De Gestis Meni de Saa

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De Gestis Meni de Saa is a poem written around 1560 by Father José de Anchieta, a Sixteenth Century Portuguese Jesuit missionary in Brazil, who was called the "Apostle of Brazil" and eventually made a saint. The poem describes the "heroic deeds" of Portuguese soldiers "fighting in the immense wilderness."

The wars referred to were actually aimed at the systematic conquest and destruction of Tupi villages and fields and the enslaving of their inhabitants, as a means of "putting an end to cannibalism" and facilitating their Christianization. Anchieta and his fellow-Jesuit Father Nobrega supported and actively promoted that aggressive policy.

[edit] External links

• Portugal in America