Chapter
12
FRAGOSO AT WORK"BRAZA" (BURNING EMBERS) is a word found in the Spanish language as far back as the twelfth century. It has been used to make the word "brazil," as descriptive of certain woods which yield a reddish dye. From this has come the name "Brazil," given to that vast district of South America which is crossed by the equator, and in which these products are so frequently met with. In very early days these woods were the object of considerable trade. Although correctly called "ibirapitunga," from the place of production, the name of "brazil" stuck to them, and it has become that of the country, which seems like an immense heap of embers lighted by the rays of the tropical sun.
Brazil was from the first occupied by the Portuguese. About the commencement of the sixteenth
