Frei Cristóvão de Lisboa, O. F. M.

, Missionary and Natural Historian of Brazil

Author(s): Luiza da Fonseca
Source: The Americas, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jan., 1952), pp. 289-303
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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FREI CRISTOVAO DE LISBOA, O.F.M., MISSIONARY AND
NATURAL HISTORIAN OF BRAZIL

T HE BRAVERY AND
in the history DARING
of the of the
discovery, Portuguese
exploration is evident
and colonization
of Brazil. Many of them sold everything they possessed and
then set off across the ocean with their "household and family,"
facing storms and the assaults of pirates, and were often shipwrecked
or eaten by the cannibalistic Indians on the shores where they ex-
pected to be safe.
A vigorous character was necessary to penetrate the forests, to
fight with warlike Indians and to weather the change of climate.
Only adventurers or those who felt impelled by a higher mission
would undertake the risk of facing such dangers. It was only human
that the former would seek reward by exploiting the riches of the
country. Hence it hardly seems unreasonable that, when the Fran-
ciscan Fathers recommended for the civil government of the Indians
"a disinterested official who rules without ambition, without hatred
and without particular affection," the Procurator of the Crown
replied: "I consider it impossible to find a man of such qualities
willing to go to Maranhao for so much work and so little profit."
Settlers, artis4ns of various trades, masons, gunsmiths were sent to
Maranhio under the correct assumption that settlement was the first
step toward future development. The Governor, Alexandre de Moura,
asked for coopers, carpenters, calkers and weavers to be sent there.
He recommended that these be well paid in order that others might
also be induced to go.x As far as the defense of the country was
concerned, Alexandre de Moura further pointed out that the best one
consisted in the vast extent of the great forests, and he also stressed
the necessity of remaining on good terms with the natives. Manoel
de Sousa d'Ega expressed a similar opinion in his request: ". . . the
conservation and the increase of the said conquista [Pari] consists in
keeping peace with the natives." The same official, in another docu-
ment, asked for religious who would teach the Catholic faith to
the Indians to stop the false doctrine which was being taught to
them by foreigners; he stated that the best qualified for this task

I Arquivo Hist6rico Colonial (Lisbon, Portugal), Maranhio, letter of September 24,

1616. This Archive will hereafter be referred to as AHC.

289

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290 FREI CRISTOVi'O DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
would be the Jesuits and the members of the "Order of St. Anthony,"
as the Franciscans of the Portuguese Province of San Ant6nio were
commonly called.2

PROTECTION OF THE INDIANS

Tolerance and peace with the aborigines were the basic principles
of Portuguese colonization. Yet greedy adventurers, anxious to be-
come wealthy, oftentimes provoked grave conflicts. It is likewise
true that not all the Indians were willing to live peacefully with the
Portuguese invaders of their country, nor were all as meek as those
described by Pero Vaiz de Caminha. Captain Manoel Soares de
Almeida relates that thirty white soldiers were killed by the Indians
in revenge for the "corruption and covetousness" of Matias de Albu-
querque. Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco gave rise to a terrible
revolt by maltreating the Indians.3 When he died, his wife and his
daughter requested a confirmation of his land grants, and through an
investigation of the judge, Francisco Leitio, the great extent of his
wealth was verified: in the city of Belem in Grio Parai he owned the
best houses, surrounded with trees, a brick factory and a chapel, a
great number of slaves, plantations of manioc and sugar cane "the
canes of which were the first ones to be obtained at the beginning
of that conquista"; furthermore he possessed an important ranch of
livestock in Sergipe and palatial mansions in Santar6m.4 A compro-
mising wealth indeed! How often the principles of charity and
justice must have been set aside in order to obtain it!

Others, however, proceeded in a different fashion. Governor Fran-

cisco Coelho de Carvalho writes praising the Indians allied with the
Portuguese, the Tupinambais and Tabajaris, whose chiefs were re-
spectively D. Luis de Sousa and Mandiocapuba.5 Later he expressed
his opinion against the enslavement of the Indians:

These . . . give food to the servants of Your Majesty in peace and

war, row in the canoes, are killed with us on the battlefield in war,
when defending the establishments of Your Majesty, which is not a
slave's work, because just the name of captive is reason enough to
break their courage and pride.... 6
2 AHC, Parai, 1623.
8 AHC, Maranhio, n. d. [1618].
4 AHC, Pari, August 16, 1623.
5 AHC, Maranhio, letter of February 28, 1624.
6 AHC, Maranhio, Informacdo of Francisco Coelho de Carvalho, Sio Luis do
Maranhio, May 20, 1647.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 291

A similar concept appears in a dispatch from King Dom Joao IV:

The Indian who is my vassal and does not fulfill the obligations
connected therewith, may be justly and duly punished as deserved
according to the nature of his fault; he may not be enslaved since
this punishment cannot be inflicted upon a vassal; the Indian who is
not a vassal shall first be granted pardon, and, if he does not accept
it, nor the baptismal water, then war shall be made against him and
he shall be made captive.7

Indians friendly with the Portuguese were protected. The Ouvidor

of Maranhao, Manoel Nunes Colares, did not dare to sentence the
Indian chief D. Lizaro Pinto, a convicted traitor, because of the fact
that he belonged to the Royal Order of Christ and the Ouvidor was
not authorized to act as a judge of knights.8

For the development of the capitania the Overseas Council pro-

posed that the King grant free passage and food to all persons willing
to go to Maranhao.Y Likewise there was an attempt to exploit the
drugs which constituted the most profitable product of the country.
It is interesting to know that the Governor Francisco de Sai e Menezes
in 1684 sent Indians into the forests with samples of quinine, and
as the latter did not find the drug-furnishing plant and lost the sample,
the same Governor asked the Overseas Council to send him a picture
of the plant for the Indians' information."'

The Governor Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho de Carvalho filed

a request for a Procurator General of the Indians, "who should assist
them" lest vexations and injustices be inflicted upon them and to
see that they be paid for their services; for all the white men ridiculed
them and defrauded them and did not keep their promises made to
them." And the Franciscan Fathers, voicing their protest in 1672
against those that enslaved Indians, wrote: "The reason given by
those who commit these injustices is that they bring them to the
Church to become Christians, as if to be Christian constituted cruel
servitude."'12

When the extremely wealthy Jorge Gomes Alamo, owner of sugar

7AHC, Maranhio, Consulta of the Overseas Council, March 2, 1648.

8AHC, Maranhio, Consulta of the Overseas Council, June 5, 1691.
9 AHC, Maranhio, Consulta of the Overseas Council, October 13, 1646.
lo AHC, Maranhio, 1684.
11 AHC, Maranhio, October 17, 1673.
12 AHC, Maranhio, 1672.

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292 FREI CRIST6VXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.

mills, requested from His Majesty the permission to bring in from

the forest (i.e., to enslave) two hundred Indian families, he gave oc-
casion for that upright opinion of the Procurator of the Crown,
Manoel Lopes de Olmeiro, already quoted above:

I cannot agree with the opinion of the Council, nor with the opinion
of the Governor, because to bring in these Indians now by means of
troops is nothing else than to command fraud, prison and destruction
of men who are free by the disposition of God and the laws of
nature. May it please Your Highness to resolve the problem of all
the Indians of Maranhao, and according to the resolution of Your
Highness the answer can be given to Jorge Gomes. However, to
permit the convocation [i. e., enslavement] of the Indians now is
only to provide an occasion for disorders very harmful to the service
of God and of Your Highness.'3

We need not consider here the deep and important question

regarding the administration of the Indian villages-since this is not
within the scope of the present article-nor to comment on the constant
rivalries between the clergy and the settlers. But it would be use-
ful to cite one more opinion of the Procurator Manoel Olmeiro who
points to the Jesuits as examples of good administrators:

Political consideration does not require that the administration of

the villages, especially that of all of them, be in the hands of the
clergy. Indeed there is not a case in the Spanish Indies whereby, with
the income from these [villages], the great encomiendas are erected
with which the King rewards outstanding services rendered. But
furthermore the encomenderos have various obligations, principally
to provide at their own expense all means for the instruction of the
Indians in Christian doctrine and to see that they do not lack the
Sacraments of the Church, as well as to defend them from all in-
juries, oppressions and violence, so that they may be able to live in
peace in a Catholic fashion. About these things there are in those
regions a great number of laws and decrees of the Catholic Kings.
Nothing of this sort has been provided up to now for the villages
of Brazil, and I do not know whether, on account of their present
state, and that of the settlers, any remedy can be made. I know
only that it is very difficult, and since it is so, it is necessary that the
political consideration give way to the Catholic consideration and
duty.... 14

For these and other reasons, the frequently quoted Olmeiro well
13 AHC, Maranhio, October 17, 1673.
14 AHC, Pernambuco, Parecer in the letter of Governor Marques de Montebelo,
Olinda, July 20, 1690.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 293

said that ". .. these affairs of Maranhio are very difficult to be

understood and even more difficult to be resolved. ... "

ARCHIVAL DATA FOR THE BIOGRAPHY OF FREI CRIST6ViO DE LISBOA
Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa left for Maranhio with the Governor of
that capitania, Francisco Coelho de Carvalho. He had been preparing
for his departure for two years, and in 1623 he had made the petition
here translated, which aptly demonstrates the care with which colonial
enterprises were organized and the interest with which this Franciscan
prepared himself for such an important mission. Frei Crist6vio was
going as the first Custos of his Order and Commissary of the Holy
Office, with ample faculties given through special privilege of the
Grand Inquisitor Dom Fernando Martins de Mascarenhas, and also as
Ecclesiastical Visitor.

The following petition is the oldest document of the Arquivo

Hist6rico Colonial which refers to Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa:

The Custos and the other religious sent out by Your Majesty for
the conversion of the Indians of Maranhao and Parai declare that
several Portuguese, Your Majesty not being well informed, obtained
from Your Majesty the capitanias [direction] of the Indian villages
of those regions. This results in great harm to the service of God and
of Your Majesty, because the aforesaid captains, as experience has
shown both on the whole Brazilian coast as well as in the Castilian
Indies, having their eyes cast exclusively upon the temporal profit,
on account of which they apply for said capitanias without any
remuneration, maltreat the Indians in various manners: they hire them
and overburden them with work, withholding the just wage for their
labor; they even dare to take away from them their wives and daugh-
ters. They treat all Indians with asperity and immoderate rigor,
neglecting to help them and to relieve their necessities. On the con-
trary they do not even give them enough time to care for their own
fields from which these people maintain themselves and also the
Portuguese. Being interested only in having them working, they do
not provide an opportunity for teaching them Christian doctrine,
even though instruction in the faith is the major reason why Your
Majesty, with such great expenses of your treasury, commands the
settlement and conquest of those regions. Since, as regards the
aforesaid capitanias, the Indians need to be guided with meekness,
they are scandalized to the point that they, as one solid group, flee
into the forests, taking with them such news of the Portuguese to
the others, who then consider and treat us as mortal enemies. In
consequence the country becomes desolate without anyone to culti-
vate it and therefore there is so great a lack of food and venison and
fish, which they used to provide, that it is impossible to settle it and

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294 FREI CRIST6VWXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
to have anyone to perform the services. Moreover, the conversion
of those people and the propagation of the Catholic faith is entirely
impeded and prevented, since those that accepted it have abandoned
it by fleeing into the forests, and the others who avoid contact with
the Portuguese, cannot receive knowledge of it. Furthermore, the
subjugated country is exposed to the risk of being scarcely defensible,
since we do not have any friendly Indians with whose aid we could
defend ourselves from those who are not, and without their help we
can hardly manage it on account of the country being covered with
dense vegetation, where only the Indians, natives and experts of the
country, know how to fight, being habituated to combat in such
places with the same weapons, bows and arrows, which we do not
use, ours being of little effect in such places. Hence one cannot help
but conclude that Brazil and the Castilian Indies have been con-
quered with the aid of the very same Indians, our allies, whom our
captains obtained as friends, understanding that without them they
could not attack the others nor defend themselves. The undersigned
ask that Your Majesty be pleased to command that the grant of
aforesaid captaincies be without effect, since, at any rate, they are a
detriment to the service of God and Your Majesty.

The dispatch note on the margin of the document, signed by two

Governors of the kingdom, D. Diogo da Silva and D. Diogo de Castro,
on October 17, 1623, ordained that the opinion of the Council of the
Exchequer be sought without delay."5

As is customary, an expert was consulted, Gaspar de Sousa, former

Governor of Brazil, who declared the following:

All of what is said by Father Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa, Custos, and

the other Fathers in this request is entirely the truth, as I have fre-
quently informed Your Majesty, in regard to other similar petitions,
which-I do not know how-became lost. The conservation and the
progress of this new conquista of Maranhao depends upon Your
Majesty's commanding the execution of what the Fathers ask in this
request, for the reasons which the Father Custos points out. May it
please Your Majesty to instruct your ministers to execute what is
contained in it. For otherwise the destruction of this new conquista
will follow. Hence Your Majesty should decree that, if some ap-
pointments for the direction of the villages already have been made,
these be void, and for the future no other appointments be made, as
it is requested by the Fathers, who in this fashion render a great service
to God and to Your Majesty, with their great work, as I have already
stated frequently. As an eyewitness during the time when, by order
of Your Majesty, I was Governor of Brazil, I came to know how
profitable they are in those parts both for the Portuguese as well as
15 AHC, Maranhio, 1624.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 295

for the Indians, who, as pointed out in the petition, are civilized by
the Fathers and make progress in Catholic doctrine, for the service
of Your Majesty and the welfare of the people.-6

A royal letter of March 7, 1624, constitutes the reply to the opinion

of Gaspar de Sousa:

I have seen the petition of the Custos and the Religious of St.
Francis, who are going to Maranhao, which you sent to me, and
which deals with the direction and the liberty of the Indians of those
regions; and I have seen the opinion of Gaspar de Sousa, who con-
siders everything in this dispatch, and I am pleased to decree that
everything shall be done according to the suggestion of Gaspar de
Sousa, for which purpose you are to issue the required enactment.17

There is still another consultation of the Council of the Exchequer,

dated as of January of the same year, concerning a petition which the
present writer could not find. In this request'8 Frei Crist6vio de
Lisboa and the other religious who accompanied him declared that
according to orders received, they had prepared themselves with all
things necessary for the voyage to MaranhMo. However, due to the
delay, various objects had deteriorated, and whatever was not spoiled
had been deposited in the royal warehouses. Now, again preparing
themselves for the voyage, they asked for a new subsidy in order
to be able to embark without further delay, according to orders
received.

When the Provedor of the warehouses was consulted on this re-

quest, he replied that his Majesty had ordered Frei Crist6vio and
his nine'9 religious, companions to be given 350$000 reis, 35$000 reis
of which was destined to each one for his maintenance, habits and
books and other things necessary for embarking. Since this money
had been given two years before and almost everything which had
been bought was spoiled, the priests having deposited only a few
sweets and biscuits, the superintendent of the warehouses did not con-

16 AHC, Maranhaio, n. d. [1624]. This document is accompanied by another undated

petition, very similar in content, which must have been written at about the same
time. Both petitions are reproduced in the original Portuguese in the Documents
section of this issue, pp. 357-359.
17 AHC, Maranhio, royal letter of March 7, 1624.
18AHC, C6dice 35-A, fol. 6, January 17, 1624.
19 In a note to the Histo'ria Portuguesa of Manoel Severim de Faria, the Baron
Studart states that Frei Crist6vio left Portugal on March 25, along with ten Franciscans
from the Province of Santo Ant6nio.

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296 FREI CRISTOVXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
sider that any deposit had been made, because the things received
were of no importance. It appeared necessary to him that each of
the priests should be given 20$000 reis since they still had clothes
and books. After the Procurator of the Exchequer also had been
consulted, the Council of the Exchequer favored the opinion that His
Majesty ought to offer an alms of 20$000 reis to the Custos and
his nine religious companions, in order to enable them to provide
themselves with all things necessary, and the King agreed with that
opinion.

Also the Custos's nephew, Manoel de Faria Severim, in his very

interesting diary says in reference to a trip to Evora: "Father Frei
Crist6vaio de Lisboa, my uncle, who on that occasion [1623] was pre-
paring himself for leaving for Maranhao, insisted upon giving me the
same advice. .. ."20

The authors disagree as to the date of arrival in Maranhio; however,

it appears certain that Frei Crist6vao left on March 25, 1624, with
the Governor Francisco Coelho de Carvalho, according to Bernardo
Pereira de Berredo's Anais Histdricos do Estado do Maranhio.
Many historians describe the difficulties met by those missionaries.
However, here we are especially interested in what Frei Crist6vao
himself has to say on this subject. In the "Prologue" of the Santoral
he states:

By order of His Majesty and in obedience to my prelates I went

to the regions of Maranhao and Parn to found a new custody of
religious Capuchos [Franciscans] of my Province of St. Anthony;
I was obliged to travel to Brazil, to stay there for a while, and thence
I embarked for Maranhao where I remained for twelve years, traveling,
visiting many times the regions of those conquistas, dedicating myself
to the conversion of the Indians and the instruction of the Christians,
also trying to remedy and to settle many affairs with which I came in
contact, by reason of the commissions given to me by different
courts; recently, according to orders received from my Superiors, I
returned by way of the Castilian Indies whence I embarked for Spain.21

The National Library of Lisbon possesses the originals of three

letters, already published,22 yet so important that it seems to me indis-

20oBiblioteca Nacional (Lisbon, Portugal), Fundo Geral, Ms. no. 7643. Hereafter
referred to as BNL.

21Santoral de vdrios sermdes de Santos; oferecido a Manoel de Faria Severim,

Chantre da Santa Se de Evora (Lisbon, Ant6nio Alvares, 1638). Pp. vi, 273.
22 BNL, Reservados, Caixa 29, nos. 28, 29 and 30, dated January 2 and 20, 1627 and
October 21, 1626. Published by Studart.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 297

pensable to call attention to them in this article. In these letters

Frei Crist6vio furnishes details concerning his voyages and the trials
he underwent. As there were many chances of letters being lost these
were almost always made out in duplicates or even triplicates and the
news of different voyages were repeated.
Frei Crist6vao's letter to Frei Ant6nio de Merceana is filled with
complaints against those who opposed his labors. He also describes two
meetings with the Tapuia Indians, and the hunger and thirst they suf-
fered when having lost their way, they wandered about in the forests
for a month and six days, and more than nine persons of his company
died. He also mentions a meeting with the Tremembez Indians.
To his brother he writes more about himself: he complains about
the lack of royal favors, the tempestuous voyage which he made from
Cearai to Maranhio, giving details which capture our interest because
they happened to the author, although they are otherwise a rather
commonplace topic in the very frequent shipwrecks. With his clothes
soaked with sea water, in constant danger of being dragged to his death
by the huge waves, Frei Crist6vao gave signs of irresistible courage
and serenity by helping the poor and demoralized travelers with spirit-
ual and material aid, directing the course of the boat and prevailing
upon the pilot who feared to approach the mainland on account of the
terrible Tremembez Indians who were waiting on the shore for the
expected shipwreck to deliver the poor victims into their ferocious
hands.

In the second letter to Manoel Severim de Faria he bitterly com-

plains: ". .. I am aging very fast here in Maranhio under the
corporal work and more so under the work for souls....,"23

So far it has been impossible to find much data that would permit us
to follow the later life of the illustrious Franciscan. His nephew,
Manoel de Faria Severim, informs us in his diary:24 "Then, from
the monastery of Sacavem (on January 19, 1637) we, my brother and
myself, accompanied my mother to Subserra where we arrived at
night; thence we sent notice to Father Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa,
my uncle, who then happened to be in the little monastery of
Sobral. .. ." The same nephew, a year afterwards, on January 24,
1638, was received into the Franciscan Order and at the ceremony
23 He may be referring to such serious and painful troubles as he had with Fr.
Luis Figueira, S.J.
24BNL, Fundo Geral, Ms. no. 7643.

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298 FREI CRISTOVrO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.

Father Frei Crist6vaio de Lisboa preached the sermon. Further on he

informs us:

Then, on February 10, my uncle went to stay for a night at Santa

Margarida and thence on the following day, he went to his mount
[sic!: sua serra which perhaps should be read as Subserra] with D.
Sancho, where he recovered from his depressive moods and heart ail-
ment which, together with the fear that the Castilians would move
against Evora to punish the revolts instigated by Joao Barradas and
Licinardo Roiz on the past August 21, when the Corregedor was
stoned, had thus caused his indisposition. My uncle returned well
disposed and arrived at Evora the following Palm Sunday, March 28.

A report of the Conde do Prado in a consultation of the Council of

the Exchequer says that

.. . as soon as Maranhao was conquered, His Majesty by his own

provision ordered the Fathers of St. Francis of the Provincia da
Piedade to be in charge of the conversion and baptizing of the souls
of those Indians and of the administration of their villages, and that
they remained in those villages for several years until a Custos of
theirs, a great religious called Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa ordered them
to withdraw to their monastery in the cities of San Luis and Bel6m,
not consenting to their return to the villages.25

Again Frei Crist6vao de Lisboa was the one to preach the sermon
published with the title Third Sunday in Advent in the Misericdrdia
of Lisbon, when King D. Joa-o IV took the oath as King of this Realm.2
The Arquivo Hist6rico Colonial also has a very interesting docu-
ment,27 perhaps of 1642, with the title "Papel do Principal do Grio
Pari," which is a testimony against bad Portuguese who destroyed the
Indians and in which the missionary is called forth as a witness:
"... and of all this Father Frei Crist6vao de Lisboa will give true
information as an eyewitness, as well as the other religious of his
order."

On September 2, 1644, Frei Crist6vHo is nominated Bishop of Angola,

which office however he never actually fulfilled. Afterwards he ap-

25AHC, C6dice 43, fol. 110, Consulta of the Conselho da Fazenda, August 8, 1637.
See also Mathias C. Kiemen, O.F.M., "The Indian Policy of Portugal in America,
with Special Reference to the Old State of Maranhio, 1500-1755," THE AMERICAS, V
(1948), 157.
26 Sermno da tereceira dominga do Advento, quando se jurou El-rei D. Joia IV
por rei (Lisbon, Ant6nio Alvares, 1641).
27 AHC, Maranhio, n. d. [1642? ].

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 299

pears as a consultant of the Overseas Council in two cases concern-

ing administrative matters of Brazil.28 Finally it is his nephew, Manoel
de Faria Severim, who tells us how that life devoted to the propaga-
tion of the faith, the protection of the Indians and the study of natural
history ended: "On Friday, April 19, 1652, at three o'clock in the
afternoon, in his monastery of Santo Ant6nio do Curral, after eighteen
bloodlettings and almost as many days of illness, Father Frei Crist6vio
de Lisboa, Bishop-elect of Angola, my uncle, went by a very good
death to heaven." The same says further on: "On September 25,
1655, died Manoel Severim de Faria, speaking almost until the last
breath.' 29

RELATIONS OF FREI CRISTOVXO WITH His BROTHER

Manoel Severim de Faria, Chanter and Canon of the Cathedral of
Evora, writer, author of numerous volumes and of the first Gazeta
de Noticias, owner of an important library and a museum, was a man
of broad culture, vast erudition and great merit. Yet this article is not
the place for a complete study of this man. Here we are concerned
exclusively with his relations with his brother, Frei Crist6vo.ao
Frei Crist6vao possessed a great esteem and deep respect for the
opinion of his brother. This is evident not only in his two letters
preserved in the National Library of Lisbon, but also in several of
his sermons. He used to write him frequently, sent him information
and curiosities, always giving the first rank to the truth. "Now,
via Brazil, I hope by God's help to send you soon [the account of]
the encounters which the foreigners had with our men in Para, written
in the style, accuracy and truth with which I am pointing out all
things of these parts . . ." Farther on he writes: ". . . [news of]
the work of this country I sent you from Ceari; now via Brazil
[news of] other greater works will follow ...." He shows his exact-
ness in narrating the truth, commenting:

... your book impressed me as a heavenly thing both by its erudition

as well as by the excellence of its style, yet I should like to advise
you that in things from overseas you must be very careful, not trust-
ing too easily the reports most of which are false. . ... You say in
28Luiza Fonseca, "In Defense of the Maranhio Indians of Brazil," THE AMERICAS,
VII (October, 1950), 216-217.
29BNL, Fundo Geral, Ms. no. 7643.
30His parents were Gaspar Gil de Severim, Executor-M6r do Reino, and Juliana
de Faria.

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300 FREI CRISTI6VXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
your book that Manoel de Sousa brought me here by orders of the
Governor; yet it is not so, since he remained there and thence he
went to Bahia, and now he came with the Governor.

He criticizes Guerreiro because "everything that he says in his

booklet about the Bahia da Traigio happened in quite the opposite
way." He turns again to the book of his brother: ". .. you told
me that the Governor broke the enemy, but he never dreamed of
such a thing." And he concludes:

I know very well that you are hardly guilty in this, since being a
man of known truth yourself you judge others according to your own
standard; however the pure truth is a thing that is very rarely found
here; I am making this remark because nothing discredits books of
history more than an account which is diametrically opposed to the
truth.... I beg you to trust only the reports I am sending on to
you from here, as I am very zealous of credibility. . ... I sent away
the notebook from those I am writing on the history of these regions
and I have no other original left but the reports written or heard;
you will polish the style there, since I have had no time for that, and
keep it for me. This original is in perfect harmony with the truth.
I am a very busy person and I do not have anybody to transcribe it
for me."1

Certainly these are expressions of truth, said in confidence of friend-

ship to a beloved brother. Concerning Frei Vicente do Salvador's
having asked him for information for his history, he writes: ". . . he
was so honorable that he asked me for some of the things which we
did here. . i.

Likewise in his printed works Frei Crist6vao manifests the same

respect for his brother; thus in the Santoral he writes: ". . . in order
that Your Grace be able to judge of the publication of the other
works I intend to have printed, and although the considerations of
blood relationship might make me suspicious of the judgement of your
Grace, your integrity and prudence are so well known to all that I
feel certain that the opinion of Your Grace overcomes all human
respect and is the only thing I have to follow in order to be cor-
rect. .. . "
Still in the Santoral, in the "Prologue," he declares that he wrote
two volumes in which he explains the passages of major difficulty in
the Sacred Scriptures.

31 BNL, letters of Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 301

FREI CRISTO6VXO AS BRAZILIAN NATURAL HISTORIAN

The first reference to the manuscript concerning the natural history

of Brazil is found in the letter of Frei Crist6vio to his brother Manoel
written on January 20, 1627. He writes: "I am correcting and
making improvements on the treatise of the birds, plants, fishes and
animals; and this is also accompanied by drawings, and it must not
be exposed to risk since I will not be able to make another. .. ."
From this sentence written with such great simplicity, three very
important conclusions may be drawn: 1. (decisive for the botanical
history of Brazil) Frei Crist6vao de Lisboa drew and described animal
and vegetal species much before Nassau arrived in Pernambuco. I do
not wish to affirm that he was the first to picture those unknown
species since nothing warrants me to conclude that no other Portuguese
drew them prior to this Franciscan. 2. Father Crist6vio himself did
the drawing, as he states that "this is also accompanied by drawings
and cannot be exposed to risk [of being sent overseas] since I will
not be able to make another ... ." 3. The manuscript was composed
in Maranhao in the presence of the species reproduced.

The book was bought by the Arquivo Hist6rico Colonial in 1934

from a bookseller of Lisbon.32 The binding is entirely of parchment
and has written on the back with faded black ink in Gothic char-
acters: "Animaes do Maranhao" [Animals of Maranhao]. On the
inside of the cover: "M.N.3." [Manuscript no. 3 ?]. The title
page reads: "Historia dos animais, e arvores do / maranhao / Pelo
muito Reverendo Padre Fr. Crist6vio de Lisboa Calificador do Santo /
Oficio, e fundador da Cust6dia do / Maranhao da Recolecaio de /
de Santo Ant6nio de / Lisboa / Anno . .. ." On top in a different
handwriting: "St. Louis de Maranhon / vil du Bresil."
The codex has 194 leaves: a) 3 leaves, with two columns each, of
index; b) 163 leaves with drawings; c) 31 leaves of text. The topics
are arranged in the following order: fishes: fols. 1-60, fols. 29, 30, 31
and 61 being blank; mammals: fols. 62-71, fol. 70 being blank; reptiles:
fols. 72-73; birds: fols. 74-109; plants: fols. 110-163; text: fols. 164-
194, fol. 171 being blank.

The drawings were made in pencil and afterwards drawn over

in ink which presumably was black. There are sketches which were
32 Sold by Livraria Coelho for 3,500 escudos. The Director of the Archive at that
time was Dr. Manuel Muirias.

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302 FREI CRISTOVAO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
unfinished, with other sketches superimposed; the animal is shown in
various positions, demonstrating the endeavor of the author to render
a perfect work; this aim is likewise confirmed by occasional marginal
remarks such as: "the points less protruding." On fol. 66, not satisfied
with the drawing of the "Savoya, rabbit with features of a rat," he
cut off part of the muzzle which was substituted by another piece of
paper glued over it, beneath which one still may see the whiskers and
the tip of the nose of the original figure.

Several animals eat others, by which means they maintain them-

selves. On the side of the figures the author wrote the names of the
animals, tentatively, trying to habituate the ear to the language of the
country, and the names are written down, often canceled out or cor-
rected. Sometimes he added the name used in Portugal.

On several pages appears the word "Estampa" [Plate] almost always

followed by a small cross. Sometimes there is only the cross. Possibly
these are the drawings selected for reproduction in print. Sometimes
the word "Estampa" is crossed out.

On each page there are two or three drawings. Some of the pages
are of exquisite beauty, for instance, the one with the group of deer
or the one with the lizards, pictured in a position wherein they lean
so as to form a frame. All animals are in elegant and natural positions.

The great care of the author in picturing the animals is still out-
done by the care given to the representation of the plants; each one
of them fills an entire page with a graceful abundance of leaves, flowers
and fruits, leaving the impression that the page does not have room
enough for the image collected by the artistic vision of the author.
The first plant is the manioc. On fol. 117, beneath the figure of the
comanda [feijo, bean], there is the following legend: "This tree up
to now does not have any other name but that of coral on account
of the flower which appears to be of coral. Only the very famous and
learned Carlo Clusio mentions it, without flower or fruit, and he states
that he received it from Sevilla with the name of arvore de coral.
Thus the tree may be called in Latin: Arbor siliquifera, trifolia, Ameri-
cana et Brasiliana, where it grows in the fields. It is called Arvore
Espinho [thorn tree] because it has some thorns close around the
branches. Ita Gulielmus insignis Herbarius." This note appears to be
in the hand of the author, in very good handwriting; it is the only
erudite note of the manuscript.

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 LUIZA DA FONSECA 303

The text which follows at the end of the book is of very simple
composition, very bad orthography and worse handwriting; only in
some parts the writing and the style are slightly better. Could it be
that it was dictated by the author while he was drawing, to a com-
panion of little education? There are some words which contain
corrections made by the author. The study of the handwriting of
this precious manuscript is a work that requires great attention and
comparison with all known handwritings of the author, and the
present writer hopes to do it someday.
LUIZA DA FONSECA
Arquivo Histo'rico Colonial,
Lisbon, Portugal.

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