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Contemporary Broadside Celebrating The Dutch Capture of Paraiba in December 1634

Rare contemporary broadside map of the lower part of the Rio Paraiba celebrating the Dutch capture of the area around Paraiba in December 1634.

Oriented with north to top, the main map extends inland to town of Paraiba.  The mouth of the river is guarded by Portuguese Fort St. Antoine and Fort Catharina, with a smaller battery in the middle of mouth of the river labeled S. Bonte. Dutch ships are shown making their way up river to the town of Paraiba, which is shown under siege, with the town plan noting the Great Church, Monastery and Council House, along with the fortified positions of the Portuguese in and around the town. 

On the coast below the St. Catherina compound, small Dutch boats are bringing ammunition ashore to a Dutch ammunition depot on shore, supplying the attacking forces below the fort, led by Governor Sigismond van Schoppen and Colonel Artisciotzky, whose fortified positions are identified.

Additional Dutch troops put ashore at the mouth of the Rio Tambia, where they are shown marching overland toward Paraiba.

 Further up river, there appears a small Portuguese battery with cannon protecting the upper part of the river, with a small sugar mill, lodging house, and shows the Siege of Paraiba, which resulted in the surrender of the Portuguese settlement at the mouth of the Paraiba River to the Dutch West India Company. 

The accompanying letterpress text includes a key identifying 14 important sites around Paraiba and the rich resources of the surrounding countryside as well as a background account of the history of the discovery of Brazil, commercial trade and conflicts in the region between between the French and Portuguese.

The account of the Dutch attack on Paraiba begins with the Dutch naval forces leaving the port of Pernambuco on November 25, 1634.  The force consisted of a fleet of 29 ships with 2,340 soldiers on board under the command of Sigismond van Schoppen, Governor of Pernambuco, Colonel Artisciotzky and Jean Corneille Lichthart. The fleet dropped anchor in the mouth of the river Paraiba on December 4, 1634.  The text describes the siege of the town of Paraiba.

A reduced version of this map appeared in volume III of Merian’s Theatrum Europaeum (1639) between pp. 336 and 337.

The defeat of the Portuguese would end Portugal's control of the region until 1654, when the Dutch were expelled by Portuguese forces commanded by André Vidal de Negreiros.

Rarity

No auction records.

OCLC notes examples at the British Library, Newberry Library, University of Leiden, and Catholic University Lima.