260 Antonio CarreiraFor a brief period the mining area was invaded by a legion of runaway
slaves and others, brought from the north-east by the atravessadores (contra-
bandists). In 1735, a government census showed that there were 101,651 slaves
in the mining areas; by 1750, this figure had risen to over 150,000. And we
have no idea how many slaves who escaped from the farms and plantations of
the north-east took to the backlands, the rivers and igarapés and hid there.
The euphoria over the gold and diamond discoveries was felt at all levels
of society. Contraband trade went on unchecked and developed its own orga-
nizational structure. This phenomenon resulted in a spread of highway rob-
beries, killings and many other forms of violence. The entire mining and pros-
pection area became unsafe.
At the same time, Portuguese emigrants flocked to the Brazilian mining
areas from Europe in the hope of striking it rich, or just to escape poverty,
the hardships of rural life or even the persecutions of the Inquisition.
From Trás-os-Montes, das Beiras, do Minho, etc., virtually anyone who
had the price of a ship's passage embarked in search of his 'bonanza'. People
from the most varied walks of life headed for the mines : gypsies, vagrants,
New Christians and Jews, rural labourers, craftsmen, small farmers and small
traders, mixed with adventurers and criminals. They all sold their belongings
and set their sights on Brazil. Crews went missing immediately after their
ships put into port and hid with friends or acquaintances in the backlands. In
this way, around 800,000 Portuguese migrated to Minas Gérais and other
regions in southern Brazil between 1705 and 1750; and this was at a time when
Portugal's population numbered only a little over 2 million. Faced with such
a large-scale abandonment of the country, the Portuguese Government intro-
duced various measures aimed at controlling embarkations and the issue of
passports.
The wave of emigration in the eighteenth century proved to be a decisive
factor in the 1822 Secession.
In the main, it was Brazil that benefited from the economic progress
made in the country with the aid of slave labour. Only the occasional 'crumbs
of wealth' reached Portugal, and even these were badly used, as already
mentioned. A sizable portion was simply given away to Great Britain, while
another part went to various other European countries. In many of these
countries a class of nouveaux riches burgeoned, engaged in the slave trade;
the shipping and trading companies connected with the slave traffic also
flourished. This prosperity is quite evident in the movement of ships and goods
in the ports of Great Britain (Bristol, Liverpool and others), France (Bordeaux,
Marseilles, Nantes, etc.) and Holland.
All in all, the (limited) benefit which the Portuguese derived from all
these ventures is reflected in the sweat and toil of the immigrant, whose main
concern was to save up enough money to support his family in Portugal, to