A Day in Bahia 55 



years has been quite as rapid as that of the cities of 

 the United States. 



Bahia during the more than three hundred and fifty 

 years of its existence has witnessed many stirring scenes. 

 On May 9, 1624, Piet Heyn, "the Dutch Sir Francis 

 Drake, ' took Bahia from the Spaniards, who, having 

 annexed Portugal, claimed and held the place at that 

 time. The capture of Bahia was a daring exploit, and 

 was accomplished by Heyn in a hand-to-hand conflict 

 against apparently overwhelming odds. The following 

 year a combined fleet of Spanish and Portuguese 

 ships, fifty-two in number, armed with eleven hundred 

 and eighty-five guns and carrying twelve thousand 

 five hundred men, was sent to recapture the place, and 

 succeeded. The fleet was the most formidable sent 

 out by Spain since the days of the Grand Armada. The 

 valiant Dutch commander of the garrison, Jan van 

 Dorth, had been killed in a skirmish before the arrival 

 of the Spaniards. His successors were incapable, and 

 though a strong Dutch fleet was on the way to rein- 

 force Bahia, they came too late, for the garrison had 

 already surrendered. Then in 1627 Piet Heyn came 

 back. He had a vastly inferior force, but he was a man 

 who did not know fear. He sailed into the harbor 

 in the teeth of the forts. He ran his ship between the 

 two biggest Portuguese men-of-war, and when the gun- 

 ners on shore slacked their fire for fear of hurting their 

 own countrymen, the intrepid Dutchman proceeded 

 then and there to sink the flagship of the Admiral, and 

 captured the rest of the fleet of twenty-seven sail 

 lying under the guns of the place. For a while he 

 roamed up and down the coast destroying or capturing 

 every craft which flew the Spanish or Portuguese flag, 

 and then returned to Holland with so much bootv in 



