In the far north nothing was done by the _donatario_ to colonize Ceará, and it was not until the French had for years established themselves on that coast and inside the mouth of the Amazon that, in 1616, a Portuguese military expedition from Maranhão turned out these rivals and founded Pará. Genuine colonization work was done at three outstanding points—Pernambuco, Bahia, and São Vicente, or rather, São Paulo, which became active nuclei of agricultural production, of a sturdy population born on the soil, dowered with a clannish fighting spirit that, local as it was, did much that was of extreme value in the evolution of Brazil. The strength of two of these centres, S. Paulo and Bahia, was largely derived from the two old Portuguese castaways, the battered heroes Ramalho and Correia; that of the third markedly successful colony, Pernambuco, was due to the powerful personality and real ability of the Captain, Duarte Coelho; he was aided by the fertility of the soil of the north-eastern promontory, Pernambuco showing itself so prolific a producer of sugar that it began to feed the mother country from very early colonial days, no less than forty-five ships a year calling to fetch sugar and brazil-wood. Settled with good immigrants by Duarte Coelho, who protested successfully against the dumping of convicts upon his capitania and ruled his people like a feudal lord, Pernambuco was the only territory that escaped control by the Captain-General sent out by the Crown in 1549 to try the effect of centralized power upon the languishing capitanias. Hardy and jealous of their independence, the Pernambucanos remained a little kingdom apart, ruled over by Duarte Coelho and his wife’s relatives after him, until the Dutch appeared in strength off the north Brazilian coast and from 1630 onwards for over twenty years held possession of Pernambuco and a long strip of the coast above it. The Pernambucanos have always been a factor to be reckoned with in Brazilian affairs: the territory they hold is richly productive and has never looked back in commercial importance. They do not forget that great tracts of land were in early days won by their ancestors by hard fighting from the Indians, nor that they have sent many an able son to high places in the governing of Brazil. It was the productivity of the Pernambuco (“Nova Lusitania”) and Bahia colonies that made colonial Brazil valuable and attracted hardy settlers to her shores. [Illustration: Ponte Santa Isabel, Recife (Pernambuco). Praça Mauá—one of Rio’s wharves. Water-front at Bahia, Lower City. ]