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Intercultural Mediators and Dutch ‘FOR THE PEACE AND WELL-BEING OF THE COUNTRY’: INTERCULTURAL MEDIATORS AND DUTCH-INDIAN RELATIONS INNEW NETHERLAND AND DUTCH BRAZIL, 1600-1664 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Marcus P. Meuwese, M.A. Gregory E. Dowd, Director Graduate Program in History Notre Dame, Indiana September 2003 © Copyright by Marcus P. Meuwese 2003 All rights reserved “FOR THE PEACE AND WELL-BEING OF THE COUNTRY”: INTERCULTURAL MEDIATORS AND DUTCH-INDIAN RELATIONS IN NEW NETHERLAND AND DUTCH BRAZIL, 1600-1664 Abstract by Marcus P. Meuwese Scholars have recently argued that New Netherland should be studied as an integral part of the Atlantic World. One important aspect that has been largely neglected in this wider geographical approach is that of Dutch interactions with native peoples. This dissertation addresses this issue by comparing Dutch-Indian relations in New Netherland and Dutch Brazil. I use intercultural mediators as a tool to analyze Dutch-native relations in the two Dutch American colonies. Because mediators frequently crossed cultural boundaries as interpreters, diplomats, and negotiators, they are fascinating characters for scholars studying interactions between Indians and colonists. In comparing mediators in New Netherland with those in Dutch Brazil, this dissertation demonstrates that local contexts played an important role in shaping cross- cultural interactions in each colony. In Brazil, the Dutch struggle against Portuguese colonists primarily determined Dutch-Indian relations. Both the Dutch West India Company and the various Tupi and Tarairiu peoples of northeastern Brazil needed each other as allies against the Portuguese. In New Netherland the situation was different Marcus P. Meuwese because there was less fear of a European enemy until the rise of English aggression in the 1650s. In contrast to Brazil, Indians and colonists in New Netherland were brought in close and frequent contact by an informal frontier exchange economy. Despite their different responses to the Dutch, the native peoples in Brazil and New Netherland shared the goal of maintaining independence from their Dutch allies and trading partners. My comparative analysis also complicates commonly held views of Dutch attitudes toward Native Americans. Contrary to traditional assertions that depict the Dutch as solely driven by material exchange, this dissertation shows that Dutch-native interactions in the Atlantic world were also shaped by religious and imperial motives. Finally, this study of mediators in two different colonies demonstrates that the go- betweens did not bring the Indians and Dutch colonists closer together. Although Dutch and Indian negotiators often crossed cultural boundaries to maintain alliances or to prevent bloodshed, they did not create a middle ground of shared symbols and practices. By taking a comparative perspective this dissertation reveals the complexities of Dutch- Indian relations in the Atlantic world. CONTENTS Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………. iii Abbreviations Used in Footnotes ………………………………………………….… v Introduction …………………………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter 1: Sign Language and Linguistic Middlemen: The Dutch Search for Trustworthy Mediators, 1600-1635 …………………………………….. 19 Chapter 2: Indian Interpreters and Trade Languages: Intercultural Diplomacy and Communication, 1610-1635 ……………………………………….. 69 Chapter 3: “To Lead a Good Life in This Our Land”: Tupi Mediators and the Struggle for Indian Autonomy in Dutch Brazil, 1635-1657 ……………….. 149 Chapter 4: “To Protect the Brazilians under Their Command”: European Diplomatic Agents among the Brazilian Indians, 1635-1654 ……………. 217 Chapter 5: “We Behave Ourselves as Friends, but They Show Themselves as Scoundrels”: Everyday Contacts and the Limits of the Frontier Exchange Economy in New Netherland, 1635-1664 ……………………………………………………... 320 Chapter 6: “’To Make Peace with Them, but Only Upon Good and Safe Conditions”: Intercultural Diplomats in New Netherland, 1635-1664 ……………… 388 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………... 462 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 472 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for their contributions to my dissertation. Greg Dowd has been an excellent advisor from the time I first met him at Notre Dame. His continuous encouragement and constructive criticism helped me write a better dissertation. I also thank him for his superb editing skills which have saved this dissertation from many convoluted sentences. Gail Bederman, Walter Nugent, and David Waldstreicher were supportive committee members who provided me with fresh perspectives. This dissertation could not have been completed without the financial support of several institutions. The University of Notre Dame and its history department provided me with generous funding in the form of fellowships and travel grants to pursue my research and writing. The Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program allowed me to visit the New York State Archives in Albany. Thanks to a Library Associates Fellowship I was able to do research at the John Carter Brown Library. For granting me access to their collections I thank the Dutch National Archives, the Dutch Royal Family Archive, the Dutch Royal Library and its Special Collections Department, the Rare Books Collection at the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin, Jim Folts and the New York State Archives, Charles Gehring and Janny Venema of the New Netherland Project, the Amsterdam City Archive, the Rijksarchief Gelderland at Arnhem, Norman Fiering and the John Carter Brown Library, and the iii Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The staff at all these institutions was always helpful to me and I thank them for their support. I particularly express my gratitude to the staff of the Royal Family Archive for enabling me to research their collections on short notice. Several portions and aspects of the dissertation have been presented at scholarly conferences. For their comments during those meetings I thank Kathleen DuVal, Alice Nash, Cynthia Van Zandt, and John Wills. I especially would like to thank the community of scholars in residence at the John Carter Brown Library for their thoughts on a paper I gave during one of the informal Wednesday lunches during the spring of 2001. I also thank James Carrott, Joe Hall, and Sarah Fatherly for giving comments on my ideas while I lived in Madison, Wisconsin. For comments, criticism, and suggestions during various stages of my research and writing in the United States and the Netherlands I thank Ernst van den Boogaart, Peter Cook, Jennifer Curtiss Gage, Marcos Galindo, Oscar Hefting, Lodewijk Hulsman, Jaap Jacobs, Michiel de Jong, Wim Klooster, Paul Otto, Scott Stevens, and Jim Williams. On a personal level, I thank Kristin Lovrien for always being there for me. Without her love, encouragement, and editing skills this dissertation would never have been completed. While my parents Lida and Harrie Meuwese were often curious about my career as a graduate student in the United States, they always showed their interest and support. Mirjam and Jan Hissink-Meuwese, Jim and Jean Lovrien, and Jimmy and Kate Lovrien were similarly supportive of my endeavors. Frank and Ingeborg Bunnik, Olaf Hartjens, Nico Liborang, Jamie and Mary O’Brien, Patrick van Pomeren, Kristin Reifsnyder, Vikki and Hugo Serrano-Ruiz, Bart and Dany Sponseller, and Louis Zijlmans iv always reminded me that there was life beyond the dissertation. The dissertation is dedicated to het kleintje. Finally, this dissertation reflects my own research and writing. Any errors and flaws are mine. v ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES ACA: Archive Classis Amsterdam DHM: de Halve Maen: Magazine of the Dutch Colonial Period in America (serial publication) DNA: National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague, The Netherlands DN: Dagelijkse Notulen (Daily Minutes) of the Political Council in Recife, Brazil DRCHSNY: E.B. O’Callaghan (vols. 1-11) and B. Fernow (vols. 12-15), eds. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York 15 volumes (Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Company, 1856-1883) GAA: Gemeente Archief Amsterdam (Amsterdam City Archive) LPB: Letters and Papers from Brazil, 1630-1654 LV: Linschoten-Vereeniging (serial publication) NA: Notarial Archive of the Amsterdam City Archive NNN: J. Franklin Jameson, ed. Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 Original Narratives of American History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909). OWIC: Archive of the Old West India Company (1621-1674) VRBM: A.J.F. van Laer, ed. and trans. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts: Being the Letters of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, 1630-1643, and Other Documents Relating to the Colony of Rennselaerswyck (Albany: The University of the State of New York, 1908). vi WMQ: The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History and Culture, Third Series (serial publication) Grothe: J.A. Grothe, ed. “Classicale Acta van Brazilië,” Archief voor de Geschiedenis der Oude Hollandsche Zending 2 (Utrecht: Van Bentum, 1885): 215-322. Itinerario: Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History (serial publication) Dutch in Brazil: Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957) Zegenrijk Gewest: Jaap Jacobs, Een zegenrijk gewest: Nieuw-Nederland in de zeventiende eeuw Cultuurgeschiedenis van de Republiek in de 17e eeuw (Amsterdam: Prometheus-Bert Bakker, 1999) Nederlanders in
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