Manaos

The Manao were the dominant indigenous people of the Rio Negro in the upper Amazon, whose name, meaning mother of the gods in their Arawakan tongue, was later given to Manaus. They refused to serve the Portuguese as slaves or converts and repeatedly attacked the Fort of São José da Barra, the nucleus of the future city.

Under the chief Ajuricaba they united neighbouring peoples and watched the rivers to stop colonial craft sailing upstream. The resulting Manao War was only put down in the 1720s.

Captured and shipped down the Amazon for trial at Belém, Ajuricaba broke free and drowned himself rather than face slavery, while some two thousand of his people were carried off and sold. Remnant Manao were last encountered on the upper Rio Negro in 1819, and the Baniwa of the same river are regarded as their descendants.