The news of this event reached Holland at a time when the Dutch, however much they might feel disposed to do so, were by no means in a position to take revenge. Their arms were not just then successful against England. But they succeeded in recompensing themselves for the loss of _Pernambuco_ by wresting Ceylon from the Portuguese. They did not, however, immediately resign the hope of recovering their possessions in _Brazil_. Although Louis XIV. was accepted as mediator between Holland and Portugal, the States nevertheless sent a fleet under De Ruiter to the Tagus and attempted some reprisals. In the end, Holland yielded to circumstances. Charles II. of England, while treating for his marriage with the Portuguese princess, intimated to the Dutch that if they should persevere in the contest he would become a party to it. France likewise interfered energetically on behalf of Portugal; and at length the negotiations were concluded, the latter country consenting to pay a certain amount in money and commodities to Holland, and to restore her captured cannon. CHAPTER V. _BRAZIL; JESUIT MISSIONS IN NORTHERN BRAZIL._ 1652-1662. Mention has more than once been made in the preceding chapter of Antonio Vieyra, the Jesuit, a man of singular ability, who was destined to play a distinguished part in the history of his time, both as a statesman and as an ecclesiastic, and who has left behind him one of the foremost names in the splendid literature of his country. Before proceeding to relate the part which he took in the affairs of _Brazil_, it may be well to give a sketch of his remarkable career up to this time. Vieyra was born at Lisbon in the year 1608, but when in his eighth year he emigrated with his parents to _Bahia_, where he was brought up at the Jesuits’ school. In his early youth it is said that his intellect was clouded. Being aware of this fact, he earnestly prayed to the Virgin to remove the cause, and he himself records that something seemed to give way in his head, causing him violent pain, from which hour his intellect shone out in all its exceptional clearness. When in his fifteenth year, a sermon which he heard on the glory of the Beatific Vision determined him to select a religious life. The provincial of the Jesuits in _Brazil_ was a frequent visitor at his father’s house; and the youth, knowing it to be in vain to seek his parents’ consent, fled to the Jesuits’ College, the doors of which were gladly opened to receive him. His parents remonstrated, but without effect; and, at the age of sixteen he was permitted to take the vows which bound him to the Order for life. A year later he was employed to write the yearly letter from the province to the general at Rome, and in the following year he lectured on rhetoric at _Olinda_.