In addition, as they saw their land being taken over and their freedom limited, hostility towards the settlers arose among the Indians. In two attacks in the 1530s, the settlements of Bahia and São Tomé were destroyed and several others were severely damaged. This was only the beginning of more than twenty years of attacks on settlements, and against the settlers' ready access to firearms the Indians won because of their agility and numbers.Richards, John F. The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World. University of California Press, 2005. pp. 383–384. . However, the Jesuits' comment on "great injustices" against the Indians took on greater meaning in 1559 as the Portuguese, under the leadership of Brazil's third governor general Mem de Sá, began "… grim, unrelenting, aggressive campaigns that included elements of surprise, night attacks and terror in one blood-drenched encounter after another. Having discovered that the palm-thatched buildings of the Indians burnt readily, the Portuguese systematically torched any village they occupied or passed. The Portuguese recruited and employed Indian allies to devastating effect and incited internecine warfare between politically fragmented Indian groups. This genocidal warfare resulted in the near extinction of many ethnic groups. All this was achieved with relatively few Portuguese troops acting with characteristic daring and brutality."Richards, pp. 385–386.As this same commentator said, "These battles were a portent of the next three centuries."Richards, p. 385. In response, Indians either fled away from the occupied areas and further into the forests or moved to the aldeias.
