774 NIEUHOFF S BRAZIL. 



prefsly ftipulated, that the war fhould continue in thofe parts till the fame was pub- 

 liflied there. The Brazilians, negroes, and Portuguefe, were come in confiderable 

 numbers into our territories, not like diftanded foldiers, but^ well armed, and their 

 coming was not unexpeded, but well-known to the rebels ; but the council was not fo 

 much concerned for their number, as to be fatisfied under whofe authority they had 

 taken up arms agamft them, that they might deal with them accordingly. But 

 however it was, they defired His Excellency to believe, that their m^fters would be 

 extremely glad to underftand his good inclinations, that thereby the effufion of hu- 

 man blood might be faved ; intreating him to fend his deputies forthwith with the 

 neceflary inftruftions. 



The governor promifed to fend his deputies foon after their return to Pernambuko, 

 telling them, that as he thought himfelf fecure of the good neighbourly correfpondency 

 of their mailers, fo he was refolved to continue in the fame on his fide. What he 

 had propofed for the reft, had been only by way of difcourfe, not with an intention to 

 enter into a difpute concerning the legality or illegality of it ; though it appeared very 

 odd to him, that they fhould aflift his mafter at home, and at the fame time wage war 

 with him in other parts, under pretence that the peace was not publilhed there ; and 

 what had paifed with Pedro Caefar de Mines was a thing not juftifiable in his under- 

 ftanding. 



After the ufual compliments, he arofe from his feat, telling them, that he would 

 fend the letter directed to the council to them aboard the next day, and fo our deputies 

 returned aboard their fhip. The 20th, in the morning, the fecretary of the governor 

 came aboard our veifel, with the governor's letter to the council, which he delivered 

 to the deputies, requefting in his mafter's name, to fend him a tranflation of the letter 

 from the council to the governor out of the Dutch into the Portuguefe, fubfcribed with 

 their own hands ; which they did, and having delivered the fame to the fecretary, he 

 took his leave and returned alhore. 



Our people fet fail the fame day about noon from the Bahia to Pernambuko, where 

 they arrived the 28th in the afternoon before the Receif, and gave an account the fame 

 day of their negociation to the great council, unto whom they alfo delivered the letter 

 written by Antonio Telles de Sylva, and directed to them. The contents of which are 

 as follows : — 



The Governor's Letter to the Council. 



*' Mr. Balthafar Vander Voerden, counfellor of juftice, and Captain Dirk Van Hoog- 

 ftraten, commander-in-chief on the Cape of St. Auftin, Your Lordfhips' deputies, have 

 delivered your letter to me, in which you are pleafed to give me notice of the revolt of 

 fome of your fubje£ts againft you. I received this news as I ought to do, and fhould 

 not have been able to receive it without the greateft furprife and difcompofure of mind, 

 if I had not been aflured in my confcience, that Your Lordfhips did not in the leaft 

 imagine that this infurredion could derive its fource from our government ; and, 

 though I could upon this occafion enter upon a long recital of the proceedings of my 

 government, tending, from its beginning till now, to a fufEcient juftification in the eyes 

 of all the world, and of the greateft kings and princes of Chriftendom, that the faid 

 good correfpondency has been maintained as ftridly on our fide, as the fame is promifed 

 in Your Lordftiips' letter : but rather than give the leaft occafion of difguft or differ- 

 ence, by enlarging myfelf upon thofe heads, in which your fubjedts have exprefsly and 

 raanifefUy violated the truce concluded and ratified betwixt the King my mafter, and 



the 



