Portugal needed three successive governors’ campaigns totaling 3,000 men to destroy Palmares

Evidence

Palmares did fall, eventually, in 1694, the result of campaigns launched by successive Portuguese governors of Pernambuco (Joao da Cunha Sotto-Mayor, Marques de Montebello, and Melo de Castro). The last expedition sent against it consisted of nearly 3,000 men and was in the field for several months. The final siege was established on 10 November 1693 and lasted until early February of the following year. The total cost of the adventure was estimated by Melo de Castro at somewhere near 1,400,000 cruzados. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 667