Lessons Learned: The Second Dutch Conquest of Brazil and the Memory of the First

1. For two good recent introductions to the Luso-Dutch struggle for Brazil, with many further references, see Disney 2009, 221–31, and Schmidt 2009.

2. This selective approach is reflected in the most recent historiographical article of Dutch Brazil: see Pijning 2002.

3. The literature on the Dutch colony in Pernambuco and the reign of Johan Maurits is extensive. See Brunn and Neutsch 2008; Gaspari and Schwarcz 2006; Dantas Silva 2005; Soweit der Erdkreis reicht 1979; Zo wijd de wereld strekt 1979. For scholarly literature in English since Boxer, see Ebert 2008, Boogaart 1979, and several essays in Postma and Enthoven 2003. For a broader Dutch perspective on the Atlantic World, see Schmidt 2001.

4. The follow-up to the battle for Bahia is mentioned several times, but always quite briefly, on pp. 212–13, 220–21, 224–25.

5. Resolutiën der Staten-Generaal 1994, 7: nos. 413 and 426.

6. Courante uyt Italien, Duytschlandt, &c., 31 August 1624: ‘… yder Capiteyn beroemt hem in 3. ofte 4. uren 30. ende 40. duysent guldens ghewonnen te hebben, oock eenen Soldaet die maer een been hadde, vont int plonderen eenen Hoetbant vol costelijcke Diamanten, die op eenen grooten schat geexstimeert wort’. On Dutch newspapers of the 1620s, see Couvée 1962.

7. The Heeren Negentien (‘Gentlemen Nineteen’), a composite governing body reflecting and representing the often conflicting local and provincial interests in the United Provinces, had eight directors from Amsterdam, four from Zeeland, and two each from Maze (i.e. Rotterdam and Dordrecht), Noorderkwartier (Hoorn and Enkhuizen) and Groningen. The nineteenth director was a representative of the States-General, the leading political body in the United Provinces.

8. On Visscher, see Orenstein 1993, 189–95.

9. On the significance of the Duke of Alba in Dutch Golden Age rhetoric, see Sawyer 2003.

10. For more on Van Wassenaer's discussion of the Coelho interrogations, see Groesen 2011.

11. Sir Dudley Carleton to William Trumbull, 4 August 1625, British Library, Add. ms. 72274, f. 167r. I am grateful to David Coast (University of Sheffield) for providing me with the information from Carleton's correspondence.

12. Courante uyt Italien, Duytschlandt, &c., 16 August 1625: ‘… maer alsoo d'overgaen op den eersten May gheschiedt soude zijn, dat nu al vierdehalve maendt gheleden is, ende men gheen advijsen en heeft becomen, dan alleenlijc van d'ander zijde, soo wortet noch van veelen in twijffel ghetrocken.’

13. British Library, Add. ms. 72274, f. 175v. Carleton presumably referred to Verdadera relacion de la grandiosa vitoria que las armadas es España an tenido en la entrada del Brasil, published in Cadiz.

14. Resolutiën der Staten-Generaal 1994, 7: no. 2889.

15. The crudely executed news map replaced the Dutch vessels of 1624 with Spanish galleons.

16. For Lope de Vega's play, see Shannon 1989, 163–84. For Maíno's painting of the recapture of Bahia, currently at the Prado; see Brown and Elliott 1980, 184–90; Ubeda de los Cobos 2005, 122–25.

17. Schwartz 1991, 750–58, with many further references; Israel 2002, 146–49; Studnicki-Gizbert 2007, 163–65. Tamayo y Vargas’ account Restauración de la ciudad del Salvador y Bahia de Todos Santos was published in Madrid in 1628. See also Camenietzki and Pastore (2006) in the online journal Topoi: Revista de história (last accessed: 19 Oct. 2010).

18. Camenietzki and Pastore 2006; Moerbeeck 1624, 3–4: ‘De Portegiese natie die de meeste resistentie of tegenweer sullen doen, synde veel derselve vande Jootsche Religie, voorts merendeels geboren en gesworen vyanden vande Spaensche natie.’

19. Quoted in Wiznitzer Citation1960, 54, who also points out that the number of Jews from Holland who came to Bahia cannot have exceeded several dozen (52).

20. Baudartius 1624, 75: ‘De Portugijsen binnen Amsterdam hebben met een fraye vertooninghe dese Victorie aen-gewesen.’ On the frictions between the Amsterdam Sephardic community and the local magistrates in the spring of 1624, see Bodian 1997, 119–20. Swetschinski (2004, 91) estimates the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam at around 800 in the 1620s.

21. Particuliere Notulen van de vergaderingen der Staten van Holland 1989, 3: nos. 748, 1240, 1300, 1353.

22. Amsterdam Municipal Archives, GAA 1004 (filmnr. 1234), C 1234, ff.1014-1036; GAA 1812 (filmnr. 2078), ff. 228–38.

23. Haselbeeck 1629, [C1r-D1r]: ‘Triumph-dicht over t'Veroveren van de Bahia Todos os Sanctos.’

24. In the context of the Dutch Golden Age, the concept of memory has recently been discussed in detail by Pollmann 2008.

25. On the often top-down nature of political memory, see Assmann Citation2006, 215–20.

26. Good examples include Andries van Eertvelt's marine painting currently in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK (inv. no. BHC0268) and a gable stone in Amsterdam's seventeenth-century Jordaan district. For Nicolaes II Visscher's stock catalogue, see Waals 2006, appendix 5.

27. See Assmann Citation2006, 215–20 for a discussion of the parameters of political memory. Much of this ground is also covered in Anderson Citation1983, albeit in the context of nationalism.

28. Very little is known about Nicolaes van Wassenaer, and about the sources for some of the information he included in his narrative. See Kannegieter (1964) for a rather obsolete biographical impression of the physician. For the importance of commemoration rites that periodically reactivate the memory for the transformation of ephemeral memory into long-term collective memory, see Assmann Citation2006, 216–17.

29. Historisch Verhael catalogued events under the month in which news of it arrived in the United Provinces. For events in America, this resulted in a delay of several months, which explains why Van Wassenaer reported on the looting of Bahia by Spanish soldiers only in the chapter on April 1626, and on Boudewijn Hendricksz’ expedition to the Bay of All Saints in the chapter on May 1626, even though it had taken place as early as the previous summer.

30. Wassenaer 1627, XI: ff. 49r, 53r–v, 112v–13r, and 114r: ‘Dit is te noteren die voor een yder die voortaen die van West-Indien onder de Coninck van Spangien behoorende, wil aentasten, dat hy sijn Onderdanen over al in spits vinden sal, alsoo sy nu met onse exploicten op haer allesints wacker ghemaeckt zijn, en haer plaetsen gheweldich ghesterckt hebben.’

31. Wassenaer 1627, XII: f. 45v: ‘… meest alle de Handel-schepen, die op Fernaboucq, en de Bahia, en voorts in Brasil te varen plachten, soo van de Turcken, Franschen, Engelschen, Schotten, en Zeeuwen verovert zijn: waer door de Packhuysen binnen Lisboa ledich staen, en in s'Konincx Tolhuysen niet te doen is. Binnen Farnaboucq lach een groote schat van zuyckeren, die al moest over gevoert zijn, en haer ontbraken Schepen: de plaets selfs was met min of meer dan drie hondert man versien, soo dat alles daer verviel, door faute van neeringh. De Bahia wilde gaern respireren, maer konde mede niet, also de negotie geswackt wiert door de stadige loopinge op de Portugaelsche Custen, en by de Capo S. Augustijn, van die van de West-Indische Compagnie, die goede prinsen bequamen.’

32. Wassenaer 1628, XIII: f. 102r: ‘… langhs de gantsche Cust was soo groote vreese van d'Admirael Pieter Heyn, ghelijck of hy ‘tgantsche lant dwinghen soude.’

33. Heyn supposedly stated, after returning from Matanzas Bay in 1628: ‘Siet hoe het volck nu raest, omdat [ick] soo grooten schat t'huys brenghe, daer weynich voor hebben ghedaen; ende te voren, als ick der voor hadde gevochten, ende verre grooter daden ghedaen als dese, en heeft men sich naeuwelijcks aen my ghekeert.’

34. Wassenaer 1628, XIV: f. 53r: ‘… den Admirael Pieter Pietersz. Heyn van Delfs-Haven, wiens doens ende vromigheydt ghelesen sal werden in de Nederlandtsche Historie, in 't verhael van ‘tinnemen van de Bahia, alwaer hij onder den Admirael Iacob Willekens Amsterdammer, als Vice-Admirael ginck, ende hem dapper queet.’

35. Kort Verhael van de Exploicten 1628: ‘De Capiteyn Padilha, die voor desen den Colonel Dort by embuscade om-ghebracht hadt, verweerde sich dapper, maer wierd eyndtlijck door sijn Schilt inde slincker borst ter neder geschoten, 't welck sijn volck seer descourageerde.’

36. Wassenaer 1628, XIV: f. 56v. Heyn died before a new Atlantic campaign was launched.

37. Merchants from the Low Countries had been trading in Pernambuco for several decades, see Ebert 2008, 46–57. In addition, it was well known to the Dutch that Olinda's fortifications were obsolete; see Dutra 1973.

38. Courante uyt Italien, Duytschlandt, &c., 25 May 1630; Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren, 25 May 1630; Wassenaer 1632, XIX: f. 23v

39. Beschreibung, welcher Gestalt … 1630; A true relation of the vanquishing of the town of Olinda 1630; Triumphus super capta Olinda 1630.

40. Baers 1630, 8: ‘Want hebbende mijn camer recht onder sijn camer, soo hebbe ick gehoort ende can betuygen, dat hy alle avont ende morghen, knielende aen sijn bedde, inde presentie van alle sijn knechts, het avont ende morgen gebet seer aendachtich heeft ghebeden ende ghedaen, ende niet alleene dat, maer oock snachts wacker wordende, is dicwils uyt syn bedde opghestaen ende heeft teghen een stoel geknielt, ende aldaer sijn gebedt, dat ick 't wacker sijnde hooren conde, uytghestort, ende voorts altemet meenich uyre in sijn bedde legghende, met suchten ende bidden tot Godt doorghebracht.’

41. Copie vande missive 1630, [A4r]: ‘zijnde […] een plaetse die ghesecondeert ende versien wordende onwinnelick is.’

42. Barlaeus 1647, 18–19: ‘Quae legentibus, subibunt omnium prisci duces, qui in hostiles terras trajectere, ut à suis belli vim amoverent. Regulus nempe, Scipio, Manlius, Aemilius, Metellus, Pompejus, Qui velut Willekenii, Heynii, Loncquii, Balduini, & Patres illorum tempore fuere.’

43. Montanus 1671, 410: ‘welke […] den staet der West-Indische maetschappy niet weinig de moed deed wakkeren.’