Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

the Dutch from Brazil. 30 After some discussion, the council had resolved to provision all the forts
for a period of two months; prepare the company's Indian auxiliaries for battle; send spies to
each of the captaincies under Dutch control; recall any soldiers aboard ship; and, finally, to call
Vieira and other leading planters to Recife for questioning. 31 These plans were immediately set
into motion. Although Vieira had disappeared, several other planters were brought in and
soldiers were paraded around the central square in Recife in a show of force. 32 The council also
received reports that company slaves might join the Portuguese if the opportunity arose, and that
Indians who currently were loyal to the Dutch might easily switch sides. The commander of the
Indian forces, Johan Listry, was therefore ordered to encourage the Indians to send their wives
and children to the Dutch island fortress at Itamaricá, under the pretense that they would be safer
there. 33 Separate documents, based on interrogations of two Portuguese planters, confirmed the
identity of the conspiracy's leadership and provided credible evidence that the Governor of Bahia
had been actively involved in organizing and supporting the revolt. 34
The directors in Middelburg were responsible for ensuring that this information was
promptly shared with the other chambers and with the States General—not least because
Portuguese support to the revolt would signal a breach of the 1641 Treaty that ended hostilities
between Portugal and the Dutch Republic for a period of ten years and recognized their
respective claims in both the East and West Indies, including Brazil. 35 Once the letters had been
30
NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5758, Extracts from the secret resolutions of the Hoge Raad, entry for May 31, 1645.
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid., entry for July 14, 1645.
33
Ibid., entry for June 16, 1645.
34
NA 1.05.01.01 inv.nr. 60, Report of the interrogation of Sebastião Caravãlho, June 19, 1645; Report of the
interrogation of George Homen Pinto, June 25, 1645
35
The treaty, which was signed in The Hague on June 12, 1641, followed the Portuguese revolution on December 1,
1640 that ended Portugal's the sixty-year union with Spain and brought the Duke of Brangaza to power as Dom João
IV. News of the revolution itself was celebrated in both Dutch Brazil and the United Provinces, where it was seen as
weakening Spain, both the VOC and the WIC opposed the subsequent treaty on the grounds that it would constrain
their attacks on Portuguese positions in Asia and America. While feigning friendship with Portuguese officials in
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