Newly translated letters offer indigenous take of Brazil’s bloody birth

Dutch-Portuguese war of 1645 split the Potiguara people but their leaders' correspondence across battle lines has finally been translated from Tupi

In 1645, a bloody war raged between Dutch settlers and the Portuguese empire over the sugar plantations of north-east Brazil.

Trapped on either side of the conflict were the Potiguara, a powerful indigenous nation whose leaders penned a series of letters in the Tupi language, enticing their relatives to defect across enemy lines.