Tupi

The Tupi group covers the many peoples who speak Tupi-Guarani languages, spread over eastern Brazil and the Paraguay basin: the Tupinamba, Tupiniquim, Potiguara and Tabajara of the Atlantic coast, and the Guarani of the Parana and Paraguay rivers. The coastal Tupi were the peoples the Portuguese met first, and Old Tupi became a lingua franca between Europeans and natives, with catechisms, poems and plays.

André Thevet in 1572, Jean de Léry in 1578 and Hans Staden described the Tupinamba, including their cannibalism, and these accounts influenced Montaigne's essay on cannibals. In 1537 Gonzalo de Mendoza founded Asunción among the Guarani; Jesuits reached Paraná in 1585 and in 1608 were authorised to convert the tribes of Guayrá.