No. 175.

the other gentlemen proposed having declined to make that voyage, one for one reason and another for another.

Extracts from letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, December 3, 1759.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 388-390.]

MIDDELBURG, December 3, 1759.

SIR, ETC. Although we have not as yet received in the original your letter by the Pieter en David, which ship is still lying in Ireland, we shall nevertheless, according to our preceding letter of May 31 of this year, proceed to answer it, following the copies thereof received through our correspondent in Cork. As to your first letter of September 9 of last year, 1758, we reply that, as soon as we had received your letter of January 24 of this year via Berbice, we immediately presented to the StatesGeneral a lengthy remonstrance concerning the surprising of the Company's post in Rio Cuyuni by the Spaniards. And, although the aforesaid memorial was sent by the States-General to the Ambassador at the Court of Spain, with orders to make on that subject the necessary representations to His Catholic Majesty and to insist upon a becoming satisfaction, still we fear that hardly anything decisive can be expected from it for some time, in view of the change which has taken place in the aforesaid kingdom. Wherefore we still request you to lay before us everything which in any way might be of service in proof of our right of ownership to, or possession of, the aforesaid river, because after receiving it we might perhaps present to the States-General a fuller remonstrance on this head, with a statement of facts joined thereto. For this purpose there might be of use to us especially a sketch of the river of Cuyuni, with indication of the places where the Company's post, and also the grounds of "Oud Duinenburg" and of the Company's coffee and indigo plantations, were situated, and finally of the so-called Blaauwenberg in which the miners in our pay carried on their work. We ask for this especially because in your map of Essequibo, exact though it otherwise be, we can find nothing of it all. You see, then, from this, that we are not less convinced than you of the value and consequence of the aforesaid river, and that we therefore are doing everything that can be done for the keeping possession thereof.

No. 176.

Coming now to your aforesaid letter of January 24 of this year, received by us via Berbice, we praise the correspondence which we have carried on with the Spanish Government on the subject of the surprisal of Cuyuni. It is not a bad thing to let it be seen by such a correspondence what one might actually be able to do ; but formal reprisal, however justifiable, must never be resorted to without express orders from the sovereign authority. We approve your prudence in stopping the rumor of a breach of the peace between the States-General and the Crown of Great Britain. You may be assured that, as soon as we might forebode anything of that kind (which God forfend), we shall be prompt, not only in warning you of it as soon as possible, but also in providing you with the promised re-enforcement at the expense of the Colony.

We see from your letter that you make the boundary of the Colony toward the side. of Orinoco to extend not only to Waini, but even as far as Barima. We should like to be informed of the grounds upon which you base this claim, and especially your inference that, Cuyuni being situate on this side of Waini, it must therefore necessarily belong to the Colony; for, so far as we know, there exist no conventions [to the effect] that the boundary lines in South America run in a straight line from the seacoast inland, as do most of the frontier lines of the English colonies in North America.

Extract from letter from Storm van 's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, December 12, 1759.

The militia captain N. A. Schutz has returned rom his voyage to Orinoco. He was received there very politely and well, and has brought with him the money in payment for a few runaway slaves; but the Commandant has declined to hear anything about the affair of Cuyuni, saying that this occurred in his absence, that he has no responsibility whatever about it, and that he has been forbidden to enter into any negotiations concerning that matter, inasmuch as they have reported it to His Catholic Majesty and have no doubt but I have likewise done so to my Sovereigns, wherefore, that affair being out of our hands, it must be settled in Europe. The letters and documents received through Mr. Schutz I have handed to Mr. Ignace Courthial, with the request that he be so good as to translate them. I hope I shall receive them before closing this letter, in which case I shall have the honor to inclose them herein.

No. 178.

Extracts from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, May 2,1 1760.

[Reprinted from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 114.]

I am in receipt of your Lordships' letter of the 3d December last, and since there has been no opportunity of writing you prior to the departure of the Essequibo Welvaeren," I have now the honour to discharge that duty, and will first speak of the matter of Cajoeny.

I trust and doubt not that their High Mightinesses will obtain proper satisfaction for an act that is so entirely contrary to the law of nations, and I can very well understand that the death of the King of Spain must delay the settlement of the matter.

I have very little to add to what I have already had the honour of submitting to your Lordships in several of my despatches, and although I was not aware of what your Lordships are pleased to inform me, viz., that some Treaties were made which decided that the dividing boundary in South America should run inland in a direct line from the sea coast, as is the case with the English in North America, it still appears to me (salvo meliori) to be an irrefutable fact that the rivers themselves, which have been in the possession of your Lordships for such a large number of years, and have been inhabited by subjects of the State without any or the least opposition on the part of the Spanish, are most certainly the property of your Lordships. I am strengthened in my view of this matter by the fact that Cajoeny is not a separate river like Weyne and Pouwaron (which last has been settled, and still contains the foundations of your Lordships' fortresses), but an actual part of the River Essequibo itself, which is divided into three arms about eight to ten miles above Fort Zeelandia, and about one long cannon shot below Fort Kijkoveral, and to each of which the Indians give a separate name-the first Cajoeny, the second Masseroeny (in which is Kijkoveral), and the third Essequibothe principal stream below this division being called not Essequibo but Araunama by the Arawaks, the real aborigines of this country.

Although I do not doubt that your Lordships will now have received the map compiled by Mr. D'Anville, I have, in order to make the matter clear to your Lordships, copied that part of the map which relates to our possessions, and filled in with as much precision as possible the posts of your Lordships' plantation of Duynenburg, situated partly in Masseroeny and partly in Cajoeny. In Cajoeny I have marked your Lordships' coffee plantation, indigo plantation, the dwelling place of the half-free creoles (to which the Spaniards came very close), and Blauwenberg, and [the] Post which was sacked, together with your Lordships' three other Posts in Maroco, in Maykouny, and in Arinda, above Essequibo.

1 Note by Prof. Burr.-This date is really May 11.

No. 178.

This copy I have the honour to enclose.

I am well aware, my Lords, that to undertake measures of reprisal a distinct order from the Sovereign is necessary, and I should be very careful not to take upon myself anything of the kind. Although an appearance of some such threat is contained in my letter to the Commandant of Orinoco, it has never entered my head to proceed to such extremities, because even in a case of the utmost emergency I should hesitate before authorizing the cruelties indulged in by the Caraiban nation. I only wished to show the Commandant what we could do if we were forced to it, and his Honour is well aware that what I told him is the truth.

In my former letter sent by the "Loo" I had the honour to inform your Lordships that the matter concerning the slaves who had run away to the Orinoco was almost settled, and I doubt not that soon all will again be at rest. Trade on the river is at present (as far as such trade can be) fairly open and free.

No. 179.

Extract from letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber), to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, September 1, 1760.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 391.]

It gave us pleasure to read in your aforesaid letter your further remarks about Rio Cuyuni, but we could have wished that we had found among the documents the extract from the maps of Mr. D'Anville, enriched by you with the indication of so many noteworthy places and posts. But to our sorrow we have searched for it in vain, and shall therefore hope for it at the first opportunity.

Relying upon your prudence as to not resorting to reprisals (except in case of extremest need) without especial order, and expressing our gratification at seeing that the trade to the Orinoco is practically open,

***

Extract from letter from Storm van 's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, Sept. 8, 1760.

I immediately sent the adjutant, a sergeant, and eight of the best

No. 180.

soldiers to the plantation. This party probably prevented a great many more slaves from deserting, for they took measures to have the whole sea-coast guarded by Caraibans, so that it was impossible for the slaves to get to Orinoco. What I most feared was that they might take the road through Cajoeny where, since the raid upon the Post by the Spaniards there are no more Indians, and there was therefore no means of stopping them. Against my expectations, and with the help of Mr. Van Rode, and under a solemn promise that they should not be punished this time, they came home again. I had strong reasons for making this promise.

Extracts from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, October 24, 1760.

Meanwhile, I had sent warning to all the Posts, and had the coast guarded by the Caraiban nation, so that it should be impossible for the slaves to make off in that directi on. The road to Cajoeny was open to them, because since the raid upon the Post there by the Spaniards the river has not been occupied, and the road to Orinoco is an open and easy one.

*

2

I have been obliged to send a de tachment of four of the best soldiers to the Post of Maroco as quickly as possible because the Spaniards are beginning to put their horns out again. Besides a fin e boat belonging to Mr. Persik, which was used for the trade [and therefore does not come into question], they have also taken five canoes belonging to this Colony which were engaged in salting; on their way back3 they also took some canoes on this side of Barima, and thus within the Honourable Company's territory. Amongst these was the canoe of Aechtekerke and that of Duynenburg-a brand new one out on its first journey. They also threatened to deal with the Post in Maroco ere long in the same way as they had done with that in Cajoeny.

*Note by Prof. Burr.-For the words here italici zed the Blue Book has and used only for trade.

Note by Prof. Burr.-The meaning here is that they took some canoes which were on their way back from fishing in the Orinoco mouth.