FIGUEIRA, Luiz, Portuguese missionary, born in Almodovar, Portugal, 1585 ; died in Brazil in July 1643. He belonged to the Jesuit order, and was sent on the Brazilian mission. He was the companion of the Jesuit Pinto, who, while preaching the gospel among the Tayupes, a tribe near Pernambuco, was killed by these cannibals. Figueira fortunately escaped, and returned to Pernambuco. He was appoirited superior of the College of that City, and afterward made head of all the Jesuit missions on the Amazon. He then went to Portugal with the object of finding missionaries to share his labors, and did the Aruans inhabit returning with several companions when, just as his ship was entering the mouth of the Amazon, a storm arose, and he was wrecked on an Island. These barbarians massacred Figueira with thirteen of his companions, and devoured their bodies. Figueira wrote "Arte da Orammatica da Lingua Brasilica" (Lisbon, 1687). The library of the Jesuit College in Rome contains French translations of these other works of Figueira, the originals of which are lost: "Voyages de dd(;ouvertes a travers les pays des Tayupes" and "Etablissements fondes par le pdre Figueira chez les sauvages au Maranham."