Claude d'Abbeville, Histoire de la mission, frontispicio

Claude d'Abbeville was a French

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar of the 17th century, who worked as a missionary with the Tupinamba in Maranhao, modern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He was part of a colonizing party and a mission of four Franciscans sent under a 1611 patent letter from the Regent

Marie de Médicis Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom ...

, and was also accompanied by Father Yves D'Evreux.MacCormack (2000), p.110Dickason (2001) pp.103ff

Biography

The colonial enterprise to found "

France Équinoxiale Equinoctial France (French ''France équinoxiale'') was the contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning: E ...

" was led by Daniel de la Tousche, sieur de la Ravardière, and François de Razilly. The outpost would later become the city of

São Luís do Maranhão SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U ...

. The French arrived in the island in August 1612. One of the objectives of the mission was to establish trade in

brazilwood ''Paubrasilia echinata'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood ( pt, pau-de-pernambuco, ; ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. The fathers worked on the island of Maragnan in the mouth of the Amazon, where the French Fort Saint Louis was founded as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

mission in 1612-15. The two fathers Claude d'Abbeville and Yves D'Evreux learned the Tupinamba language and wrote about their experience. The Catholic colonial endeavours of the early 17th century followed the earlier

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

attempts at establishing a colony in South America, especially the short-lived

France Antarctique France Antarctique (formerly also spelled ''France antartique'') was a French colony in Rio de Janeiro, in modern-day Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly ...

, and marked the recent domination of the Catholic faith over Protestantism in France. The Tupinamba were in alliance with the French, with the objective of resisting Portuguese encroachments. The mission organized the dispatch of Tupinamba Indians from Maragnan to the court of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

in France, where they created a sensation. Père Claude d'Abbeville commented enthusiastically on the visit of the Indians in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with the words: "Who would have thought that Paris, used to the strange and the exotic, would go so wild over these Indians?". The Indians – only three out of a total six had survived the travel by that time – were baptized in the Church of the Capuchins. When France and Spain (including Portugal in the

Iberian Union pt, União Ibérica , conventional_long_name =Iberian Union , common_name = , year_start = 1580 , date_start = 25 August , life_span = 1580–1640 , event_start = War of the Portuguese Succession , event_end = Portuguese Restoration War , ...

) became allied through the marriage of Louis XIII with

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unti ...

in 1615, support for the colony was discontinued and the colonists abandoned. The Portuguese soon managed to expel the French from the colony. The book by Claude d'Abbeville was removed from circulation, and similar work by Yves D'Evreux and Francois Huby was destroyed.

Works

*Claude d'Abbeville
''Histoire de la mission des pères Capucins en l'isle de Maragnan et terres circonvoisines''
(''History of the Mission of the Capuchin Fathers to the Island of Maranhao''), Paris: F. Huby, 1614.de Asúa & French (2005) p.148Other digitization
by etnolinguistica.org

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dabbeville, Claude French Roman Catholic missionaries 17th-century French people French Franciscans Franciscan missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Brazil French expatriates in Brazil