The Tupinambá (Part 3)

The French Alliances

The indigenous peoples, especially the Tupi, had different reactions to the European invaders: they formed alliances, accepted the imposition of another social model, reacted with weapons to the invader or migrated to other regions.

By temperament, the Tupi-speaking people had always liked the new and opted mostly for making alliances. Generally these alliances were seen as a new strategy to defeat another enemy group.

The French also had different positions towards the inhabitants. Unlike the Portuguese, who considered themselves owners of the "discovered" territory, imposing their laws by fire and sword, the French were more political. The experience of France Équinoxiale, in Maranhão (1612-1615), the second attempt to establish a colony, shows how they sought alliances with local indigenous groups.

Not without reason, Japiaçu, the great Tupinambá leader, received the French with a solemn speech, saying among other things that God had pitied them and that he had sent not only merchants to exchange merchandise, but a great warrior with soldiers that were coming to defend them against the peró (the Portuguese). In addition, he had also sent the paí or pajé (missionaries) to instruct in the things of God. In this way they would not be censored by the Portuguese for not worshiping the same God.

The relationship was of such a level that, after a year, an indigenous delegation was received with great honors in the court of Louis XIII at Versailles. An unprecedented fact in the history of the conquest, the indigenous representative was able to give a speech in Tupi, before the ecstatic French court.

However, some old men, probably shamans, alerted the community of a tragic end, as Momboré-Guaçu preached: "I saw the arrival of the Portuguese in Pernambuco and Potiú (Paraíba), but the peró (Portuguese) did not want to live here, they slept freely with our daughters, which our relatives in Pernambuco considered very honorable, and later they said that they should build fortresses to defend themselves and build villages to live with us. They began to say that they could not take young women, only if it was for their marriage and only those who were baptized, so they ordered the paí (missionaries) to come and they raised crosses and began to instruct and baptize us. They could not live without slaves, not satisfied with the slaves trapped in the war, they also wanted our children and ended up enslaving our entire nation. And with such tyranny and cruelty they treated us that they forced us to leave the region. The same I see what the Mair (the French) will do. "

Evidently the French tried to convince them that they were different from the Portuguese and that the alliances they made were worth it. But the facts showed that all settlers were the same. Without knowing the sactics of the tropics, the French were defeated, abandoning their allies at the hands of the Portuguese. Once again the Tupinambá that survived the Maranhão war had to flee inland to the Amazon region where they were later subjugated by the Portuguese.