The Dutch company were inflamed with the most eager desire of repairing this loss and disgrace ; but the deficiency- of their resources obliged them to delay an expedition necessarily attended with enormous ex pense. They attacked, however, with the utmost vigour, the Spanish and Portuguese vessels in the European seas, as they returned from the East and West Indies ; their success was prodigious ; and immense wealth was the result of this species of warfare. In thirteen years they had taken five hundred arid forty-five vessels, the proceeds of which amounted to 7,500,000/. The equip ment of the privateers employed had cost only about hall that sum ; so that they were enabled to divide never less than twenty, and sometimes even fifty per cent. on their capital. These funds soon placed them in a con dition to undertake a new expedition into Brasil. About the middle of 1629, twenty-seven vessels were equipped and sent out under the command of Admiral Lonk. These, collecting all the Dutch vessels they met, swelled gradually to forty-six, which, after a somewhat long na vigation, an ived on the Sd of February 1630, off' the coast of the fertile province of Fernambuco. Wardenbcrg, who commanded the troops, landed at the capital Olinda, which he immediately attacked. The Portuguese, how ever, no longer reposing in their former security, gave him a warm reception. Three forts defended the city, of each of which lie rendered himself master, only by a sanguinary contest; and he was oblized to call in the aid of the naval force, in order to complete the reduction of the city. When this success, however, was completed the whole province, struck with consternation, submitted to the victors. The Portuguese a second time learned, that this settlement, so much valued, was on the point of being wrested from them ; the nation again strained every nerve to recover it ; and they were again second ed, though more coldly than ever, by the court of Spain. However, a considerable armament was equipped, which might have effected it object, had not an infectious disease seized the troops before their departure. Two thousand perished ; and the rest, dreading the same fate, fled lrom the scene of pestilence. The deserters were compelled to return, and the fleet was again pre pared for sea ; but these distressing events delayed its departure till the month of Nay in the following year. The Portuguese, collecting all their naval force, both in Europe and Africa, assembled a fleet of fifty-four ves sels, which was considerably superior to any which the Dutch were able to oppose. The latter, not aware of the strength of the enemy, sailed from their harbours with only sixteen vessels. Accustomed, however, to despise the Portuguese, they hesitated not to engage even against such fearful odds ; but they paid dear for their rashness. The admiral was blown up with his vessel ; the second in command shared the same fate ; yet the bravery of the Dutch still saved them from to tal defeat, and they made an admirable retreat to Olinda, carrying with them a Spanish vessel, of which they had made prize. The Portuguese admiral (lid not derive any decisive result from this success, 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 security of the capital, and of the province of he again set sail for Europe. Another expe dition, dispatched next year, under the command of Don Frederic di Toledo, was still less productive of any se rious injury to the enemy. The Dutch continued to make progress in Brasil, notwithstanding the bravery of the Portuguese generals, and the assistance the latter derived from the natives, whom they had now com pletely 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 inspir ed their government at home with the hope, that, by a great effort, they might complete the conquest of Bra sil. Prince Maurice of Nassau, equally distinguished for birth and for military talents, was put at the head of the armament. He arrived in October 1636, and join ing 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 Portuguese commander Banjola, in several successive engagements ; and at length made himself master of the capital and of the whole province. At the same time he reduced successively the strong holds which the Portuguese still retained in the districts north of Olin da ; 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 mas ters of the capital. Prince Maurice,accordingly, march ed to St Salvador, and laid siege to it ; but the Portu guese, who considered this place as their last hope, had omitted nothing to put it in a respectable state of de fence. After the prince therefore had carried by storm three forts which defended the city, on attempting to storm the place itself, he was repulsed with great loss ; and a reinforcement, immediately after, arriving from Portugal, he found himself under the necessity of rais ing the siege.
In the following year (1639), extraordinary efforts were made by the two crowns to regain entire posses sion of this valuable settlement. Forty-six vessels, with
five thousand troops on board, were dispatched under Fernand. de Mascarcnhas, a gallant and distinguished officer. Sickness, however, the usual scourge of Por tuguese naval operations, attacked this armament, as it sailed along the coast of Africa ; half the troops perish ed, and the rest arrived in a melancholy condition at St Salvador. Mascarenhas, however, by extraordinary exertions, collecting all the force which could be found lupe country, formed an army of 12,000 men, which he embarked on board the fleet, and sailed against Olinda. had not been inactive in preparing for defence. Having received reinforcements from Holland, he ex pected Mascarenhas with forty-one vessels, 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 decisive ; 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 advantage of this diversion, to enter Dutch Brasil ; and being seconded by the Brasilians, under the command of a brave chief, Cameron, they gained considerable ad vantages, and committed great devastation. As soon, however, as prince Maurice had disposed of the naval armament, he was easily able to put a stop to these in• roads, 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 en tire conquest of Portuguese Brasil; and both parties being tired of the calamities occasioned by so long a war, a negotiation was entered into for a suspension of hostilities ; and while it was in progress, the event was accelerated 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 kept their hatred continually alive. Among the grounds of their animosity, none lay deeper than the loss of Brazil ; a calamity to which they would ne ver have been exposed, had they not, by their union with Spain, been involved in the war which that nation car ried on against Holland ; and the apathy which the Spanish court was supposed to have discovered, both in regard to its pr ervation and recovery, heightened this resentment into ury. The whole nation, therefore, was ripe for a revolution, by which they might shake off the Spanish yoke ; the duke of Braganza, whom they re garded as the rightful heir, resided in the kingdom ; and the ministers of Philip 1V., either from weakness, or from a doubtful policy of fomenting rebellion, in order to obtain pretences for oppression and confiscation, took no effectual measures to guard against the threatening danger. It would be departing from our subject to en ter into any detail of the steps by which the indepen dence of Portugal was and the house of Braganza placed on the throne. The nation unanimous ly took up arms ; but they were thus involved in a long and severe struggle with the military power of Spain, which was still ranked among the most formidable in Europe. In these circumstances, the preservation of national independence becoming the most urgent ob ject, it was necessary 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 A treaty of peat e and alliance was therefore concluded between the two nations, by which it was stipulated, that the limits of Dutch and Portuguese Bra zil should remain as they then stood. This treaty was signed on the 23d June 1611. The Dutch, now con ceiving their 13rasilian ssessions to be in the most profound security, thougfil only of reducing the por mous expence of the establishmmt. With this view, they recalled prince Maurice, who, with all his talents for war and government, was considered as not sufficient ly economical. In his room, they sent out a board of directors, in whom they conceived full reliance could be placed. A merchant of Amsterdam, a jeweller of Haar lem, and a carpenter of Middleburg, were the persons nominated to succeed prince Maurice. On inquiring into the state of affairs, it soon appeared to these care ful men, that it was needless to keep up fortifications which, according to all appearance, would not be need ed ; that arms and ammunition might be advantageously disposed of to the Portuguese, who were willing to pur chase them at a high price ; and that, by giving per mission to a large proportion of the troops return to Europe, the expense of their pay and maintenance might be saved The Portuguese governor soon perceived and reported to nis court the defenceless state to which the kingdom was reduced by this prudent system. The king was dissatisfied with the manner in which the Dutch had executed many articles of the treaty ; and as his war with Spain had been distinguished by brilliant success, he no longer felt the same entire dependence on the Dutch as before. He cautioned his officers, how ever, to avoid any open rupture with that nation, but at the same time to be on the watch for favourable oppor tunities of wresting from them the provinces which they occupied in Brasil.