| "The Flemish invasion constitutes a mere episode of the coast’s occupation. It is overshadowed in all respects by the settlement of the "sertão" [the arid countryside of the Northeast region of Brazil], began at different times, at separate places, until it formed an interior current, more voluminous and more fertile than the tenuous coastal thread" (Capítulos da História Colonial, p. 141 of the 7th edition. Belo Horizonte, Itatiaia, 1988). | ||
"Five ethnographic groups, linked by the active community of language and the passive one of religion, molded by the environmental conditions of five different regions, having, from the natural richness of the land, a boisterous enthusiasm, feeling aversion or disdain towards the Portuguese [language], having no appreciation in any particular way, however, between one another - here, in short, is what the work of three centuries was reduced to." (Capítulos da História Colonial, p. 256 of the 7th edition. Belo Horizonte, Itatiaia, 1988). |
||
