ARAÚJO, ANTÔNIO DE

Jesuit missionary in Brazil, linguist, and historian; b. São Miguel, Azores, 1566; d. Espíritu Santo, Brazil, 1632. He had already obtained the master's degree when in 1582 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Bahia, Brazil. After ordination, he taught briefly in Bahia and was then assigned to missionary work among the Tupí people. Noteworthy were Araújo's apostolic zeal and his ability to master the native tongue. He was admired by his contemporaries also for the facility with which he adapted himself to living conditions among the native Brazilians. In spite of an extremely active apostolic life, he found time to write his famed Catecismo na lingoa brasilica no qual se contem a summa da doctrina christã (Lisbon 1618; 2d ed. 1686; new ed. Leipzig, 1898), a catechetical work written in Tupí and later translated into other native languages. Araújo wrote also two historical treatises. The Informação da entrada que se pode fazer da vila de São Paulo ao Grande Rio Pará treats of one of the bandeirante expeditions led by Pero Domingues out of São Paulo through Brazil's northern hinterland to the Pará River. Written about 1625, it is considered one of the period's valuable historiographical works. A few years later, Araújo wrote the shorter Relaão dada perlo mesmo [Pero Domingues ] sobre a viagem que de São Paulo fez ao Rio de S. Francisco describing with more precision the route of the expedition and certain ethnographical details. These were first published in Brazil in 1937 by Serafim Leite.

Bibliography: s. leite, Páginas da historía do Brasil (São Paulo 1937).

[n. f. martin]