y navigators maintain that the comparatively easy
colonization of this portion of the Brazilian coast was due to the
presence of the much-esteemed Correia.

Bahia rapidly became the most important of these early Portuguese
settlements. In the first instance it was, of course, extremely
difficult for the few bands of daring Portuguese to make any practical
impression on the huge slice of coast which had fallen to their share.
The experiences of the first colonists, moreover, were destined to
differ considerably from those of the pioneer Spaniards. The latter had
their field of exploration practically to themselves. The Portuguese, on
the other hand, found rivals in the South Seas almost as soon as the
prows of their ships had pierced the waters. The Dutch eventually were
destined to become by far the most formidable of these; but in the first
instance the chief friction occurred with the French.

Just at this period the Gallic sailors awoke to a strong interest in
Brazil, and the French vessels carried numbers of warlike and industrial
adventurers to the tropical shores. Even before 1530 a French factory
had been established at Pernambuco, but a circumstance of far greater
importance was that these French rovers discovered the magnificent
harbour of Rio de Janeiro, sailed into the narrow entrance between the
lofty peaks, and founded a colony there before the Portuguese had
obtained the opportunity of a permanent footing in that place.

The leader of these troops was Nicolas Durant de Villegagnon, and his
men comprised a number of Huguenots who were abandoning France.
Villegagnon's own character appears to have been complex and curious in
the extreme. He was apparently a true blade of the old swashbuckling
type; he employed religion for such ends as he might have in view at the
moment, regarding its tenets cynically, tongue in cheek. Thus he came
out in command of the Huguenots, ostensibly himself a Huguenot; but his
convictions appear to have changed on various occasions, and he is seen
now as their abettor, now as their oppressor. In the end he clearly
showed himself antagonistic to the convictions of his followers, and
took to denouncing them as heretics. With the exception of this leader,
the circumstances and motives of the expedition were somewhat similar to
those which caused the first emigration of the English Puritans to North
America.

Once established in Rio de Janeiro, the Huguenots succeeded in making
fri