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Duarte Coelho Pereira bent down, felt the earth in his hands and smiled.
The Donatário heard about that soil but couldn't believe it. However, now that he was there, he saw the truth. Much like Thomas the Apostle, he needed to see to believe.
Rubbing his dirty hands, he turned to his wife, Dona Brites de Albuquerque, and said, "My beloved, what seemed like punishment actually is a blessing in disguise. In here, we can be everything we ever dreamt."
The wife, following the husband's lead, also felt the soil. Like him, she also smiled and understood the potential.
"We need to hurry," begged her.
Duarte Coelho knew that all too well. He had a chance of building something for him, for Dona Brites, for the King and Portugal, but it wouldn't be easy.
"Hurry up, men! We need to secure the beach by night. We need to start building our defences and our new homes. Hurry!" He ordered without disguising the urgency.
The men obeyed. Some rolled their eyes; others speed up. The beach was secure by the end of the day, just as Coelho planned.
And as Duarte and Dona Brites envisioned the moment their hands touched the soil, the Captaincy grew. The earth was perfect for cane and cotton. The Brazilwood was worth their weights in gold—or even more. "This place will be special," said Duarte Coelho to the wife in one of their first nights together in the New World.
"But only if we make it special."
The couple smiled. That smile said that both Duarte Coelho and Dona Brites didn't care for the blood that would stain the sand and the earth, nor they cared for the lives of the slaves they would need. They only worried about one thing, their personal gain.
Thinking about the future of glory and smiling, the couple made love.
THE END
*****
The Captaincy of Pernambuco or New Lusitania (Portuguese: Nova Lusitânia) was a hereditary land grant and administrative subdivision of northern Portuguese Brazil during the colonial period from the early sixteenth century until Brazilian independence. At the time of the Independence of Brazil, it became a province of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Captaincies were originally horizontal tracts of land (generally), 50 leagues wide, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Torsedillas meridian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captaincy_of_Pernambuco
