Up to the end of sec. XVIII most Brazilians spoke a creole of portuguese and indian languages (mostly tupi-guarani) tipped more to the indian side.
Since most of written history is based on what the educated colonizers could write, and I would imagine they would not notice entire civilizations crumbling due to socioeconomical changes (due to urban living as a member of the elite, only really caring for the results of the extractivism), a lot of really important changes went by and we'll probably not ever know what happened.
Remember that most interaction between natives and colonizers would be solely for the purpose of extraction of resources (chronologically: slaves for sugar and pau-brasil, gold, rubber and up to this day, farming/cattle) and catholic conversion (with one interesting exception for the spanish missions in the south, which even sided with the natives in wars [0]). I would not imagine these interactions to be performed with any considerations to understanding these people, and those who did would probably not even be able to read [1].
If you search the ancient history of Brazil (with luck you can span at most 3 centuries) you'll find plenty of foreign adventurers and not many brazilians.
Most colonization of Brazil happened cronologically in the northeast, southwest, south and gradually expanding to the center into Minas Gerais [2]. Expansion to the north only happened massively at the end of the XIX century for rubber extraction. So I would imagine 4 centuries would be enough time for whole indigenous civilizations to disappear without anyone noticing.
My non-educated guess would be that the first serious brazillian researchers would just appear in the mid sec. XX [3], and this just on the center-west area bordering the north.
Since most of written history is based on what the educated colonizers could write, and I would imagine they would not notice entire civilizations crumbling due to socioeconomical changes (due to urban living as a member of the elite, only really caring for the results of the extractivism), a lot of really important changes went by and we'll probably not ever know what happened.
Remember that most interaction between natives and colonizers would be solely for the purpose of extraction of resources (chronologically: slaves for sugar and pau-brasil, gold, rubber and up to this day, farming/cattle) and catholic conversion (with one interesting exception for the spanish missions in the south, which even sided with the natives in wars [0]). I would not imagine these interactions to be performed with any considerations to understanding these people, and those who did would probably not even be able to read [1].
If you search the ancient history of Brazil (with luck you can span at most 3 centuries) you'll find plenty of foreign adventurers and not many brazilians.
Most colonization of Brazil happened cronologically in the northeast, southwest, south and gradually expanding to the center into Minas Gerais [2]. Expansion to the north only happened massively at the end of the XIX century for rubber extraction. So I would imagine 4 centuries would be enough time for whole indigenous civilizations to disappear without anyone noticing.
My non-educated guess would be that the first serious brazillian researchers would just appear in the mid sec. XX [3], and this just on the center-west area bordering the north.
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Miguel_das_Miss%C3%B5...
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandeirantes
2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minas_Gerais#History
3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villas-B%C3%B4as_brothers