Editing Bartolomeu de Gusmão (section)

==Persecution==
One account of Gusmão's work suggests that the [[Portuguese Inquisition]] forbade him to continue his aeronautic investigations and persecuted him because of them, but this is probably a later invention.  It dates, however, from at least the end of the 18th century, as the following article in the London ''Daily Universal Register'' (later ''The Times'') of 20 October 1786, makes clear:

{{bquote|By accounts from Lisbon we are assured, that in consequence of the experiments made there with the [[Montgolfier]] balloon, the literati of Portugal had been incited to make numerous researches on the subject; in consequence of which they pretend that the honour of the invention is due to Portugal.  They say that in 1720, a Brazilian Jesuit, named Bartholomew Gusmao, possessed of abilities, imagination, and address, by permission of John V. fabricated a balloon in a place contiguous to the Royal Palace, and one day, in presence of their Majesties, and an immense crowd of spectators, raised himself, by means of a fire lighted in the machine, as high as the cornice of the building; but through the negligence and want of experience of those who held the cords, the machine took an oblique direction, and, touching the cornice, burst and fell.

The balloon was in the form of a bird with a tail and wings.  The inventor proposed to make new experiments, but, chagrined at the raillery of the common people, who called him wizzard, and terrified by the Inquisition, he took the advice of his friends, burned his manuscripts, disguised himself, and fled to Spain, where he soon after died in an hospital.

They add, that several learned men, French and English, who had been at Lisbon to verify the fact, had made enquiries at the Carmelite monastery, where Gusmao had a brother, who had preserved some of his manuscripts on the manner of constructing aerostatic machines.  Various living persons affirm that they were present at the Jesuit's experiments, and that he received the surname of ''Voador'', or Flying-man.}}

Contemporary documents do attest that information was laid before the Inquisition against Gusmão, but on quite another charge.  The inventor fled to [[Spain]] and fell ill of a fever, of which he died in Toledo. He wrote: ''Manifesto summário para os que ignoram poderse navegar pelo elemento do ar'' (''Short Manifesto for those who are unaware that is possible to sail through the element air'', 1709); and ''Vários modos de esgotar sem gente as naus que fazem água'' (''Several ways of draining, without people, ships that leak water'', 1710); some of his sermons also have been printed.