Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/164
a Portuguese, and their mother was a Brazilian woman, the same were Christians, skilled and experienced in customs and languages both of the Christians and the savages. The eldest was called Johan de Praga, the other Diego de Praga,[1] the third Domingus de Praga, the fourth Francisco de Praga, the fifth Andreas de Praga, and their father was called Diago (Diego) de Prage.
The five brothers had, about two years before I arrived, undertaken together with the friendly Indian people, to build a fort there against their enemies, according to the customs of the savages: this they had also so carried out.
Consequently several Portuguese had joined them, and had settled there, as it was a fine country. This their enemies the Tuppin Imba had discovered, and had prepared themselves in their country, which begins about twenty-five miles (leagues) off. They had arrived there one night with
- ↑ There is more about these men in chapter 41. Praga is of course the Teutonic form of Braga, as Pricki for Buriqui, and Presillig for Brasilig.
voix (book vi) in 1618 says, that these Mestiços (Metis) were so called, because they resembled the ancient slaves of the Egyptian Soldan; and the Jesuit writers of the 18th century attribute the successes of the Dutch at Pernambuco to their toleration of these half-castes. Fray Gaspar says, that the mules produced by whites and "Indians" were called "Mamaculos"; he ignores the derivation of the word, but declares that it did not come from Egypt, a country here unknown. It was a name of fear, and became even more terrible in the 18th century, when the brave and sanguinary Mamalukes of São Paulo began their raids upon the Province of La Guayra, and the Spanish Missions to the west. Yet as Varnhagen remarks, it is curious to find the horror excited by these Paulista "Commandos", intended to captive "Indians", when 300 years ago, Europe supported the right of putting to death prisoners of war (Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. iii, chapter 7). Mamalucco meaning the offspring of a white man by an "Indian" woman, is now obsolete in S. Paulo, where Caboclo (see introduction) has taken its place. The Naturalist on the Amazons (i, chapter 1, p. 35) tells us that Mameluco is the son of an Indian and a white, while the civilised Indian is called Tapuyo or Caboclo. In Pará the original term "Curiboca" is still retained for the issue of African and "Indian."