the route of the Brouwer expedition in 1643, departing from Recife in Brazil, and reaching Valdivia in Chile several months later
I know the Netherlands has been a colonial power in the 16th and 17th Century, even holding on to territories until the second half of the last century. Most of that colonial past is related to the East, predominantly to what is now Indonesia, exploited by the VOC (the United East India Company, the world’s first stock company). I also know that there was another company, the West Indian Company (WIC), which focused on the sugar cane business in Caribbean. I vaguely remember that the WIC also had interests in Brazil. But I never knew that the Dutch had also set their eyes on the Chilean coast.
As early as 1598 two expeditions had been fitted to reach Chile, with three objective. Firstly, to attack the Spanish, with whom the Dutch were at war, in their backyard, where they found the gold and silver to finance the war. Secondly, to establish contact and enlist the locals, mostly the Mapuche, a fiercely independent-minded Chilean tribe, as allies in the fight against the Spanish. And lastly, not unimportantly, to identify the source of the gold and silver, no doubt to mine this for own use, and especially to fund the WIC, which was in a dire financial state.
The expeditions were not very successful. Some of the ships of the first expedition got separated crossing the Strait of Magellan, after which just one managed to land at the island of Chiloe; some others were attacked by the Mapuche. The other expedition only reached some coastal islands off Chile, but also did not achieve any of the objectives. A third expedition, from 1614-1617, was initiated by the VOC, aiming at protecting their trade monopoly with Asia, after a Dutch merchant had been permitted to reach Asia by means of rounding South America. The captain had been instructed to attack Spanish ports and ships, to offset the cost of the expedition, and also to make contact with the Mapuche, in which he failed. The fourth expedition, in 1623, was a war fleet, of eleven ships that were to attack the Spanish silver transports in the Pacific, once again to frustrate their finances. They were mildly successful, but again they didn’t manage to establish fruitful contacts with the Mapuche.
Enter the Brouwer expedition, of which a fairly detailed account has been preserved in a 1646 publication based on the ship’s logbooks, and more recently translated in English. In 1643 the WIC equipped a five-ship expedition, leaving from then-Dutch Recife in Brazil, to specifically establish a base in Valdivia, along the Pacific coast. The Spanish conquistadores had been routed from there by the Mapuche some 45 years earlier. The instructions were quite similar to those of the earlier voyages: attack the Spanish (wars lasted quite long, those days, the Dutch fought the Spanish for 80 years), enlist the Mapuche as allies and find the source of the gold. The expedition’s leader was to be Hendrik Brouwer, an old hand who had earned his marks at earlier colonial ventures.
After having sailed from Holland to Recife, the expedition took off in January 1943, for a month-long traverse through the Strait of Le Maire, an earlier discovered and easier passage that the Straits of Magellan, and around Cape Horn, the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego. In the process they discovered a much easier passage further south, in something now called the Brouwers Gulf. From April to August the fleet stayed a Chiloe, way south of Valdivia, where they managed to establish friendly contacts with the xxx, not related to the Mapuche, as well as massacred some remnant Spanish forces. Unfortunately, Brouwer had died some time earlier, of unknown sickness. Second-in-command Heckmans took over, and sailed the expedition to Valdivia, where they stayed until October. They found the city in ruins, and badly overgrown, but nevertheless started building fortifications, with the permission of the local Mapuches. However, relations cooled significantly when Heckmans brought up access to the gold mines, the Mapuche still having bad memories from Spanish enslavement associated with the mines. In addition, obtaining sufficient food supplies proved difficult, which, together with rumours of an approaching large Spanish force, encouraged desertion among the soldiers. Finally, Heckmann decided that the position in Valdivia was untenable, and left in October, to sail back to Recife.
And that was it, as far as Dutch colonial interest in Chile was concerned. Heckmans, who fiercely promoted further expeditions, died in Recife in January 1644, shortly before the Brazilian population rose up against the Dutch colonial rule in 1645, which undermined Recife as the base from which to launch further Pacific expeditions. And when the Dutch were finally thrown out of Brazil in 1654, peace between The Netherlands and Spain had been established, making the financing of any further expedition by attacking the Spanish in the Pacific a no-go.
(source: “To the Shores of Chile: The Journal and History of the Brouwer Expedition to Valdivia in 1643” (2019), translated and edited by Mark Meuwese. The information above comes mostly from the introduction, the journal itself is a rather tedious read. There is a free download here)
