Ilustration and colonial empire

Abstracts

Between 1780 and 1808, the main reflections on the colonial Portuguese empire came from settlers and reinois living in Brazil. The Portuguese-Brazilian prospect was linked to both training at the University of Coimbra and living experience in Portuguese America. Thinking about the empire, at this juncture, used to be associated to examine the centrality of Lisbon and Brazil, to evaluate the links between the kingdom, the Brazilian lands and other possessions in Africa. Slowly, for those illustrated, Brazil became a center for Portuguese domains in Angola and Mozambique. Indeed, long before the Portuguese court arrived in Americ, ita has gained centrality in the production of written and visual subjects of His Majesty.

Portuguese Enlightenment; colonization; Overseas Empire

Ilustration and the colonial empire

Ilustração e império colonial

Ronald Raminelli¹

Associate Professor, Department of History, Fluminense Federal University. (UFF)

ABSTRACT

Between 1780 and 1808, the main reflections on the colonial Portuguese empire came from settlers and Portuguese-born subjects living in Brazil. The Portuguese-Brazilian perspective was linked to both training at the University of Coimbra and to lived experience in Portuguese America. To think of empire was to examine the centrality of Lisbon and Brazil and to evaluate the links between the kingdom, the Brazilian lands and other possessions in Africa. Gradually, for those who were depicted in illustrations, Brazil became a center for Portuguese domains in Angola and Mozambique. In fact, long before the arrival of the Portuguese court, America had already gained centrality in the visual and written production of His Majesty's subjects.

Keywords: Portuguese Enlightenment, colonization, Overseas Empire.

RESUMO

Entre 1780 e 1808, as principais reflexões sobre o império colonial lusitano partiam de colonos e de reinóis radicados no Brasil. A perspectiva luso-brasileira vinculava-se tanto à formação na Universidade de Coimbra quanto à vivência na América portuguesa. Pensar o império, nessa conjuntura, era analisar a centralidade de Lisboa e do Brasil, avaliar os nexos entre o reino, as terras brasílicas e as demais possessões na África. Para os ilustrados, aos poucos, o Brasil tornava-se um centro para os domínios lusitanos em Angola e Moçambique. Aliás, muito antes da vinda corte, as terras lusas na América já ganhavam centralidade na produção visual e escrita dos súditos de Sua Majestade.

Palavras-chave: Iluminismo português, colonização, Império Marítimo.

Spatial knowledge of colonial empires underwent a huge expansion in the age of the Enlightenment. With more precise longitude and latitude calculations, cartography was experiencing its glory days, recording not only the jagged coast, but also the interior of the king of Portugal's vast possessions. Inventories from the borders progressed rapidly in strategic areas in the boundaries between the empires in America, although they moved along with a jolt in the African and Asian colonies. The reduced number of mathematicians and cartographers prevented geography from being further enhanced in the inner territory of Angola and Mozambique. The construction of fortifications, military barriers against the free movement of troops and adventurers, followed the rhythm of the maps. Mapping, protecting, occupying and exploring lands were all part of the same strategy for the preservation of His Majesty's domains. Besides the forts, at the borders, dozens of villages emerged, planned in Lisbon and implemented in the more distant posts of the 17th century Amazon region. These nuclei enabled the maintenance of troops, the cultivation of crops and the settling of Indians who, prior to the Pombaline reforms, had been scattered throughout the wilderness. Hence, the monarchy built its American borders with mathematical calculations, forts, villages, crops and "pacified" tribes.

In the African colonies, inventories of space, people and nature did not promote the same consolidation of limits, although there were plans to investigate the river network and to build a string of forts in the African interior. These attempts, however, were not fruitful, due to a lack of metropolitan incentive and to the political instability in the colonization of the continent. In fact, plans for reform were lost amid the wars and the practice of capturing slaves. The philosophical voyages, undertaken since 1783, formed the tools of government at a distance and pursued the mapping of the territory, the location of wealth and the identification of the natural kingdoms. Three naturalists scoured the islands and the African wilderness, but they were unable to achieve the same notoriety as Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira's voyage to the captaincies of Pará, Rio Negro and Mato Grosso. In America, the King's envoy devoted himself, almost exclusively, to the study of nature and people. His colleagues, explorers of African soil, deployed themselves with functions that were not always reconcilable with the affairs of a naturalist. At the end of the age of the Enlightenment, the Portuguese monarchy and, in particular, the Ministry of the Navy and Overseas Affairs, invested their efforts in modernizing agriculture and mineral extraction in its territories in America. For the colonies in Angola and Mozambique, the same plans of modernization would not be committed to. The difference in treatment in Brazil originates from its farming income and in the re-export of colonial goods to European markets. At the end of the 18th century, these domains became the center of discussions undertaken by Azeredo Coutinho, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho and Luiz dos Santos Vilhena. Thus, Brazil consolidated itself as the most important Portuguese overseas possession, intensifying its interdependence with Portugal, so evident after 1808. During the Pombaline period, according to Catarina Madeira, overseas America still disputed its importance in the Portuguese South Atlantic with Angola. In the first few years of the 1800's, Brazil reigned alone in the colonial empire as the center of His Majesty's possessions.

Imperial cartography

Plans to map the geography of the American wilderness originated in diplomatic relations between Portugal and Spain, and in the disputes over land and rivers between the empires. With the advance westward, the Lusitanian conquest virtually ignored the Treaty of Tordesillas, the imaginary line existing only in old letters and ignored by the explorers from São Paulo. The discovery of gold and diamond mines certainly aroused interest in the riches of the territory's wilderness, which, by rights, belonged to the Castilians. The western borders were, therefore, controversial topics; a reason for disputing allegedly rich and unknown areas. From negotiations and treaties, the Iberian kingdoms organized expeditions composed of cartographers and astronomers to travel across the American interior and determine, via latitude and longitude, the boundary of the domains. The voyages of exploration sought, in principle, to gather spatial knowledge. Their components enabled the taking of measurements and the transformation of mathematics into charts.

The race to map the wilderness began at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1720, when the cartographer Guillaume Delisle found errors in the boundaries. According to his calculations, the colony of Sacramento and the Northern Cape were Castilian areas and not Portuguese. This news led to a serious diplomatic incident between the Iberian powers. To legitimize Lusitanian possession, ministers of D. João V assembled teams to demarcate the extensive border ahead of their competitors. To this end, the services of the mathematician-priests Giovanni Carbone and Domenico Capacci, who began their work in late 1722, were used initially. The monarchy tasked them with making observations of latitude and longitude, constructing an astronomical observatory in Lisbon and making a chart of Maranhão. Only in 1729 did the mathematicians make their way toward America. The Jesuits Capacci and Diogo Soares traveled to Brazil with the task of producing maps from nautical studies and studies of the hinterland. In order to avoid doubt and controversy surrounding the new discoveries, it was up to the priests to carry out geographical descriptions and bring together the essential elements for border negotiations. It was still incumbent upon them to determine the position of the colony of Sacramento as regards the limits established by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Next, Alexandre de Gusmão ordered several measurements. A favorite of D. João V, he gathered geographic, ethnographic and economic reports to better negotiate the Treaty of Madrid (1750) with the Castilians. To obtain so much data, he appealed to the governors, explorers and mathematicians. Gusmão, of course, was moved by the controversy created by the French cartographer and planned to reinforce the credibility of the measures devised by the mathematician priests. If the Crown demanded the demarcation of the borders under the Treaty of Tordesillas, its arguments would be fragile, especially when it came to the claims on Rio Grande de São Pedro and the colony of Sacramento. In fact, according to Gusmão, it was "imperative to waive the old 15th century agreement and seek another legal basis for the Portuguese claim" (CORTESÃO, 1961, 24; KANTOR, 2004, 45-57). To negotiate, Gusmão gave up the colony of Sacramento to the Spanish, as part of a strategy to defend the Portuguese possession on the borders of the Amazon and central and southern Brazil, which were old areas of Portuguese colonization. The knowledge of space was, of course, imperative in negotiations between the Iberian kingdoms, as both territorial claims and the resolution of border disputes were maintained (FERREIRA, 2001, 58).

After the Treaty of Madrid, demarcation teams were established, composed of military engineers, cartographers, astronomers, line drawers (designers), surgeons and chaplains. The escorting troops relied on Indians, slaves, servants, carpenters, masons and military personnel (FERREIRA, 2001, 135-6). By carrying out demarcations, the group had to take into account rivers, mountains and other geographical features which acted as natural boundaries between Lusitanian and Hispanic areas. The team still valued the land farmed by settlers, preserving agricultural and commercial establishments prior to the demarcation process. The principle of uti possidetis, would, therefore, be essential in ensuring the establishment of the Treaty (ALMEIDA, 1990, 38).

While assembling these teams, the Portuguese crown noticed the reduced provision of Portuguese professionals. In the kingdom, cartographers and mathematicians were inadequate and ill-prepared to face the struggles surrounding border demarcation. To overcome the deficiency, the Secretary of State Azevedo Coutinho entrusted Friar João Álvares de Gusmão with the task of hiring geographers from Italy and Germany to serve the Lusitanian monarchy. These professionals also had to have the ability to draw: "to be able to draw scenes from the most remarkable places, and sketch plants, animals, and other unknown and newsworthy things." Due to their colonial interests in America, the hiring of Spanish, French and Dutch personnel was prohibited.

The first demarcation teams in the 1750s were commanded by the Portuguese, although Italian and German Catholics performed the roles of cartographers, engineers and line drawers. The dependence on professionals hired from abroad would lessen in the years ahead, as the Secretary of State also invited teachers to train the Portuguese. As mathematics was very much in vogue in other parts of Europe, a school dedicated to the subject had to be established in the kingdom and, therefore, two professors "of the highest caliber" would be invited (COUTINHO, 1961, 21-25). In 1772, a math course began at the University of Coimbra, with Miguel Franzini responsible for the subject of Algebra, Miguel Ciera for Astronomy and Monteiro da Rocha for Physics and Mathematics. Since then, the course formed a corps of mathematicians to carry out the demarcation of the imperial borders. From 1777, with the resolutions arising from the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso, Portuguese parties were formed by recently graduated professionals from the University of Coimbra. Clearly, the need to train staff encouraged the reform of the institution.

The Treaty of Madrid created, however, more controversies than spatial orientations. The vast size of the American interior was beyond the capacity of the Iberian parties. The cartographers and mathematicians were faced with complex geography and did not reach a consensus. Even though this treaty had brought obvious advantages to Portugal, thanks to Alexandre de Gusmão, Pombal considered it detrimental to Portuguese interests. For the Marquis, diplomatic negotiations arose from the conspiracies plotted by the Company of Jesus, which was a fierce opponent of the Pombaline reforms (CARTA, 1961, 101-103). Besides the Lusitanian antagonism, Carlos III, the Sovereign appointed to the Spanish throne in 1759, envisioned the Lusitanian presence at the Prata River as nefarious. Upon the resolution of the main disputes in September 1777, the Crowns signed the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso, which established four joint demarcation committees (GUERREIRO, 1997), consisting of two commissioners, two engineers and their technicians. From the treaty and regiments themselves, the areas of activity and those responsible were outlined. The borders comprised the vast territory from Chui to the Rio Negro, and involved, on the Portuguese side, the Marquis of Lavradio, and the governors of São Paulo, Mato Grosso and Pará (VARNHAGEN, 1981, 271-274).

The new commission largely relied on Portuguese cartographers, astronomers and mathematicians. The competency in technical occupations was the result of the reform at the University of Coimbra and the enchantment of the youth, particularly the Luso-Brazilians, with the advancement of science in the overseas domains. With doctorates in mathematics, the following men worked as astronomers and cartographers in the Portuguese party: José Simões de Carvalho, José Joaquim Vitório da Costa, Francisco Lacerda e Almeida and Antônio Pires Pontes Leme (DOMINGUES, 1991). The reform of the University of Coimbra certainly helped to train professionals who had performed the tasks previously carried out by foreigners. The team was able to produce rigorous mathematical measurements and also promote knowledge about natural history.

In the statutes of the University of Coimbra in 1772, the philosophical disciplines, such as rational, moral and natural philosophy, had the purpose of forcing "Nature to declare hidden truths that it does not want to show, unless it is asked with great skill and deception" (ESTATUTOS, 1972, 229). These teachings were found in the writings of various philosophers, naturalists and mathematicians of the Portuguese expeditions to the Americas, Africa and Asia. The Luso-Brazilian mathematicians Pontes Leme and Lacerda e Almeida sought to demarcate the borders, and locate rivers, paths, streams and waterfalls. The knowledge and recording of new plants and animals, as well as the description and location of gold and diamond mines, were also interests of the expedition. In ten years, Lacerda e Almeida traveled along the borders between Belém and Santos, demarcating latitudes, making the work of cartographers possible and, finally, outlining the "Geographic Plan of the Rio Negro" in 1780 (MARTIM, 1997, 40-41).

Since the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso, the Crown had hired professionals to explore not only cartographic knowledge, but also preserve boundaries, encouraging commercial and agricultural activities. In disputed areas, the demarcators registered the potential of crops and labor. They even showed suitable agricultural techniques and produced population maps of towns and villages. Even though they were precarious and not very systematic, the reports were effective for plotting a profile of the population based at the border. With these testimonies, the demographic decline in riverside communities of the Rio Branco could be evaluated, after the "freedom" of the Indians by the Pombaline directorate. Between 1781 and 1782, Ricardo Franco de Almeida Serra traveled along the Madeira River and listed the intricate motivations for founding a settlement. His analysis was based not only on geographical knowledge, but also demonstrated the links between hydrography, navigation, trade, border protection and catechesis.

In any event, cartography was the most relevant material produced by the teams. In the 1750s, the colony of Sacramento was the main target for measurements. The first party, between Castilhos and the river Uruguay, produced 14 maps, while the second and third parties made only 12. (FERREIRA, 2001, 280-311). The same imbalance was evident in the demarcation of the north, where a much lower volume of maps was produced. The Portuguese State could, at last, count on an admirable collection of maps that had been produced since the hiring of the mathematician priests. In nearly 60 years of investment, the American borders of the empire were transported in paper form to Lisbon.

In 1798, the Secretary of State for the Navy and Overseas Territories, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, ordered the making of a general chart of Brazil, using the demarcators' best partial charts, graded by latitude and longitude. The chart of Brazil would be done by a team, coming from various demarcations, under the leadership of Dr. Antônio Pires da Silva Pontes Leme. The project also counted on the designers José Joaquim Freire and Manuel Tavares da Fonseca. "New Lusitania" was composed of 86 charts with explanatory captions and a list of the cartographers responsible for the tracings. Besides the use of conventional signs, the charts located landmarks, forts, captaincies, paths, gold and iron mines, waterfalls and abandoned sites (CORTESÃO, 1971, 371-372). It was a true synthesis of cartographic knowledge gathered together under royal patronage.

The metropolitan interventions on African soil did not have the same amplitude. In 1752, the government of Mozambique was separated from the State of India, which was not able to guarantee the defense of the east African coast. In order to preserve the conquest, the Crown decided to strengthen the powers of the governor and the captain-general of the captaincy of Mozambique, Rios de Sena e Sofala, who, from then on, would report directly to Lisbon. The administrative separation did not, however, prevent the actions of traders from the State of India. Under pressure, the new governor had to allow trade in the Bay of Lourenço Marques by traders from Goa, Diu and Daman. In Angola, the Pombaline government planned to encourage both the immigration of subjects from the kingdom and the islands, as well as agricultural production. The former dominion of His Majesty should become "a colony of settlement and production through manufacturing, working the land, or the mere extraction of natural products, and be well received in European markets" (SANTOS, 2005, 63).

Hence, the Pombaline government determined the advancement of the colonial areas to the east and, using the governors, encouraged internalization, especially after the establishment of a fort and trading post at Pedra de Encoge. Next, they organized markets in the countryside as a strategy to improve the movement of people and goods in a spontaneous way. Later, appealing to the inland waterways, a safe route was sought to penetrate the territory and perhaps find routes to the eastern region of the continent. At first, the Guango River was tried as a means of reaching Mozambique before turning to Benguela, where the Cunene River was located and where there was the appearance of a fluvial route toward the east coast. Without any success, the mathematician Joaquim José da Silva participated in this journey in 1785 under the command of Captain Antônio José da Costa. The government of D. Francisco Inocêncio Sousa Coutinho, however, was marked by positive enterprises, as he managed to install an iron factory in Nova Oeiras and he drove colonization toward Benguela's countryside, where "large and useful hinterlands" with salubrious air, fertile land and an abundance of livestock were found. In relation to the east coast, the economic interventions were minor (MAGALHÃES, 1998, 60-80, v. 3).

Compared to America, geographical knowledge of the African conquests did not progress at the same rate. However, what stands out are the attempts of the Baron of Moçâmedes, who was governor of Angola from 1784 to 1790, to invest in finding mineral resources in the countryside and resurrecting a project to locate a river crossing between the east and west coasts of Africa. In 1785, he organized two expeditions to investigate whether the Cunene River would serve as a conduit for the conquest of the interior of the continent. With this investment, he took over the plans of Governor D. Francisco Inocêncio de Souza Coutinho (1764-1772), father of D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, who intended to advance colonization in the interior. As a member of the expedition into the interior of Angola, the Luso-Brazilian Joaquim José da Silva intended to explore the territory, not just as a naturalist, but also as a pathfinder. In fact, it was unsuccessful, because the route eastward towards Mozambique could not, at that time, be discovered. The unsuccessful expedition would yield only a few letters from the naturalist to the State Department and the Natural History Museum (RELATÓRIO, 1784).

Around 1798, as governor of the Sena and Tete rivers, the mathematician Francisco de Lacerda e Almeida was given the task of demarcating the African hinterland on an expedition to the western lands, from Mozambique to Angola or Benguela. Invested in the plan to create pathways between the possessions of His Majesty, the Secretary of State Souza Coutinho intended to prevent the presence of European nations, especially the English, in the interior of Africa. During the crossing, the mathematician reported the lack of incentive from the metropolitan government and the imminent failure of their ventures (LACERDA E ALMEIDA, 1944). Lacerda e Almeida would die soon after, a victim of endemic diseases. In any event, shortly before his expedition, the cartography of Angola and Benguela had a significant improvement. Early in the 1790s, Lieutenant Colonel Pinheiro Furtado used available charts and data to compose a map of Angola. On the map of 1790, only the west coast was delineated; in the other direction, "the Angolan space had no defined boundaries and the interior is still barely completed, both in terms of geographical knowledge and in terms of political affairs" (SANTOS, 2005, 96).

In short, the demarcation of the boundaries did not have the same proportion as that which was carried out at the borders between Spanish and Portuguese America. In the African colonies, the demarcations did not have the accurate astronomical observations and, therefore, produced deficient frameworks of the river network. Manuel Galvão da Silva, Joaquim José da Silva, Carlos José dos Reis e Gama and Francisco José Lacerda e Almeida produced inventories of the continent that aimed to provide suggestions for improving the cultivation of the land, the pacification of the people and the search for precious metals, but they failed to approximate Lisbon's African conquests. Under the alleged control of the Lusitanian monarch, trade with Africa was, however, "increasingly more Brazilian and less Portuguese" (MAGALHÃES, 1998, 76-80).

During the rule of D. Miguel Antônio de Melo (1797-1802), it was evident that the metropolitan policies were deficient in transforming Angola into a settlement colony. At that time, the failure of agricultural establishments, manufacturers and the immigration of Portuguese and Azorean people was observed. Previously, "in the 1750s, Brazil and Angola, despite all their differences, had been thought of and placed as joint targets for reformist policy. At the end of the century, the differences increased to the point where it was necessary to rethink Angola, according to Miguel Antônio de Melo" (SANTOS, 2006, 90). Despite plans to turn it into a large colony that had persisted since the Pombaline reforms, the priority was still the slave trade, since without Angola there was no Brazil, and without Brazil there was no empire. In a letter of 1797 to D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, the governor recalled that the Angolan slaves sustained the imperial economy, maintaining their productive activities in the sugarcane plantations and sugar mills, tobacco plantations and in the extraction of wood from Brazil (SANTOS, 2006, 45).

Peoples and imperial nature

In addition to cartography, border demarcation investigated natural history, species and the possibility of introducing new colonial products to the vast hinterlands. The emphasis, however, would only be verified after the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso. With the reform of 1772, the University of Coimbra began to administer philosophical disciplines - rational, moral and natural philosophy - and to train professionals who would be able to understand nature and the people overseas. Natural philosophy encompassed the branches of science dedicated to the contemplation of nature, except for medical and mathematical courses. The first was based on the physics of the human body, and the second, on commerce, on "the philosophy of quantity, regarding the likelihood of the number, and the measurement" (ESTATUTOS, 1972, 229). At that time, natural history involved areas of knowledge that today would be called biology, economics, chemistry, agronomy and ethnology. Indeed, crop diversity and productivity were essential for the smooth progress of economic reforms that had been implemented since the Pombaline government took power. Crops still sustained the fortifications and control over the border areas because land ownership was tied to exploration.

The peoples of the empire were also addressed in the memoirs dedicated to the protection of the borders, "industrial products" and diseases. If ownership was a condition for the exploration and occupation of the territory - uti possidetis -, the creation of villages and farms on the fringes of the empire was paramount (ARAÚJO, 1992). When undertaking trips to the hinterlands, naturalists and demarcators investigated farming techniques and the soil for the crops, as well as the productive capacity of the inhabitants. By drawing population maps, the agents of the Crown invested in ethnographic research (PELS, SALEMINK, 2000, 1-52), designed to identify the diverse communities and assess their military capacity, their military control over the rivers and their potential alliances with Spanish and Dutch settlers on the borders.

In Grão-Pará and Maranhão, these investigations coincided with the main guidelines of the Pombaline reforms. The demarcators sought, therefore, to gather news to enable a policy of freedom and integrate the Indians with the plantations and with colonial trade. Prior embarking on voyages, the Directorate (DIRECTORIO, 1758) outlined strategies to impose the light of civilization upon the indigenous communities. The law proclaimed Portuguese as the only language in the villages, calling Portugal the greatest of all nations for introducing its language to the conquered. This measure aspired to "banishing, from the rustic peoples, the barbarity of their ancient customs." For this, the illustrious Pombaline government planned the establishment of schools where the Indians would be converted to Christianity and civilization. Education would ensure the banishment of alcohol addiction, the use of clothing and the building of European style houses, separating each family, as well as separating boys and girls. The Indians could then be civilized by means of communication and trade with whites who would be introduced to the settlements.

At the borders, which were demographically empty, the Pombaline government encouraged, therefore, the conversion of the Indians to the rationality of trade and of the light so as to increase allies who supported uti possidetis. The close coexistence between Indians and whites not only fostered cultural miscegenation and civilization, but it also made the racial mixture between the Portuguese, the Indians, mulattoes and mixed races feasible. The charter of April 1755 encouraged mixed marriages between the Indians and the settlers, and even forbade the use of "caboclo" ("half-breed") or "negro da terra" ("negro of the earth") as terms for Indian women and their descendants (BOXER, 1967, 132). If, at the border, there was no better strategy to take up the space, then in mining towns and cities on the Brazilian coast, the Mameluks and, especially, the mulattoes, were sources of rebellion (RUSSELL-WOOD, 2004, 105-126).

The mixed races attacked roads, gathered in urban centers and abolished the strict hierarchy of the slave society. Whether it was in their race or in their customs, they now solved the stormy dilemmas at the borders and dared to go against order. The civilized Indians would save the remote areas of His Majesty's domain, but the mulattoes in sugarcane areas used "the evil favors of the masters" and based themselves, according to Antonil, on pride and vices, cherishing "the valiant, prepared for any insolence" (ANTONIL, 1982, 89). These hybrids would also not be the best settlers in the Angolan hinterland. There, the policy of miscegenation - the encouragement of contact between blacks and whites - demonstrated the enormous capacity of the African "to capture and convert individuals, trained in the framework of a European culture, to their logic" (SANTOS, 2006, 179-180). Instead of multiplying the King's vassals, whites and mulattoes soon Africanized themselves and were quickly absorbed by "plots of barbarism." In the colonial empire, finally, blacks and free or captive mulattoes would not be the best partners for the Portuguese colonizers.

In this regard, the Amerindians always had greater acceptance. The ownership of the territory and survival of the settlers depended on indigenous cooperation from Indian vassals and civilized Indians. At that time, nations that did not cooperate with these principles were treated as enemies. Monitored as rivals, the Mura and Mundurucus dominated the rivers and prevented the movement of settlers in vital areas of the Amazon. For such daring, they were persecuted and reduced to slavery, even after freedom had been decreed by the Pombaline Directorate (ALMEIDA, 1997; DOMINGUES, 2000). Throughout the journeys, military engineers reported attacks carried out by these groups, who plundered villages and canoes during the trips. In the 1780s, Lobo d'Almada, Wilkens, Almeida Serra, and other agents of the empire spent a lot of ink in describing the ethnicity of the borders. Interest in contacting and getting to know the communities became strategic after clashes between the armies of Gomes Freire and the Jesuit-controlled Guarani. After the incidents at Sete Povos das Missões, the State realized how fragile the border ownerships were if the support of the Amerindians could not be counted on. From then on, cartographers sought not only to draw limitations, but also to map the ethnicities and assess the possible alliances and dangers in the Lusitanian establishments of the hinterland (HENRIQUE, 1781).

Investigating the links between man and nature was the main task of the Philosophical Trips. These expeditions not only produced geographical knowledge, such as demarcations, they also investigated a vast territory to catalog the potential of the three kingdoms of nature. Thus, they intended to map the riches and the people of the overseas domains. The expeditions began in 1783 as part of the same strategy, although in Angola, Mozambique and Goa they counted on highly precarious teams and resources. In contrast, in the captaincy of Pará, Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, commander of the Philosophical Journey, enjoyed more generous resources and could devote himself entirely to the trip, the shipments, the composing of memoirs and diaries, and activities ordered by the governors and the Secretary of State for the Navy and Overseas Territories, Martinho de Melo e Castro.

On trips to the African territory, his colleagues were not so lucky. They carried out mostly administrative activities and deviated from their affairs as naturalists. By resenting the lack of well-trained officers in the conquests of Africa, the Crown appealed to the alumni of Coimbra to occupy important positions in the local administration. Yet in Lisbon, naturalists Manuel Galvão da Silva and Joaquim José da Silva were appointed secretaries of the government in Mozambique and Angola, respectively. Overseas, they did not just work as naturalists. They worked, above all, as administrators. In their spare time, they collected and referred species and reports to the Natural History Museum in Lisbon.

Soon after landing, Feijó began writing the "Philosophical Itinerary" between June and December 1783, in which he described a trip to the islands of Brava and Fogo. He sent Martinho de Melo e Castro reports on the climate, the soil and the vegetation of Cape Verde. The naturalist described the plantations of corn, beans, vegetables and vines. On the islands, "all supplies are most abundant, so much so that a chicken never exceeds 2 pennies", but the willingness of the residents did not always live up to the fertility and exuberance of nature. Except in the rainy season, when they sowed for the following year, almost all were inclined to laziness, lewdness and lasciviousness in the extreme, especially women (FEIJÓ, 1783). Some time later, in "Ensaios econômicos sobre as Ilhas do Cabo Verde" (1797) ("Economic essays on the Cape Verde Islands"), Feijó came to highlight the backwardness of these inhabitants and considered the dispersion to be responsible for their free and almost wild spirit. They lived in huts or small houses and were unable to receive a regular education: "In this dispersion, these people, over time, generally acquire a free and almost wild spirit, each one living in his hut, or small home. The impossibility of having a regular education, not only scientific, but even religious, makes them superstitious..." (FEIJÓ, 1986, 7).

Officially, Joaquim José da Silva held the position of secretary to the governor of Angola, according to the royal Charter, dated December 14, 1782 (IANTT, liv 84, fl. 321v). His name was not even on the income report granted by His Majesty to naturalists, botanists and scribes. For the expedition to Angola, only the names of the scribes Ângelo Donato and José Antônio appeared, the first with a salary of 240 thousand reis, and the second with 192 thousand reis (CARTA, 1783). In fact, Silva would exercise a dual role. For a period of three years, he would be secretary to the governor and naturalist. His scarce writings, particularly his correspondence, testify to the plight of a man of science controlled by bureaucrats and military leaders concerned with defending the conquest in the African interior. Thus, when analyzing the products sent to Lisbon, one realizes how much less his services as a naturalist were in comparison with the shipments and memoirs produced by his colleagues who were in charge of expeditions to Cape Verde and Pará.

Initially, the Philosophical Journey to Angola traveled through Benguela, Luanda, Cabinda, the Dande river and Massangano. While initially the naturalist was willing to investigate nature, his optimism soon gave way to a profound sadness that accompanied him throughout the journey (RELATÓRIO, 1784). Before arriving in Luanda, the scribe Angelo Donati died, and then on the trip to Cabinda, it would be the turn of his companion, the second scribe José Antônio. On July 9, 1787, the naturalist Joaquim José da Silva wrote a letter to Julio Matiazzi of the Natural History Museum to complain about the lack of support and the hard work of sending shipments without being able to count on his travel companions. Under normal conditions, the act of collecting and describing species demanded expenditures: "how much more would it cost me in the circumstances that everybody knows about? With guns continuously on their shoulders, in enemy land, and among brutes? Not to mention the slander, the mocking, the deadly hunger and thirst ..." (CARTA, 1787).

These incidents directly affected his work as a naturalist. Silva only wrote a timid narrative about the trip to the Benguela hinterland in 1785. His most valuable scientific contribution was summed up in the shipments and inventories of natural products dated between 1791 and 1793. On the trip to Mozambique, Manuel Galvão da Silva did not find conditions any better than his Angola-based colleague. Before setting off on the journey, according to the Charter of November 1782, he would assume the post of secretary of State with naturalist duties. His journey started in Goa in Portuguese India in December 1783. Galvão did not settle there for very long; he remained for only two months, examining local minerals, flora and fauna. His team had a scribe, Antônio Gomes, and a botanical gardener, José da Costa. Although he acted as a naturalist and as a secretary, his income did not exceed that of the secretary to the governor of a captaincy in Africa, while his collaborators received 192 thousand reis per year. Subordinate to the governor and captain-general of Goa, the team had to examine and describe the local natural history. And then, Galvão was responsible for collecting, preparing and submitting the species to Lisbon, according to the instructions published by the Academy of Sciences, "for the good of the Royal Service."

The Governor of Goa, D. Frederico Guilherme de Sousa, in a letter to Martinho de Melo e Castro, mentioned the best locations to be investigated by the team. They would soon investigate the coast and the shores of the island of Goa and the islands of neighboring provinces. In the beginning, the trips, would be by sea and would dock in small villages to "find or discover everything about the Natural History." After exploring the coast, the naturalist traveled to the Indian continent: the province of Pondá, Gates, Saquelim and Bicholim. The governor's instructions still dictated the collection and shipment of specimens to Goa, where they would be carefully handled and packaged to withstand the trip to the laboratory at the Natural History Museum in Lisbon. In his investigation, Galvão counted on loans from colonels Assa and Charmont and the assistant captain of agriculture Simon Roiz Moreira, the latter being "a skillful and intelligent person with great knowledge of the country and its productions..." (CARTA, 1784).

If, in the state of India, the naturalist benefited from the assistance of the governor, in Mozambique, his working conditions would be very adverse when he landed. In this new phase, his affairs as a scientist became highly compromised. After a few months, he recounted his torment in a letter to an employee at the Natural History Museum. He confessed to Júlio Matiazzi that Mozambique was an extremely miserable land, home to "banished evildoers":

Only in service to His Majesty can I live here, otherwise I would abandon it all by swimming away. Here reigns insult, trickery, betrayal poison. There are so many evils, one oppressing the other, and nobody is for the public good if not for private interest. And the trade that causes all of this disorder does not delay much, for if it did, it would consume the ruins of Mozambique. (CARTA, 1784)

In the letters, he described in detail the obstacles to his work as a naturalist. A graduate of Coimbra who was capable of leading the philosophical expedition, he was unable to follow the instructions from Lisbon due to interference from the interim governor, who prevented him from exploring the Island of Mozambique and the rivers of Sena. For months, the naturalist and his team, which consisted of a botanist and a scribe, remained inactive (PETIÇÃO, 1784). Immobility was not, however, the only obstacle faced by the expedition to Mozambique. Initially, the aide José da Costa abandoned the work, frequenting taverns, "sometimes drinking with a soldier, other times playing with a kaffir" (CARTA, 1786). Silva had been very sick to the point of not finishing his tasks "because he was recovering from a serious illness" (RELATÓRIO, 1785). In March 1787, the scribe Antônio Gomes died from a fever. Two years later, it would be the turn of the botanist José da Costa (RELATÓRIO, 1785; CARTA, 1787; CARTA, 1790). Manuel Galvão da Silva produced diaries about the trip under the jurisdiction of Vila de Tete in 1788, as well as on the lands of Manica in 1790. Upon reaching the town of Tete, the scribe was found to be very ill. Seriously stricken with dysentery, he could not resist the disease and died (SILVA, 1954, 313-319; DIÁRIO, 1954, 323-332). To sum up, as with his other colleagues from Angola, his contribution was far short of his talents, (SIMON, 1983, 75), although he had sent a valuable collection of minerals to the Museum.

In America, the Philosophical Journey faced numerous obstacles, but nothing compared to the setbacks of his colleagues in the African domains. Though counting on poor resources, the Philosophical Journey, led by the naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, toured the captaincies of Grão-Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso and Cuiabá between 1783 and 1792. Ferreira worked with a botanical gardener, Agostinho do Cabo, a servant, José Ferreira Jorge, and two scribes (designers), José Codina and José Joaquim Freire. During the trip, the naturalist produced vast written material composed of three diaries, dozens of memoirs and shipments, and hundreds of prints of plants, animals, peoples and sights. Among his writings are "Viagem Filosófica pela Capitania de São José do Rio Negro" (FERREIRA, n.d., 1885-1889) ("Philosophical Journey through the Captaincy of São José do Rio Negro"), "Diário do Rio Branco" (FERREIRA, 1786) ("Diary of Rio Branco") (FERREIRA, 1786) and "Extrato do Diário da Viagem Filosófica pelo Estado do Grão-Pará" ("Extract from the Diary of a Philosophical Journey to the State of Grão-Pará" (FERREIRA, 1787). These records are chronological narratives of the space covered and can refer to many different topics.

The memoirs, however, are dedicated to more specific topics, with an interest in deepening the analysis and indicating solutions to problems. Indigenous groups in particular were described in this type of document. Ferreira adhered to the customs and the technical ability of producing clothing, weapons, boats, houses, pottery and fabrics. As a demarcator of the land, the naturalist mentioned the location of villages and analyzed existing transactions between indigenous communities and the Spanish and Dutch settlers of the frontier. Memoirs dedicated to the flora and fauna also have a utilitarian nature, and they produced inventories on their economic potential (FERREIRA, 1972; 1974). As for minerals, he seldom remarked on them, although, during the trip to Mato Grosso, he indicated problems related to investment and slave labor (FERREIRA, 1790ª; 1790b). At any rate, despite resorting to various nominations, such as "demarcation", "participation", "news", "maps", "extracts", "prospects", "treaties", "memoirs" and "relationship", Ferreira's writings always addressed the same themes: the economic potential, border demarcation, indigenous peoples and Portuguese colonization in the northern captaincies.

Visual inventory of the people

The trip led by Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira produced hundreds of prints dedicated to the kingdoms of nature. The drawings were commissioned by the naturalist who, in turn, followed scientific guidelines developed by the Italian Professor Domenico Vandelli (1779). Vandelli wrote the most important instructions for naturalists on philosophical journeys. With these scientific standards, his disciples would know how to describe and collect minerals, flora and fauna and the customs and social organization of the communities. The physical and moral knowledge of the people would have to be registered with their respective productive activities, demonstrating the royal interest in evaluating the agricultural potential and the productive capacity of the population. Crops, canoes, boats, ships, beverages, textiles, weapons and musical instruments were thoroughly detailed. Naturalists also had to describe indigenous habits: their structure, physiognomy and figure. In populated places, they would have to produce a catalog of the living and the dead, and check whether the residents led a chaste or wanton life; whether they were monogamous or polygamous; whether women were fertile or infertile; and describe how they educated their children (BACL, m. 405, f.9). The Vandelli instructions were, therefore, imbued with colonial interests, without shirking the actual natural history subjects themselves.

Certainly composed in collaboration with Vandelli, the brief instructions to correspondents from the Academy of Sciences in Lisbon (1781) divided the inventories of the peoples into six themes: exterior anatomy, religion, politics, economics, arts and traditions. Initially, they established, as necessary, the description of the structure and external shape of the men. For women, the fertility or sterility and the ease or difficulty of their births was highlighted. Furthermore, attention was paid to diseases common to both sexes, and their possible causes. In the scope of religion, correspondents had to honestly expose general ideas about the nature of the local deity, their works and worship services. They also had to survey the various sects and the forms of their ceremonies, the simplicity or extravagance of weddings, mourning rituals and funerals, sacrifices and other superstitions. In politics, they had to explain the form of government and the distribution of rewards and punishments, and gather the number of inhabitants and describe how the "supreme authority" was maintained. The reports would even cover contracts and their rites, wars, and the handling of weapons. For the economy, the instructions included the education of children, the quality of housing, food, cuisine, clothing and how it was made, and language and the characters used in writing; they even informed "the perfection or imperfection of the arts and manufactured goods of every kind, and the commerce that existed in the country." Finally, in relation to traditions, correspondents had to "examine their origin and antiquity, universality, probability or extravagance" and how they preserved and defended them. "Lastly, it will give an idea of the best way possible for the customs of the Peoples, whose news includes some luck in the good of society" (BREVES INSTRUÇÕES, 1781, 41-45).

In addition to the instructions, the natural philosophy students at the University of Coimbra attended drawing classes, which were invaluable for describing and reproducing the species during investigations. The images were conceived in two stages: the scribes made ​​their first sketches in the place that was being investigated and subsequently finalized them at the Casa do Risco (Drawing Studio) in Lisbon. It was only in the metropolis where it was possible to improve the drawings and to classify species according to the teachings of Linnaeus. In loco, artists composed ink and watercolor drawings to represent geographic and ethnographic aspects, without neglecting the plants, animals and peoples.

The drawings would be made up, later on, of engravings that would illustrate the "Natural History of the Colonies", a work conceived by Vandelli which was not published. Perhaps wanting to be part of this edition, Ferreira ordered 2670 drawings to be made, including copies and original drawings. In approaching indigenous peoples, Ferreira and his team intended to classify them using identities and differences. Thus, the naturalist classified the Indians by physiognomy, anatomical "deformity", decorations, clothing and productive capacity. It is also worth mentioning the interest of the naturalist in proving the similarities between the peoples of northern Brazil, because they were part of the large Tapuya group. Ferreira's logic, which aimed to identify each nation without losing sight of the unity of the group or the existence of a race, can, once more, be seen:

Each tribe has a particular character that distinguishes it from the others, but there are certain features recognized in all of them that are common to the whole race. One thing worthy of note is that in all particularities, physical or moral, that characterize the Americans, it is believed that they have more of a resemblance to the barbarian tribes scattered throughout N.E. Asia than any other nations established in N. Europe (FERREIRA, 1974, 105).

The drawings and memoirs dedicated to the Tapuyas even explored their insertion into the technical, moral and, especially, physical evolution of humanity. The drawings sought to express these three aspects. For the naturalist, control over nature was a sign of civility and the technical progress of the people. The trend in producing visual inventories was not, however, restricted to the Philosophical Journey. In the last decades of the 18th century, two other artists painted images of peoples of the empire. Without resorting to the same scientific and taxonomic standards of artist-naturalists, Carlos Julião and Leandro Joaquim produced images of ethnic and social types. They devised, in particular, images dedicated to the blacks and their crafts, although they also represented various peoples of the colonial empire. These images should be approached from the perspective of demonstrating social and cultural differences, as well as exalting the enormous diversity of peoples that were under the command of the Portuguese sovereign.

Leandro Joaquim was originally from the interior of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro. Before he painted social types, he had created sacred works and a portrait of the Viceroy Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa. In six ellipticals, dated between 1779 and 1790, the painter depicted the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro. In this coinciding period, the same Viceroy oversaw important works in the city: the embankment of Boqueirão Lake and the Public Promenade. In the latter, the pavilions decorated with paintings of birds, plants and views of the city of Rio de Janeiro, composed by Leandro Joaquim, really stood out. In the ellipticals, soldiers, guitarists, sedan chair carriers, fishermen, grass sellers and other social types were portrayed, particularly blacks, freed slaves or captive slaves. Leandro Joaquim showed soldiers lined up in the Palace square, fishermen harpooning whales and casting nets to catch fish, washerwomen, guitarists and carriers on the banks of the old Boqueirão Lake.

He did not only worry about recording urban crafts; he also attempted the maritime pilgrimage to the Leper Hospital, a religious practice involving the banner of the Divine Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the commitment to depicting the daily toil of the town's residents can be perceived in the images, without regard to ethnicity or social status (slave or free). Instead of exploring the social fractures, he was interested in visualizing the town and its inhabitants. According to Gilberto Ferrez, crafts are recurrent in his paintings: "it seems to us that the artist wanted, or rather, had orders, to describe that period, which is typically what we would now call government propaganda" (FERREZ, 1969, 232). Contemporaries are still the social types represented in the pictures of the Italian Carlos Julião.

Under the command of the Secretary of State, the military man Carlos Julião devised several topographic plans, views and surveys to inspect the fortifications at Mazagan, India, Brazil and Macau. Besides the drawings, he also acted as an engineer specializing in metallurgy, mineralogy and chemistry. In technical drawing, however, he added figurines and pictures of the inhabitants of towns and cities he had visited: "In some way, in adorning his work with these figurines, Julião took part in the old tradition of illuminating maps with human allegories referring to the places portrayed" (LARA, 2004, 286). Contrary to tradition, the military man did not resort only to human images to decorate charts and profiles. When appreciating the local residents and their habits and customs, he gave more emphasis to the figurines than to the profiles of cities and fortifications. This peculiarity is found in "Elevasam e Fasada, which shows a view by the Navy of the City of Salvador in Bahia..." Dated 1779, the drawing consists of three horizontal bands: the city's profile is portrayed in the upper part; the plans of the main fortifications in the middle; and in the lower part, the figurines. The latter occupies a prominent space in the composition and demonstrates the engineer's appreciation of the habits of the locality (REIS, 2000, 36, 316). Unlike Leandro Joaquim, the military artist marked the contrast between whites, blacks and people of mixed race, who were absent from the aforementioned ellipticals.

In Riscos illuminados de figurinhos de Brancos e Negros dos Uzos do Rio de Janeiro e Serro do Frio, c.1776-1779, Carlos Julião registered the various types within colonial society. He painted whites (maidens, ladies and military men), mulattoes, those of mixed race and blacks (JULIÃO, 1960). By exploring the complex hierarchy and variations in skin color, he adorned the images with simple and luxurious garments. To highlight cunning black creole women, he used African fabrics and bare breasts. The skill of the artist even registered the crafts of the slaves, freed slaves and whites. In "Oficial do Terço dos Pardos e Oficial do Terço Auxiliar dos Pretos Forros" ("Officer of the 3^rd Regiment of Pardos and Officer of the 3^rd Auxiliary Regiment of Freed Black Slaves"), the engineer registered racial miscegenation and the possibility that blacks and those of mixed race exercised military posts. It is worth mentioning that the person of mixed race in question differs little from the whites represented in the drawings. In any case, as an important part of colonial society, people of mixed race were also the theme for reflections and visual classifications by the Italian. Some street vendors wear sandals, while others are barefoot, wearing very simple clothes. Male slaves show clearer marks of slavery: white shorts, torn clothes and an iron collar. The drawings were not intended to represent only slavery, but also the black Christianized tradition, made up of well-dressed women, sidewalks, dancing and the playing of instruments in honor of a black queen who occasionally appears under a large parasol.

Whether slaves or freed men, blacks carried out the same activities and were differentiated from whites, who were often depicted in military costumes. In this regard, the only exception, according to Wash Rodrigues, is the black man represented as an officer of the 3^rd Auxiliary Regiment of Black soldiers. In his drawings, Julião depicted freed slaves and slaves who worked as street vendors, while in the mines, he represented only slaves under the command of foremen. White women were not portrayed as servants, but as mannequins to illustrate the garments of maidens and lords of Lusitanian origin. At times, the freed slaves played the same role, as they were portrayed with rich adornments, jewelry and their own ornaments from the colonial elite. The Black women depicted by Carlos Julião pointed to the possibility of social ascendancy and their ability to accumulate assets. However, such enrichment was denied to black men, who reached, at most, the post of officer in the 3^rd Auxiliary of Black soldiers.

Divided into four parts, the "Configuration showing the Entrance of Rio de Janeiro..." (c. 1779) represents the coastline of four localities of the overseas empire. Its emphasis was not on military design, but on the uses and customs of the people. Carlos Julião drew the mouth of Goa, the town square of Diu, the entranceway of Rio de Janeiro and the view of the island of Mozambique. As in the previous work, instead of highlighting the area of the fortifications, the military promoted a fantastic visual inventory of the peoples of the colonial empire: Blacks of the Rosary, black female street vendors, the mulatto, domesticated Tapuya Indians, the wild Indian from Brazil, the nhonhas of Macau, the Baye and the Gentile of Goa, and the Kannadiga, Chardo and Faraz of India. Carlos Julião finally resorted to a diffused taxonomy that sometimes indicated the spatial origin (Goa, Macau and India), while at other times indicated castes (Faraz, Brahmin and Chardo) or socio-religious classification (Kannadiga, Blacks of the Rosary, black female street vendors, Gentile and Baye).

From their uses and habits, it is concluded that "Preta com taboleiro de doce, e gorgoleta de agoa" ("Black woman with a tray of sweets and a jug of water"), "As Pretas do Rozario" ("Black women of the Rosary"), "Rede em que se transportão os Americanos para as suas Chacaras, e Fazendas" ("Litter in which Americans are transported to their Country Houses and Farms"), "Preta que leva a janta na cuya" ("Black woman carrying dinner in a bowl"), "Mulata recebendo carta por sua Senhora" ("Mulatto receiving a letter from her Mistress"), "Trajes das mulheres Selvagem" ("Outfits of Wild women") and "Tapuyas já domesticados" ("Domesticated Tapuya Indians") are clearly types in Portuguese America. The white women represented in "Ermitao pedindo esmola" ("Hermit begging") and "Moça dançando o landu de bundo a cinta" ("Girl dancing the lundu de bundo a cinta") also had to be Brazilian types, as there was a more numerous white population in Brazil than in other parts of the colonial empire. The lundu was a dance of African origin, performed individually, and very common in Brazil between the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The term "de bundo a cinta" is more obscure; it may be the name of a band on the waist, or refer to the Angolan origin (ambundo) of the aforementioned dance. In any case, Carlos Julião had the sensibility to evoke cultural miscegenation in this drawing, as it represented a well-dressed white girl dancing the lundu.

As regards Macao, he conceived the following figurines: "Traje das Nhonhas de Macau" ("Outfit of the Nhonhas of Macao"), "Traje dos chinas de Macau" ("Outfit of Chinese Women of Macau") and "Mistissa soministrando canja" ("Mestizo woman serving chicken soup"). From her facial features, the mestizo must be Sino-Portuguese and the nhonha, a lady of Portuguese descent, either resident or born in Macao, as Carlos Julião did not call her Chinese or mestizo. In India, there are the following types: "Gentio de Goa trajado de Gala" ("Gentile from Goa in Gala attire"), "Baye de Goa com trajo Bramine" ("Baye from Goa in Brahmin attire"), "Gentio de Goa com traje ordinario" ("Gentile from Goa in ordinary attire"), "Baye de Goa de Casta Chardos" ("Baye from Goa from the Chardo Caste"), "Faras de Mancilla mostrando o sol da Índia" ("Faraz from Mancilla showing the sun of India"), "Baye com dois Caloens de agoa" ("Baye carrying two Gallons of water") and "Canarin q'vai tirar a fruta do Coqueiro" ("Canarian climbing to get coconuts").

In defending this principle, the secretary intended to exalt Portuguese identity and thereby strengthen loyalty to the monarchy amid the political instability that was raging in Europe and America after the French Revolution. At this juncture, the writings of the secretary intended to remedy the possible disruptions fostered by the administrative system and, above all, circumvent the discontent caused by a not always fair and efficient tax system. The reflections sought, of course, mechanisms to strengthen the integrity of the empire under the sword of the monarch, a union based on exchanges and interdependencies between colonies and metropolises. The defense of a single identity, with the same habits and values​​, and honors and privileges, would ultimately be responsible for uniting people from different provinces of the empire.

In addressing Portuguese identity as a means of maintaining union between the mother country and her daughters, Souza Coutinho intended to avoid anti-Lusitanian feelings that were possibly widespread among the literati in Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro or among the masses in Bahia (ALEXANDRE, 1993, 1-3). Competing identities would weaken the cohesion between the provinces and the control of the center.

Interdependence between different parts of the empire

The uncertainties of the revolutionary era led the Luso-Brazilians to write to the Prince Regent and suggest strategies to activate the ties between Lisbon and parts of the colonial empire. If the Philosophical Journeys had intended to identify the overseas domains, it was left to the illustrated subjects, using the stored knowledge, to promote agriculture and trade, and to alert and prevent disorder. Bishop Azeredo Coutinho considered trade to be the main mechanism of integration overseas. Isolated, no domain of His Majesty would be successful, since its prosperity depended on other parts of the empire, a result of exchanges orchestrated by the metropolis. The African conquests took part in imperial commerce through the slave trade and, thus, supplied labor for Brazilian crops. The shortage of men in American domains was remedied by "those arms, which either by the barbarity of Africa, or by their crimes, had to perish on the tips of spears." The trade in Mozambique was not tied directly to the sugar plantations, but rather, to the Goan enterprises that provided the necessary products for residents on the coast of Zanzibar. "The gold, ivory and slaves taken from there are very advantageous articles in India, and, therefore, the Goan vessels may improve the assortment of their cargoes during their delay in Mozambique" (COUTINHO, 1966, 142, 148).

In the four parts of the world, wrote Azeredo Coutinho, Portugal owned a plethora of riches which, under the protection of Mercury, would promote a "second revolution in European trade", perhaps more glorious than the audacity of launching themselves into the seas beyond Taprobana and sailing along the coasts of Africa and the Indian seas (COUTINHO, 1966, 151). Imperial connections were equally the motto of reflections by the professor of Greek Luís dos Santos Vilhena. He was aware of the intricate trade links between the African, American and Asian conquered territories. Although the Oriental transactions were, in principle, ruinous to metropolitan interests, by holding "all or nearly all the money" and by promoting the destruction of the European textile industry, they imparted dynamism to trade with Mozambique and other colonies in Africa.

To Vilhena, the Lusitanian overseas territories were structured by commerce and the slave trade on both coasts of Africa; crops and commercial exchange on all the Atlantic islands; the transplantation of valuable oriental spices to American lands; mineral exploration and the exploitation of known and as yet untapped resources, not only of precious metals but also of saltpeter, iron and copper, among many others. The settlers even cultivated mealy bugs and silkworms; resorting to native techniques, they produced ropes from the flora; "there are so many doors that industry could open, in trade, to incorporate all species, aside from the many resins that the nation is buying when it could sell them" (VILHENA, 1987, 72-79). The Luso-Brazilian scholars, such as Vilhena and Azeredo Coutinho, believed in the economic strength of the empire, and they did not doubt the integration and complementarity promoted by movement within the overseas sphere or between the colonies and the metropolis. This imperial vision not only addressed the links between Lisbon and its possessions, but it also emphasized that the colonies themselves, especially Brazil, should exchange their products without going through Portugal.

In writing to the metropolitan authorities, the Portuguese-born Luís dos Santos Vilhena, who lived in Bahia, preached integration and the dependence of the colonies on Lisbon. To assert the interests of the monarchy, it would be essential to select fair and competent administrators, responsible for observing compliance with royal orders, to combat smuggling and oversee the full addition of colonial products to the market of the Kingdom. "Of all the establishments of Portugal, Brazil is not only the richest and the most susceptible to improvement; it is also the most interesting and worthy of consideration for commerce ..." Hence, trade between the colonies and the kingdom adapted to the division and to the complementarity of roles. In the kingdom, it would be the industries, "because otherwise the trade would be ruinous to the Metropolis, from whom they would absorb all the money from the export of their productions ..." The factories in Portugal produced for the colonial markets, providing cheaper and more abundant goods than those originating in foreign markets (VILHENA, 1975, 74-75). Otherwise, the high cost of imported products encouraged the smuggling of manufactured goods and further weakened the coffers and factories of the kingdom.

The centrality of Lisbon was equally defended by Bishop Azeredo Coutinho. The metropolis was the mother, who lended her daughter colonies "the good offices and aid necessary for the defense and security of their lives and their property ..." To count on metropolitan protection, the colonies had to be guided in some precepts and make righteous sacrifices. The condition for maintaining balance between mother and daughters was the preservation of exclusive commerce. Trade had to be done directly with the metropolis. Each and every commercial partnership with other nations was excluded, even if the transactions were favorable to them. In overseas territories, they would not build factories for cotton, linen, wool and silk; textiles for use by the settlers came from the metropolitan factories. "Of this fate, the just interests and relative dependencies will be mutually connected." This agreement led to prosperity, while disobedience and disorder caused misery. Only subjects who had something to lose, the bishop evaluated, feared uprisings. Therefore, in prosperous colonies, the settlers ensured loyalty to the monarchy and the enrichment of the metropolis. As their interests were tied, nobody lost out in the relationship because "when the vassals are richer, so much more is the sovereign as well." And he added:

The metropolis and the colonies, especially regarding agriculture and all that is produced from the land, should be considered as a farmer's sole building, whose purpose is to preserve its abundance and have a surplus to sell to strangers. (COUTINHO, 1966, 153, 155-156)

Mother and daughters would never separate; their lives were intertwined, but the sword of the empire was in the mother's possession. In their writings, however, Vilhena and Azeredo Coutinho defended the obedience of the daughter colonies - the latter should follow the rules to keep order and prosperity. In any event, both of them represented the interests of American settlers in the empire and, therefore, insisted on highlighting the links between the slave areas and Brazilian crops, to the detriment of commercial activities in other conquered lands. Commenting on trade in the eastern possessions, the bishop reported on the Portuguese decline in the face of advances from French, Dutch and English companies: "Portugal has no conquests to make there, nor town squares to fortify or establishments to build."

Of the Portuguese enterprises in Africa, Azeredo Coutinho mentioned the forts at Cacheu, Bissau and others near the Gambia River in Nigeria, and a colony in Malagueta on the coast of Guinea, where the main practice was the slave trade to supply labor for American plantations. The iron mines were extremely rich in the kingdom of Congo. Through these, the Lusitanians still controlled the trade in the capital of São Salvador de Loango, Embaca and Cabinda and, in Angola, they carried out trade in São Paulo de Luanda and Benguela (COUTINHO, 1966, 144). In India and China, however, Portuguese yields were well below the amounts achieved in Brazil.

"No nation", the bishop continued to write, "has such a well created terrain as Portuguese America; it comprises the two best climates in the torrid and temperate zones; what is lacking in one, abounds in the other, and both together produce more than all of the others in Europe together" (COUTINHO, 1966, 141). Azeredo Coutinho thus praised the fertility of his homeland, because it united those qualities essential to the advancement of the Portuguese empire. By extolling the Brazilian riches, as the historian J. R. Magalhães highlighted, these testimonies still represented an interest in mitigating the effect of Eastern trade. Potentially rich, this trade was "ultimately marginalized throughout the empire. A hasty vision and perhaps especially convenient for Brazilians." In the early years of the 19th century, the number of ships coming from Indian ports remained stable; they were often able to promote the commercial recovery of this part of the empire, according to the analysis of Magalhães (1988).

At the turn of the 19th century, the main reflections on the Lusitanian colonial empire came from settlers and Portuguese-born subjects living in Brazil. The Luso-Brazilian perspective was linked to both training at the University of Coimbra and to lived experience in Portuguese America. In short, to think of empire at this juncture was to examine the centrality of Lisbon and Brazil, and to evaluate the links between the kingdom, the Brazilian lands and other possessions. For those who were depicted in illustrations, Brazil gradually became a center for the Lusitanian domains in Angola and Mozambique. Far from the Atlantic trade, the East lost its colors; it was unattractive to the educated, who stubbornly insisted on serving the Prince Regent and enlarging the crops and huge expanses of Portuguese America.

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²

The mathematician and naturalist João da Silva Feijó, while traveling to the Cape Verde Islands, did not carry out bureaucratic activities during the early years, when he traveled around the area and produced some memoirs. Unlike his other colleagues based in the African domains, the young Feijó did not command a team. Alone, he went on a philosophical journey and performed the tasks of a gardener and scribe. Free of bureaucratic affairs, Feijó's trajectory was very productive compared to naturalists based in Angola and Mozambique. His writings were well received at the time and were published in

Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences in Lisbon) and, later, in

Revista Patriota (Patriot Magazine) in Rio de Janeiro.

³

Since the beginning of the 18th century, inventories of people had been conducted by the major European overseas empires. However, concern about the coexistence of different traditions and customs became more urgent after the revolt in Haiti. The great fear stemmed from the possible rebellion of residents overseas, capable of toppling empires. The unity between Portugal and Brazil became a burning issue during the last decades of the 18th century, at exactly the same time that memoirs and images of overseas subjects were being produced. The Secretary of State for the Navy and Overseas Territories, D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, defended, around 1799, the harmony between the provinces of the empire as a strategy to neutralize the revolutionary forces that roamed the metropolises and the colonies (SILVA, 2006). United under a single administrative system, the provinces, with Lisbon at the center, had to follow the same customs and traditions, and receive the same honors and privileges. The inviolable and sacrosanct unity would allow the subjects of the monarchy, settled in the most distant parts, to consider themselves only as being Portuguese (COUTINHO, 1993, 49; CHAVES, 2001).

⁴

To neutralize the corrosive process, the secretary became an advocate of both tax reform and the young Brazilian graduates of Coimbra, urging them to participate in administrative decisions and to carry out philosophical journeys at the expense of the State. The secretary tried, of course, to mitigate regional identities and the patriotic feelings that gradually encouraged Mineiros and Baianos (people from the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia in Brazil) to defend their interests at the expense of the metropolis.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Apr 2013
• Date of issue
  Dec 2012

History

• Received
  Aug 2012
• Accepted
  Sept 2012