A DRAMA OF PLUNDER, MURDER, AND REVENGE
A famous story of American history is that which tells of the massacre of
the French settlers in Florida by the Spaniards of St. Augustine, and of
the signal revenge taken on the murderers by the French chevalier
Dominique de Gourgues. There is a parallel tale to tell about Brazil, not
so full of the element of romance, yet for all that an interesting story
and well worth the telling.
The great Portuguese colony of Brazil, like many of the Spanish colonies,
was open to the attacks of buccaneers and of free lances of the seas
bearing the flags of various countries of Europe. There was not an
important port of the country, except its capital, Rio Janeiro, that
escaped attack by hostile fleets, eager for spoil, during the seventeenth
century, and early in the eighteenth Rio itself was made the victim of
assault. A city of over twelve thousand people, and the gateway to a rich
gold-mining country in the rear, its wealth invited a visit from the
prize-seekers, though the strength of its population and garrison long
kept these away.
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