The Indians, whom the Portuguese found in Brazil, had not advanced in civilization as had the Incas in Peru, or the Aztecs in Mexico. They were more or less nomadic, although the different tribes kept within certain general limits as did the North American Indians. Perhaps the bounty of nature and the hot climate deadened the impulse to mental effort and exertion that leads to a higher civilization. There are evidences of the existence of the family relation and marriage customs, but polygamy was practised. Cannibalism was common too; and it is said that they not only devoured their enemies killed in war, but even ate their relatives as a special mark of favour and consideration.

The Indians generally believed in three great or chief gods. The sun was the god of the animal kingdom, the moon of the vegetable kingdom and Ruda was the god of love and reproduction. In addition to these chief gods there was a multitude of inferior deities who served various purposes. The fact that there was some idea of a future life, or a “happy hunting ground” in the beyond, is shown by the burial custom of depositing in the grave of the dead warrior the bow and arrow, and vessels in which to prepare food. It was also the custom to hang a number of friends or relatives upon the death of a chief, in order that the departed might have congenial company in the next world. The importation of negroes from Africa also brought in a great deal of superstition, and a tendency toward idolatry and fetichism, which can be traced in the religious and moral customs even to this day.

It is impossible not to admire the early missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church. They followed side by side with those adventurers and explorers who pushed their way through trackless forests and almost impassable swamps in their search for earth’s treasures. It was the Jesuits who did most of the early evangelizing work in Brazil. This order was more humanely disposed toward the natives than some of the orders who accompanied the Spanish Conquistadores, for they endeavoured to protect the natives from injustice. It was in the middle of the 16th century that the members of this order began their evangelizing, work in Brazil. They plunged into regions hitherto unpenetrated by white men. They went out alone among the cannibal tribes who dwelt on these shores, and lived with them. They learned the languages, and soon were able to preach to them in their own tongues. These brave missionaries exhorted the Indians to lay aside their practice of cannibalism and polygamous marriages, and adopt the new faith. In order to appeal to their childlike natures every device and paraphernalia of pomp and procession was adopted in their services. Miraculous appearances and finds became common, so that sacred sites for the building of the religious edifices were frequently located by this means.

In order to give an unprejudiced view of the methods and purposes pursued by the early Jesuit missionaries I quote from Baron de Santa-Anna Nery,[4] himself a Catholic: “The Missionaries did not insist upon any strict theological teaching, being sure that their orthodoxy would soon be disfigured; they had but one aim in view, to render gentle and good these unhappy human beings, who gave themselves up recklessly to every impulse of their violent passions.

“The God of the Christians became for these imaginative savages the awe-inspiring Tupan. Satan was incarnate in the person of the terrible AnangÁ. Then they grasped a trinity, based upon the Catholic Trinity, and composed of the sun, the moon and Ruda, the god of love. We took part in our childhood at processions where fetich beliefs were mixed up with Christian rites. The ingenious priests who invented ceremony certainly did more than all the other preachers put together to perpetuate a semblance of the Catholic faith amongst the Indians.

“When the Indians celebrated any saint’s day they erected an altar in their hut upon which they placed an image of the Saint and at its feet is placed the Siare. In front of the house they raise a large thatched roof. Tables are set up and everything prepared for dancing and merrymaking.”

In this way were the native Indians induced to adopt at least the external forms of religion. It was not long until the majority of the aborigines became nominal adherents of the new religion. Wherever a tribe became baptized a church was erected in which to hold services, and a priest was left in charge. These priests instructed the Indians in rudimentary agriculture as well as theology, and the superiority of the educated priest over the ignorant native soon gave him a position of great vantage and influence. Power proved pleasing to the Jesuit. It was not long until the priests were really stronger than the civil authorities, and a practical theocracy sprang into existence.

They fought for the freedom of the Indian. The colonists wanted to enslave these poor natives, and make them work, willingly or unwillingly, on the plantations which they themselves were too lazy to cultivate. This was strenuously resisted by the Jesuit fathers, and by the church authorities in general, and led to many hard struggles. So when we read of the early struggles between the “Paulistas” and the Jesuits, one cannot help but sympathize with the latter, for they were championing the rights of the weak. And yet their motives do not seem to have been wholly altruistic, for they eventually endeavoured to reduce the Indians to a blind obedience to their own whims and will. Though they gave him a great measure of peace, they made him a blind servant to the will of an ambitious priesthood. The colonists continued their efforts to enslave the Indians, and in the end the Jesuits were expelled for a time from several of the states.

One of the most noted of this order was named JosÉ Anchieta, who was a native of Teneriffe, and the son of a Portuguese nobleman. It was as much due to his courage and genius as any other cause that the Jesuit influence spread as it did and became established so firmly that it has not been shaken even to this day in many sections of Brazil. He was sincere, eloquent, learned and an indefatigable worker. He went among the Indians, learned their language and acquired an almost superhuman influence among them. He became looked upon by the natives as almost divine. Water poured over his bones is said to have worked a thousand miracles, and a few drops of it are reported to have turned water into wine. Other men of power and influence there were, and a string of missions was established among all the capitancias. These reached up the Amazon to the uppermost limits of Portuguese territory, and even to the region claimed by the Spanish Jesuits, where some minor conflicts of authority ensued. The Jesuits founded a number of educational institutions in Brazil, which have exerted a great and good influence, and many of these exist even to-day. This is greatly to the credit of this remarkable order.

Bahia has always been a great centre of church influence in Brazil. There is one chapel in that city that was founded in 1582. It was built upon a spot where a miraculous image of a Virgin was said to have been discovered. And so one will find all over Brazil, as well as in Spanish-America, churches whose foundation is built upon alleged sacred spots, and many of them are now places for pilgrimages. One of these is the church of Nuestra Senhora de PeÑha, which can be seen on a conspicuous height as one proceeds up the harbour of Rio de Janeiro. This church is reached by a series of three hundred and sixty-five steps. During one week in October thousands upon thousands of the natives visit this sacred shrine, and many of them climb up all of these steps on their knees as evidence of contrition, or act of penance. Everywhere church festas are celebrated, and many of these retain in a remarkable degree the traditions of old. In Bahia the natives celebrate one festa occasion by gathering together all the donkeys of the city, and elaborately decorating them with foliage and flowers.

At ParÁ is celebrated a festa which is noted in the country. The origin of the celebration is generally described as herewith given. Two hunters sought rest under the shade of a tree while returning from a hunt, and fell asleep. A strange woman appeared to one of the men in a dream, and told him to search in a thicket nearby. To his great surprise a beautiful image of the Virgin was found near the trunk of a palm tree. The two men were overjoyed at the find and presented it to the governor, who placed it in the palace chapel. On a certain day it was decided to show the image to the public, but the image had disappeared. A search disclosed it in the same thicket. A second time it was placed in the palace chapel, and a second time it found its way back to the thicket. This transpired at least twice more, although tradition differs as to the exact number of times, and then it was decided to build a chapel on that spot. This was done. Miracles have been very numerous at this shrine. Its virtues have so spread that thousands visit it, and a great procession is formed each year with the statue occupying an important position in it. Everyone joins in the procession, and the occasion is made a great event at ParÁ. The collection of relics in the form of wax arms and wax legs, with red spots showing where deadly wounds had been healed, and wax heads with red spots showing where sores or wounds had been cured is exceedingly ghastly. The belief of the people in these traditions is no doubt much less than in former times, and many who take part in the festas now probably do so principally because it is a custom hallowed by age.

It is surprising in travelling over the country to see the number of shrines and small chapels which dot the wayside and crown the summit of many hills. Some miraculous story is told about each one, and there is a shrine or relic of some kind in each one which is greatly venerated. I copy from a description given by Dr. H. C. Tucker, agent of the American Bible Society in Brazil:[5]

“In the early history of Brazil a town was often founded by setting up a Growing Stone, a Healing Cross or a Miracle-Working Image. These images are often called “Apparecido” or “Apparecida,” from their “appearing” in some cave, or wild forest, stream, or on the seacoast. It is supposed that “The Lord of Matosinhos” appeared near that place from which event the brotherhood of Bom (good) Jesus of Matosinhos had its origin. The main temple or church, the seven chapels, oratorios, wooden figures seated around a table representing the Last Supper, the image of Judas and the great knife with which the pilgrims give him a dig as they pass by, the Agony in the Garden, the rough wayside cross of hardwood bearing a rude figure, dedicated to Our Lord of Matosinhos, with an inscription showing that it began to work miracles about the year 1700; the gigantic figures of the prophets, the carved work in wood and stone, the paintings of various kinds, the instruments of the Passion, the miracle-room with the large number of wax figures and hundreds of memorial tablets, representing the miracles performed by the image; the side chapels of St. Francis de Assisi, St. Francisco de Paula and others, the two pulpits, the two boxes and two open confessionals, the representation of the Trinity and the Burial of Christ, the altar tomb, covered with a board, which when removed shows a full sized effigy of Our Lord of Matosinhos, with angels kneeling around and praying, which is the grand object of the pilgrimage and where the pilgrims prostrate themselves and kiss the hand of the image with great devotion; on another side the cradle of Bethlehem, above the fine silver chandeliers:—these are some of the many curious things, in crude shape found in this church.”

Sunday is a holiday, just as it is in France and Spain. The stores are usually open in the morning, but closed in the afternoon. The women go to church service in the morning, and in the afternoon all go out to the races or whatever other form of sport occurs on that day. Bull fighting was long ago abolished in Brazil, and in fact has disappeared from nearly the whole of South America. Easter Sunday is always a day for processions and solemn service in all the churches. In fact nearly a week is given over to the Easter ceremonies, when images of Christ and the Virgin and sacred pictures are carried through the streets of nearly every city and village.

The agents of the American Bible Society have traversed almost the entire republic from one end to the other in their work of distributing Bibles and Testaments. The colporteurs travel by rail, mule, steamer, canoe, or any other way that will take them to their destination, and oftentimes endure hardships almost as great as the Jesuit missionaries of old. Dr. Tucker says: “It is painfully depressing to one engaged in offering the Scriptures to hear three-fourths of them say: ‘I don’t know how to read.’ Another obstacle is the religious superstition of the people concerning the Bible we offer them, and the belief so strongly inculcated by the priests that they have no right to read even the version accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.” In one town of Minas Geraes the priest read a letter from the Bishop of Diamantina in which the people were warned against the “false Bibles” and advised that the men ought not to be allowed to stop at any place. This aroused the ignorant people to almost a fury, and cries of “Away with these heretics, kill them, kill them,” were heard from numerous throats. Many armed themselves with sticks and even guns in their fanatical frenzy. No damage was done, however, for cooler counsels finally prevailed, but it is indicative of the intolerant spirit shown by the clergy—not to the work of Protestant denominations, but to the distribution of the Bible by this non-sectarian organization. Many times the books were forcibly taken from the colporteurs and burned. It also shows how different the Roman Church is in Brazil from our own land. In the United States the Roman Catholic clergy encourage education and the reading of the Scriptures to all of their flock. They maintain parochial schools at great expense in their efforts to educate the youths. They unite with other organizations in common efforts to upbuild and better the world. Some of the most severe critics have been members of that church from other countries, who have visited Brazil, and other countries of South America.

THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCH AT JUIZ DE FORA. A SHRINE ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN.