When the news of these events arrived in Spain, Philip IV ordered that a strong team be prepared under the command of Fadrique de Toledo Osorio: it also included four Neapolitan ships, under the command of the Marquis of Cropani, with a third raised in the viceroyalty of Naples and led by the Marquis of Torrecuso, Carlo Andrea Caracciolo, and by officers who had already reported, or will be reported, in the European wars, such as Giovan Vincenzo Sanfelice, Mario Landolfo, Muzio Origlia, Ettore Della Calce. The Spanish-Portuguese squad arrived in Bahia at the end of March 1625 and managed to communicate with the besieging troops. The Dutch, led by Giovanni Ernesto Kijff, resisted for a month, until they capitulated, on April 30th, handing over the city with everything it contained of weapons, ammunition and numerary. In the attacks, the Neapolitans had distinguished themselves, and in particular Sanfelice, who then had the title of Count of Bagnoli. Shortly before, Vice-Admiral Heyn had made a useless attempt against the captaincy of Espirito Santo, being rejected by the troops of Salvatore Correa de Sá, who moved from Rio de Janeiro to the rescue of Bahia. But Heyn himself, who was nicknamed “son of the waters”, both for his skill as a sailor and because he was the son of a washerwoman, invaded Bahia again in 1627, sacking it and capturing 24 Portuguese ships. The Dutch, who had been very discouraged by the loss of Bahia, revived at the news of Heyn’s success and began to prepare a new expedition, this time targeting the wealthy Pernambuco, who, according to the contemporary Flemish writer Commelyn, was “the earthly paradise of Brazil, and it was well worth a kingdom”. The new fleet, commanded by Admiral Lonck, landed in the north of Recife in 1630 a body of 3000 men, commanded by Weerdenburgh, who occupied Olinda, and shortly thereafter the Recife. As already in Bahia, the residents scattered inland; but then they gathered in a place called Arraial do Bom Jesus, from where the guerrillas set out to harass the Dutch. They were five years of struggles in dribs and drabs, in which the Neapolitans of Sanfelice also participated, with some advantage of the Dutch, who extended and consolidated their dominion in the north, up to the fort of the Magi, in Rio Grande do Norte, and in the south, up to the South. Francisco river. Finally, the head of the Brazilian resistance, Mattia d’Albuquerque, exhausted of forces and means, ordered the great retreat towards the south, to Alagôas, where, at the end of 1638, a body of 1700 Spaniards landed, led by Luigi de Rojas y Borjas, sent to replace Albuquerque. The Spanish contingent was crushed in the battle of the Matta redonda (1636), in which Rojas y Borjas himself left his life, whose succession was taken by Sanfelice di Bagnoli, who organized the guerrilla system again.
According to VAULTEDWATCHES, the West India Company, who until then had lavished large sums in the military enterprises of Brazil, without having any serious commercial consideration, appointed a new head in the person of Maurice of Nassau, who was already celebrated for his warlike valor, and who, in the new office, demonstrated also great administrator skills. He arrived in Recife in 1637, with the title of “governor, captain and admiral general”; and until 1944, the year of his return to Holland, he exercised a wise action of government, consolidating the frontiers, administering justice with equity and winning many Indians and several Portuguese for his cause. Some recent historians have raised doubts about these merits of Prince Maurice; but we must judge on the basis of the concepts of freedom and justice that existed in the century. XVII. Compare the Dutch, albeit relative, tolerance of Brazilians with the blind intolerance of the Spaniards towards other South Americans. From a military point of view, the Mauritian government was signaled by the victory that Admiral Hujgens won in Bahia against a mighty Spanish fleet of 73 ships, commanded by Ferdinando Mascareñas, Count de la Torre, who barely escaped a caravel. On the ground, he faced Bagnoli, who with his factions constantly harassed the Dutch posts, defeated him at Porto Calvo and forced him to retreat to Bahia. The ancient Portuguese and Spanish chroniclers made Sanfelice responsible for this reverse, happy to be able to pour out the shame of defeat on a foreigner; but recent criticism has re-established the truth of the facts and recognized the merits that belonged to the Neapolitan general. It is appropriate here to refer to the noble words of the greatest Brazilian historian, the Viscount of Porto Seguro, FA Varnhagen: “The greatest sin of Bagnoli (we are frank) was to be a foreigner for the Brazilians and Portuguese, and also for the Spaniards. be more generous with this Italian who, with little means, so many times exposed his life for our homeland “(Hist. general of Brazil, I, 379). In any case, thanks to the unanimous testimony of the synchronous writers, both from the Luso-Spanish and the Dutch side, we owe it to Bagnoli for the salvation of Bahia, in 1638, from the attack of Maurice of Nassau: a splendid revenge for the retreat of Pernambuco. And under the Bagnoli three garments performed their first deeds of valor, which will become legendary in Brazilian history: the white Vidal de Negreiros; the negro Enrico Dias, “captain and governor of the negroes”, who continued his exploits even after having had his hand amputated; and the Indian Camarão, who fought followed by his wife, the combative Clara. They were the three elements of Brazilian nationality who found themselves fighting for a common cause, obeying that feeling of homeland that certainly made its way in Brazil long before it did in the Spanish colonies.
