Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

encouraged to travel freely. This they did, collecting any and all information that might be useful
to the company: there were, according to several people with whom they spoke, 3,000-4,000 men
in arms. In the bay lay only “50 small ships,” though during their visit two larger warships
arrived, with 600 men, led by the renowned admiral Salvador da Sá. 87 Da Silva assured them that
these ships were merely waiting to convoy a fleet from Rio de Janeiro back to Lisbon—an
explanation they accepted at the time, but which now appeared to be untrue. 88
The second report read at the meeting was by Captain Jan Blaer, a soldier in the
company's employ who had recently returned from a mission to find and destroy Palmares, a
large city of runaway slaves in the interior of Pernambuco. 89 After three weeks marching through
the forest, Blaer had found the city deserted and burned it to the ground. To this day Blaer's
report remains one of the most important sources for the study of Brazilian quilombos (escaped
slave communities), but in Middelburg any excitement over the success of the mission must have
been tempered by the ominous possibility that the 1,500 free blacks who had escaped might seek
retribution by joining the rebellion. 90 The minutes of the meeting in Middelburg are silent as to
what, if any, discussion took place before the session adjourned. But it is safe to assume that the
directors—who, atleast by the terms of the company’s charter, were required to be members of
the Dutch Reformed Church—would have attended services together the following morning at
the church just a stone's throw from their offices on the Lange Delft, and that discussions would
have continued into the night at the inn. 91
87 C. R Boxer, Salvador de Sá and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola, 1602-1686 (London: University of London,
1952).
88 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 60, Rapport gedaen aende Ed: Heeren van den hoogen en Secreten Raede, April 3, 1645.
89 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 60, Journael van de Voyagie die Cap. Johan Blaer gedaen heeft naer de Dolmaris A[nn]o
1645.
90 On Palmares, see Philip Curtin, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex: Essays in Atlantic History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), especially 103-107.
91 On the company directors' relationship with the church, see Danny L. Noorlander, “Serving God and Mammon:
The Reformed Church and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World, 1621-1674” (Ph.D. Dissertation,
69