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Great Britain the successor of the

as the successor of the Dutch. It is the province of the
Tribunal to determine the extent of those rights so far Dutch.
as they relate to the territory between the Orinoco and
the Essequibo rivers.

Having set forth thus broadly: first, the basis of Venezuela's title to the entire disputed territory, and second the derivation of British title to that portion of Guiana which admittedly is hers, it becomes necessary to set forth in more detail the special facts upon which Venezuela relies for the substantiation of her claims.

This is the purpose of the succeeding chapter.

Purpose of suc

ceeding chapter.

V. EARLY DUTCH RELATIONS WITH GUIANA.

1597-1648.

It is proposed to consider first the early relations of the Dutch with Guiana; and then to define the extent of Dutch possessions in the Essequibo on January 30, 1648, on which date in the shape of the Treaty of Munster, the Netherlands received from Spain a quit claim deed for what they then held.

It would be difficult to formulate a clearer or more concise statement of these early relations than that contained in Professor Burr's report to the United States Commission.

The following is an extract from that report:

"The national existence of the Dutch began with the year 1579. In 1581 they formally renounced their allegiance to the King of Spain. Till then, however rebellious, they had been his subjects. Such title as their exploration or commerce could give was the King of Spain's title. Even the assertion of their independence brought with it no claim to lands outside the Netherlands; nor is there reason to suppose that the Dutch yet dreamed of such a claim. The King of Spain, indeed, was now their foe; and they knew well that he was not King of Spain alone. That realm but gave him his most familiar title. He was lord of Portugal as well, lord of the fairest lands of Italy, lord of the Mediterranean isles, lord still of half the Netherlands; but his proudest title was that of lord of the Indies. Thence he drew the treasures with which he dazzled and bullied the world. America was but a Spanish island. No other European State, save Portugal, had yet planted a colony on its shores; and Portugal was now one of the dominions of the King of Spain. Whatever cloud might rest on the exclusiveness of his right by discovery to the northern half of the continent, none now obscured his title to the southern. That this title had, further, the explicit approval of the Pope of Rome was hardly likely to give it added sanctity in the eyes of Protestant powers; but as yet that title, however its basis might

Early relations of Dutch with Guiana, and extent of their possessions on Jan

uary 30, 1648.

Prof. Burr's statement.

ment.

Prof. Burr's state- be questioned, was not attacked from any quarter. If Drake, the Englishman, and his fellow-freebooters made the Caribbean seas their own and took tribute of the treasures of Peru, it was confessedly but a raid into an enemy's territory; land they neither sought nor claimed.

Yet if the English, though in name at peace with the King of Spain, might thus singe his beard on these far shores, so with. double warrant might the Dutch. And such, not conquest or settlement, was, so far as the records show, the aim of the first Dutch project for a visit to these coasts.(pp. 134-135.)

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In March of 1595, the Estates of Zeeland granted freedom of convoy to one Balthazar de Moucheron for a cargo of goods to the Spanish Indies. This was, of course, for peaceful traffic, and his objective point would seem to have been the island of Margarita, long the leading Spanish entrepôt for these parts. It was just at this time that by a Zeeland ship, not impossibly this one, was discovered just south of that island of Margarita, on the Spanish mainland of South America, the remarkable deposit of salt which for years made Punta de Araya (or Punta del Rey, as the Dutch more often called it) one of the leading destinations of Dutch commerce; and the established route thither led along the whole length of the Guiana coast. In the same year there is record of a venture to Santo Domingo by a union of Holland and Zeeland merchants. In the following year we hear of another Zeeland expedition to the Spanish Indies, and there were not improbably many similar enterprises not mentioned in the records, for it was only when freedom from convoy dues was sought that legislative action was needed, and even after the establishment of the admiralties no ship need seek a commission unless it chose.

It was in 1591 or 1592, according to his own statement, that William Usselinx, the inspirer above all others of the West India trade, returning from the Spanish islands, began his agitation in the Netherlands in behalf of Dutch trade with South America. I have already spoken of Jan de Laet's statement as to Dutch trade with the Spaniards on the Orinoco even before Raleigh's expedition of 1595. Yet it is improbable that this trade to the West Indies antedates 1594; for to that year is ascribed the beginning of direct trade with Brazil, and all tradition and prob

ability make Brazil the earliest, as it was the nearest, destination of Dutch trade in America.

It will be noted that as yet, so far as the records show, the trade is with recognized Spanish settlements, and therefore not of a sort to create a territorial title. Of Guiana or of direct trade with the Indians, there is thus far no mention.

But in 1596 there was published in England a book which set the imagination of all Europe on fire-Sir Walter Raleigh's Discoverie of Guiana. It called universal attention to the wealth of these coasts and to the advantages of trade with the natives. The Netherlands were not the last to feel its influence. Already before the end of 1596 one begins to hear in the records of the States-General of the trade with the West Indies; and on March 24, 1597, the merchant-banker Hans van der Veken, of Rotterdam, was granted a commission for two vessels, "manned with Germans and other foreigners, to go to the coast of Guinea [in Africa], Peru and the West Indies, and there to trade and bargain with the savages," this commission "containing also request to all princes and potentates to let these ships and their crews pass freely and in peace thither and return again to these provinces." Guiana is not yet mentioned; but, in the children's phrase, we are growing warm. On September 3 of this same year (1597) the States-General were requested by Gerrit Bicker and his associates, merchants of Amsterdam, "who have it in mind to equip two ships, so as to send them to a certain coast and haven of America Peruana, being a place where never any from these [Netherlands have been, and which is also not held by the Spaniards or the Portuguese," to grant them freedom of convoy both going and coming, "and this for two full voyages, if so be that God Almighty should be pleased to bless their first voyage as they hope, and this out of regard to the great sums they will lay out on this voyage and the risk therein lying." Whereupon it was resolved to grant them the desired convoy "to a certain coast and haven of America Peruana, provided that they shall lade in the aforesaid ships no forbidden goods, and that they shall further be bound, on their return, to bring satisfactory evidence that never anybody from these lands has traded to the aforesaid haven, and shall make true report in the meeting of the StatesGeneral of their experiences, with specification of the places where they have been and have carried on their trade." And "it is

Prof. Burr's statement.

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