European Prisoner Describes Life Among Cannibals of Brazil (1557) // Nightmare of Hans Staden

i thank the almighty creator of heaven earth and sea for the great mercy and compassion which among the savage people of the country brazil called the tupin imba who ate men and whose prisoner i was for nine months and amidst many other dangers i am again safe in the grand duchy of hess my much beloved fatherland [Music] hans stardon from homburg in hesse had resolved if it should so please god to visit india i traveled to a city called seville where i found three ships fitting out to sail to a country called rio de plata in america this region with the rich gold country named pirao which was discovered some years ago and brazil all form one continent to conquer this land forthwith several ships had been sent some years before and one of them returning home requested more assistance saying how rich it was in gold san vincente was an island which lies close to the mainland the portuguese who live therein have for allies a tribe of brazilians who are called the toppin ikin but this tribe had on both sides enemies on the south side and also the north side having sent my slave the day before into the wood to catch game i purposed going the next day to fetch it so that we might have something to eat for in that country one has little else beyond what comes from forests now as i would this purpose walked through the woods there arose on both sides of the path loud yells such as the savages are accustomed to make and they came running towards me i noticed them but found that they had all surrounded me and leveling their bows and arrows they shot in upon me i cried god help my soul i'd scarcely finished saying these words when they struck me to the ground and shot arrows and stabbed at me so far they had not thank god wounded me further than in one leg and torn my clothes off my body two of them raised me from the ground where i lay naked one took me by one arm another by the other and some went behind me and others before they ran in this manner quickly through the wood towards the sea i sighted their canoes from which they had drawn up from the sea at the distance of about a stone's throw or two and also a great number more of them who had remained with the canoes when they ornamented with feathers according to their custom saw me being led along they ran towards me and pretended to bite into their arms and threatened as though they would eat me before they launched the canoe they tied my hands together and not being all from the same dwelling place those of each village were loathed to go home empty-handed and disputed with those who held me some said that they had been just as near me as the others and that they would also have their share of me and they wanted to kill me at once on that very spot and so i stood and prayed looking round for the blow but at last their king who desired to keep me began to speak and said they would take me living homewoods so that their wives might also see me alive and make their feast upon me for they purposed killing me kawei that is they would brew drinks and assemble together to make a feast and only then they would eat me this video was sponsored by magellan tv question how many people lived in the americas when columbus arrived in 1492. a 3.2 million b 15 million c 60 million yes the answer according to a recent study is 60 million although that is hotly debated and just over a century later had dropped to 5 million and so my recommendation this week is one of magellan's new documentaries which they add every week rio the great saga is a fascinating journey back in time to explore the rich history of rio de janeiro a crossroads of colonial history and political and social revolutions an amazing slice of brazil's rich history and of course magellan have more than 3 000 other documentaries already on their system to check out too and this christmas voices of the past viewers can take advantage of a special holiday offer a buy one get one free gift card for an annual membership by clicking on the link in the description thanks [Music] when we arrived close to their dwellings these proved to be a village which had seven huts and they called it uwatibi [Music] and close to it were their women in the plantations of the route which they call mandioca in this set plantation walked many of the women pulling up roots to these i was made to call out in their language a drunesque bean herme vrame that is i your food has come now when we landed all young and old ran out of their huts which lay on a hill to look at me the men with their bows and arrows entered the huts and left me in the custody of their women who took me between them and went along some before me and others behind singing and dancing in unison with the songs which they are accustomed to sing to their own people when they are about to eat them now they brought me before the iwara huts as i entered the women ran to me and struck me with their fists and pulled my beard and spoke in their language with this blow i revenge my friend him whom those among whom thou has been has killed thereupon they led me into the hutts whilst the women came and struck and pulled me before and behind and threatened me how they would eat me all the men were together in a hut and drank the beverage which they called cowie and had with them their gods called tamerka and they sang in praise of them this song i heard and i thought now they prepare to kill thee after a little while those who had captured me named yapipo wasu and his brother al-kindar miri came to me and told me how they had from friendship presented me to their father's brother iperu wazu who was to keep me and also to kill me when i was to be eaten and thus to gain a new name with me further the two above mentioned who had taken me said now will the women lead the out to the aprasi this word i understood not then but now i know it means dancing then came all the women who were in the seven huts and seized hold of me and the men went away several of the women led me along by the arms and several by the ropes which were bound around my neck so roughly and tightly that i could hardly breathe and i knew not what they intended to do with me upon which i tried to remember the sufferings of our lord jesus christ and how he suffered innocently whereby i consoled myself and became more resigned i asked whether they were going to kill me then when they answered not yet upon which a woman came out from the crowd towards me holding a fragment of crystal and with this same piece of crystal shaved off my eyebrows i would also have cut the beard from my chin but this i would not suffer and said that they should kill me with my beard two women were with me and they tied to one of my legs strings of objects which rattled thereupon the woman-kind all began together to sing and to their time i was obliged to stamp with their leg to which they had tied the rattles so that they rattled in harmony eventually i was handed over to iperowasu who kept me in careful custody he told me that i still had some time to live and they brought all their gods that were in the huts and placed them around me and said that those had prophesied that they would capture a portuguese then said i these things have no power and also cannot speak and they lie in asserting that i am portuguese for i am one of the frenchman's allies and friends and the country where i am at home to which i belong is called germany they knew full well that the frenchman were just as much the enemies of the portuguese as they for the frenchmen came every year with ships and brought them knives axes looking glasses combs and scissors therefore they were good friends which the portuguese had not been they further said that the portuguese had shot the father of the two brothers who had captured me in such manner that he died and that they would now revenge their father's death on me thereupon i asked why would they revenge upon me i was not portuguese having come to understood that there were french one among them and that these were accustomed to arrive there in ships i always persisted in the same story and said that i belonged to the allies of the french and that they were to let me remain unkilled until sometime as the frenchman came and recognized me there was a frenchman living four miles distant from the huts where i was now when he heard the news he proceeded thither then the savages came running towards me and said now a frenchman has arrived here we shall soon see if you are a frenchman or not of course i felt glad of that and i thought at all events he is a christian and he will say everything for the best they took me into him naked as i was and i saw that he was a young fellow he addressed me in french and i of course understood him not the savages stood round and listened when i could not reply he said to the savages in their language kill and eat him he is a true portuguese my enemy and yours this i understood well i begged him therefore for god's sakes that he would tell them not to eat me and he said they want to eat you upon which i remembered the words of jeremiah who says cursed is he who putteth his trust in man [Music] the above-mentioned frenchman remained two days and on the third day he went on his way and they had agreed that they would prepare everything and kill me on the first day after they had collected all things together and they watched me very carefully and both young and old mocked and derided me now when i came close upon the huts i heard a great noise of singing and blowing of horns and in front of the huts were fixed some fifteen heads on stakes these belonged to a tribe whom they had eaten as they led me past them they told me they were the heads from the mark chaos who were also their enemies as we were entering the huts one of these who had me in their keeping went before me and spoke with loud words so that the others heard it here i bring the slave the portuguese he then led me to where the king sat and drank together with the others and had made themselves drunk with the beverage that they make called kawawi the king looked savagely at me and said our enemy art thou come then they gave me also to drink at this point the king's son tied my legs together in three places and i was made to hop with joined feet through the huts at this they laughed and said there comes our meat hopping along upon this i asked my master whether he had led me thither to be killed he said no it was the custom that foreign slaves were treated in this manner thereupon they walked around me and grabbed at my flesh one said the skin of the head belonged to him and another that he claimed the fleshy part of the leg but my master always comforted me saying that i was not to be killed for the present about eventide on the day when the others again gone off and by moonlight they assembled together on the open space between the huts and debated among one another when they would kill me placing me also between them they derided and threatened me i was sad and looked at the moon and thought to myself my lord and my god assist me through this peril to a peaceful end then they asked me why i so constantly looked at the moon so i said to them i see by her aspect that she is angry for the face which is in the moon appeared even to me to be so terrible that i thought to myself god and all creatures must be angry with me but thereupon the king who was to have me killed called japipuasu asked me with whom is the moon angry so i said she looks towards thy huts [Music] after several days they all came home together sick chipipo ordered me to be led to the huts and told me how they had been stricken with illness and that i had well known it for he still remembered that i had said the moon looked angrily towards his huts when i heard these words from him i thought to myself surely it must be through god's providence that i last night as a four said spoke about the moon i was in great joy at this and i thought today god is with me and so i told him that it was true because he wanted to eat me though i was not his enemy and therefore had misfortune come upon him upon which he said that nothing should happen to me if it turned out that he recovered i knew not how best to pray to god and thought if they regain health they will yet kill me but if they die the others will say let us kill him before more misfortune happens on this account so i submitted the matter to god chipipo begged me hard that they might again recover i walked round them and laid my hands upon their heads as they desired me to do but god would not have it so they began to die first died one of their children then his mother died an old woman who was baking the pots wherein were to be made the beverages with which i was to be eaten she also died after some days one of his brothers died then another child and another brother and so on now when he saw that his children his mother and his brothers were gone he feared much that he and his wives would also die he said that i was to tell my god to withdraw his anger so that he might live i of course comforted him and told him there was no danger but that when he recovered again he was not to think of killing me thereupon he answered no and also commanded those in the huts that nobody should injure me or threaten to eat me he nevertheless remained ill for a time but he was at last restored to health together with one of his wives who was also ill there died however about eight of his friends besides others who had treated me cruelly now there were yet two other kings from two other huts one had dreamt that i appeared before him and had told him that he was to die i said no he was not to be afraid but that he also was not to think of killing me or advise others to do it in like manner the other king had also dreamt of me a dream which had terrified him much and he called me to his hut and then complained of it to me and said he had once been to war and had captured a portuguese and had killed him with his own hands and had eaten of him so plentifully that his chest or stomach had ever since been delicate and he declared that he would eat of no other him also i paid to be of good cheer but he was to take care never to eat human flesh again [Music] thus they left me alone for a while not knowing quite what to make of me whether i was a portuguese or a frenchman they said i had a red beard like a frenchman and though they had also seen portuguese yet these had all black beards and so when the frenchman came again to the huts he spoke to me in the savage tongue and at that time i went about unfettered then he asked me if i still lived and i said yes i thanked god that he had preserved me for so long and i called him privately to a spot where the savages could not hear what i said and told him that he saw plainly that god had preserved my life but also that i was no portuguese but a german and i asked if he had not a christian heart in his bosom or had thought that after this life there was no other when he had strongly advised that i should be killed and so according to my request he told the savages that he had not well recognized me the first time but that i was from germany and belonged to their friends and that he wanted to take me with him to where the ships generally arrived my masters said no they would not give me up for they had found me in the enemy's country and i belonged to them it happened after several days that they wanted to eat a prisoner in a village nearby about six miles from where i lay imprisoned on the eve of this day when they intended drinking to his death i went to him and said to him everything is prepared for thy death he laughed and he said yes further i told him he was to be of good cheer for they would only eat his flesh but his soul would proceed to another place without our countrymen's souls also proceeded and where there was much happiness he then asked me if this was really true i said yes but quoth he he'd never seen god and i said he would see him in the next life there was one more incident before i escaped now among them was a slave belonging to a tribe called the cario who are also enemies of the savages that are friends of the portuguese so it happened about the year 1554 during the sixth month of my captivity that the cario fell sick and his master who owned him begged me to help him that he might be well again and catch game bringing something for us to eat but that if i thought he would not recover again he would give him to a good friend who might kill him and gain a name by him i tried but finally they said he will die we will therefore before he dies strike him dead i said no do not do this he may perhaps recover but it veiled not they dragged him before the hutts and two of them held him for he was so sick that he knew not what they were going to do with him and so came the one whom he had been given to kill and struck him on the head so that the brain sprang out then they left him lying before the huts and wished to eat him i told them not to do this as he had been sick and they might also fall ill therefore they knew not what to do but one of them came out the hut wherein i was and called to the women to make a fire near the dead man and he cut his head off then he cut him up and divided him equally with the others as is their custom and ate him all but the head and bowels of which they had a loathing as the man had been sick i went now and again through the different huts in one they broiled the feet in another the hands and in the third pieces of the trunk then i told them how the carrier whom they were broiling and were going to eat had at all times lied against me and had said that i had shot several of their friends when i was with the portuguese and in this he had lied and he had never seen me you know well i continued that he was several years among you and never was ill but now on account of the lies which he told about me my god has become angry and has stricken him with sickness and has put into your minds that you should kill him and eat him so will my god do unto all wicked men who have worked me harm and who would further injure me at such words they were much terrified it happened that one day some savages came to me and said that they had heard of firing which must be at itaron the harbour also called rio de janeiro hearing with certainty that a ship was there i told them that they were to take me to it as probably my brothers would be there eventually the news was brought to me by the savages the two men from the ship had arrived there i was overjoyed and went to them and bade them welcome in the savage tongue when they saw me in such a wretched plight they had pity upon me and divided their garments with me i asked them why they had come they answered on my account as they had been commanded to take me to the ship and to affect this they were to use every means and so i said to one of the two who knew the language of the savages that he had to feign the following he was to be my brother and he was to make believe that i would remain among them and collect pepper and other produce until the ships returned the next year about 10 sailors who in some degree resembled me should come together and state that they were my brothers and wanted to carry me home with them my false brothers should in no way consent that i should again return to the huts but declare that i should return home for our father wished to see me once again before he died and so the captain told the savages that he was the captain of the ship and was desirous that i should go back to the huts but that he was only one man and my brothers were many he could not do anything against them these pretexts were all made in order to part on good terms with the savages and so the king went weeping about the ship and said if they really wanted to take me with them i was to return with the first ship for he had considered me now his son and was very angry with the others for wanting to eat me and one of his wives who was then with him on board the ship had to cry over me after their custom and i also cried according to their usage [Music] and so in such manner did the almighty god the god of abraham isaac and jacob help me out of the hands of the tyrants to him be praise honor and glory through jesus christ his dear son our savior amen [Music] you

Channel: Voices of the Past

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Length: 25min 4sec (1504 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 12 2021