re
captured and the inhabitants massacred. The Portuguese were determined
to surrender none of the advantages which the nature of the country
offered them, and thus the warfare still remained of a guerilla order,
and upon the sallying out of a formidable Dutch force, the Portuguese,
with their Indian allies, would disperse in the dense forests, and come
together again when the Dutch had concluded their march.

The retaliatory methods of the Dutch served to enrage the Portuguese
beyond all bearing. The Council of the Dutch West India Company issued a
proclamation to the effect that all women and children in the towns,
whose husbands and fathers were rebels, were to be evicted from their
houses and left to fend for themselves. The idea seems to have been that
these people would flock to the insurgents and thus hamper their
movements. The result was that the unfortunate women and children were
exposed to the mercy of the weather and the forests.

Joao Fernandes had now collected a formidable number of men, and,
posting these about nine leagues to the westward of Recife in a spot of
great strategic advantage, he awaited the Dutch advance. One thousand
five hundred Dutch troops, aided by a number of native auxiliaries, came
on to the attack. Three times they advanced and drove the Portuguese and
their Indian allies some way up the hill on the sides of which they were
posted, but each time the Dutch lost more and more men from the ambushes
in the thick cane-brake which covered the ground. In the end the Dutch
retired, having suffered very severe casualties. It is said that 370 of
their force were found dead upon the field. Beyond this a number died on
the retreat, while many hundreds were wounded. The Portuguese assert
that their army consisted of 1,200 whites, aided by about 100 Indians
and negroes. This fight had very important consequences, since it
enabled the Portuguese forces to arm themselves with the weapons left on
the field by the dead and wounded Dutch.

During all this time the authorities at Bahia had remained quiescent,
since officially no state of war existed, and in the eyes of the
Government the Dutch were supposed merely to be quelling some
revolutionary movements ere they departed for Europe! Now the time came
for this farce to be ended, and the Governor of Bahia sent troops to the
north to join the insurgents in their struggle against the Dutch. The
traitor Hoogstraten now definitely joined these forces,