Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 2. Robert Grant Watson
as best it could; but the means of the Company were exhausted, and their naval force at Recife became unfit to go to sea. Schoppe, indeed, made one attempt to intercept the homeward bound fleet of 1652; but he was beaten off with loss.
1653.
The conclusion of the struggle for the independence of Pernambuco was due, as had been its commencement, to the initiative of Joam Fernandes. To his intelligent and patriotic mind two considerations presented themselves, namely, that the Pernambucans must rely for their freedom on themselves alone; and that the expulsion of the Dutch could never be secured while Recife remained open to their ships. Taking these as his principles, it occurred to him that although there was no hope of obtaining direct succour from Portugal, yet that the Company’s fleet might be made use of to obtain the desired end. His commander, Barreto, entering into his views, the camp-masters met in council in San Gonzalo’s chapel, and agreed to endeavour to carry out the scheme.
The annual fleet was to sail from Lisbon early in October, with Pedro de Magalhaens as general and Brito Freire as admiral, the latter being the well-known historian. Barreto had been desired to have the ships in the ports of Pernambuco ready to join the fleet on its way to Bahia. The advice was received on the 7th of December, and on the 20th the convoy came in sight of Recife. After beating off some Dutch frigates, the general and the admiral landed at the Rio Doce. This scheme was then opened up to them, and they were requested to block up the harbour whilst the insurgents should make a last and desperate attempt to effect the capture of Recife.
As was to be expected, the commanders were not a little startled at the part which had been assigned to them. Magalhaens represented that his instructions from the King did not authorize him to engage in any act of hostility; nor had he permission from the Company to divert the fleet from its destination. He further intimated that were he to involve his country in war with Holland, the penalty would be his head. To this Fernandes replied by the argument once used by John Knox, that all temporal penalties, which at least ended with this world, could not outweigh in the scale the value of a soul which was to exist to all eternity; and that were the general to fail in carrying out the part which Providence now assigned to him, the souls of all those who would be thus exposed to renunciation of the faith would be required at his hands. It was an age of deep religious conviction, and both Magalhaens and Freire yielded to the arguments of Fernandes.
The result is soon told. The Dutch fleet, perceiving the intentions of the Portuguese, stood out to sea whilst they were able to do so. Their disappearance set at liberty the merchant ships along the coast, which were employed under the orders of Barreto. A line was drawn across the harbour of Recife, and strict precautions were taken that no relief should reach the city by sea or by land. The besieging force consisted of three thousand five hundred men. The indefatigable Fernandes led the first assault; and he was good enough to promise a separate mass for the soul of each of his men who should fall. On the morning of the 15th of January, the besieged were astonished to find themselves cannonaded by a battery of twenty-four pounders, and the fort of Salinas surrendered on the same night. One post gave in after another, and at length the inhabitants compelled the General to treat for a capitulation. The Dutch, having surrendered their arms, might remain for three months at Recife to settle their affairs; but all their possessions on the coast of Brazil, without exception, were to be surrendered to the Portuguese.
1654.
Fernandez entered the city and received the keys of the magazines and forts, seventy-three in number, which he proudly delivered to Barreto. Twelve hundred regular troops laid down their arms at Recife. The Portuguese likewise gained possession of two hundred and seventy-three guns; the Indians had retired toward Ceará. Some of the distant garrisons, having received timely warning of the loss of Recife, succeeded in effecting their escape; but at Itamaraca four hundred men were taken. The General and the Admiral now proceeded with the convoy to Bahia; whilst Vidal set out to announce the glad tidings in Portugal. But in this intention the commander was anticipated by a Benedictine priest, who, arriving at Lisbon on the same evening, proceeded at once to communicate the information to the King.
1661.
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
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.
Vieyra’s tastes inclined him to abandon his studies and to devote himself entirely to the Indians; but his far-seeing superiors discerned too well his remarkable talents to permit them to be devoted entirely to such a purpose. After some years spent in ministering amongst Indians and negroes, and in the acquisition of the Tupi language, for the benefit of the former, and of that of Angola, for the benefit of the latter, he was, in 1635, ordained a priest. He now lectured on theology at Bahia, and, sometime later, he accompanied the agent sent to Portugal to congratulate the King on the recovery of his rights. Arriving at Peniche in company of Dom Fernando Mascarenhas, whose brother had adhered to the king of Castile, he was arrested by the people and narrowly escaped being put to death. The populace were, however, persuaded to deliver him over to justice. Reaching Lisbon as a supposed criminal, he obtained an audience of the King, upon whom his remarkable talents produced an instant effect. He was appointed preacher to Joam IV., who continued ever afterwards to regard him with the affection of a father to a son. In his sermons he expressed himself with such freedom as well as eloquence that he was at one time brought under the notice of the Inquisition.
1652.
The favour which Vieyra enjoyed at court created the jealousy even of his own order, and it was once feared that they were about to expel him. In anticipation of this, he was offered by the King a bishopric, which offer, however, was declined. The jealousy of Vieyra’s superiors was at length, happily, removed, and he was employed during several years in the