But he found, as he says in the books introduction, that "without a previous study of the 'civilizaçâo Jesuítica' which flourished in the missions of eastern Uruguay, and of its connection with the founding of Rio Grande do SuI, it would be difficult to comprehend the Jesuit colonial art." (p. vii) In this first volume, the author gives us a fairly comprehensive history BOOK REVIEWS107 of the missions in question, treating in order, the coming of the Jesuits to Brazil and Paraguay, the Jesuit reductions of Rio Grande do SuI, Uruguay and Tape, and the Paulista expeditions to the south (Part I). Part II treats of the economic-political antecedents of the founding of the Seven Peoples, sketching the origin of the mission economy and the part played by the Jesuits in Portugueze expansion in the Rio de la Plata area. Part III is concerned with the history of the Spanish Jesuit missions among the so-called Seven Peoples or Indian tribes in the eastern Uruguayan area, beginning with their founding and ending with their extinction after the Indians of these seven missions had defied the terms of the Treaty of Limits (Tratado dos Limites, generally called Treaty of Madrid in English), which placed them under Portugueze rule. Doctor Porto relies mostly on published works for his material, but he makes at times good use of the manuscript section of the National Library at Rio de Janeiro, most particularly of the extensive "Coleçâo de Angelis," which the Brazilian government acquired from the historian Pedro de Angelis. This collection contains thousands of rare codices and documents of the early history...