Don is a Spanish title of honour, originally given only to the highest nobility, afterwards to all the nobles, and finally used indiscriminately as a title of courtesy. It corresponds with the Portuguese Dom. During the Spanish occupation it was introduced and became naturalized in some parts of Italy, and was particularly applied to the priests.
Dom Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in 1450 at Sines, Portugal, and died in 1524. He discovered the sea-route from Europe to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage had been projected under John II, and his successor, Emmanuel the Fortunate, having fitted out four vessels, intrusted Gama with the chief command. He sailed from Lisbon on July 8th, 1497, and doubling the Cape, visited Mozambique, Mombaza, Melinda, and Calicut, returning to Lisbon in 1499. For this exploit he was named Admiral of the Indies and received the title of Dom, with an annual pension and extensive privileges in Indian commerce. In the year 1502 he was placed at the head of a powerful fleet, with which he provided for the security of future voyagers by founding establishments at Mozambique and Sofala. He also inflicted signal reprisals on the town of Calicut, where the Portuguese residents had been massacred, and established the first Portuguese factory in the Indies. He re-entered Lisbon in 1503, and passed the next twenty years in obscurity. In 1524 he was appointed Viceroy of India by King John III, but his administration lasted only three months, his death taking place at Goa in the December of that year. Research Vasco da Gama
Leela Naidu is an Indian actress and former model, once being Miss India. She retired from acting to marry her childhood sweatheart, the poet Dom Moraes, from whom she later divorced. Research Leela Naidu
The Expedition to Portugal occurred in 1589, during the English-Spanish Naval War. It was arranged that an English army should land in Portugal to assist Dom Antonio (the Portuguese pretender) to gain the throne and expel the Spaniards from his country. An English Armada, larger than the Spanish Armada, was assembled under Drake; on board was an army of about 15000 men. The expedition sailed, landed at Corunna and sacked the town, then went on towards Lisbon. But Drake failed to force the passage of the Tagus, and the army, owing to its lack of siege-guns, was repulsed from Lisbon with some slight loss. There was no sign of the expected Portuguese rising on behalf of Dom Antonio. And so, terribly reduced by sickness, the English Armada returned home. Elizabeth was extremely angry: England had lost 10000 men and she had lost all the money she had invested in the expedition. Drake was in disgrace for the next five years, during which time little was attempted at sea beyond raids against Spanish treasure-ships Research Expedition to Portugal
The Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in south America. It has a total area of 8,511, 965 km2.
As a whole the country may be regarded as having three natural divisions, namely, one belonging to the basin of the Amazon, another belonging to the La Plata basin, and a third consisting of the eastern portion watered by a number of streams directly entering the Atlantic.
The Amazonvalley is bounded by elevated table-lands which, in the lower course of the river, approach within a comparatively short distance of each other. The characteristic feature of this region is its immense low-lying, forest-covered plains, intersected by innumerable water-courses, and in many parts subject to annual inundation, the vegetation being of the most luxuriant character, from the heat and frequent rains.
The development of a trade in the juice of the india-rubber trees, which grow in vast quantities, attracted thousands of Brazilians from the adjoining provinces to the Amazonvalley and thus has covered thousands of miles of rivers with boats, and spread a population over vast areas that otherwise would have remained dormant.
The southern part of Brazil is characterized by its low plains or pampas, covered with grass or scrub. Its vegetation is of a much less tropical character than in the Amazon basin, and its climate more variable.
The chief mountain ranges are near the south-eastern coast. The Serra do Mar or Maritime range commences in the far south, and travels close to the coast-line in a northeasterly direction until it reaches Rio de Janeiro and Cape Frio, where it culminates in the Serra dos Orgaos, or OrganMountains, from 7000 to 8000 feet above the sea, and forming the noblest element in the marvellous scenery of the bay of Rio de Janeiro. West of the Serra do Mar lies the Serra Mantequeira, which farther north is known as the Serra do Espinhago. Here are the loftiest summits in Brazil, Itatiaia - Assu, the highest of all, being 10,040 feet above the sea. Between the sources of the Tocantins and Parana are the Monies Pyrenees, the second most elevated ridge in Brazil, some of its heights being estimated at nearly 8000 and 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.
As almost the whole of Brazil lies south of the equator, and in a hemisphere where there is a greater proportion of sea than land, its climate is generally more cool and moist than that of countries in corresponding latitudes in the northern hemisphere. In the southern parts of Brazil, in consequence of the gradual narrowing of the continent, the climate is of an insular character - cool summers and mild winters. The quantity of rain differs widely in different localities. The northern provinces generally are subject to heavy rains. At Rio, where the climate has been much modified by the clearing away of the forests in the neighbourhood, the mean temperature of the year is 74 degrees. At Pernambuco the temperature rarely exceeds 82 degrees; in winter it descends to 68 degrees. Generally the climate of Brazil is delightful.
The wild animals comprise the puma, jaguar, sloth, porcupine, etc. Monkeys are numerous. Amongst the feathered tribes are the smallest, the humming-bird, and one of the largest, the rhea, parrots in great variety, tanagers, toucans, and the harpy eagle. The reptiles consist of the boa-constrictor and other species of serpents, some of them venomous, alligators, and fresh-water turtle, the eggs of which yield a valuable oil. The insects are, many of them, remarkable for the beauty of their colours and their size, especially the butterfl ies. Amongst the most notable are the white-ant, very numerous and very destructive, and the scorpion, which attains a length of 15 cm.
Natural resources are iron ore, manganese, bauxite, nickel, uranium, phosphates, tin, hydropower, gold, platinum, crude oil and timber. The religion is 90% Roman Catholic. The official language is Portuguese with Spanish, English and French also spoken.
Brazil was discovered by the Spanish in 1499 and colonised by the Portugese in 1500 and named after the first natural commodity to be exported - brazilwood. The first governor-general was Thome de Sousa, who in 1549 arrived in the Bay of Bahia and established the new city of that name, making it the seat of his government.
The usurpation of the crown of Portugal by Philip II left Brazil in a defenceless and neglected condition, and the English, French, and Dutch made successive attempts to obtain a footing. The Dutch were the most persevering, and for a time almost divided the Brazilian territory with the Portuguese. The tyranny of the Dutch governors, however, incited their native and Portuguese subjects to revolt, and after a sanguinary war, in 1654 the Dutch were driven out and the Portuguese remained masters of an undivided Brazil.
The value of Brazil to Portugal continued steadily to increase after the discovery of the gold mines in 1698 and the discovery of the diamond mines in 1728. The vigorous policy of the Portuguese government under the administration of the Marquis de Pombal (1760-77) did much to open up the interior of Brazil, though his high-handed-modes of procedure left amongst the Brazilians a discontent with the home government which took shape in the abortive revolt of 1789.
On the invasion of Portugal in 1808 by the French the sovereign of that kingdom, John VI, sailed for Brazil, accompanied by his court and a large body of emigrants. He raised Brazil to the rank of a kingdom, and assumed the title of King of Portugal and Brazil. But on his return to Portugal in 1820 he found the Portuguese Cortes unwilling to grant civil and political equality to the Brazilians - a fact which raised such violent convulsions in Rio Janeiro and other parts of Brazil that Dom Pedro, the king's son, was forced to head the party resolved to make Brazil independent, and in 1822 a national assembly declared the separation of Brazil from Portugal, and appointed Dom Pedro the constitutional emperor.
In 1864 began a severe struggle between Brazil and Paraguay, caused principally by the arbitrary conduct of Lopez, the dictator of Paraguay. Brazil, though joined by Uruguay and the Argentine Confederation, had to bear the brunt of the war, which terminated only with the death of Lopez in 1870. This struggle was attended with an immense expenditure of men and money to Brazil, but it established her reputation as a great power, and secured the freedom of the navigation of the La Plata river-system. In 1871 an act was passed for the gradual emancipation of slaves, and in 1888 slavery was finally abolished. In 1889 took place the revolution and establishment of the republic. The proceedings of the president, Fonseca, led to a revolutionary movement in 1891, which was not quelled without difficulty. In 1899 Brazil formed a republic.
Abbreviations
Research Domari
