They had to depend for the necessaries of life upon stores sent to them in relief fleets from Holland.  It was a strange and grim struggle of endurance, in which both Dutch and Portuguese suffered terribly, the one on the barren sea-shore, the other in the pathless woods under the glare of a tropical sun, both alike looking eagerly for succour from the Motherland.  The Dutch succours were the first to arrive.  The first detachment under Marten Thijssen reached the Reciff on December 18, 1630; the main fleet under Adrian Jansz Pater on April 14, 1631.  The whole fleet consisted of sixteen ships and yachts manned by 1270 sailors and 860 soldiers.  Their arrival was the signal for offensive operations.  An expedition under Thijssen’s command sailed on April 22 for the large island of Itamaraca about fifteen miles to the north of the Reciff.  It was successful.  Itamaraca was occupied and garrisoned, and thus a second and advantageous post established on the Brazilian coast.

Meanwhile the Spanish government had not been idle.  After many delays a powerful fleet set sail from Lisbon on May 5 for Pernambuco, consisting of fifteen Spanish and five Portuguese ships and carrying a large military force, partly destined for Bahia, but principally as a reinforcement for Matthias de Albuquerque.  The expedition was commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, and was accompanied by Duarte de Albuquerque, the proprietor of Pernambuco.  After landing troops and munitions at Bahia, the Spaniards wasted several weeks before starting again to accomplish the main object of blockading the Dutch in the Reciff and compelling their surrender by famine.  But Pater had learnt by his scouts of the presence of Oquendo at Bahia, and though his force was far inferior he determined to meet the hostile armada at sea.  The Spanish fleet was sighted at early dawn on September 12, and Pater at once gave orders to attack.  His fleet consisted of sixteen ships and yachts, that of the enemy of twenty galleons and sixteen caravels.  The Dutch admiral had formed his fleet in two lines, himself in the Prins Willem and Vice-Admiral Thijssen in the Vereenigte Provintien being the leaders.  On this occasion the sight of the great numbers and size of the Spanish galleons caused a great part of the Dutch captains to lose heart and hang back.  Pater and Thijssen, followed by only two ships, bore down however on the Spaniards. The Prins Willem with the Walcheren in attendance laid herself alongside the St Jago, flying the flag of Admiral Oquendo; the Vereenigte Provintien with the Provintie van Utrecht in its wake drew up to the St Antonio de Padua, the ship of Vice-Admiral Francisco de Vallecilla.  For six hours the duel between the Prins Willem and the St Jago went on with fierce desperation, the captain of the Walcheren gallantly holding at bay the galleons who attempted to come to the rescue of Oquendo.  At 4 p.m. the St Jago was