EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

were not in the Company’s name but in that of Van Lede. The first 109 colonists arrived
on August 24, 1844. They settled on Van Lede’s newly purchased land located along
the Itajahi River. 301 The settlement was named Ilhota, “little river” in a local Indian
dialect. Almost immediately the colony experienced a major problem. Sixteen of the
colonists, including its only doctor, refused to go to the new settlement, opting instead
to move to San Jose, approximately forty miles to the southwest. 302
The loss of the doctor was significant in and of itself, but the real problem was
now twofold. First, the Brazilian government had not approved the grant, so the
colonists were illegal. The second problem was that the grant had stipulated the
emigration of 100 families and the best van Lede could produce on the colony site was a
total of ninety colonists. He responded to the first problem by organizing the colonists
to create a working community. He responded to the second problem by going to Rio de
Janeiro.
The efforts of the colonists were initially successful in a little over six months;
they had successfully constructed over a dozen houses and several other buildings,
including a church. Simultaneously they immediately began to clear the land and plant.
The difficulty was that their European methods were ineffective in clearing the land of
the virgin forests of Brazil. Despite a tremendous effort, little land was actually cleared.
Additionally, the colonists were not aware of the flooding capabilities of the Itajahi
301 Also spelled Itajai and referred to as the Itajahi or Itajai Acu River.”
302 Van Lede insisted that they had merely used the company to obtain a free ticket while they
maintained he did not bring them to the designated area which had been part of the Brazilian grant.
144