Yapuata

Yapuatã is an Indigenous name associated with Jaboatão, on the coastal plain south of Recife. Rivers and low hills cross this humid part of Pernambuco, where Portuguese colonisation established sugar estates and settlements near the Atlantic coast. The name has been explained in different ways, including a Tupi expression for a noisy river. The nearby Guararapes hills became a landmark of the struggle for control of the captaincy.

In 1648 and 1649 Portuguese-led forces fought two battles against the Dutch at Guararapes. The victories formed part of the wider campaign to recover Pernambuco, which had been occupied by the Dutch since 1630. The confrontation took place in the narrow ground around the hills, and the fighting drew on soldiers of different backgrounds, and the Dutch finally withdrew from northeastern Brazil in 1654.