The Tupinambá (Part 2)

The Tamoios War

The French did not accept the division of the world between Portuguese and Spanish. They visited the Brazilian coast in search of Brazilwood and maintained friendly contacts with several indigenous groups. In 1555 they decided to found a colony, France Antarctique, on the bay of Rio de Janeiro. Two years later Mem de Sá arrived with the mission to expel the French.

The Tupinambá of Ubatuba and Rio de Janeiro united to fight against the Portuguese with the support of the French.

The Portuguese, in turn, were allied with the Tupi or Tupinikim of São Vicente and the plateau, traditional rivals of the Tupinambá, also known as Tamoio or Tamuya, who in the Tupi language means grandfather, the oldest, respectful name by which the Tupinikim of São Vicente called them, although they were enemies. The war raged from 1562 until 1567.

Several Tupinambá leaders stood out, mainly Cunhambebe and Aimberê.

Cunhambebe - Cacique de Ubatuba (current Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro), great Tupinambá leader who commanded the first phase of the war, died in 1563, a victim of the plague.

Aimberê - Son of Cairuçu, cacique Tupinambá of Uruçumirim, village located in the current bay of Guanabara. He commanded the second phase of the Tamoio war and resisted the peace treaty of Iperoig.

Caokira - Cacique de Iperoig (now Ubatuba, São Paulo), led the Tupinambá of the coast.

Pindobuçu - Cacique Tupinambá, friend of Anchieta and one of the articulators of the peace treaty of Iperoig.

The Portuguese, in addition to their technological superiority, possessed firearms and had a great ally: smallpox. The epidemic killed many Indians, including the great Cunhambebe, and Tibiriçá, who had been given the Christian name of Martim Afonso. Fearing the defeat of the Portuguese could also mean the end of the Catholic mission, the Jesuits Manoel da Nobrega and José de Anchieta proposed to go to Iperoig to negotiate peace. After a long agreement between Portuguese, missionaries and Tupinambá Indians, they prepared to end the hostilities. It was established, then, that the Portuguese would not enslave the Tupinambá of the coast, and these, in turn, would not attack the towns and farms of the coast.

While the details of this peace in São Vicente were being fulfilled, a Portuguese fleet under the command of Estácio de Sá, nephew of the governor, arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1565 with the mission of definitively expelling the French and exterminating the Tupinambá . The war was resumed and lasted two more years, leaving victims on both sides, such as Aimberê and Estácio de Sá.

With the expulsion of the French from Rio de Janeiro in 1565, the Tupinambá took refuge in Cabo Frio. In 1585 they were attacked by the forces of the governor of Rio and by the São Paulo slave traders. Surrounded, they had to surrender. One group still managed to flee to the interior of Minas, later going to Santa Catarina, always distancing from the slaves hunger of the settlers.

Surprised by the slave traders, many died, and the survivors were taken captive to some villages run by the Jesuits in Rio de Janeiro. At the beginning of century XVII, the Tupinambá of the Southeast were practically extinct.