Great efforts were made during the administration of Count Maurice to promote the reformed religion throughout the territories under his government. The Protestant missionaries were, it is said, regarded with much jealousy by Vieyra and his brethren. They are reputed to have succeeded to a considerable extent in imparting to the Indians the arts of civilization; but the efforts of the Dutch towards civilizing and humanizing the natives and negroes was confined entirely to the government and the clergy. Nothing could exceed the barbarity of these invaders, on the whole, towards both races. Their privateers freely seized such Indians as they could entrap on the rivers or on the coasts, and sold them as slaves; whilst of their imported negroes the excessive mortality was imputed by Nassau himself to unwholesome food and physical suffering. It was no unusual thing for these slaves to commit suicide after attempting in vain to kill their masters. The Dutch conquerors introduced into their Brazilian provinces that almost excessive domestic cleanliness for which their country is remarkable; whilst they increased the pleasures of life by the attention which they, in accordance with their national habits, did not fail to bestow upon horticulture. They reared vines with great success, and from which a wine was made that was much esteemed. Being accustomed to plains and swamps, they did not take advantage of the higher lands in forming their settlements; but the malaria and damp had less evil consequences than might have been anticipated, from the fact of the men being addicted to the free use of wine and tobacco. The Dutch women, however, who were without these counteractants, suffered much from the climate. The country possessed by Holland was only cultivated to an extent of some twelve or fifteen miles inland from the shore. The native industry of the Dutch had not sufficient time to display itself; and the almost continuous hostilities prevented the development of the fisheries. Although the invaders from Holland were in _Brazil_ for five-and-twenty years there was very little mixture of races between them and the Portuguese; the difference of religion was an almost insuperable barrier; and when they departed they left little or no trace behind them either in religion, language, or manners.