Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
InRio,thefiscalcollapseoftheBrazilianeconomydidnothelpthepoliticalsituation,
and in such instability, the young Republic found Canudos a politically useful distrac-
tion.Localelitesalliedwiththefederalgovernmentandtriedtoimposeorder,settingoff
a set of events that would become a defining historical showdown.
The fateful trajectory had begun when some men from the village of Canudos went
to collect some prepaid lumber for building their church. The timber was withheld, and
local authorities feared that the disgruntled
canudenses
would bust up the port town and
administrative seat of Juaziero and from there spread mayhem. Historian Robert Levine
argues that this was a world of rumor and that there is little in the archives to explain
why, suddenly, the Bahian militias were sent in. Trudging through the Sertão, the milit-
aryfinallyarrivedatthedilapidatedvillageofUruá,describedasarundownIndianpost,
and stayed for the night. Though physically unappealing, Uruá was the site of a regular
Saturday market and well connected to the rest of the region, including Canudos, about
seventy kilometers away. Three days after their arrival the 104 troops were greeted by
Conselheiro's Catholic guard—a huge processional carrying a cross, religious banners,
droning backland hymns and
kyrie eleison
s. They were armed with blunderbusses, ag-
ricultural implements, and wooden stakes. Da Cunha described this attacking force as
“one of those penitential processions which the credulous backwoodsmen used to stage
bywayofpropitiatingheavenwhenthelongsummerbroughtthescourgeofdrought.”
11
Mortality in this skirmish was low, but the symbolic impact of the
sertanejos
' triumph
over the militia was incomparable. The soldiers eventually arrived back in Juazeiro in
tatters, stumbling, completely defeated. As a matter of both image and larger governing
capacity, the military's rout could not be left unavenged.
Without question, the most evocative descriptions of the Canudos battles are da
Cunha'sownwords,andreadersarereferredtothisclassicofworldliterature. Whatfol-
lows is a quick summary to situate the upcoming chapters of this work.
AfterthisfirstdefeatatUruá,asmallmilitaryforce,fewerthansixhundredmenunder
the direct command of Febrônio de Brito, was dispatched into the fray in an expedition
organized by Solon Ribeiro, da Cunha's father-in-law. This force, however, encountered
the guerrilla genius of Canudos, João Abbade, using the landscape and his
jagunços
to
maximum advantage, and the guerrillas completely decimated de Brito's pathetic corps-
men. As a well-trained formal militia they kept in formation and so were unable to man-
euver in the landscape. Abbade's snipers, perched in the rocks or the trees, were able to
meld into the landscape and pick offthe soldiers, and to move along goat trails and Indi-
an paths back to Canudos at will. Soldiers were ambushed by handfuls of guerrillas who
spookedtheirhorses,whichthenracedintothedensethornforests,wheremanandbeast
were horribly flayed, impaled on the landscape itself. There they remained, mummify-
ing in the increasing drought, ghoulish sentinels saluting the next attackers. Skulls soon
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