It has been said that some of the emigrants from Portugal to Brazil were moved by a fear of the Inquisition, and hoped to escape from it by going to the New World. Especially was this the case with numbers of the “novaes Christiãos,” or half-converted Jews. This class comprised many families of wealth and influence, who, when they saw the rapid approach of persecution, removed _en masse_ to Brazil. In the new country they thought themselves free, and were joined by many of their unconverted brethren, who had been expelled by King Emmanuel. As usual, even if not wealthy, these people were able to raise money, and they brought into the new colony, what it most needed, capital. Many of the greatest families in Brazil trace their descent from these laborious and hard-working colonists, who, as in every other place, gave an impulse to trade and industrial development unfelt before. It was owing to their perspicacity that the sugar-cane, the greatest source of Brazilian wealth, was introduced into the colony from Madeira in the year 1548, and they started the direct slave trade with the Guinea Coast, recognizing both the impossibility of reducing the aboriginal races into a state of servitude, and the advantages of negro labour. From all these causes, Brazil was growing a wealthy colony by the middle of the sixteenth century, possessing many well-populated and well-cultivated districts upon the sea coast, surrounding the various ports and harbours, where prosperous towns had sprung up, of which may be noted at this time Pernambuco, Tamacara, Ilheos, Porto Seguro, and St. Vincent.