Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

An exceptionally cold winter delayed the fleet’s departure until spring, however, so that
members of the new High Council, including Wolter Schonenborch, did not arrive in Brazil until
July of 1646. 118 The 2,000 troops carried by this fleet prevented the complete surrender of
Recife, but they were insufficient to recapture territory lost over the preceding year. Negotiations
thus began in 1647 to dispatch a second, even larger fleet, to be paid for not by the States
General, but by 1.5 million guilders that the VOC was forced to hand over to the WIC in return
for a new charter and as an alternative to combining the two companies. 119 Once again, the States
General had found an ingenious means to cover the expense of overseas conquest largely with
private capital, in this case diverting profits from the Asia trade to underwrite a colony in the
New World. But by this time key figures in Amsterdam—including Andries Bicker, with whom
this dissertation began—had become vehemently opposed to any further action to save Brazil,
and were unwilling to commit additional funds. Zeeland and several of the other provinces
protested, but it was only by withholding its signature from the treaty of Münster that Zeeland
could make any headway at all: in return for accepting peace with Spain, Zeeland exacted a
commitment from Amsterdam for a final attempt to rescue Dutch Brazil. 120 This effort, led by
the renowned admiral Witte de With, was ultimately unsuccessful. 121 Having lost Angola in
1648, the Dutch finally abandoned Brazil in 1654. With the loss of New Netherland a decade
later, all that was left of the WIC’s empire were Surinam, a handful of Caribbean islands, and the
forts along the Gold Coast. It was a shadow of the worlds De Laet and Specx had imagined and
lobbied so hard to preserve in the fall of 1645.
118 Haecxs, “Het Dagboek Van Hendrik Haecxs, Lid Van Den Hoogen Raad Van Brazilië (1645-1654).” On the cold
winter and the need for additional coal in Zeeland, see H.M. Kesteloo, “De Stadsrekeningen Van Middelburg. VI.
1626-1650.,” in De Stadsrekeningen Van Middelburg. V. 1600-1625. (Middelburg: J.C. & W. Altorffer, 1899), 91.
119 Heijer, “Plannen Voor Samenvoeging Van VOC En WIC,” 120; Hoboken, Witte de With in Brazilië, 1648-1649.
120 Kluiver, De Souvereine en Independente Staat Zeeland, 184-186.
121 Van Hoboken, Witte de With in Brazilië, 1648-1649.
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