No. 259.

From Bonnasieke upwards. Division of the ensign.

West coast or orange flag.

From the topmost plantation Nieuw Brandenburg inclusive and Trouille Island. Division of the captain-lieutenant.

The further islands belong to the division of the lieutenant.

From the plantation Nieuw Brandenburg exclusive to the sea-coast is the division of the ensign.

Extract from Letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, May 1, 1769.

No more than you are we able to divine the reason why the Governor of Orinoco in person should remain stationed with two armed boats in the mouth of that river. Here in Europe, at least, we do not hear of the least rupture, and perhaps the state of feeling in Orinoco is the only cause of it.

Extract from letter from M. Buisson, Councilor in Essequibo, to the DirectorGeneral in Essequibo, May 1, 1769.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 453–454.]

ESSEQUIBO, May 1, 1769.

SIR: Your Excellency now being at Demerara and glad perhaps to have news about this our west coast, I use this opportunity of my boat's going out to the Jean Daniel to inform you that as yet I hear there no tidings of the Spaniards.

Meanwhile, a fortnight ago last night, my wife being at church and I and Kaeks on the plantation Vilvoorde, there was a great panic in Ituribisi, through the Indians' own fear that the Spaniards had come through Pomeroon and seized Jan Baptist and burned his house and were kidnapping the Indians; all those who lived in Ituribisi fled down-stream upon this rumor. I cannot well relate to Your Excellency all the circumstances of the affair in this letter; I cannot help saying, however, that when I heard these things on my way home, it gave me inward pain to think how pitiful would be our situation if there were ever to happen either an incursion by these robbers of Spaniards or a [slave] revolt, like, for example, that in our

No. 261.

neighbor Berbice. Yes, pitiful it would be, with such timorous inhabitants.

As for the Caribs, they are, it seems, abandoning their land Barima, coming every day up to Essequibo, a great number have gone up, and more are going up to-day, and they will then begin their customary murderous performances above.

Extract from letters from Jan van Witting, acting Postholder in Cuyuni, to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, May 5, 1769.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 454-455.]

Your Excellency: This is to inform Your Excellency that I have heard from a Carib that the Caribs of the Mazaruni were coming down with this flood to carry off the Caribs of Cuyuni to the Mazaruni, and were also coming to the post to kill me and Gerrit van Leeuw; they will come down in large numbers according to what I heard from the Indians. It is my intention, Your Excellency, to remove the post to an island Toenamoeto, lying between two falls, and on that island the post will be better and healthier. I have already commenced to make a clearing there. Here with I beg to request Your Excellency for the goods which I have laid out for the honorable West India Company. I beg to ask Your Excellency for 3 guns and 2 blunderbusses or 1 and powder and shot and some flints.

Extract from letter of J. Backer, Commandant at Fort Zeelandia, to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, May 7, 1769.

Yesterday evening Bont received a letter from Mr. Van der Heyde, in which that gentleman informs him that the Indians up there have told him that the Post in Cajoeny had been attacked by the Spaniards; that Jan Wittinge had been killed, and Van Leuwen carried off. Mr. Van der Heyde at the same time states that he is doing his best every day to hire Indians to send up the river in order to see whether this is true, but has up to the present not been able to persuade any Indians to go. If this be true it is insufferable, and it is too bad that a cat should allow itself to be eaten up by a small mouse. If we only had the soldiers we would make them pay for it well.

No. 264.

Extract from letter from the Court of Policy and the Director-General in Essequibo to West India Company, May, 1769.

The unexpected invasion of the Spainards, so incompatible with the law of nations and the treaties of alliance, calls for your lordships' most serious consideration, and requires a speedy resolution for redress. Not only is the colony exposed to the greatest danger from Cajoeny up above, and from the sea coast below, the plantations being continually open to pillage and plunder (amongst which plunderers the principal are your lordships' runaway slaves, to whom all the paths, holes, and corners are known), but our fisheries both in Orinocque and on the sea-coast have been entirely knocked on the head and lost, and your lordships' Post at Maroco has been entirely ruined, all the Indians who still remained having fled, and none now remaining round or near the Post; those in Pomeroon have also departed and abandoned their dwellings, with the exception of the Caraibans, who hold their ground, and whom up to the present they have not dared to insult.

Extracts from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo and Demerara, to West India Company, May 12, 1769. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, pp. 165, 166.]

What a pity it would be if such a flourishing colony (such as this is now growing) were to be ruined by rogues and pirates, as must inevitably be the case if no powerful measures are adopted to resist the pirates from Orinocque and make them abandon their expeditions!

According to the last reports from the Postholder and from the Caraibans, they are still all in Barima, having sent their prisoners to Orinocque, and they threaten to come again at an early date, and not only carry off all the Indians from Powaron, but even to attack and plunder our plantations.

It is not enough for them to protect our runaway slaves and to refuse to give them up, but they arm these very slaves and use them to attack and plunder us, for it is known with certainty, my lords, that the runaway slaves from Aegtekerke were with them and that it was they who most urged them on.

Yesterday evening I received a despatch from Director Richter informing me that an Owl with twelve Caraibans had come to the Fort from Barima, and that he had considered it best to send him immediately to me so that I might hear his report myself.

No. 265.

The said Owl being narrowly examined by me, through the medium of a very good interpreter, told me that the Spaniards in Barima, having been reinforced by another boat, had at last attacked the Cariabans themselves, captured several of the same, carried them off, burnt their houses and ruined their plantations; that they continued to make raids all around and along the sea-coast, and that they were making preparations to come to Powaron, and that they said that when they had finished there they would come to Essequibo and attack the plantations and even the Fort itself.

I regard the latter as a vain Spanish boast, but they are quite capable of doing all the rest. Things have now actually reached such a stage that we can return violence with violence, but is it not a sad thing, my lords, that we have such a weak garrison and not six men among them upon whom we can place the least reliance? To send a small detachment of twelve or sixteen men down would really be to risquer le tout pour le tout, for if they were all disloyal, as is only to be expected from Frenchmen and Catholics, and went over to the Spaniards all would be lost, because not the least reliance is to be placed upon the citizens.

So that, since the outlook is daily becoming blacker for the colony, it is high time to make some provision, and as there is great danger of total ruin it is highly necessary that powerful and speedy measures should be adopted to prevent the same.

I asked the Cariaban Owl this morning whether the Cariabans were no longer men and whether they had no hands with which to defend themselves, whereupon he replied, "Indeed, they have; but the Spaniards have guns, and we only bows and arrows. Give us rifles, powder, and shot, and we will show you what we are." Even had I been inclined to do so I could not, having no further supply of these than just sufficient for the garrison.

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Yesterday I received a letter per express from Commandant Backer, which I take the liberty of enclosing.

In this your lordships will find the report from Mr. Van der Heyde concerning Cajoeny. If the news be true (which I can scarcely believe), then things are going badly, and there remains no other alternative but to adopt measures of violence or reprisal. The depredations of the Spanish from Barima to Powaron continuing daily, we must acknowledge that they are capable of anything, and that we must expect all kinds of violent and piratical acts from them. The poor colonists on the west coast below Essequibo are in a terrible state of alarm, and are on the lookout night and day.

POSTSCRIPT.-I have the honour to send herewith a letter from Director Richter, and one from Van Wittinge, the assistant at Cajoeny. From the latter your lordships will see that the news from Cajoeny is not yet cor

No. 265.

roborated, and also whence that report came, and in what a dangerous state that Post is. I have requested the Commandant to give him what he can, with the exception of the blunderbuses, of which we have none. This is, however, the best weapon in such cases.'

No. 266.

Extracts from proceedings of the West India Company (Zeeland Chamber),

One from the Director-General in that colony, Mr. Laurens Storm van's Gravesande, dated April 4 of this year, containing advices, and, among others, confirmation of the undertakings of the Spaniards from Orinoco against two of the Company's posts in Essequibo, described more fully in a letter from the Director-General to this Chamber dated March 15, 1769.

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Whereupon, after reading and discussing the letters aforesaid, it was resolved: to put them together with the Addenda, in the hands of the Committee on Commerce, that the Committee may examine them and report to the Chamber.

And this, notwithstanding, after further discussion it was moreover resolved: that the letter from the Director General Mr. Laurens Storm van's Gravesande to his Serene Highness the Director-in-chief, joined as inclosure B. to his said letter to this Chamber, be without delay transmitted to His Highness; and that H. S. H. be at the same time requested to transmit to the Chamber copies of the Addenda accompanying said letter, and to inform the Chamber whether His Highness would think it expedient and seasonable to address the States General in this matter.

And the Advocate is requested to prepare the letter to that effect, and also authorized to cause it to be transmitted without further cognizance [by this Chamber].

Received and read a dispatch from His Serene Highness [the Prince of Orange], Governor-General and Director-in-Chief, written at Soestdijk the 7th of the current month in reply to Their Honors' letter of the 26th ultimo, stating that His Serene Highness learned with much regret the danger to which the colony of Essequibo was exposed, in its so slight state of defence, through the hostilities of the Spaniards; that, as His Highness judged that the conservation of the American possessions in general, and that of

1 Note by Prof. Burr.-For the words here italicized the Blue Book has the best of our guns having fallen to pieces.