Guaîtaká

The Guaîtaká were a non-Tupi Tapuia people of the eastern Brazilian coast, holding the shore between the São Mateus and Paraíba do Sul rivers, where Campos dos Goytacazes still bears their name. Hunter-gatherers, not farmers, they lived on game, fish, fruit and honey, famed archers and shark fishermen of the shallows; their name may come from Tupi guatá, meaning wayfarer or runner.

Three rival bands' fearsome warrior reputation, together with European allegations of cannibalism, let them keep their lands free of settlements long after the coast elsewhere fell to the Portuguese: in the 1540s they overran the São Tomé captaincy's colonies and forced Espírito Santo settlers onto Vitória.

Their territory barred the Rio de Janeiro-Bahia route, so colonists used manhunts, poisoned brandy and smallpox-infected blankets; the Guaîtaká withdrew inland and by the late eighteenth century were nearly exterminated, survivors merging into other tribes.