A Clareman’s adventures in 17th century Brazil

In the early 17th century, fresh from their defeat at Kinsale, thousands of Irish fled the country and into exile. For many years after, former soldiers of O’Neill and O’Donnell continued to flee the country and seek out their fortunes in a less hostile environment. Perhaps one of the more unusual destinations was Brazil, with Irish colonies formed on the banks of the Amazon.
In 1612, Irish brothers Philip and James Purcell from Tipperary established such a colony. The Purcells built up a thriving tobacco plantation near a tributary of the Amazon, thereafter to be known as Purcell’s Creek. They were accompanied by a handful of other Irishmen, primarily from the Munster region.
An amiable relationship was formed with the indigenous population, who in turn found the Irish more agreeable to deal with than the previous colonists of Dutch, English and Portuguese traders.
It was the dream of vast riches that first drew the Purcells to this largely unexplored region. Brazil had a number of favouring factors. Tobacco was a native crop and this, combined with the year-round growing season, greatly supported the feasibility of such a venture. The Purcells brought with them a sharp business acumen and access to a prosperous market. The best Amazon tobacco was capable of fetching nearly 10 times as much as the tobacco grown in the American colonies of West Virginia.
There was also an opportunity to export quality hardwoods and dyes. The area settled by the Purcells was, in effect, a temporary no man’s land, as it was claimed by both the Spanish and the Portuguese. The Dutch and English equally coveted the now very profitable Purcell plantation.
In 1620, six months before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, another Irishman would establish a second colony on the banks of the Amazon. Roger North, one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s most trusted captains, had set sail for Brazil with 120 colonists. Sailing more than 350km up the Amazon, Bernardo O’Brian from Clare and 16 other Munster men disembarked and set up base. Captain North sailed a further 250km inland to offload the rest of his human cargo.
O’Brian was a member of the house of Thomand and would prove to be a resourceful and tenacious character. He was quick to befriend the Purcell brothers, all united in their common dislike and mistrust of the Portuguese and Spanish traders. As if to further enhance his image as a colourful character, O’Brian would enthral visitors, namely Dutch traders, with tales of his exploits. In one of his more memorable stories, O’Brian claimed to have made contact with the Amazons, the fabled all female tribe who in turn gifted him three of their finest beauties in return for helping to keep the peace in the region.
O’Brian did, however, win the trust of the native people while exploring vast tracts of the Amazon Basin and various tributaries. He learnt the language of the neighbouring Arruan tribe, who in time would become his staunchest allies.
Near the modern town of Macapa he built a wood and earthen fort named Coconut Grove. The relationship O’Brian and the Purcells built with the natives was looked upon with envy from the neighbouring colonies. Perhaps it was the greater understanding of foreign invasion that made the Irish more empathetic to the native cause.
Franciscan Friars from Portugal readily recognised that O’Brian and the Purcells were the only whites that the natives would voluntarily ally themselves to. Their relationship was, however, primarily a commercial one and indeed a very successful one. In the years 1620-1624 both O’Brian and the Purcells were sending back close on one million pounds of tobacco a year, generating huge profits for both parties, who were now essentially trading as a single entity.
In 1621, Philip Purcell personally took a cargo of tobacco back to London to further promote trade links, the result of which was established a third colony in partnership with a Dutch company and comprising 200 new Dutch and Irish colonists.
O’Brian himself returned in 1625 not only to generate new business but also to ransom his father from an English jail. Recognising the huge fortune O’Brian had accumulated, the jailers managed to extract nearly a quarter of his fortune to secure his release. Unperturbed, the adventurous Clare man embarked on a three-year grand tour of Europe and Asia.
Meanwhile, back in Brazil, trouble was brewing. The annexation of Portugal by Spain in 1580 established a much bigger and stronger empire. The expansion of its interests in the New World would now become a priority. Colonial settlements, primarily consisting of Dutch, French and British citizens, were warned to disband and forfeit their claims. In 1623, a combined Spanish and Portuguese force, aided by several thousand natives, launched its first attack on the “foreigner” colonies.
The Irish settlements, under the leadership of the Purcells, doggedly held out and repelled numerous attacks with the assistance of the Arruan Indians loyal to the Irishmen. However, in 1625 the Portuguese overran one of the Irish strongholds, Mandituba, killing Phillip Purcell and butchering 60 of his men.
James Purcell defended another Irish settlement at Tauregue but, heavily outnumbered, he finally surrendered under the condition that the lives of the prisoners would be saved. In 1626 the Portuguese continued their relentless assault on ‘foreign’ interests with O’Brian’s fort at Coconut Grove destroyed.
The surviving Irish remained in captivity until 1627 until the intervention of the Franciscan Friars secured their release and safe passage back to Spain. In 1628, James Purcell was reunited with O’Brian and the two immediately began to plot their return to the Amazon. Petitioning the Spanish court to reinstate their claims, the Irish also made contact with the Earl of Tyrone, son of Red Hugh, requesting the services of priests and soldiers to support their return. Neither consul offered much support until finally the Dutch trading companies, recognising the experience, tenacity and leadership of O’Brian, agreed to finance his return.
In 1629, Purcell and O’Brian were back in the Amazon and rebuilt the fort at Tauregue. Surrounding it with a moat and arming themselves with cannon, O’Brian was now more prepared than ever to defend against his Portuguese attackers.
The first attack occurred in May 1629 but O’Brian’s men easily repelled the assault. However, in September the Portuguese, under the leadership of Pedro Texeira, launched a surprise night-time attack.
With more than 120 heavily armed Portuguese, several thousand native Indians and 1,600 native bowmen, O’Brian’s fort was surrounded and duly laid siege.
A coded message from the British and Dutch fleet harboured in the area was smuggled into the fort offering O’Brian’s terms of surrender, whereby the British would take control of his settlements. Rejecting this offer, O’Brian gallantly defended the fort until October 24, whereupon he chose to surrender to the Catholic Portuguese rather than the Protestant British.
Betraying the terms of surrender, the prisoners were scattered to remote settlements in the Brazilian interior, where they were imprisoned or sold into slavery. Soon afterwards, James Purcell led an escape party of 20 men, eventually finding passage on a Dutch trader and returning to Europe.
Bernardo O’Brian didn’t manage to escape until 1634. Aided by a Spanish widow, they stole a local captain’s riverboat before making their way to the mouth of the Amazon and eventually on to Spain.
Refusing to give up his Amazonian fortune, O’Brian petitioned the King of Spain for permission to reclaim what was rightfully his and in turn promising to swear loyalty to the Spanish crown.
The king never granted O’Brian’s wishes, probably recognising the fleeting nature of his loyalty, as a result of which O’Brian was never to return to Brazil.
Instead he was to serve the remainder of his life in exile, a fate similar to many Irishmen of this time, with each dreaming of the restoration of power and wealth they all once possessed.
Gary Daly is from
Ballincollig, Cork but has
family links in Sixmilebridge.