The history of the colonization of the Americas has often been told from the perspective of European conquest of the peoples and environments of the New World. This narrative of European superiority and dominance is now being challenged and reconsidered in light of both novel readings of archival sources and new archaeological findings. The focus is shifting to both localized histories and long-term perspectives that do not begin in 1492 (or 1500 for Brazil) but rather take the European invasions as an incidental development alongside processes already underway in Indigenous societies.1 As a result, these histories highlight the participation and agency of Indigenous and other non-European peoples in historical transformations on a global scale, thereby erasing the artificial divides between Europeans, Indigenous peoples, Africans (and their descendants) on both sides of the Atlantic, and mixed colonial populations.2 Another important aspect of this historiographical turn is the revelation of the degree to which European settlers and explorers depended on local populations for their everyday provisions and for the expansion and consolidation of the conquest. Overall in the Americas, the colonizersâ first goal was to secure small strongholds and their direct surroundings by establishing alliances with neighboring Indigenous and local peoples. Beyond protection and provisions, Europeans also sought information about the territory they found themselves in: they were interested in fertile lands and mines, as well as potential new allies or trading partners.
Various Indigenous peoples living in the territory that became Portuguese Americaâboth in coastal areas and inland, as well as in the Amazonâwere major actors in the transformations that unfolded after the first arrival of the Portuguese, in April 1500, on the shores of what is now the state of Bahia. As trading partners, allies, enemies, soldiers, enslaved workers, relatives, and much more, a variety of groups and individuals engaged in complex relationships with similarly diverse groups of European and enslaved Africans brought to their land. Yet, while the complexity and diversity of colonial societies is undeniably present in the historical record, Indigenous peoples stand apart, often described in these same sources in rather simplistic, essentializing terms. Moreover, (textual) sources frequently make a dualistic distinction between âcivilizedâ and âbarbaricâ natives. In colonial Brazil, these were the Tupi and Tapuia, respectively. Neither one was in fact a single, homogenous Indigenous group. The term âTupiâ encompasses the many Indigenous peoples living along the coast of Brazil who spoke similar languages (soon classified as the Tupi linguistic family) and were therefore grouped into one large category by missionaries. The Tapuia, on the other hand, were not a distinct Indigenous group and did not speak similar languages. These were peoples living in the interior of the country who seemed to have very different customs from those of the Tupi. According to John Monteiro, the word âTapuiaâ comes from the Tupi for âescaped from the villageâ, from âtaba (aldeia) and puir (fugir).â3 âTapuiaâ thus became a European label for all non-allied Indigenous people, the âotherâ or the âenemyâ. This dualistic idea was already spread in the earliest accounts of the first missionaries about northeastern Brazil:
Nosotros nos fuymos otro dia y passamos muchos despoblados, especialmente uno de veynte y tres jornadas, por entre unos indios que llaman Tapuzas [Tapuyas], que es un género de indios bestial y fiero, porque andan por los bosques como manadas de venados, desnudos, con cabellos muy largos como de mugeres. Su habla es muy bárbara, y ellos muy carniceros [32v] y traen flechas ervoladas y despedaçan un hombre en nada. Para passar por entre ellos ajuntamos muchos indios de los nuestros, que están de paz, y passamos con espias adelante con harto peligro. Un Ãndio que vénia con nosotros, que era para mucho, passó adelante un tiro de ballesta de los blancos, y vino de súbito una manada destos Tapuzas y, despedaçándole, llevaron en quartos. Y con este miedo, ni los hombres blancos, ni los indios se osaron apartar de ay adelante del camino, por lo qual padecÃan mucha necessidad, aun de agua. Los dias aqui eran calorosos y las noches frias, las quales passávamos sin más cobertura que la del cielo.4
While such binary descriptions are purposefully exaggerated, somewhat unreliable, and certainly disrespectful, they do tell us about the circumstances of the encounters and the types of relationships established between the different Indigenous groups and diverse colonizers. These observations and interpretations had serious consequences for the lives and well-being of the different Indigenous men and women then living under or fighting against European rule, starting with the erasure of their individual and collective historical experiencesâall combined under the umbrella-term âTapuiaââand leading to the perpetuation of prejudice against them.5
The documentation produced during the Dutch conquest of northeastern Brazil (1624â1654) was no different. In fact, the Dutch sources inherited the terms used by the Portuguese colonizers, who âmade distinctions between Amerindian peoples based on criteria that reflected their own interests and their misapprehensions about the languages and the sociocultural characteristics of Amerindian peoples.â6 Dutch seventeenth-century sources therefore most often use terms such as âTapuiaâ and âTupiââthe latter sometimes also called âBraziliansâ (brasiliaenen)âbut also specific ethnic markers such as âPotiguaraâ (Tupi-speaking group of the coast).
In this book we present transcriptions and translations of 15 historical documents concerning the Tapuia written before and during the Dutch colonial presence in Brazil. Our aim is to make available a set of little-known documents about these peoples and to facilitate the work of scholars, experts, and others interested in trying to (re)write Indigenous histories from a more complex and complete perspective. The specific documents have been chosen due to the attention they give to the importance of Tapuia and Indigenous peoples in general during the Dutch conquest, revealing their know-how, forms of warfare, and cultural practices. An introduction precedes each translation, briefly discussing the content, context, and publication history (when extant) of these various documents.
Our own choice to use the term âTapuiaâ should also be explained. In his influential essay on the âinfernal alliesâ of the Dutch in Brazil, Ernst van den Boogaart argued that the Tapuia referred to in Dutch sources should, in fact, be identified as the Tarairiu Indigenous people.7 While acknowledging van den Boogaartâs contribution (and those of earlier scholars before him), we have sought to represent as faithfully as possible the sources we transcribe and translate here, and so we keep âTapuia,â leaving the work of more precise ethnic identification to scholars dedicated to such areas. Similarly, while the current name of the Indigenous community living in northeastern Brazil is spelled Potiguara (and we refer to them thus in this introduction), we chose to leave the term âPotiguarâ in our translation as it is spelled in the sources.
In order to hightlight certain valuable aspects of these sources, in this introduction we present a brief history of Dutch engagements with the Tapuia as well as a partial reconstruction of the Tapuia way of life as described in the documents presented here. In both cases, we indicate in parentheses the documents of the present collection upon which we base our narrative.
Figure 1
General map of northeastern Brazil with maximum geographical extension of Dutch Brazil, c. 1641
Map developed by M. van den Bel based on data provided on the website Natural Earth
1 Before Meeting the Tapuia
As part of the Dutch revolt against the Habsburg monarchy and, in particular, against King Philip II of Spain, who had inherited rule of the provinces of the Netherlands, the Dutch West India Company (WIC, founded 1621) developed a master plan or groot dessein that aimed to lay waste to the Spanish Empire overseas and to exploit the Americas. From a strategic perspective, this plan was partially based on the belief that Indigenous peoples in the Americas would be willing to side with the Dutch in fighting against the Portuguese and Spanish colonizers. In practice, the situation would prove more complicated than the Dutch had anticipated, as our sources show.8 Trade and intelligence had already demonstrated the riches of Brazil, a Portuguese colony now under Spanish rule after the Iberian Union in 1580. The Dutch aimed first for the capital of Portuguese America, the city of Salvador do Bahia, which they briefly conquered between 1624â1625.9 After the counterattack of the Portuguese-Spanish armada, part of the Dutch fleet returned to the Netherlands and the rest hid in the BaÃa da Traição, to the north of Bahia in the Captaincy of ParaÃba.
After leaving the BaÃa da Traição in 1626, Admiral Boudewijn Hendrickx embarked for Holland with 13 Indigenous Potiguaras.10 The future of these men was radically altered by this voyage, for they were educated in the Dutch language and customs in order to serve the WIC in executing its master plan. Although the first attempt to secure a stronghold in Brazil had failed, the Dutch now tried a different approach. They relied upon American intelligence gathered in New Netherland, along the Amazon River, and the Guianas, where they had traded with the Indigenous populations; local intelligence was key to the success of permanent trade. Clearly, it was of the utmost importance to understand the native customs and speak the native languages in order to obtain political alliances and truchements or local guides to find support for attacks on the Portuguese in Brazil. Hendrickx recruited these 13 Potiguara to play this role for the Dutch.11 A few years later, in 1628, six of the Potiguaras were debriefed by Kiliaen van Renselaer on the situation near ParaÃba, as can be read in the roteiro (rutter) manuscript of Hessel Gerritsz (see documents 1 and 2). The Dutch launched another more successful attack on Brazil in 1630 but this time they aimed for Pernambuco and at least three Potiguara took part in this military mission. Whether these Potiguara played an important role during the attack is unknown but is certainly possible, since the Potiguara and other Tupi peoples of this region had developed âfriendlyâ contacts with the Portuguese.12
As soon as the Dutch set foot on land, the Potiguara became an integral part of the newly installed Dutch administration. At about the same time, the Dutch met and started to engage with Tapuia peoples, especially the group led by Chief Jandovy.13 According to later European sources, the Tapuia had previously been a sedentary people and knew how to cultivate the land.14 They eventually abandoned their sedentary way of life to become nomads, a change connected to the impact of colonialism as witnessed among other Brazilian groups.15 As the Portuguese expanded along the Brazilian coast, favoring the Tupi in alliances over other groups, the latter formed alliances to confront the new power block.16 In the face of warfare, disease, enslavement, and politics, certain groups choose to leave their territory and wander. Seventeenth-century Indigenous leader Jandovy and his people are without doubt a good example of this colonial confrontation in the period of the Dutch presence in Brazil.
Jandovy, and before him his father, migrated with his people every cashew season from the interior to the Atlantic coast near São Francisco to collect cashews. They also had crops that they tended in the interior but apparently did not live in their vicinity. Besides harvesting cashews and honey, cultivating certain crops, and hunting rats or yperie,17 these Tapuia also relied on plundering engenhos (mills) or attacking enemy villages for subsistence during their roamings. This particular lifestyle did not win them great popularity with other groups and Jandovy was doomed to wander the hinterlands to survive until the Dutch arrived looking for a partner against the Portuguese and rebellious Indigenous villages.18 Perhaps the Dutch might have wished for another ally, one seen as more civilized and malleable such as the Tupi, because the Tapuias were then portrayed in European writing as the ultimate savages:
Ils sont de grande stature, ont la peau dure, endurcis au labeur, hardis & outre mesure legers, ils ont les cheveux noirs & longs; & nâont ni villages ni bourgades, mais ils vageuent sans certaines demeures; ils sont fort gourmands de chair dâhomme, & ruinent & gastent tout par tout où ils arrivent. Ils ne cultivent point de champs, mais sont accoustumés à vivre de rapine & à manger le Manioc tout crud; ils ont des arcs grands & fort rudes, des massuës de Pierre, avec lesquelles ils cassent la teste à leurs ennemis, or ils les surprennent le plus souvent à la despourveuë, & sont non seulement redouté des Sauvages, mais aussi des Portugais, à cause de leur grande cruaté.19
Indeed, historian Gonsalves de Mello stated that the main allies of the Dutch were the Tapuia, even though their most frequent and closest contact was with the Tupi.20 The main goal of the WIC regarding the Indigenous populations of northeastern Brazil was to secure alliances with all groups in order to expand its intelligence network on the ground and military capacity. This meant establishing diplomatic alliances and making political concessions and agreements. The documentation kept in the WIC archives evidences the indispensable participation of Potiguara and Tapuia leaders and peoples in the political and military life of the Dutch colony (see documents 3 to 5). This is clearly shown, for instance, in a letter written by Pieter or Pedro Potij in 1631.21 Potij stated that a certain Maraca Patira, a Tupi from Acawijtiba, came down from the mountainous hinterland and told him that the King of Rio Grande had gone to Pepetama with his people while the people of Bahia da Traição remained neutral. Potij also reported that the inhabitants of Tapeuia who had fought against those of Pepetama now found peace with each other and fought together against the Portuguese, requesting reinforcements for their fight.22 This letter must have been used by Johannes de Laet when he stated that a Tupi had arrived declaring that he was sent by the King of the Tapuia.23 It is believed that he was sent by Jandovy and Oquenou to see whether the Companyâs Tapotinga were still in Pernambuco because they wanted to merge with them to become one people.24 The ship Nieuw Nederland was sent subsequently to Ceará under the command of Ellert Smient, who was accompanied by the Portuguese Samuel Cohen, a Tapuia named Marcilliaen, as well as a few Potiguara such as Andries Tacoe, in order to negotiate an alliance to attack Rio Grande in collaboration with the Tapuia.25
2 The Tapuia Deal
Apparently, no deal was concluded in October 1631 because of setbacks with WIC officers and the shortfall of contacts with important Indigenous interpreters.26 For a year there was no further communication between Jandovy and the Dutch but in February 1633 an Indigenous messenger visited the Dutch and the WIC responded promptly by sending a few Tupi. The latter, however, failed to contact Jandovy. In the meantime, the Dutch, under the command of Joris Garstman,27 attacked the Portuguese fort of Reis Magos at Rio Grande (later renamed Fort Ceulen by the Dutch) in December 1633, probably hoping that Jandovy would show up in support. The WIC included Caspar Paraupaba and his son Antonio on the expedition, but Jandovy did not make an appearance, and Garstman dispatched a messenger in February 1634 to find him. About a month later he finally arrived at Fort Ceulen with his people, to signal his readiness to join the Dutch (see documents 6 and 7).28 Many gifts were presented and the two parties agreed to fight together.
Jandovy and Garstman planned to attack Cunhaú, a hamlet on the Rio Grande coast, but there were some mixed feelings about this joint expedition.29 According to the Gartsman, the âTaponiersâ held great ceremonies invoking the Devil30 and, according to Servaes Carpentier, they feared that they wanted to kill women and children.31 Furthermore, Jandovy had many problems with other Indigenous groups, who repelled his people and they were constantly on the move. Unfortunately, Paraupaba did not master Jandovyâs language, making negotiations rather difficult.32 In order to ease the talks and gain each otherâs trust, Jandovy and Garstman decided to make an exchange: Jandovy left a son with the Dutch and Garstman instructed six soldiers to join Jandovy, four of whom returned, the other two having decided to stay.33 One of the four men who came back was Dirck Mulder, who had apparently mastered Jandovyâs language.34 It is possible that Gerrit Hulck was another of these four (see documents 8 and 9).
On 2Â October 1634 there was another rendezvous between Jandovy and the WIC under the command of Jacob Stachouwer.35 Colonel Arcizewski âinterviewedâ Caracara, brother of Jandovy, and obtained much important information about the geographical origins of Jandovyâs people.36 This time, Paraupaba arrived with Jandovyâs sister, Commendaoura, who was sent back with a letter calling on Jandovy to attack ParaÃba.37 The capitania was invaded by the Dutch in November 1634, but they had prohibited Jandovyâs people from looting the inhabitants or moradores and from carrying out their customary cultural ceremonies;38 for this reason, Jandovy refused to take part in the attack in ParaÃba.39
This decision brought an end to the cooperation between Jandovy and the Dutch, who also slowed down their expansion into the northern capitanias. Tupi and Dutch captains were now installed in different villages or aldeias in the region of Goiana, and in the captaincies of ParaÃba and Rio Grande, in order to hold control of the region. In November 1637, when Count Johan Maurits arrived in Brazil, Sigismund von Schoppe was ordered to attack Sergipe.40 During this military action, Tupi aldeia captains were preferred over the Tapuia and were paid for their work. In November 1641, the Dutch attacked Maranhão, which would be the last Dutch stronghold in the north.41
3 Indirect Indigenous Rule and the Portuguese Revolt
Figure 2
Map of Rio Grande and Pernambuco, after Naber 1934, map 2
Developed by M. van den Bel
Besides this intricate network of Indigenous communities with whom the Dutch engaged, other Indigenous groupsâparticularly peoples of the Tupi linguistic familyâcontinued to live in aldeias under Dutch rule. In fact, the Dutch closely followed the sixteenth-century Portuguese model of creating Indigenous settlements as a means of population control and religious conversion. These aldeias, often headed by Jesuit and other Catholic missionaries during the Portuguese conquest, still needed to be directed and controlled in the later Dutch period. In 1645, when Paraupaba returned to Brazil after his stay in Amsterdam, he had proposed to the Brazilian High Council to create a sort of independent Tupi land in the vicinity of the Dutch colony, a land of which Paraupaba himself would be king. The âHeeren XIXâ or Lords XIX believed this was a good way to strengthen ties with the Tupi, but the Brazilian High Council thought it was a preposterous idea.42 After they had quickly turned down Paraupabaâs suggestion, the High Council wrote to the Lords XIX that they would instead proceed with the implementation of the system of indirect rule. Instead of one âIndigenous king,â the WIC authorities established a system of three Tupi regidores or civic magistrates who were to confer with the âDirector of Braziliansâ before taking any decisions. The Recife councilors ordered Johannes Listrij, the âDirector of the Brazilians,â to convene a council with all those Tupi who wished to be appointed as representatives in the new judicial and governmental structure.43 This meeting was held in the aldeia of Tapisseria located between cities of Goiana and Recife sometime in late March or early April 1645. At this summit, 20 prominent Tupi leaders, among whom were Potij and Paraupaba, worked with Listrij on the selection and appointment of the Tupi magistrates. Gonsalves de Mello connects this summit, and the WICâs decision to appoint Indigenous regidores, to the difficult relations between the Dutch and the Indigenous people in Maranhão. The WIC had attempted to allow the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, at first prohibited by the Companyâs own regulations; furthermore there was clear overall mistreatment of native peoples by Dutch settlers in the region. The native population was thus disinclined to cooperate with the new colonizers, and there was fear among the Dutch about being massacred. The Company needed to meet Indigenous demands for freedom, and allow them some sort of political self-representation, in order to avoid confrontation.44
In the new system of indirect rule all the aldeias under Dutch control were now divided into three districts, each governed by a board of schepenen. The position of schepen is of Dutch origin and roughly translates as âcivic magistrate.â The candidates for schepen were nominated by the Tupis themselves but ultimately appointed by the High Council. Finally, each board of Indigenous schepenen was presided over by a regidor. The term regidor was adopted from the Spanish bureaucratic administration in South America. Throughout Spanish Peru, regidores were Indigenous administrators who functioned as indispensable intermediaries between Spanish colonial officials and the ârepublic of Indians.â In Dutch Brazil, the regidores fulfilled a similar function for the Recife government. The three regidores were the most senior Indigenous magistrates and dealt directly with Listrij and other Dutch colonial officials.
Potij and Paraupaba were two of the three candidates that the Tupi selected as regidores, Potij for the district of ParaÃba, Paraupaba for the district of Rio Grande. The third candidate was Domingo Fernandes Carapeba, a distinguished Tupi military leader who represented the aldeias located in the jurisdictions of Goiana and Itamaracá. Potij and Paraupabaâs status as leaders strongly suggests that their talent as cross-cultural negotiators familiar with the Dutch language and authorities had made them useful and influential in the eyes of their people. By choosing the Dutch-speaking Potij and Paraupaba to these important positions, the Tupi signaled that they wished to have regidores who had experience interacting with the Dutch colonial government.45
In 1640, the Portuguese reclaimed their sovereignty from Spain and started to wage war upon the Dutch in Brazil. Just a few years later, a bloody guerrilla war broke out between the Dutch and Portuguese and their Indigenous allies in which Tapuia and Tupi often faced each other. Although Jandovy was perhaps only moderately interested in waging war for the Dutch, he was certainly interested in local politics and fighting alongside the Dutch against other Tapuia peoples inhabiting the interior. Caught in a political web as the king of many Tapuia bands, he also played the Dutch by making advances with the Portuguese.46 The journey of four months into the interior made by Roulox Baro, Jean Strassi, an unnamed Tupi, and three unnamed Tapuia in 1647 along the Potegi River to locate Jandovy is exemplary of his influential place in the unstable political context of Dutch Brazil in the midst of the Portuguese revolt.
Major losses were suffered by the Dutch during the revolt. Such military defeats and the difficulty and delays in drawing sufficient profit from this Brazilian colony soon led the WIC to decide to withdraw its troops from Brazil, which concretely took place in 1654. The Indigenous allies of the Dutch were abandoned to their fate. Some Indigenous men traveled to the Dutch Republic to convince the directors of the Company and the States General to return to Brazil, to no avail.47 Meanwhile, in Brazil, the former allies of the Dutch were either slaughtered by Portuguese troops or escaped to the interior of the country.48
4 Tapuia Life
In addition to providing much information about the role played by Indigenous people in the political and military history of Dutch Brazil, the Dutch sources also allow for a partial reconstruction of Tapuia customs and ways of life. Roulox Baro wrote an account of his experience in which, as well as discussing regional politics, he also provided much ethnographic information about the customs of Jandovy and his people. Baroâs journal, Gerrit Hulckâs book (copied and complemented by Elias Herckmans), Jacob Rabbiâs journal, as well as the accounts by other men, copied and reported by Gerard Vos, Johannes de Laet, and Caspar van Baerle are probably the only original first-hand sources on Jandovyâs people (see documents 11 to 15). The few words written on them by Zacharias Wagener may also have been copied from other documents (see Document 10).
According to Baro, the Tapuia ate roast pigs, armadillos, rats and snakes, which they hunted, as well as domesticated animals; they also fished and collected honey and fruit, with which they made alcoholic beverages. The Tapuia had agricultural land (called rossen in Dutch, probably derived from the Portuguese word roças) where they cultivated maize, beans, peas, tobacco, and pumpkins. Maize was ground to produce flour or farinha, called suasu, as was manioc. They also ate stews based on manioc tubers and maize kernels which were boiled down in earthenware pots made by the women. These stews were accompanied by âmanioc balls, wild manioc, fish called piapahu, maize, rats caught in their gardens and stew.â Large ants, called capiaira, were eaten with maize as a snack, even while walkingâa fact that presumably surprised the Dutch. In order to ensure the fertility of their crops, they honored them with ceremonies performed by shamans.49
Various ceremonies or rites of passage were observed and recorded by the Dutch, notably funerary and initiation rites which were commonly accompanied by the wailing and crying of the women. The accounts tell of the consumption of ground human bones mixed with maize flower or tapioca (manioc starch) in order to end the mourning of family members. The rites of passage included piercing the lower lip, ears, and/or cheeks and passing small sticks or stones through the holes to mark the naming of children.50 They also involved the consumption of an alcoholic beverage called cauim, made of manioc, and of drinks made of water and the ground seeds of âcleansingâ plants such as copaiba (Copaifera spp.) or ipecacuanha (Carapichea ipecacuanha) (see notes in document 15). A Tapuia who wished to marry had to present himself at night before Jandovyâs hut to ask for approval; Jandovy would give his blessing by blowing smoke from a large tobacco pipe upon him.51
Dutch descriptions of Tapuia life and customs were not free of a certain degree of astonishment or even prejudice. Baroâs text reveals surprise, for instance, at a game often played by the Tapuia which consisted of running while carrying logs. In order to prepare the log, cut from a tree named the corravearas, the bark was removed with fire and the trunk was then polished until perfectly smooth. The participants in the game, mainly men, painted themselves. Baro witnessed Jandovy taking part, running with great speed and agility despite his old age; he also observed the Tapuia chasing rats while running with the logs.
The Dutch texts emphasize worship of the Devil or âHouchaâ in order to depict the Tapuia as âsavagesâ compared to the âcivilizedâ Tupi, highlighting their demonstrations of excessive exuberance to condemn the âdelusionâ of Tapuia ceremonies. The Devilâs hand was commonly recognized in sickness and enemy attacks, and Jandovy would gather the shamans to deliberate on such matters, often consulting Houchaâs predictions on the outcomes of planned actions. In fact, Baro recounts that, in response to his arrival among the Tapuia, Jandovy consulted Houcha on what to do about Baroâs request for an alliance with the Dutch. Houcha advised him not to attack his enemies without Dutch military aid and Jandovy therefore decided to continue wandering with his people. Baroâs account ends by stating that Jandovy eventually lost credit among the Tapuia and Tupi, and they abandoned him with the Dutch.52
See for instance Neil Whitehead, âColonial Intrusions and the Transformation of Native Society in the Amazon Valley, 1500â1800,â in Native Brazil: Beyond the Convert and the Cannibal, 1500â1900, ed. Hal Langfur (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2014), 86â107; Mark Harris, âRevisiting First Contacts on the Amazon 1500â1562,â Tempo 23, no. 3 (2017): 508â527.
The historiographical production on Indigenous agency in history has been growing steadily since the 1980s, and isâfortunatelyâtoo extensive to be cited in its entirety here. We suggest a few important historical overviews and historiographical reviews focusing on the colonial period (that is, prior to Brazilian independence in 1822), amongst which the chapters about Brazil in Frank Salomon and Stuart Schwartz, eds., The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. III: South America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); John M. Monteiro, âTupis, Tapuias e Historiadores: estudos de História IndÃgena e do Indigenismoâ (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2001); Hal Langfur, âIntroduction: Recovering Brazilâs Indigenous Past,â in Native Brazil: Beyond the Convert and the Cannibal, 1500â1900, ed. Hal Langfur (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2014), 1â28; Maria Regina Celestino de Almeida, âA atuação dos indÃgenas na História do Brasil: revisões historiográficas,â Revista Brasileira de História 37, no. 75 (2017): 17â38; Maria Regina Celestino de Almeida and Tatiana Seijas, âAmerindians in the Iberian World,â in The Iberian World 1450â1820, ed. Fernando Bouza, Pedro Cardim, and Antonio Feros (London: Routledge, 2020), 357â374; Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda, and Mariana Albuquerque Dantas, âA Government of Indigenous Peoples: Administration, Land, and Work in the State of Brazil during the Portuguese Empire (1548â1822),â e-Journal of Portuguese History (2021),
Monteiro, âTupis, Tapuias,â 12. Rebecca Parker Brienen also noted that the labels âBraziliansâ and âTapuiasâ were artificial, âthey set up a contrast between the colonized and the untamed [â¦] a seventeenth-century Brazilian version of Columbusâ distinction between the Arawak and the Carib.â Rebecca Parker Brienen, âArt and Natural History at a Colonial Court: Albert Eckhout and Georg Marcgraf in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Brazilâ (PhD diss., Northwestern University, 2002), 182.
João de Azpilcueta Navarro, âCarta do P. Juan de Azpilcueta Navarro aos padres e irmaos de Coimbra, Porto Seguro 24 de junho de 1555,â in Monumenta Brasiliae II (1553â1558), ed. Serafim Leite (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1957), 247, letter 39: âWe left on another day and passed by many uninhabited areas, notably one twenty-three daysâ walk away, among some Indians called Tapuzas [Tapuias], which are a beastly and ferocious group of Indians, because they roam the forests like herds of deer, naked, with very long hair like women. Their language is very barbaric, and they are butchers [32v] and they carry poisonous arrows and they can effortlessly tear a man to pieces. In order to pass through them we gathered many of our own Indians, who are peaceful, and we passed with spies at the vanguard at great risk. One Indian who came with us had gone far ahead, passed a crossbow shot from the white men, and suddenly a pack of these Tapuzas came and, having torn him apart, carried him off in pieces. And with this fear, neither the white men nor the Indians dared stray from the road, so they suffered great deprivations, even of water. The days here were hot and cold the nights, which we spent with no other cover than that of the sky.â
For a study of demarcations of Indigenous languages and ethnic identity, including of the Tapuia, see José R. Bessa Freire, âA demarcação das lÃnguas indÃgenas no Brasil,â in PolÃticas culturais e Povos indÃgenas, ed. Manuela Carneiro da Cunha and Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino (São Paulo: Cultura Acadêmica, 2014), 374.
Almeida and Seijas, âAmerindians,â 363.
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies.â For more on this particular attribution of ethnic identity, see our introduction to Document 9 below.
See Benjamin Schmidt, Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570â1670 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
For the announcement and interpretation of the Dutch conquest of Salvador in the Netherlands, see Michiel van Groesen, âA Week to Remember: Dutch Publishers and the Competition for News from Brazil, 26 Augustâ2 September 1624,â Quaerendo 40, no. 1 (2010): 26â49.
Potiguaras lived on the northeast coast of Brazil, specifically in the region that later became the Captaincy of ParaÃba, and spoke a Tupi-family language. Lodewijk A.H.C. Hulsman, âBrazilian Indians in the Dutch Republic: The Remonstrances of Antonio Paraupaba to the States General in 1654 and 1656,â Itinerario 29, no. 1 (March 2005): 51â53; Frans L. Schalkwijk, Reformed Church in Dutch Brazil (1630â1654) (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1998), 169. Assuerus Cornelisz, a Dutchman of Hendrickxâs fleet who was taken by Portuguese in 1625, and only released again in 1628, offered precious information about ParaÃba; see de Laet in Benjamin N. Teensma, Suiker, verfhout & tabak, Het Braziliaanse Handboek van Johannes de Laet (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2009), 66â67.
The careers of the Potiguara recruited by Hendrickx in Bahia da Traição as agents of the WIC, in particular that of Antônio Paraupaba, was the main interest of Dutch historian Lodewijk Hulsman, who spent much time in the Amsterdam City Archives to trace the life and deeds of these Amerindians. In fact, the city of Amsterdam, and many other European ports, was apparently full of Indigenous people from all countries and colonies. See Thomas G. Mathews, âMemorial Autobiografico de Bernardo OâBrian,â Caribbean Studies 10, no. 1 (1970): 101â102.
Meuwese, Brothers in Arms, 140.
Also spelled âNhanduÃ,â especially in Portuguese-language sources and publications.
John M. Monteiro, âThe Crises and Transformations of Invaded Societies: Coastal Brazil in the Sixteenth Century,â in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. 3, Part 1: South America, ed. Frank Salomon and Stuart Schwartz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 973â1024.
See for example the Guayaki in Pierre Clastres, Chronique des Indiens guayaki. Les Indiens du Paraguay: une société nomade contre lâÃtat (Paris: Plon, 2016 [1972]), 92.
See Johannes de Laet, LâHistoire du Nouveau Monde ou Description des Indes Occidentales (Leiden: Bonaventure & Abraham Elsevier, 1640), 479â480: âIl y a en outre dâautres nations, qui sâaccordent mal avec les precedentes, ni mesme fort bien entre elles, appellees dâun nom commun Tapuyas.â [âThere are other nations who do not get along with the aforementioned one, and do not even get along among themselves very well, which are generally called Tapuyasâ].
Roulox Baro, âRelation du voyage de Roulox Baro, interprete et ambassadeur ordinaire de la Compagnie des Indes dâOccident, de la part des Illustrissimes Seigneurs des Provinces Unies au pays des Tapuies dans la terre ferme du Brasil. Commencé le troisiesme Avril 1647. & finy le quatorziesme Juillet de la mesme année,â in Relations véritables et curieuses de lâisle de Madagascar et du Brésil, ed. Augustin Corbé (Paris: Auguste Courbé, 1651), 205.
See de Laet, LâHistoire, 325. De Laet mentions the Tapuias for the first time in July 1631, when Tamarica is taken by the Dutch Colonel Artichofsky, stating that the Company âvanden beginne veel wercks ghemaeckt van een natie van Wilden dies noemen Tapujas, ende gheraden ghevonden der selver hulpe teghen de Portugesen te ghebruijckenâ [âfrom the beginning we invested a lot in a nation of Savages called Tapujas and decided to ask their help against the Portugueseâ], who apparently lived around Rio Grande. See: de Laet, LâHistoire, 238. This is one of the earliest mentions of Tapuias in Dutch documents. The Memorie van Adriaen Verdonck voor president en raden van Pernambuco, betreffende de gewesten Pernambuco, Tamaraca, Paraiba en Rio Grande of 20 May 1630 does not mention the Tapuia at all. This document was first translated into Portuguese by Alfredo de Carvalho and later by José Antônio Gonsalves de Mello. See Alfredo de Carvalho, âDescricão das Capitanias de Pernambuco, Itamaracá, ParaÃba e Rio Grande ⦠por Adriano Verdonck,â Revista do Instituto Arqueológico e Geográfico Pernambucano 9, no. 55 (Recife, 1901): 215â227; José Antônio Gonsalves de Mello, Fontes para a História do Brasil Holandes, Vol. I: A Economia Açucareira (Recife: CEPE, 2004), 33â46.
De Laet, LâHistoire, 480. In chapter 3 of book 15, de Laet gives a good overview of the Indigenous ethnonyms, their distribution, and diversity in Brazil: âThey are tall, resilient, toughened by labor, bold and extremely inconstant, they have long black hair, and have nether villages nor hamlets, but wander without fixed abode. They are very fond of human flesh, and ruin and waste everything wherever they go. They do not cultivate fields at all, but are accustomed to living on plunder and eating raw Manioc. They have long, crude bows, clubs of stone with which they break the heads of their enemies, but most often they take them by surprise, and they are not only feared by the Savages, but also by the Portuguese, for their great cruelty.â
Gonsalves de Mello, Tempo, 214â215.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 49, document 118.
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 49, document 118. See also Johannes de Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagie in derthien Boeken, ed. S.P. LâHonoré Naber and J.C.M. Warnsinck (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1934), 12, 25â26.
Johannes de Laet, Historie of iaerlijck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie (Leiden: Bonaventure & Abraham Elsevier, 1644), 247.
See also Marcus Meuwese, âFor the Peace and Well-Being of the Country: Intercultural Mediators and Dutch-Indian Relations in New Netherland and Dutch Brazil, 1600â1664â (PhD diss., University of Notre Dame, 2003), 96.
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 49, documents 80 (16311112) and 129 (c. 1631).
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies,â 523.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 50, document 18 (16331221).
It is possible that this messenger was Jansenpretinger, who also played an important role for Garstman and later disappeared; see Meuwese, âFor the Peace,â 100. According to de Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael, 7, this intermediary was a Tapuia and not trained in Holland, but WIC correspondence designates him a âBrasiliaen.â
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies,â 527. See also the letter written by the Calvinist minister Vincent Joachim Soler: Cort ende Sonderlingh Verhael van eenen Brief van Monsieur Soler, bedienaer des H. Evangelij inde Ghereformeerde Kercke van Bresilien (Amsterdam: Boudewyn de Preys, 1639), 5. Soler considered drinking and dancing the greatest vices of the Tupi.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 50, document 52 (16340322).
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 50, document 61 (16340418).
Arnoldus Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld: of Beschryving van America en ât Zuid-Land, (Amsterdam: Jacob Meurs, 1671), 373â374.
Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld, 446â447.
See Meuwese, Brothers in Arms, 146; NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 68 (16370509 and 16381122).
Johannes de Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagie in derthien Boeken, edited by S.P. LâHonoré Naber and J.C.M. Warnsinck, 4 vols. Werken Uitgegeven door de Linschoten-Vereeniging XXXIV. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1937), 47â48.
Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael 1937, 48â50. In the memoir given to Count Johan Maurits in 1637, Arcizewski discusses the Tapuias twice and states, for example, that: â[Capitain Tourlon] ving op eenen Tapoyer van den vijant, die een brieff van Camaron hadde (dien Tapoyer door nalaticheyt ontliep hem noch); hij sond den brieff aen mij ende ick aen de Heeren, oock denselven 5en Decemb., in den weleken brieff men sach, dat den vijant de Tapoyers solliciteerde tot sijne assistentieâ [âCaptain Tourlon caught a Tapuia from the enemy, who had a letter from Camaron (this Tapuia managed to run away due to (Tourlonâs) negligence); he sent me the letter and I sent it to the Lords (XIX), also on the same 5 December, in a letter one read that the enemy requested help from the Tapuiaâ]. See Christoffel Arciszewski, âMemorie, door den Kolonnel Artichofsky, bij zijn vertrek uit Brazilië in 1637 overgeleverd aan Graaf Maurits en zijnen geheimen raad,â Kroniek van het Historisch Genootschap 25, no. 5 (1869): 305. These letters were written in Tupi by Felipe Camarão in October 1645 and addressed to, amongst others, Pedro Potij and Antonio Paraupaba; NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 60, documents 52â57. The letters have been studied by a number of scholars in the twentieth century. See for instance Teodoro Sampaio, âCartas tupis dos Camarões,â Revista do Instituto Archeologico e Geographico Pernambucano 12, no. 68 (1906); Pedro Souto Maior, Fastos Pernambucanos (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1913). More recent contributions are those by Montserrat, Barros, and Barbosa, who identified Simão Soares Parayba as another author of part of this set of letters, and by Eduardo Navarro de Almeida, who has completed a translation of the letters directly from Tupi into contemporary Portuguese. See Ruth Monserrat, Cândida Barros, and Bartira Ferraz Barbosa, âUm escrito tupi do capitão Simão Soares Parayba (1645),â Corpus 10, no. 2, (2020),
Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael 1937, 50â52.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 50, document 48 (16340215).
Laet, Iaerlijck Verhael 1937, 70. The Dutch next attacked Barra de Conayou (spelled âCunhaúâ in Portuguese) under the command of Colonel Arciszewski and Commander Garstman with 50 cavaliers (without horses) and 46 Tapuias; see Laet, Historie, 405â408.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 68 (16370929); NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 53, document 22 (16380114); NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 46, document 4 (16400401).
See the description of Maranhão by Dujardin in Décio Alencar de Guzmán and Lodewijk A.H.C. Hulsman, Holandeses na Amazônia (1620â1650): documentos inéditos (Belém: Imprensa Oficial do Estado do Pará, 2016), 46â47: âDit eijlant marinjhon was doen ter tijt wel versien met inwoonders soo dattet in zijn begrijp hadde wel 33 a 34 dorpen waer van elck een van dien over de seven ofte acht hondert man sterck waren ende waren natien genaempt Tapuijen en Tupinenbaes dewelck daer naer bij de portegisen meest al omgebracht zijn ende vele van haer wechgeloop die haer in secrete plaetsen inde bosschen aldaer als noch verhoudenâ [âAt the time, the island of Marinjhon [Maranhão] was filled with people, so there were 33 to 34 villages each 700 or 800 men strong, and these were the nations called Tapuijen [Tapuias] and Tupinenbaes [Tupinambás], most of whom were later killed by the Portuguese but many ran away to their secret places in the forest, where they still remainâ]; NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 46, document 10, fol. 2v (16381100).
See Meuwese, âFor the Peace,â 178â179.
The âDirector of the Braziliansâ served as a law enforcement official for the High Council in Recife and primarily had a mediating role with the Indigenous peoples through frequent contact with them. Listrij served as such between 1640 and 1654. In the first years of the colony of Dutch Brazil, there was only one such director and his role was mainly military; after 1645 they also worked on political and social levels and many more directors (or âCommandersâ) were appointed, about one per province. See Meeuwese, âFor the Peace,â 220â236.
NL-HaNAÂ 1.05.01.01 70 (16450411); Gonsalves de Mello, Tempo, 218â220.
Gonsalves de Mello, Tempo, 218â220.
Baro, âRelation,â 200, 208â210, 216â219, 225â226, 230. Jandovy apparently also commanded a mounted cavalry of at least four riders. See Baro, âRelation,â 215.
About a decade earlier, when Count Johan Maurits left Brazil for the Netherlands on 10 May 1644, five Indigenous traveled with him. We know that Paraupaba and two Tapuia, called Carapeta and Waybepa, were among them. Two of these men died during their stay in the Dutch Republic. See NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 70 (16450412). For the Brazilian visitors see Caspar Barlaeus, Nederlandsch Brazilië onder het bewind van Johan Maurits, Grave van Nassau, 1637â1644. After the Latin edition of 1647 first edited in Dutch by S.P. LâHonoré Naber (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1923), 195â198. On Paraupabaâs presence, see NL-HaNA 1.05.0101 60, documents 73 and 79 (16450627). The history of these Indigenous men and women who traveled to the Netherlands following the demise of Dutch Brazil still awaits and merits further research, a task that was being carried out by historian Lodewijk Hulsman.
See Antônio Vieira, âRelação da Missão da Serra de Ibiapaba,â in Escritos Instrumentais sobre os Ãndios, ed. J.C. Sebe Bom Meihy, 122â190 (São Paulo: Educ, 1992).
Baro, âRelation,â 231.
Baro, âRelation,â 239â240.
Baro, âRelation,â 240â241.
Pierre Moreau, Klare en Waarachtige Beschryving van de leste Beroerten en Afval der Portugezen in Brasil (Amsterdam: Jan Hendriksz & Jan Rieuwertsz, 1652), 61.