In November 1642, Hendrik Brouwer left for South America at the head of a WIC fleet of 15 ships on a mission to besiege the Spanish possessions on the Chilean coast and form an alliance with the indigenous inhabitants of the area against the Spanish. After a stopover in Dutch Brazil from 22 December 1642 to 15 January 1643, the fleet sailed on, around Cape Horn, and finally arrived at the island of Chiloë, off the Chilean coast, on 30 April. Here, the settlement of Carelmapu was captured on 19 May and the Spanish garrison massacred. Brewer established contacts with the population according to his instructions, but contracted an illness and died on 7 August.
Commanded by Elias Herckmans, the expedition continued to the slightly more northerly Valdivia, where a fort was built, but the Mapuche who inhabited the area lost interest in cooperating with the Dutch when they discovered that they too, like their Spanish enemies, were ultimately mainly interested in the region's gold. This prompted them to stop helping the Dutch. The fort was soon abandoned again and the expedition was back in Dutch Brazil by 28 December.
