Chapter VI - We are not alone
Chapter VI - We are not alone
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To say that Portugal was the only European nation with interests in the sunny beaches of Terra da Vera Cruz[1] would be wrong, other nations looked at the colony with hungry eyes ready to take a bite whenever the opportunity presented itself. Throughout, the 16th century as Portuguese ships transported the lucrative Brazil-wood from the Feitorias on the coast and to the Metropolis, French pirates and corsairs from Normandy and Brittany, began raiding those Atlantic transports and seizing its cargo, as a response the Portuguese government began heavily patrolling the South Atlantic waters, however even with Portugal’s undisputed dominance of the seas piracy continued. As Portuguese and Galician settlers began moving into the colony and establishing settlements along the coast, French pirates began diverging their efforts from capturing Portuguese ships and instead went on to sack and pillage costal towns. As a response, the Portuguese authorities allowed for the construction of defensive works around the Capitancies’ capitals, however most of these consisted of wooden palisades which only did the bare minimum at scaring away pirates, the exception to this however was Salvador, which possessed walls of stone and mortar as well as a regular Portuguese garrison and was thus, impervious to attacks from French pirates.
Due to the increase in fortifications of the seats of power in Brazil, small towns that formed around them also began receiving protection, thus with the increased difficult of conducting raids in Brazil, pirate activity in Brazilian shores drastically decreased over the incoming decades. Weirdly enough however, was the fact that some French pirates that found no hope of raiding Brazil, decided instead to settle there and join their “enemies”. The Normans and Brentons integrated pretty well, they took Portuguese or Indian wives, they learned to speak the local dialect of Portuguese, raised their children in a Portuguese manner and over the decades vanished as a distinct identity. It is believed that about 200 French pirates settled in Brazil and left a small but noticeable influence in the Brazilian northeast, be it linguistical, cultural or genetic.
Despite all of this other European powers never made any bold attempts at colonization, until now… “On November 1st 1555 a group of French Huguenots under French admiral Nicholas Villegaignon who, left their homeland in France due to the need for a Protestant haven in which they could prosper, formed a fort at the bay of Guanabara on the Captaincy of São Vicente, they named their settlement Fort Coligny and from there created a French colony on the New World. The colony in the beginning struggled, as their colonial site was located in island without access to fresh water and thus were entirely dependent on the natives to bring them supplies, however this meant that the settlement couldn’t remain a mystery for long and soon it was bound to be found, this happened on the 28th of November when a Portuguese man named Rodrigo Vincente, spotted the settlement while walking alongside the Guanabaran beaches with his native wife Iara.
Due to the poor communication and infrastructure of Brazil, word of the French fort would only arrive in Salvador by January 1557, once the news of the French enclave were made known to the Captains they started to organize a response, a letter was sent to Lisboa requesting arms, ammunition and men to dislodge the French once and for all, the necessary forces arrived by August and coupled with local Luso, Mestiço and Indian forces departed from Salvador on the 23rd with a force of 2,500 men and 36 warships.
The Portuguese forces arrived at Fort Coligny on the 4th of May of the next year and set camp on the outskirts of the bay, the Huguenots tried to dislodge the Portuguese by employing night attacks on their camps but had little effect, on the 8th of May the Lusitanians started barraging the fort with the 3 cannons they had brought with them, the wooden palisade was quickly turned into dust and the colony became wide open, the Portuguese tried storming the settlement but had little success, they tried it again but had similar results, seeing that they wouldn’t be able to overcome the French before dusk the Portuguese decided to retreat to their camp, on the dead of night the French slipped trough the Portuguese patrols and took position on the top of the hills surrounding the bay, the commotion of the moving French woke up the Portuguese who now saw that the French had the advantage of high ground, the assault on the Fort quickly turned into a siege of the hills which was only broken when Indian and Mestiço troops sneaked into the hills and expelled the French from it, in open ground the French were soundly beaten and befor Edson had surrendered.”
Battle of Fort Coligny, video made by Kings and Generals
On the aftermath of the battle only 100 French colonists remained, rather then sending them home the local Captain saw fit to allow the French to continue living there provided they swore loyalty to the crown of Portugal, Fort Coligny was later renamed to São Sebastião da Vitória which was shortened to just São Sebastião, after that no other European power would try to colonize the south of the colony
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[1] The very first name the Portuguese gave to the land before “Brazil” was a thing
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