Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

ead aloud, two resolutions were passed: the first ordered the chamber’s commissioner in charge
of supplies to immediately procure powder, musket balls, and fuses to be loaded onto the ship St.
Christoffel, which was preparing to sail for Angola. 36 Shortly thereafter it was determined that
the circuitous route to Brazil via West Africa would be too slow, and the ship was allowed to
depart without any additional cargo. In its place, a second ship, Vlissingen, was prepared to sail
for Brazil and the commissioner for the militia was ordered to send a drummer throughout the
city to recruit new soldiers. 37 The second resolution was to send two delegations to carry the
news: the first, led by Pieter Biscop, was to travel to The Hague to ask that the States General do
everything within its power to assist the colony. The members of this delegation also were
ordered to inform the chambers of the Maas, North Holland, Amsterdam, and Groningen. A
second delegation, led by Abraham van Pere and Simon van Beaumont (1574-1654), the
chamber's lawyer, was requested to travel immediately to the military camp at Eekelo, where the
Prince of Orange was leading a campaign against Spanish soldiers in northern Flanders. 38 Both
delegations departed the following day. In their absence the remaining directors continued to
read the documents and to prepare the ship Vlissingen. 39
The first delegation was admitted into the chambers of the States General on September
2. There they presented an “oral report on the affairs in the conquests in Brazil” and handed over
Recife, Maurits used the time between the ratification of the treaty in Europe and its arrival in Brazil to launch
attacks on São Paulo do Loanda, São Tomé, and Maranhão at the mouth of the Amazon River. A chronology of the
treaty's signing and ratification, evidently prepared to defend Maurits' new conquests, can be found in NA 1.01.07,
inv.nr. 12564.15, no. 46. Beschowing van het vredesverdrag met Portugal, de inhoud, ratificatie, bekendmaking van
het voornoemde verdrag door de vertegenwoordigers van Staten Generael. On the treaty see Evaldo Cabral de
Mello, De Braziliaanse Affaire: Portugal, de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden en Noord-Oost Brazilië, 1641-
1669 (Zutphen: Walburg, 2005); Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654, 100-109; Cátia Antunes, Globalisation in
the Early Modern Period: The Economic Relationship Between Amsterdam and Lisbon, 1640-1705 (Amsterdam:
Aksant, 2004), 142-145.
36 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 26, entry for August 30, 1645, fol. 106v.
37 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 26, entries for August 31 and September 4, 1645, fols. 107 and 107v.
38 Ibid.; Zeeuwsarchief 2.1, inv.nr. 951, letter from Frederik Hendrik to the States of Zeeland, September 20, 1645.
The Prince's campaign in northern Flanders was part of an effort to enhance the Republic's bargaining position in
talks in Münster to end the war with Spain. See Israel, The Dutch Republic, 544.
39 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 26, entries for August 30, August 31, and September 4, 1645, fols. 106-107v.
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