The Portuguese permitted the French colony to remain for four years unmolested, and had it not been for the treachery and double-dealing of Villegagnon, _Rio de Janeiro_ might have remained a permanent French settlement. Some ten thousand Huguenots were ready to emigrate, with their arts, had they been sure of meeting with toleration; but the governor’s arbitrary proceedings ruined the project. The court of Lisbon was at length aroused by Nobrega to the dangerous rivalry of the French, and orders were issued to destroy their fortifications at _Rio de Janeiro_, two ships of war and a number of merchantmen being fitted out for the purpose. Two days and nights were expended in battering the fortresses. The Portuguese, after much waste of their resources, at length succeeded in carrying the largest of the outworks, and likewise the rock on which the magazine was situated. During the ensuing night the French and their native allies fled, either to the ships or to the mainland. The Portuguese, not being in sufficient strength to enable them to retain the island, demolished the works, and sailed for _Santos_, carrying off the artillery and stores. The credit of this successful expedition is entirely due to the indefatigable Nobrega. During this decisive affair Villegagnon was absent in France, where he proposed to raise a fleet for the purpose of destroying the Portuguese settlements in _Brazil_; but his previous treachery stood in the way of his effecting his purpose. The history of the early Portuguese in _Brazil_ is in some respects far more satisfactory, if it be less exciting, than that of the Spaniards in _Peru_. They were there for the legitimate purpose of colonizing and cultivating a portion of a vast region where there was ample room at the same time for them and for the tribes in their neighbourhood; and if the colonists, on the one hand, were ever ready to enslave the natives, the Churchmen who followed in their wake were, on the other hand, as ready to denounce the practice, and to sow the seeds of real Christianity amongst the savages. The foremost name in the records of this good work is that of Nobrega, than whom a more sincere, self-denying, and enlightened missionary was never sent forth by any branch of the Christian Church.