The least showy of the colonies and the one that brought in the least quick profit eventually became a second and a greater Portugal, outstripping the mother country in population and dividing South America almost equally with the Spanish.

In many ways the settlement of this colony resembled that of North America by the English more than it did the violent and superficial conquests of Spain.

Settlers came to it less as adventurers than as home-seekers and some of them fled from religious persecution.

The great source of wealth, the sugar-cane, was introduced from Madeira in 1548 and in the following year the mother country sent a royal governor and some troops.
[Sidenote: Decadence of Portugal] But even more than Spain Portugal overtaxed her strength in her grasp for sudden riches.

The cup that her mariners took from the gorgeous Eastern enchantress had a subtle, transforming drug mingled with its spices, whereby they were metamorphosed, if not into animals, at least into orientals, or Africans.