Introduction to the English Edition

Summary

From the very beginning of the colonization of Brazil, in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese went to great lengths to find precious metals and stones on their American territory, following the example of the Spanish, who had located mines of silver and gold in their part situated west of the Tordesilhas Meridian. This Portuguese quest was anchored in a firm conviction that such riches truly existed – a certainty that largely stemmed from the manner in which the Europeans understood universal cosmology and terrestrial geography. It was believed that the world was ordered according to the principles of sympathy and antipathy, setting in motion a chain of analogies and oppositions by which all living creatures and inanimate objects on earth either attracted or repelled each other. Seen in this light, American geography, like that of the rest of the world, was expected to follow certain patterns, with similarities among regions on the same latitude or meridian, even if in different hemispheres. It was this belief that made the Portuguese so sure that there were enormous deposits of silver and gold to be found in the Brazilian midsouth. After all, this part of America was on the same latitude as the Potosi mines, so the deposits would most likely be situated at roughly the same distance from the coast, near the captaincies of São Vicente, Santo Amaro, or Espírito Santo.