Journal of a Voyage to Brazil: And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823Callcott, Maria, Lady
History
Journal of a Voyage to Brazil: And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823
Callcott, Maria, Lady
Brazil -- Description and travel
every direction, and the Dutch were prepared to become an easy prey to
Don Fadrique de Toledo, who had been sent from Spain with a strong force
to recover the capital of Brazil. They capitulated, therefore, in May,
1625, and conditioned for being sent to Holland with sufficient arms and
their personal baggage, leaving the city and forts as they were.
The next year, however, Peter Heyne returned to the reconcave. Every
precaution was taken against him by the governor. Four large ships with
men and artillery were placed to intercept him; but in his single ship,
the rest of his squadron not being able to come up with him, ran in
between two of them, sunk one, and compelled several others to strike:
his own ship, however, grounded, and he burnt her. He added four ships
to his own fleet, loaded four others with prize-goods, and burnt the
rest. Nor was this his only success; for although the Dutch had been
baffled in several attempts on the coast, they sent home prizes enough
to be of national importance.
But a conquest of infinitely more consequence was shortly made; that of
Olinda, which, in 1630, was taken after a feeble resistance on the part
of Matthias de Albuquerque. The Dutch general-in-chief was Henrik Loncq,
the admiral was Peter Ardian, and Wardenburg commanded the troops. The
latter landed at Pao Amarello, three leagues to the north, while the
ships kept up a regular fire opposite to the place; consequently the
Portuguese were surprised, and the towns and forts easily taken.
But the country around continued to be the theatre of a most cruel
predatory war, during which atrocious cruelties were committed by both
parties, but chiefly by the Dutch; and while these things were going on,
a number of negroes had escaped from time to time into the great
palm-forests, about thirty leagues inland, and had multiplied so that
they are said to have amounted to upwards of thirty thousand. These men
were governed by a chief whom they called Zombi: they had some laws, a
shadow of the Christian religion, and were agriculturists. They harassed
the Portuguese, and added by their depredations to the general misery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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