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

Tomas, or Rio Nunez to Brussels. The chargé d’affaires, De Jaeger, was aware of Van
Lede’s and the Société's plans before he arrived in 1842. The negotiations which Van
Lede conducted were accomplished with the advice and consent of the government.
The problem was that Van Lede ran into several difficulties that rendered much
of the potential help of the Belgian government unusable. The Brazilian government’s
failure to timely ratify the grant created the need to purchase additional land not part of
the original transaction. The failure of the colonists to seek information on farming in
Brazil instead of using European methods and their failure to seek advice on flooding
added to the confusion and initial disillusionment. But perhaps the argument that Van
Lede did not really seek to establish an agricultural colony but a mining venture is a
sound one. This is especially so in view of his failure to return after the mineral rights
were not transferred. There is even a question as to whether he was in fact an officer in
the Belgian army. 314 Like Hompesch and Obert in the Santo Tomas effort, the company
was not sufficiently capitalized nor directed by competent leaders.
Of some interest, however, was a strong desire to emigrate on the part of certain
Belgians despite the economic and political realities. One of the more remarkable
stories to come out of this period was that of Madame Marie Van Langendonck. In
1857, she was a widow with two sons, who decided to move to Brazil. She did not go to
Itajahi or any other area near Van Lede’s colony but settled outside the city of Porto-
Alégre, approximately two hundred miles south of Itajahi on the Brazilian coast among
313 Leopold to d’Hoffschmidt, August 1846, AMAE 2028.
149