The popular myth in Brazil is that it was sparsely inhabited jungle before the Portuguese arrived. And that the few indigenous who lived here welcomed the settlers with open arms.

Yeah, right. Probably a large population of several million was here before the Portuguese. Now the indigenous are in the hundreds of thousands. And the chances are, the rest were wiped out by disease and direct conflict with the colonists.

Amazon was settled before Columbus' time: Excavations and maps confirm forest housed advanced society.