Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

implied that the King of Portugal intended to reclaim the portions of Brazil that had been under
Dutch control and to integrate them back into Portugal’s overseas empire. Coutinho followed
these developments closely, reporting that “every day the rumors are different,” but that there
had been no new ships from Brazil, and thus the company “goes around with one foot on top of
the other,” almost literally tripping over itself to convince the States General to provide financial
and military assistance before it was too late. 167
The swirl of contrasting accounts of events in Brazil made it difficult for the company to
obtain the support it believed was necessary. In response, the Heren XIX composed and
submitted to the States General a memorandum that detailed, in eighteen separate points, all the
evidence it had collected concerning Portuguese involvement in the events in Brazil. This
document bears all the hallmarks of De Laet’s work:
Evidence drawn from diverse letters and other papers, as well as private communications and oral
reports, received by the directors of the West India Company concerning the recently transpired
events in Brazil [...] whereby it is shown that this treachery cannot have been carried out without
the knowledge of the Portuguese governor in Bahia, and indeed of Portugal itself. 168
In fact the memorandum conveyed little information that wasn’t known already: it recounted, for
example, the story of the plot to assassinate members of the Hoge Raad and other principle
officers at the wedding ceremony in Recife, and distilled portions of both Bernardo Caravalho's
167 Coutinho, Correspondência Diplomática de Francisco de Sousa Coutinho Durante a sua Embaixada em
Holanda. Sousa Coutinho to Conde da Vidigueira, September 25, 1645. I am grateful to Diana Brown for translating
this passage.
168 NA 1.01.04 inv.nr. 5758, Memorie vant geene uyt verscheyden missiven..., dated September 28, 1645. A note on
the reverse of the cover page indicates that the document accompanied Louys' letter of September 23, but also that it
was delivered by Gysbert Rudolphij, lawyer for the Amsterdam chamber. The form and content of the letter, as well
as the fact that it came from Amsterdam, strongly suggest De Laet's authorship. “Memorie vant geene uyt
verscheyden missiven, ende andere pampieren, als particuliere advysen ende mondelinge rapporten, byde
Bewinthebberen van de Westindische Comp. wegen het jonste gepaseerde in Brazil verstaen is, waer uyt by provisie
(: ende tot dat naarder verclaeringe sullen becomen syn :) genoucksaem bespeurt ende affgemeten can werden, dat
de revolte ende verradische voornemen, van de Portugysen (: op den staat ende conquesten vande voors. Comp. :)
aldaer niet sonder kennisse vande Portuguysen Gouverueur inde Bahia, als die van Poortugael selver, syn
gepractiseert ende int werck gestelt.”
89