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No. 72.

addition to the communication made before, once more brought before it the arrival of a certain brigantine in Demerara, named the Greyhound, Captain William Wanton, coming from Rhode Island, laden with fiftyfour horses, meat, butter, flour, and other provisions, all of which were useful, necessary, even profitable, for the Company and all the inhabitants of this colony * * *

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with polite request that he be permitted to put in at this river in order to provide himself with his necessaries, at the same time urging that he would like to dispose of the merchandise he had with him, at a reasonable price, in exchange for squared timber (which is to be had here in abundance), rum, syrup, or bills of exchange; and, inasmuch as we by the impending war might perhaps be brought into straits for provisions, and as moreover there is already a considerable difficulty, especially as to horses, needed for the newly made [sugar] works of the free inhabitants, and as the Company has not enough to accommodate any of them, and as, moreover, the horses from above are not being any longer brought down as formerly, and this might get still worse in case of war;

[For these reasons] the aforesaid Commandeur requests the Councilors to consider what should be done in this matter; which having by them been duly considered, they have resolved by unanimous vote (notwithstanding the prohibition last sent by our superiors), for special and urgent reasons, and moreover under the continuous pressure of the interested public, that they agree and consent hereto, the more so because all the lands where we carry on our horse-trade, are under the King of Spain, as we know by experience from the prohibitions we have already met in the trade to Orinoco; furthermore, at his, the Captain's, urgent request, there is placed at his disposal the skipper Jan Bruyn, in order to pilot the aforesaid ship into this river and bring it safely before the fort.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo to West India Company, September 28, 1702,

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I can no longer delay in making Y. N. acquainted with the great mortality of horses in this Colony, there being already almost 100 head dead through mange and other forms of sickness. That truly is a great

No. 73.

loss to the Colony, the more so since the Spaniards will no longer permit any trafficking for horses on their territory, so that I shall be perforce compelled to make use of an English barque, or other vessels such as those which came in this river, to go and fetch horses, or else Y. N. will be obliged to send out the same to me from the mother-country, because it is impossible to deliver sugar without horses, as Y. N. will be pleased to consider well.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, May 10, 1703.

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BE it known likewise to your Noblenesses that the Governor of Surinam, Paulus van der Veen, shows himself ill-disposed because that his traders here in our district, namely, Essequebo, Baumeron, and Demerary, were not permitted to trade.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, June 14, 1703.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 205.]

I am very sorry to be obliged to notify you that, owing to the present war, no horses are to be had above here as formerly, inasmuch as those Indians think they stand under the crowns of Spain and France, and this trade is thereby crippled. We cannot, however, get on without these and attain our object, having lately lost many of them by sickness. * * *

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No. 76.

Muster Roll of the Company's servants in Essequibo, July 27,1703.1

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 205-206.]

Muster Roll of all Employees, both high and low, officers, soldiers and sailors, as well as workmen, at present in the service of the General Chartered West India Company in the Chamber Zeeland, in the Colony Essequibo, under the direction of Governor Samuel Beekman.

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1 Note by Prof. Burr. The muster roll itself is undated, but it was transmitted in the Commandeur's letter of July 27, 1703 (as appears from the list of enclosures-fol. 91 of the same vol.). It is an exact duplicate of that printed in Blue Book No. 3 (p. 70, No. 29), which is by error ascribed to " June 19, 1703." That printed higher on the same page of the Blue Book is but a slightly varying transcript of the same muster-roll, and is erroneously described as an “Inclosure in No. 27"-i. e., in a letter of September 28, 1702. A careful study of the original (in the records at London) shows that, while as at present bound it is not far from this letter, it was clearly inclosure No. 9 by the ship de Jonge Jan. in June, 1703, accompanying the Commandeur's letter of June 14; while that printed as No. 29 was as clearly forwarded with the letter of July 27. The contemporary list of inclosures, specifying this muster-roll under the number it still bears, may be found as Document No. 97 in the same volume (“ List of papers sent by the Company's ship Pinnenburg, Capt Anthony Wouterman, 27 July, 1703"). In the letter of June 14 the muster-roll is thus referred to: "The number of the Company's servants in the colony scattered in all directions, you will be so good as to notice in the accompanying muster-roll, my prayer being constant that this number may be increased to a hundred persons, without which this colony can not well be defended at present against a revolt or attack of the negroes or Indians" ("'t getal der Comp dienaaren in de colonie wydt en zydts verspreyt zynde, zult U Ed. Agtb. in de nevensgaande Monsterrolle gelieven te beoogen, instantelyk versoekende t'selve getal may vergroot werden tot hondert koppen, zonder dewelke dese colonie jegenwoordig voor den oproer ofte aanval der negros ofle Indianen, niet wel en is te bewaaren.")

No. 77.

Extract from Pay Roll of the Company's servants in Essequibo, 1704.

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CREDIT.

Oct. 1, 1703.-From the Company, £10.18.4. for wages for 4 months 11 days, at f.15 per month, earned by him from 20 May, 1703, up to this day, when, on account of insubordination, he is, by sentence of the Governor and the Court, placed as sailor on the yacht "Rammekens," at f. 8 per .£10.18.4. Aug. 10, 1704.-From the Company, £13.15.7. for wages for 10 months 10 days, earned by him from 1 Oct. 1703 up to this day, when he is allowed by the Governor to go home by the frigate De propheet Samuel..13.15.7.

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No. 78.

Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, August 12, 1704.

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What you have been pleased to write as to not yet tolerating that the inhabitants of Rio Surinam carry on any trade at places lying under the charter of the company, I shall not fail to take scrupulous care that this do not occur, and shall then await further orders.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, July 30, 1706.

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That the Company's horses purchased up country in Cayuni should always die, and the horses belonging to private individuals never, is but a false tale of a party of scoundrels, who could never prove it, for I can

No. 79.

assure Y. N. it frequently happens in descending the River Cayuni that the horses of private individuals die as well as those of the Noble Company, there being no trickery in the world towards Y. N. in this matter.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, October 14, 1707.

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We cannot as easily as formerly get the horses from above, and in such quantities as they are needed.

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Extract from letter from Samuel Beekman, Commandeur in Essequibo, to West India Company, January 23, 1708.

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The enemy being gone I have consulted with the Council what would be the best course to adopt to make this Colony secure, were it practicable, against the enemy, whereupon the most were of opinion that a stronghold might be made on Stamfers Island, others again on Vlaggen Island, or even above this on Paepen Island, whereon then I asked whether such a stronghold could be protected by a small number of people. They gave me answer, by nine. But such a resolution implied that this fort should be stripped of its people, and that all should betake themselves thither, to which I have not been able to agree, and also am of opinion that the present Fort Kijkoveral should be kept and defended as long as is possible, if that Y. N. should be pleased to give instructions to fortify the river lower down as far as practicable, the which, in fact, is highly necessary in this critical conjuncture, because without that I consider the greater number of the plantations lost before that one receives the news that the enemy are in the river.

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