The story of the great dominion acquired for the Dutch in South America by Count Maurice of Nassau has been told; and the wealth received by the Dutch West India Company from his efforts was only inferior to that of the Dutch East India Company. The Count had managed matters on a large scale; he had built or strengthened forty-five fortresses; he commanded a regular army of three thousand men and a fleet of ninety ships; and he sent over to Holland no less than twenty-five thousand chests of sugar a year. But in spite of his success he recognized that this dominion depended on the sword; the Dutch were not good colonists, for they never thought of making their homes in Brazil, but always of returning some day to Holland; and all the European settlers and planters in the five captainships held by the Dutch were of Portuguese descent. Further, the native Brazilians were on more friendly terms with the Portuguese than the Dutch owing to the labours of the Jesuits among them. Count Maurice of Nassau saw therefore that it was impossible to oust the Portuguese and replace them by Dutch settlers, so he established a dominion, resembling that of the English in India, which rested for its keystone upon the military possession of the country and the maintenance of strong garrisons in the various fortresses. It need hardly be said that the Portuguese of all the various captainships freely communicated with each other, and so wise and prudent was the administration of Count Maurice that the Portuguese settlers in his captainships were envied by those who remained under the power of Spain.