No. 139.

Extract from letter from Adriaan Spoors, Secretary and Acting Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, June 10, 1751.

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[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 335-336.]

The colonists, Louis Marcand and Niels Andreas Schutz, being on a journey to Orinoco to buy tobacco, chiefly on behalf of Mr. Dudonjon, they both had the misfortune, the former in April and the latter in May, to be taken by the Spaniards. * * *

Extract from letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, April 10, 1752. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 336-337.]

MIDDELBURG, April 10, 1752.

SIR, ETC., ETC.: While on the one hand we have always proposed to ourselves nothing more than in every way as much as possible to facilitate and aid the commerce which is carried on, not only from here to the river and colony of Essequibo, but also there with the natives [and] Spaniards, and especially with those of Orinoco; we have, however, always tried besides to see to it, that all this be done not only without any prejudice to the company's privileges and rights, but also especially with this always in view, that in the carrying on of that trade no opportunity be given from which in course of time any disadvantage or harmful consequences might result to the colony.

This was the reason why, for instance, in the year 1735, desiring to take proper precautions against the trading away and selling of any materials of war, especially there to the Spaniards, we in the year 1735 instructed the late Commandeur Hermanus Gelskerke that by proclamation published and posted he forbid and prohibit each and everyone there to ship any arms or material of war whatsoever from the river to Orinoco or any other places not situate under the jurisdiction of the States-General, on penalty not only of confiscation of such goods, but also of such further fines as are therein named.

We later, indeed, made some modification in this our aforesaid Resolution, and altered it in so far, that by our missive dated October 30, 1737, to the late Commandeur Gelskerke aforesaid we gave permission to connive at the free importation and exportationof material of war; still

No. 140.

this was at that time done by us only under all such limitations and conditions as we had enumerated in our aforesaid missive, and also for reasons which at that time seemed to us to render necessary the changing of that former resolution, particularly on the ground that assurance was given us that gunpowder and other materials of war were brought from Surinam, Curaçao and other places to the Orinoco and to the inhabitants of the adjacent rivers, in as great quantities as the inhabitants of those places could possibly wish.

Extract from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to West India Company, August 4, 1752. [Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 96.]

If your Honours will please refer to the 6th Article of the project aforesaid, you will find that I there distinctly speak of the trade in arms with the Indians, and especially with the Carib nation, in which proposal I earnestly persist, and now more than ever, because the Spaniards have attacked and driven away the Caribs below Oronoque, and these have all retreated to our side, and thus their number has considerably increased.

Now they are more than ever incensed against the Spaniards aforesaid; they lately overran two Missions and have murdered everyone there, and since my return here they pitifully murdered a certain B de Beaumont, as well as six of the men he had with him when on their return journey with tobacco. The other two, although severely wounded, were rescued by our colonist, J. Smit, who was returning from Oronoque with horses, so that the reasons for not supplying these men with firearms grows weightier as time goes on.

Extract from letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, July 23, 1753. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 341.]

We agree with you in believing that the correspondence with the commander of Orinoco, and also the commerce and trade with him, can accrue only to the advantage of the colony, and we hope that with the

No. 142.

arrival there of the Governor-General of Cumaná it will be brought to greater proportions. We therefore once more earnestly recommend to you the necessary attention to this matter.

Extract from Minutes of Proceedings of the Court of Justice of Essequibo, held at Fort Zeelandia, January 7, 1754.

Seen the Petition of the Militia Captains to place a Post on the side of the Maroca to prevent the desertion of slaves. Councillor E. Pypersberg is commissioned with the above-mentioned gentleman to inspect the proposed site.

This matter to be disposed of after the report.

Extract from Minutes of Proceedings of the Court of Justice of Essequibo, held at Fort Zeelandia, April 1, 1754.

Mr. C. Pypersberg, who was commissioned along with the Militia Captains at the last meeting to view the place in Maroca which was proposed for the erection of a Post to prevent the desertion of slaves from here to the Orinoque, has sent in at this meeting the Report of his Commission, stating that a Post could be erected at this place, and that the place was fairly good, though subject to some inconvenience, but that the place would not, in his opinion, answer for the proposed object for several reasons.

This having been maturely considered, and the expenses of the Colony being high enough, it is resolved to do nothing at present.

No. 145.

Letter from a Dutchman in Orinoco to the Commandeur in Essequibo, August 19, 1754.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 343-345.]

First I beg you to pardon me for taking to myself the honor and the liberty which I count myself to take, of laying before you an affair which is ominous for the colony and its inhabitants. For I am a stranger among the Spaniards, but it would grieve me if any disaster should befall my countrymen and if I had knowledge thereof and did not warn them when there is opportunity.

Therefore I cannot let this good opportunity pass to inform you of something resolved on and to be carried ont, which will tend to the harm of the colony; for in Cumaná there arrived in the past month of April three ships from Spain with a Commandant-General, who has sway over all the Governors here in America, and is moreover Viceroy of Santa Fé, and has brought along three colonels and mortars with their bombs of all sorts of war and materials, and five hundred saddles and bridles to equip cavalry, and they are drafting folk in all provinces here in America, to the number of three or four thousand men.

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For in Cumaná they have bought twenty large boats, here eight yachts are making, which must be ready in the month of December, for the boats and the folk are to be expected every day, and the Commandant-General with the company he has with him, consisting of engineers, three persons who understand mathematics, three who understand the course of the heavenly signs, four persons who have knowledge of mines, are to be expected here in the month of November, in order to make everything ready here, and to consider here how they shall go about it; for I have information from a good source, from a faithful countryman of mine who lives in Cumaná and is married there. He wrote to me recently that they have designs upon the colony of Essequibo; for they will attack by water and by land, since they will come with a great force of folk, and when their plan has so far succeeded, they will march to Berbice overland to do the same thing-for these two colonies are greatly in their way. For all this project and trouble comes from nowhere but from the priests here in Orinoco, for in the year 1751 they informed the King, when the Caribs here in Orinoco raided and burned the missions, they made great complaints to His Majesty about the two colonies, for they have pretended that Dutchmen are hidden among that nation who have incited the tribe to do this evil, therefore they have asked assist1 Note by Prof. Burr.-The sentence should doubtless read: "and all sorts of materials of war." *Note by Prof. Burr.-I. e., the Caribs; or, perhaps, as often, for the plural, i. e., the Indians.

"the tribes,"

No. 145.

ance of the King in order to have their missions in freedom. For to believe me better I have in my hands the copies of the letters which they have sent to Spain and the complaints which they have made therein about the inhabitants of the two colonies, and likewise that of Surinam, which has moved the King to assist the priests, and the rumor goes that the same chief will reside here in Orinoco as Governor-General and has great authority from the King, both to reconnoitre the land by water and by land alike as far as the river Amazon, and to open the mines; therefore they wish first to assure themselves of the two colonies, in order that they can be no obstruction to them, for they are minded to inhabit these colonies, for there are coming four hundred families to be used thereto, but it might happen that they are making their calculations wrong, therefore I cannot neglect to inform you as I have been informed, for I hope you will not take offense at the poor lines which I send you and trouble you, but the good intention and love which I have for my nation this compels me not to exceed my duty and to warn in time and in time take good measures and put in good defense both on land and outside the river, for in the latter part of January or the beginning of February they will set out from here.

No. 146.

Extracts from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to West India Company, September 2, 1754.

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[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 346–348.]

For some weeks a rumor has been current here that a Major General with three or four engineers and some troops were expected every day at Orinoco. Having inquired into this, I was told and also written to from Orinoco that it was true, and that the object was to measure and closely examine the mouth of the Orinoco, to see if it were not possible for a register-ship to come there every year to bring the pay of the garrison, etc., so that it might never more have to be fetched so far overland. Το me that appeared very apocryphal, because for that a nautical man and sailors would be more suitable than a Major-General, and I surmised that there must be something more behind this.

The inclosed letter from Mr. Clarke lays the secret bare, and my surmises turn out to be not unfounded.

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This being so (and I fear it is only too certain), what is to come of it, or what shall I do? With the small number of soldiers I cannot repel the least aggression in those quarters. It is even