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B R A S I L. 



Brasil. fate; yet the bravery of the Dutch still saved them 

 from total defeat, and they made an admirable re- 

 treat to Olinda, carrying with them a Spanish vessel, 

 of which they had made prize. The Portuguese 

 admiral did not derive any decisive result from 

 this succ -ss, or from his naval superiority. He 

 contented himself with landing twelve hundred men 

 to reinforce the Portuguese army under the command 

 of Albuquerque : and having provided for the secu- 

 rity of the capital, and of the province of Sergippe, 

 he again set sail for Europe. Another expedition, 

 dispatched next year, under the command of Don 

 Frederic di Toledo, was still less productive of any 

 serious injury to the enemy. The Dutch continued 

 to make progress in Brasil, notwithstanding the 

 bravery of the Portuguese generals, andi the assist- 

 ance the latter derived from the natives, whom they 

 had now completely attached to their interests. The 

 Dutch, in three successive campaigns, completed the 

 conquest of the provinces of Tamaraca, Paraiba, and 

 Rio Grande, and were thus masters of all that part 

 of Brasil which lies north of the river Francisco. 

 These successes inspired their government at home 

 with the hope that, by a great effort, they might 

 complete the conquest of Brasil. Prince Maurice of 

 Nassau, equally distinguished for birth and for mili- 

 tary talents, was put at the head of the armament. 

 He arrived in October 1636, and joining his troops 

 to those formerly in Brazil, immediately took the 

 field. He entered the province of Sergippe, which 

 had hitherto been untouched ; he defeated the Portu- 

 guese commander Banjola, in several successive engage- 

 ments ; and at length made himself master of the ca- 

 pital and of the whole province. At the same time 

 lie reduced successively the strong holds which the 

 Portuguese still retained in the districts north of 

 Olinda ; and he obtained a voluntary submission from 

 the still more northerly province of Siara, which was 

 then almost entirely in the possession of the natives. 

 Brasil, however, was not conquered till the Dutch 

 were masters of the capital. Prince Maurice, ac- 

 cordingly, marched to St Salvador, and laid siege to 

 it ; but the Portuguese, who considered this place 

 as their last hope, had omitted nothing to put it in 

 a respectable state of defence. After the prince 

 therefore had carried by storm three forts which de- 

 fended the city, on attempting to storm the place it- 

 self, he was repulsed with great loss ; and a reinforce- 

 ment, immediately after, arriving from Portugal, he 

 found himself under the necessity of raising the 

 siege. 



In the following year (1639), extraordinary ef- 

 forts were made by the two crowns to regain entire 

 possession of this valuable settlement. Forty-six 

 vessels, with five thousand troops on board, were 

 dispatched under Fernand de Mascarenhas, a gallant 

 and distinguished officer. Sickness, however, the 

 usual scourge of Portuguese naval operations, at- 

 tacked this armament, as it sailed along the coast of 

 Africa ; half the troops perished, and the rest ar- 

 rived in a melancholy condition at St Salvador. 

 Mascarenhas, however, by extraordinary exertions, 

 collecting all the force which could be found in the 

 country, formed an army of 12,000 men, which he 

 embarked on. board the fleet, and sailed against Olin- 



da. Maurice had not been inactive in preparing for Bra 

 defence. Having received reinforcements from Hoi- ^ 

 land, he expected Mascarenhas with forty-one ves- 

 sels, well manned and equipped. A most furious 

 engagement ensued, which lasted four days ; and 

 though, in the first, the Dutch admiral, Loos, was 

 killed, yet victory remained with the prince. In 

 the following days, his success was still more deci- 

 sive ; the Portuguese fleet was entirely dispersed ; 

 great part of it perished upon rocks; and of that 

 mighty armament, only six vessels returned to Spain. 

 The Portuguese troops, meanwhile, had taken ad- 

 vantage of this diversion, to enter Dutch Brasil ; and 

 being seconded by the Brasilians, under the com- 

 mand of a brave chief, Cameron, they gained con- 

 siderable advantages, and committed great devasta- 

 tion. As soon, however, as Prince Maurice had 

 disposed of the naval armament, he was easily able 

 to put a stop to these inroads, while the Dutch navy 

 rode triumphant in the bay of St Salvador. Yet, 

 after all these successes, the prince was too weak to 

 entertain any hopes of effecting the entire conquest 

 of Portuguese Brasil ; and both parties being tired 

 of the calamities occasioned by so long a war, a ne- 

 goci?.tion was entered into for a suspension of hostili- 

 ties ; and while it was in progress, the event was ac- 

 celerated by important changes which had taken 

 place in the mother country. 



Time had in no degree reconciled the Portuguese 

 to the Spanish yoke ; a succession of new injuries 

 and sufferings kepi their hatred continually alive. 

 Among the grounds of their animosity, none lay 

 deeper than the loss of Brazil ; a calamity to which 

 they would never have been exposed, had they not, 

 by their union with Spain, been involved in the war 

 which that nation carried on against Holland ; and 

 the apathy which the Spanish court was supposed to 

 have discovered, both in regard to its preservation 

 and recovery, heightened this resentment into fury. 

 The whole nation, therefore, was ripe for a revolu- 

 tion, by which they might shake off the Spanish 

 yoke ; the Duke of Braganza, whom they regarded 

 as the rightful heir, resided in the kingdom ; and 

 the ministers of Philip IV., either from weakness, 

 or from a doubtful policy of fomenting rebellion, in 

 order to obtain pretences for oppression and confis- 

 cation, took no effectual measures to guard against 

 the threatening danger. It wouid be departing from 

 our subject to enter into any detail of the steps by 

 which the independence of Portugal wa established, 

 and the house of Braganza placed on the throne. 

 The nation unanimously took up arms ; but they 

 were thus involved in a long and severe struggle wit.i 

 the military power of Spain, which was still ranked 

 among the most formidable in Europe. In these 

 circumstances, the preservation of national indepen- 

 dence becoming the most urgent object, it was neces- 

 sary to postpone any attempts at the recovery of 

 Brazil. The Dutch, from enemies, became the most 

 hopeful allies in this new contest ; and the present 

 was no time to irritate or attack them in any quar- 

 ter. A treaty of peace and alliance was therefore 

 concluded between the two nations, by which it was 

 stipulated, that the limits of Dutch and Portuguese 

 Brazil should remain as they then stood. This 



