The land grant
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Em recompensa do seu merecimento, o governador Mem de Sá lhe havia dado uma sesmaria de uma legua com fundo sobre o sertão, a qual depois de haver explorado, deixou por muito tempo devolutas
In reward for his merit, governor Mem de Sá had given him a sesmaria one league deep into the backlands, which, after he had explored it, he left vacant for a long time.
The reward for his merit: governor Mem de Sá had given him a sesmaria a league deep into the backlands, which, once explored, he left vacant a long while.
The sesmaria is the seed of the whole novel: the exact patch of wilderness on which the house — and the story — will stand. Alencar folds a real institution of colonial land law into his hero's biography, so that the fortress on the cliff feels legally and historically earned. The paragraph ends, tellingly, on a word the source prints without a full stop.
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