Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

De Laet’s presence at the meetings of the Heren XIX in Middelburg in September 1645
represented a continuation along this trajectory. He spent much of 1643 and the first several
months of 1644 composing the Iaerlyck Verhael, a book whose dry detail and chronological
organization reflect what must have been many hours among the ships journals, memoranda, and
other documents stored in the Amsterdam chamber’s archives. When this book was published, in
November 1644, De Laet was back in Amsterdam attending the fall meetings of the Heren XIX
helping to draft a new set of regulations for private trade within the areas covered by the
company’s charter. 164 As we have seen, De Laet was again selected to represent Amsterdam for
the meetings in Middelburg, where he was on the committee tasked with developing a response
to the news of the revolt in Brazil. As part of this effort, he began another project: to collect,
synthesize, and prepare for the States General evidence that the King of Portugal had provided
assistance to the rebels, in defiance of the terms of the 1641 Treaty.
By September 18, 1645 Francisco De Sousa Coutinho (1597-1660), the Portuguese
ambassador at The Hague, already was warning that the rumors had shifted from speaking of an
uprising to speculation that the Portuguese governor in Bahia was responsible for supporting the
rebels. 165 This information came first from Paris, where it was reported that the King of Portugal
claimed to be “master of Pernambuco” once again, and had requested that France intercede with
the Dutch Republic on Portugal's behalf. According to Jan Louys, who wrote the States General
from Middelburg, the news was consistent with the contents of “many private letters” from
Portugal itself. 166 This information was crucial, both for the bleak picture it painted of events in
Brazil since the end of June, the date of the last generale missiven, and because it strongly
164 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5757, entry for September 19, 1644.
165 Coutinho, Correspondência Diplomática de Francisco de Sousa Coutinho Durante a sua Embaixada em
Holanda, 310. Sousa Coutinho to Conde da Vidigueira, September 18, 1645.
166 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5758, Extract uyt een brief van Louys dato 23 September 1645; NA 3.01.04.01, inv.nr. 77,
Resolutions of the States of Holland, October 3, 1645.
88