When Johan Maurits returned to the Dutch Republic in the summer of 1644, he took with him a delegation of Jandovyâs men but also the Potiguara Antônio Paraupaba.1 The latter had made a career in Brazil starting as captain of an aldeia in Goiana, according to the report of Adriaen van der Dussen, and in 1645, after his return from Holland, he would become captain and regidor of Rio Grande.2 Why the Tapuia came to Holland remains unclear: perhaps, against their will, for royal entertainment? Or, like the Potiguara, in order to enlist wih the WIC and go back to Brazil? There is too little information to provide a satisfying answer. However, according to the minutes of the Chamber of Zealand, Johan Maurits and the Indigenous people embarked the vessel Graeff Hendrick in Brazil, which belonged to the Chamber of Groningen, and that the vessel arrived in Vlissingen in July 1664.3 They stayed about two months in Zealand before being sent to Amsterdam to return to Brazil. Johan Maurits stayed at the house of his nephew Hendrick van Nassau.4
Interestingly, when Johan Maurits arrived in Vlissingen, the wife of Adriaen Bullestrate, member of the High Council in Recife, presented herself to the Board of Directors of the Zealand Chamber. She asked the board whether she could retrieve from the storehouses all sorts of items that her husband has sent over to her, namely âtwo tiger skins, two Tapuia clubs, two swords of [sword] fish, some cashew nuts and other trinkets as well as some violet wood, and the skin of an animal of which she did not know the name, as well as a small casket with orange apples or coconuts.â5 Johan Maurits himself had probably also shipped some animals from Brazil or commissioned them from Holland as the Zealand Chamber had trouble with an American ostrich (ñandú) and a tiger (!), according to the minutes.6 The members of the Zealand Chamber decided to have these animals escorted to Rijswijk, for which Johan Maurits thanked them.7
After Mauritsâs departure and when the uprising of the moradores in 1645 had calmed down in Rio Grande, the situation appeared better for Jandovyâs people and they decided to return to the interior of Rio Grande. Depsite the persistent brutal descents by the Tapuia, the Dutch maintained a good relationship with them. They exchanged gifts and the new ambassador Pieter Persijn, who had replaced Baro,8 visited them frequently in the sertão until at least the capitulation of the Dutch army in January 1654. An amnesty clause for the Indigenous people who were on the Dutch side, including the people of Jandovy, was added to the terms of the capitulation, but it was not respected by the Portuguese in Rio Grande.9 Apparently all Indigenous people allied to the Dutch fled to Ceará and cursed the Dutch for having abandoned the war against the Portuguese.10 The former Dutch allies clung together, founded a new territory and sent Antônio Paraupaba to Holland in 1654, who presented their complaint before the States General. The Potiguara supplicant made another appearance in 1656 as nothing had been done in favor of the Indigenous people who had supported the Dutch so faithfully.11 What happened to Jandovy is unknown.12
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies,â 529 and 535; Lodewijk Hulsman, âÃndios do Brasil na República dos PaÃses Baixos: As representações de Antônio Paraupaba para os Estados Gerais em 1654 e 1656,â Revista de História 154, no. 1 (June 2006): 43.
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 46, scan 240 (1640); Hulsman, âÃndios do Brasil,â 44â45. Pieter Potij was Captain in ParaÃba.
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 12r (16440727).
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fols. 35â36 (16441006).
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 14v (16440803). Interestingly, about a year later, the wife of Bullestrate, Maria Verpoorte, again received many exotic items from her husband, which were transported in the Walcheren: âa small casket containing two tagoes [tatous?, i.e. armadillos], a caiman, four monkey skins, a tiger skin, three snake skins, two swordfish and some other animal trinkets as well as two caskets of sugar, marked WB â¦â; NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 108v (16450907).
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 81v (16450522). The ostrich had probably been shipped in the Regenbooge from Arguin in Africa, because the wife of Neefen Pieters had presented herself to the Board of Directors to collect the bird. She told the board that her husband had promised 2,700 guilders for the ostrich of which 1,600 were already paid; NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 74v (16450316).
NL-HaNA 1.05.01.01 26, fol. 88r (16450615).
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies,â 530.
Boogaart, âInfernal Allies,â 531.
Mark Meuwese, âFrom Dutch Allies to Portuguese Vassals: Indigenous Peoples in the Aftermath of Dutch Brazil,â in The Legacy of Dutch Brazil, ed. Michiel van Groesen (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 62.
Hemming, Red Gold, 310â311; Hulsman, âBrazilian Indians in the Dutch Republicâ; Hulsman, âÃndios do Brasil.â
Much later, in 1685, the Janduy group of Cariri Tapuia is said to have attacked the Portuguese in Rio Grande and fought the famous bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho; see Hemming, Red Gold, 355â357; Meuwese, âFrom Dutch Allies,â 73â75.