te da Costa, who was
accompanied by seven jesuits, among whom was the celebrated
Anchieta.[10] The chief of the order, Loyola, was still alive, he
erected Brazil into a new province, and appointed Nobrega and Luis de
Gran, who had been principal at Coimbra, joint provincials. From that
moment the labours of the fathers for the real good of the country
commenced. And whatever may be the opinions entertained, as to their
politics and ultimate views, there is not a doubt but that the means
they employed to reclaim and civilise the Indians, were mild, and
therefore successful; that while they wrought their own purposes, they
made their people happy; and that centuries will not repair the evil
done by their sudden expulsion, which broke up the bands of humanised
society which were beginning to unite the Indians with their fellow
creatures.

[Note 10: Anchieta was not only a man of extraordinary firmness of
mind and real piety, but a politician of no common cast, and his civil
services to the Portuguese government were equal to those of the
greatest captains, while his labours as a missionary and teacher were
beyond those of any individual of whom I have ever read. His merits as a
christian apostle and a man of literature, have disarmed even Mr.
Southey of his usual rancour against the Roman Catholic faith. That
excellent writer's book on Brazil is spoilt by intemperate language on a
subject on which human feeling is least patient of direct contradiction,
so that the general circulation of it is rendered impossible, and the
good it might otherwise do in the country for which it is written
frustrated. Oh, that Mr. Southey would remember the quotation which he
himself brings forward from Jeremy Taylor! "Zeal against an error is not
always the best instrument to find out truth."]

In 1553, the first school was established in Brazil, by Nobrega, in the
high plains of Piratininga, about thirteen leagues from the colony of
San Vicente. Anchieta was the school-master. The school was opened on
the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and the establishment, and the
infant colony rising round it, received the name of the saint. St.
Paul's has since grown to be one of the most important towns in Brazil.
Its rich minerals, its iron-works, and other manufactures, but, above
all, the high and free spirit of its inhabitants, who have taken the
lead in every effort for the good of the country, distinguish it above
all the southern towns of