ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that in March 1645, a small group of Tupi-speaking Indians disembarked from a Dutch West India Company (WIC) vessel at the colonial port city of Recife in the province of Pernambuco in north-eastern Brazil. The Tupi-speaking indigenous peoples who allied themselves with the Dutch in 1625 consisted of various semi-sedentary peoples who lived in the coastal regions of the colonial provinces of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraiba, the most important of which were the Potiguar and the Tobajares. The debate regarding the appropriate form of aldeia administration changed again in the spring of 1644, when Maurits and the High Council developed a detailed plan for Tupi self-governance. The response to the Tapuya murders reveals that the Recife councilors viewed the Potiguar suspects as subservient military allies who were subject to Dutch colonial law. To emphasize the seriousness of the crime and to appease their Tapuya allies, Dutch colonial officials sentenced the three Potiguar suspects to death.
