Abstract
Missionary activity in the captaincies of Ceará and Rio Grande, in the late 17th century and the beginning
of the following one, was marked by a clash of interests involving missionaries as well as many
local colonial authorities and the troops of São Paulo. It was at stake the suspicious prominence of
each of the social actors involved in a conflict of generalized violence that marked the so-called War
of Açu, when, dividing villages or flogging indigenous people in the hinterland, each of these actors, in
their own way, sought favors from the Portuguese Crown and direct influence in the conflict region.
