“Do you like History?”

That wasn't quite what he was expecting, and taken by surprise he stammered a “Well…”

“What a shame. Many people don't. They don't know what they are missing out on. But let's go: what do you know about the history of Brazil?”

“Hum… that it was discovered in 1500?”

“That's what's in the books. And what else?”

“Well… I don't know… it's too much… Emperor Tiradentes I declared our independence… we took the American colonies from the French and Dutch… and we have the largest war ship fleet in the world?” Túlio was stunned. He thought of the Imperial Military Academy tests and evaluated his chances, which already didn't seem so good.

“It is curious that we are such an advanced Country with such a weak History teaching, don't you think?” The Professor's sarcastic questions were becoming his most bothersome trait.

“I'll recap for you: in April twenty-second of 1500, a fleet with ten ships and three caravels docked on what is today the city of Porto Seguro, province of Bahia. Pedro Álvares Cabral had about fifteen hundred men, even though the Marine likes to claim they were almost three thousand. Despite that, those men never came to ground. Why?”

“Because the trip was already too late to get to the Indies?”

“That's what they say… but, still, the fleet returned to Portugal. They didn't go to the Indies. And with an interesting detail — only nine ships and the three caravels arrived at Porto.”

Professor José Antônio's inquisitor look bothered Túlio deeply. It was the same look his Algebraic Calculus teacher gave him upon making a question whose answer he, obviously, already knew.

“Because they discovered there would be little provisions and then had to change the route and return to Portugal? And on the way a ship sank in… what's the name again? Sargasso Sea?”

“They said it was in Cabo Verde, Túlio. Anyway, don't you think it's strange for a fleet ready to go to the Indies to run out of provisions in the middle of the trip?”

“I'm not surprised at anything in this Country, Professor.”

“True, I have to agree with you,” and he burst out laughing. “But Portugal had a deep knowledge about navigation south of the Equator and I don't think they could've missed that bad. Besides, look how strange — almost all of the documents of that trip vanished!

“But, continuing: few months later, an even larger fleet was sent to the newly discovered land. Don't you find it weird that Portugal sent so many men?”

“Uai, the land was big… it needed a lot of people to map, no?”

The Professor made a funny face and said, between amused and sad, “They did a great job. Indeed, a great job. They don't pay teachers so badly for nothing — there isn't much to do, besides repeating what's in the books…”

Túlio didn't understand anything and looked intrigued at the Professor, who seemed to reflect deeply.

“When the Portuguese came back, they found a huge nation of natives. There were over five million of them scattered all over the coast, and a great part of them spoke a common language — Tupy. You've also learned they were all cannibals, savages, pagans, indomitable and lazy… isn't that right?”

“Yeah…” and he glanced at Airu, who was sound asleep.

“The fleet stayed here for two months. It was two months of an intense battle against the indians, where over a thousand Portuguese lives were lost, besides two caravels, right?”

“Yes, I think so…”

“Tell me, Túlio, how was it possible for the indians, armed with sticks, stones, bows and arrows, to sink not one, but two caravels?” and he looked at Túlio with that I-know-the-answer look.

“Well… I don't know… I've never thought about it.”

“No, of course you haven't… well, after two months, the fleet returned to Portugal. In the following years, several caravels came to Brazil, with more and more people each time, establishing advanced posts on the coast and starting the mapping of the interior with Entradas and Bandeiras. Indians were enslaved until the revolt that led to the genocide known as ‘Civilizing War,’ which forced the Portuguese to bring in slave manpower from the African colonies.

“In the meantime, Portugal advanced hugely, both in wealth and in war technology — it annexed Spain, destroyed the English squad and signed a peace treaty with France and the Netherlands. Around here, the cities of Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and Ouro Preto were progressing in large steps.

“In Brazil were installed foundries, windmills, the School of Minas, several Army bases, and Marine ports. Isn't it fantastic that Portugal has taken a technological leap of… I don't know… two hundred years right after the discovery of Brazil?”

“Well… with the wealth discovered here, it was natural that they had more money… and we've always been a progressive people, concerned about education and scientific research…”

At that moment the Professor couldn't stop himself and cackled again, so strongly that it made tears run down from the corners of his eyes. Airu mumbled something and shuffled on her seat.

“Oh… a very good one, Túlio… truly a very good one! The Empire's propaganda is more efficient by the day!”

It took him a few minutes until he could control himself.

“Oh… really good… but let's go… after a few years, Brazil already had large cities, all of the Portuguese war and naval production was concentrated here, besides important research centers. Portugal feared the shipyards would fall in the hands of the French, German, or Basque separatists, leaving them an ocean away.

“The population control was, since that time, rigorously regulated by the Crown and the mapping of the jungles to the north of the continent was expressly forbidden. Some people were shot for playing with the subject.

“Our oldest newspaper, A Gazeta, is from that time, edited in Rio de Janeiro, but under the ‘supervision’ of a commodore from the Portuguese Marine.

“Well — our beloved and idolized savior, Emperor Tiradentes I (then a low-ranking officer who earned some change pulling teeth in his free time), muy smartly, noticed that Portugal depended totally on Brazil, and that the military officers were unsatisfied with their wage. As a good mineiro, he plotted a conspiracy and managed, in 1789, to declare our independency. They say it was lucky that a large part of the fleet was parked at the shipyards for maintenance, but I, particularly, think it was all arranged. Mineiros are shifty, you know…

“Tiradentes had French friends and his idea was to institute a Republic, which he indeed did. But ten years later, seeing corruption reach higher and higher levels, he burned the Constitutional Law that he himself had promulgated, closed the Senate and entitled himself ‘General Governor of the Brazilian Empire.’

“From then on, the State's control over the economy increased, the Empire began to export more, better control the colonies of Septentrional America… the release of the slaves came and practically all the black people were ‘extradited’ to the African colonies…”

At that point, Túlio interrupted. He had a great black friend and, therefore, he could speak with property! “But the blacks asked to leave and the Empire granted the trip, wasn't it? Few decided to stay…”

“That's what's written down, isn't it?

“In any way, Tiradentes I left his mark and established the form of succession: a vote between the governors of the Provinces, who would elect the Emperor among the relatives of the original Inconfidentes, which happens to this day.

“He also defined the first Permanent Area of Exclusion, which we now call the Amazon Basin Forbidden Human Permanence Forest Area.”

“He was a man of vision, worried about the Amazon Forest…” Túlio intervened.

The Professor made another grimace: “Indeed… indeed… a shame he didn't worry that much about the Floodable Plains of the Center West, which became a desert after the disordered occupation for livestock grazing.

“Anyway, his son, Tiradentes II, built a series of schools throughout the whole Empire, including the Overseas Colonies, in partnership with the Jesuits. And the Vatican has been a Brazilian protectorate ever since.

“After that came other less important names… the war industry became stronger and stronger… the War Ministry got larger and larger budgets… and all that you must already know. In general lines, is what I said correct?” and there came another of those I-already-know-the-answer looks…

Túlio, who was finding that class extremely dull and didn't understand what that had to do with the expedition, only nodded.

The Professor rummaged through the inner pocket of his coat, while looking suspiciously at the cabin door. He pulled out of there a small key and opened his suitcase. He took a piece of paper that looked very old, quite yellowed by time, and offered it to Túlio. “Take a look at this.”

It was truly a very ancient piece of paper. Despite being protected by two glass plates, the action of time could be clearly seen. There was nothing written, it was just a drawing made with blue ink occupying almost the entire page, which should be the size of a notebook sheet — some indians posed next to an obviously Caucasian man, bearded and with disheveled hair. Around the gang, a dense vegetation, macaws, toucans and an animal that looked like a paca. Or an agouti.

Túlio looked at the drawing and didn't understand what the Professor expected from him. It was a drawing, so far so good. He himself doodled some things during History and Geography classes… obviously nothing so well done like that, but tough luck, he wasn't an artist.

“Have you ever seen any photography… any painting… any drawing with so many indians? At least, one made in the last two hundred years?”

“No… until last morning, I didn't even know there were still indians.”

“Exactly… now, look at the first indian's right hand, at the very beginning of the sheet.”

The boy approached the assembly of paper and glass plates to his face, squinting a little. The indian seemed to hold something… a… what was that? A piece of wood? A… a pistol?!

“Colonel Lobato must have a very similar one at home,” said the Professor in his amused tone.

Indeed, the Colonel had a small arsenal and that definitely looked like some of the pistols in his collection.

Seeing the boy's curious expression, he complemented:

“That drawing is dated on the back — April twenty-second of fifteen hundred. The Imperial University analyzed it three times and, in each of the three, the result matched.”

“But this is… impossible!”

“No… impossible is not that that drawing was made on the day of the Discovery. Impossible, judging from the grooves on the paper, is that it was made with a ballpoint pen!”

Túlio couldn't understand. Ballpoint pens were a recent invention… the Colonel himself still used a brand-new fountain pen, a revolutionary model in which instead of “sucking” the ink, it came with a compartment for a small tube that stored it.

He looked astonished at the Professor: “This must be wrong!”

“Yes… it's all wrong… very wrong…”