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THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE

Imba,^[1] who ate men, and whose prisoner I was for nine months, and amidst many other dangers, were through their Holy Trinity quite unexpectedly and wonderfully vouchsafed to me, and that after long misery, peril of life and body, I am again, after past travels and sea voyages, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, my much beloved fatherland, where I dutifully announce myself without delay. Would Your Highness, at your leisure, allow to be read to you this narrative about the by me traversed land and sea, on account of the wonderful deeds that Almighty God vouchsafed

↑ For Tupinamba, see the introduction. The author of the "Somptueuse Entrée," etc., writes "Toupinabaulx": Thevet calls them "Toupinambaux" (plural) ; Jean de Lery, Tooupinambaoults, meaning a " noble people of God"; the diphthong "aou" denoting "admirable"; Malherbe softened the word to Topinambous, adopted in the age of Louis XIV. Claude d'Abbeville (early in the seventeenth century) prefers Topynambas; Yves d'Evreux (chapter vii et passim), Topinambos and Tapinambos.
Pero Lopes (A.D. 1531) when at Bahia saw an action amongst these people of fifty canoes on each side, and averaging sixty men in each (300 + 300): the braves, who had pavoises or large shields painted after the European fashion, fought from noon to sunset. The prisoners were tied with cords, put to death with much ceremony, roasted and eaten. Hans Stade extends them from Rio de Janeiro to the great province of São Paulo. In the Caramurú of Fr. Rita Durão (x, 22) we find them upon the Bahian seaboard. Southey (1, 42, 429), following d'Abbeville and Yves d'Evreux assigns to them a habitat from Pará and Maranham to Bahia, where they held the islands of the Bay of All the Saints, and they are spoken of in other captaincies. The introduction has explained these discrepancies by showing the word to be used by themselves and their friends, not by their enemies.
Part 2 of Hans Stade's volume is devoted to describing their manners and customs. It must be noted that he says nothing of the artificially flattened noses of the infants, described by Jean de Lery, Claude d'Abbeville and other old travellers in the Brazil.
The Tupinambas sided in early times with the French against the Portuguese. They boasted to be the principal tribe, planted manioc, and had better wigwams than their neighbours. Yet they were cannibals, like the Mpangwe (Fans) of the Gaboon river, a comparatively civilised negro tribe, and they ate their enemies slain in battle, probably for the usual superstitious reasons.

[1] For Tupinamba, see the introduction. The author of the "Somptueuse Entrée," etc., writes "Toupinabaulx": Thevet calls them "Toupinambaux" (plural) ; Jean de Lery, Tooupinambaoults, meaning a " noble people of God"; the diphthong "aou" denoting "admirable"; Malherbe softened the word to Topinambous, adopted in the age of Louis XIV. Claude d'Abbeville (early in the seventeenth century) prefers Topynambas; Yves d'Evreux (chapter vii et passim), Topinambos and Tapinambos.
Pero Lopes (A.D. 1531) when at Bahia saw an action amongst these people of fifty canoes on each side, and averaging sixty men in each (300 + 300): the braves, who had pavoises or large shields painted after the European fashion, fought from noon to sunset. The prisoners were tied with cords, put to death with much ceremony, roasted and eaten. Hans Stade extends them from Rio de Janeiro to the great province of São Paulo. In the Caramurú of Fr. Rita Durão (x, 22) we find them upon the Bahian seaboard. Southey (1, 42, 429), following d'Abbeville and Yves d'Evreux assigns to them a habitat from Pará and Maranham to Bahia, where they held the islands of the Bay of All the Saints, and they are spoken of in other captaincies. The introduction has explained these discrepancies by showing the word to be used by themselves and their friends, not by their enemies.
Part 2 of Hans Stade's volume is devoted to describing their manners and customs. It must be noted that he says nothing of the artificially flattened noses of the infants, described by Jean de Lery, Claude d'Abbeville and other old travellers in the Brazil.
The Tupinambas sided in early times with the French against the Portuguese. They boasted to be the principal tribe, planted manioc, and had better wigwams than their neighbours. Yet they were cannibals, like the Mpangwe (Fans) of the Gaboon river, a comparatively civilised negro tribe, and they ate their enemies slain in battle, probably for the usual superstitious reasons.

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