De Noronha
Name: Fernao de Noronha
Achievements: One of first settlers of Brazil.
Born: c. 1470 or earlier
Died: c. 1540
Field & Discipline: Business; Colonist
Language: Portuguese
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Spouse: Unknown
Children: Unknown
Education: Unknown
Life & Times:
De Noronha was wealthy and a Marrano (the name given to Jews who officially converted to Christianity to avoid expulsion from Portugal in 1497, but who still practiced their own religion in secret). The Marranos began emigrating but from 1499 they could only leave if they were given royal permission.
Then in 1500, [affected by work of] Cabral* discovered Brazil. The [influenced by] Treaty of Tordesillas* gave the Portuguese a legal claim to the new lands in the West and King Manuel was eager to prevent the Spanish moving in and taking possession before the Portuguese. So he sent an expedition to claim the land and see what information could be gathered. The expedition found friendly natives, an abundance of colourful parrots, and brazil-wood (a dye-wood with high commercial value)
The King decided to lease areas of land to pioneers and, before 1502, de Noronha paid a high price for his lease.
In return for a contract to trade in brazil-wood and slaves, de Noronha had annually to dispatch six cargoes of wood, discover 900 miles of new Brazilian coastline a year, and build and maintain a fort for three years. In return for this he would be paid nothing during the first year, would get one-sixth of the value of his cargoes in the second year and a quarter in the third year. If the demands for cargoes were met, it would mean he would be exporting about 750 tons of wood a year.
De Noronha sailed to Brazil in 1503, in a fleet commanded by Goncalo Coelho, the brother of one of [sailed with brother of captain serving] da Gama's* captains. He then set about meeting his targets and his contract was renewed in 1506. He later took on additional partners and acquired his own island, 'Fernando de Noronha', off the Brazilian coast.
Part of his success was due to cheap native labor. The brazil-wood trees were six feet round, and about forty feet high, and needed to be transported to the trading posts on the coast. Noronha traded with the local Indians for food and labour and they were taught to fell and cut the brazil-wood. Eventually, they received trinkets and tools if they delivered the wood ready to load onto the ships.
Each time the wood in an area had been cut down, they would move on and start again, until the main region for dye-woods extended from Cabo Sao Roque near Natal, to Cabo Frio, north of Rio. As well as the dye-wood, the Brazilian pioneers exported parrots, pumas and monkeys, some of which were bought by Henry VII of England.
Business was booming and, on 22nd February 1511, the Bretoa, owned by de Noronha and his fellow traders, sailed from Lisbon and returned on 28th July, carrying 5,000 logs of brasil wood, pumas, monkeys, parrots, parakeets and forty slaves, mostly women.
The French demand for dye-woods encouraged the French to sail to Brazil in great numbers. However, the Portuguese Crown protected its commodities and, in 1516, destroyed an entire French fleet full of cargo.
In the 1530s, Portugal divided Brazil into large estates, and the island of Fernando de Noronha became part of the Pernambuco estate.
Extra Connections:
If anyone is responsible for the naming of Brazil and its inhabitants, it would be Fernão de Loronha. Although officially named the lands of Vera Cruz or Santa Cruz by the original discovers, it was during Loronha's tenure that the name of the land gradually transitioned to Terra do Brasil and its inhabitants to Brasileiros. It was rather common for 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese to refer to distant lands by their commercial product rather than their proper name (e.g. Madeira Islands, Pepper Coast, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Spice Islands, etc.) The lands of Vera Cruz were simply popularly known as the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) for the same reason. (Some letters from the early 1500s refer to it as Terra di Papaga, "Land of Parrots")
Assessment: Fernao de Noronha was the first to develop the brazil-wood industry in Brazil, encouraging further Portuguese settlers into the country.
Oneliner: Fernao de Noronha, early settler of Brazil
Bibliography:
- Diffie, Bailey W, Latin-American Civilization, Colonial Period, Octoagon Books, Inc., New York,1967.
- Macdonald, NP, The Making of Brazil, Portuguese Roots 1500-1822, The Book Guild Ltd., Sussex, 1996.
- Marchant, Alexander, From Barter to Slavery, the Economic Relations of Portuguese and Indians in the Settlement of Brazil, 1500-1580, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series LX, Number 1, 1942.
- Roth Cecil, A History of the Marranos, Meridian Books, Inc., New York, 1932.