This changed with the gradual capture of Brazil from the Portuguese, from 1630 onward. Suddenly, the trade of slaves, for which there was no significant market earlier, became a necessity for the economic survival of Dutch Brazil. Nicolas van Yperen, Governor of the Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast, was instructed by his superiors of the Dutch West India Company to supply Dutch Brazil with slaves. In 1636, he managed to ship around a thousand slaves to Brazil from Fort Nassau, but to secure a continuous flow of slave labour, the company decided it was necessary to attempt once more to capture Elmina from the Portuguese. After Elmina was finally captured in August 1637, the focus of trade for the Dutch West India Company shifted to slave trade. The directors of the Dutch West India Company were not happy with the increasing slave trade on the Gold Coast itself, however, as it interfered with the profitable gold trade, and actively tried to move the slave trade to the Slave Coast, where they had trading posts from 1640 onward.