NIEUHOFF .S BRAZIL. 743 



to two hundred and fifty chefls of fugar yearly ; if the company had drawn but a hun- 

 dred and forty or a hundred and fifty chefls from each, the fame would have amounted 

 to four hundred and twenty thoufand gilders ; from whence it is evident, that, not to 

 include the fugar-mills, their coppers, oxen, and other inftruments thereunto belong- 

 ing, the fum of two millions one hundred and twenty-five thoufand eight hundred and 

 fixteen gilders, being the total fum of the debt owing to the company by virtue of 

 thefe contrads, might have been fatisfied without much hazard ; the Portuguefe 

 mailers of the fugar-mills, being by this expedient left in the quiet pofleffion of their 

 mills, and eafed from the oppreffions of their creditors, and our hopes were not a 

 little increafed by the induftry of the inhabitants of the country, who, finding them- 

 felves now at eafe, applied themfelves with fo much affiduity to the improvement of 

 their plantations, for the better fatisfying of their debts, that, in 1645, there was 

 fuch a fair profpeft of a plentiful harveft of fugar, as had not been known in ijiany 

 years before. , • 



But it feems as if the Portuguefe, out of an in-born hatred to our nation, who had 

 conquered them, were refolved not to reft fatisfied, till by underhand pradices and 

 plots they had undermined our government. Add to this, that many of them having 

 involved themfelves over head and ears in debt, and feeing no way to fatisfy their 

 creditors, were become defperate, and more forward to run the hazard of an open 

 revolt (in hopes of alliftance from Portugal), than to undergo the unavoidable neceflities 

 of poverty ; which made fome of them frankly tell our people afterwards, that in cafe 

 they were difappointed in their hopes of fuccours from the Bahia, they would feek for 

 aid in Spain or Turkey. 



Towards the latter end of the year 1642, there were rumours fpread abroad of a plot 

 contrived by the Portuguefe againft the ftate, when they were difarmed, and their arms 

 brought into the magazines, which however they got again under fome pretence or other 

 afterwards, they living very quietly among us, for fear, as I fuppofe, of our garrifons, 

 and that they were not then fufficiently affured of fuccours from the Bahia. But it will 

 not be amifs to trace the true origin of this revolt. 



The ]3th December 1642, one John Fernandes Vieira, alderman of Maurice's 

 Town, appeared in the great council. Count Maurice being prefent, where he told 

 them, that he had been informed by certain Jews, how he and his father-in-law Berin- 

 gel were fufpefted in Holland, of having fent letters by a fon of the faid Beringel to 

 the King of Portugal, tending to the detriment of the ftate. He did not deny to have 

 fent a letter by the faid perfon to the King of Portugal, but containing no more than 

 a recommendation of the faid Beringel's perfon, to help him to fome employment under 

 the King : this he ofi'ered to prove by his copy, which being produced, there was 

 found nothing material in it, but a congratulation to the King upon his acceflion to 

 the crown, and a recommendation of the faid Beringel ; Vieira further propofed, that 

 he thought it abfolutely neceffary, for the fafety of the eftate, to have the Portuguefe 

 difarmed, as likewife the captains De Campo, with thofe under their jurifdiftion, the 

 negroes, Brazilians, mulatts, and Mamalukes. 



There was alfo a letter fent by the council of Nineteen, dated i ft June 1642, to 

 Count Maurice, containing in fubftance, that one John van North, who had ferved 

 for fourteen months in the quality of a cadet in Brazil, had declared to them at Amfter- 

 dam, that he had been a fervant in a fugar-mill belonging to John Fernandes Vieira, 

 where, after a ftay of two months, he was entreated by Francifco Beringel Labrador, 

 to go with his fon Antonio Dandrado Beringel, as an interpreter, to Holland, and 

 from thence to Portugal j which upon great promifes he accepted of, and they fet fail 



on 



