South America

by W. H. Koebel

In Maranhão, freshly conquered as it was, rebellion broke out almost as soon as the Dutch had established themselves. Desperate fighting took place in the neighbourhood of the capital, and many barbarities were committed on both sides. The Dutch Governor, in a fit of exasperation, delivered twenty-five Portuguese to the savages of Ceará, and sent fifty to the Barbadoes to be sold as slaves. The English Governor, however, after he had received these latter on shore, set them at liberty, and administered a severe reproof to the agent who had offered white men for sale in this way. Owing to happenings such as these the bitterness between the two races increased.

In the end Maranhão was regained by the Portuguese, and the Fort of Ceará itself was surprised by a force of Tapuya Indians and its garrison massacred. These occurrences were ominous, and the turn of the tide seemed to have set in. Prince Mauritz of Nassau now sent in his resignation, and, after leaving everything in a state of complete preparedness, set out for Europe, accompanied by no fewer than 1,400 persons all told, a force which could ill be spared from Brazil at that period. Among them were a few Indians who were taken to Holland to demonstrate to the inhabitants of that country the accomplishments of their countrymen, and the nature of the new subjects.

Nassau had governed the captured territories in a liberal and imperialistic spirit, and his personality had been popular to a certain extent even among the Portuguese. His absence was severely felt, and the policy of the West India Company, in itself parsimonious and somewhat petty, undoubtedly suffered much from the want of his presence; for during the time that he was in power he had restrained the excesses of his own people, and used no little tact towards the Portuguese. His rank, moreover, counted not a little in winning their esteem. The new authorities had not the influence over the soldiery that Prince Mauritz had enjoyed, and lacked not only experience but judgment.

Shortly after this Dirk van Hoogstraten, a Dutch officer, offered his services to the Portuguese, and various other symptoms portended a break up of the organization of the Dutch West India Company. Several attempts at insurrection took place in the neighbourhood of Recife itself, and the methods of the Dutch in repressing these became increasingly harsh. Some of the malcontents were hanged, and in several cases their hands were lopped off before death.

The Brazilian patriot, João Fernandes, now became very prominent, and the Dutch in consequence began to be more and more harassed. The woods in the neighbourhood of the town sheltered numbers of discontented Portuguese and Indians, who had collected stores and weapons, and had hidden themselves in the recesses of the forests until the time came for them to sally out for the attack. Several expeditions sent out by the Dutch to break up these bands were unsuccessful. The Portuguese either eluded them, or the Dutch fell into the ambushes prepared for them, and suffered loss without being able to retaliate.

Every month the Portuguese grew stronger in numbers, and attacks were now frequent on the Dutch isolated settlements, many of which were captured and the inhabitants massacred. The Portuguese were determined to surrender none of the advantages which the nature of the country offered them, and thus the warfare still remained of a guerilla order, and upon the sallying out of a formidable Dutch force, the Portuguese, with their Indian allies, would disperse in the dense forests, and come together again when the Dutch had concluded their march.

The retaliatory methods of the Dutch served to enrage the Portuguese beyond all bearing. The Council of the Dutch West India Company issued a proclamation to the effect that all women and children in the towns, whose husbands and fathers were rebels, were to be evicted from their houses and left to fend for themselves. The idea seems to have been that these people would flock to the insurgents and thus hamper their movements. The result was that the unfortunate women and children were exposed to the mercy of the weather and the forests.

João Fernandes had now collected a formidable number of men, and, posting these about nine leagues to the westward of Recife in a spot of great strategic advantage, he awaited the Dutch advance. One thousand five hundred Dutch troops, aided by a number of native auxiliaries, came on to the attack. Three times they advanced and drove the Portuguese and their Indian allies some way up the hill on the sides of which they were posted, but each time the Dutch lost more and more men from the ambushes in the thick cane-brake which covered the ground. In the end the Dutch retired, having suffered very severe casualties. It is said that 370 of their force were found dead upon the field. Beyond this a number died on the retreat, while many hundreds were wounded. The Portuguese assert that their army consisted of 1,200 whites, aided by about 100 Indians and negroes. This fight had very important consequences, since it enabled the Portuguese forces to arm themselves with the weapons left on the field by the dead and wounded Dutch.

During all this time the authorities at Bahia had remained quiescent, since officially no state of war existed, and in the eyes of the Government the Dutch were supposed merely to be quelling some revolutionary movements ere they departed for Europe! Now the time came for this farce to be ended, and the Governor of Bahia sent troops to the north to join the insurgents in their struggle against the Dutch. The traitor Hoogstraten now definitely joined these forces, and the whole of the country south of Recife fell once more into the hands of the Portuguese. During this period the bitterness between the two armies was still further accentuated by the massacre of Portuguese by the Tapuya Indians at Cunhau. This atrocity, as a matter of fact, was perpetrated on the initiative of the Indians alone, but at the time the Dutch—unjustly, as it turned out—were blamed for it. This circumstance induced retaliation, and eventually caused many barbarous acts to be done on both sides.

After the fortunes of war had fluctuated on various occasions and the Dutch had alternately been defeated, received reinforcements, and become temporarily victorious again, the war came to an end. The Dutch consented to withdraw entirely from Brazil, to surrender Recife and all the remaining forts which they possessed, as well as the Island of Fernando de Noronha. In return they were granted an amnesty, which was extended to the Indians in their service.