No. 12.

habitants of this country, as well as any natives or inhabitants of any other kingdom or country to visit, traffic, or carry on directly or indirectly, except in the name and on behalf of this United Company, any trade whatsoever for a period of twenty-four years, beginning the 1st July next, with the coasts and countries of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and with the countries of America, beginning with the south end of Terra Nova,1 through the Straits of Magellan, Le Maire, or other straits and channels lying thereabouts, to the Straits of Anjan, either in the North Sea or the South Sea, and with any islands on either side or lying in between, together also with Australian and southern countries extending and lying between both meridians, and reaching from the Cape of Good Hope in the east to the east end of New Guinea inclusive, in the west.

Desiring and ordering that all other natives and inhabitants who shall act in a contrary manner, or who shall be found to have so done, shall forfeit their vessels and merchandize, which shall immediately be seized and held at the disposal of the aforesaid Company.

Extract from the West India Company's commission for captains [1626]. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 40.]

Whereas, by virtue of the charter granted this Company by the High Mighty the States General of the United Netherlands, we have resolved to send some ships to the West Indies, there to further settlement in uninhabited regions, and among other things to build a fort, in order to be se cure against the attacks and invasions of the Spaniards and other nations our enemies, and as, in order to do this with greater certainty, we have need of an able, faithful, and experienced person to be in command thereof as captain.

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

The committee on wares is authorized to make up a suitable cargo to the Amazon for the yacht Arnemuyden.

Resolved, To send with the aforesaid yacht Arnemuyden 20 ripening youths, in order to land them in the Amazon, the Wiapoco, or the

1 Note by Prof. Burr.-I. e., Newfoundland.

No. 14.

Essequibo-wherever the folk of our Chamber may be found-for the purpose of being employed there. And each of them shall be granted 2, 3, or 4 guilders a month, according to their capacities.

Johannes Beverlander is taken into the service of the Company for three years, to lie in the river of Essequibo along with Jan Adriaansz. van

der Goes; and that for twenty-one guilders a month. * * *

Extract from proceedings of the West India Company (Zeeland Chamber), April 13, 1628.

Jan van Woerden, of Flushing, is engaged for 20 guilders a month to lie in the Amazon for the space of three years, on condition that he shall hunt up three others beside himself to lie there together. 1

Extract from proceedings of the West India Company (Zeeland Chamber), April 8, 1632.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 65.]

On the report of Messrs. de Moor and Eltsdyck, after speaking with Van der Goes, it was resolved not to abandon the colony at Essequibo.2

Extract from regulations of the States General for the West India Company, May 14, 1632, and July 17, 1633.

Firstly, no such ships (i. e., from any part of the United Provinces, other than the Company's) may sail to the coast of Africa, or the New

Note by Prof. Burr.-The passage is of interest only as illustrating the methods of the Company in their occupation of these rivers.

*Note by Prof. Burr.--It appears from the memorial of the Zeeland Estates in 1750 and from that of the Zeeland Chamber in 1751 (Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1750, p. 1494; 1751, p. 1090) that the Nineteen (whose records, now lost, were accessible to the authors of these memorials) had by a majority voted the abandonment of the Company's Guiana colonies, including that in Essequibo; and that the Zeeland Chamber, whose deputies had opposed this action in the meeting of the Nineteen, assumed to itself by the above resolution of April 8, 1632, the responsibility of maintaining that colony.

No. 17.

Netherlands, or elsewhere where the Company may trade, on any pretence: but they may sail to the coast of Brazil; likewise into the West Indies, to wit, [from] the River Orinoco westwards along the coast of Cartagena, Portobello, Honduras, Campeche, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida, together with all the islands situated within these limits, in order there to carry on all manner of warfare by sea and by land against the King of Spain, his subjects and allies.

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

The Committee on Commerce and Finance was instructed to inspect and determine whether the trade to Essequibo is profitable to the Company or not, in order at an early day to make report, so as to know whether the wares for which they ask shall be ordered made or not.

Confrater van Pere was authorized to turn over to Mr. Segers two kegs of sirup, or sap of sugar cane, arrived from Essequibo from Jan Van der Goes, in order that he may try to reduce it to sugar.

Inasmuch as Jan van der Goes had written from Essequibo that he, with all the folk who were there with him, was minded to come home by the first ship, it was some time ago resolved to send thither in the place of the said Van der Goes, by the ship de Jager, Cornelis Pietersz. Hose; and on account of the great demoralization of the folk and their wish to come home, it is resolved that they shall be allowed to come home, and the colony provided anew with five-and-twenty other respectable persons, from whom the Company may receive more service and more edifyingly withal. And Confraters Lonissen and Van Pere are by a majority vote made a committee to engage the aforesaid persons, being requested to look for the discreetest persons, so far as shall be possible.

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The persons who have been engaged for Essequibo, being mostly from the people who came [with] Van der Goes and who have not much to live on, it is resolved that they shall for this once, and without its becoming a precedent, receive a shilling a day for costs.

Extract from letter from Jacques Ousiel to West India Company, 1637. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 74–75.]

Firstly, the writer says that the Governor of Trinidad, aided by those of Margarita and Guayana and guided by an Irish deserter, formerly a lieutenant in our service, on the first of December of last year, in the darkness of night, attacked a certain small fort or stockaded house in Tobago (an island under your jurisdiction), capturing it without resistance, and taking prisoner 5 or 6 men who were in it. With these and with all his men he marched on the next day to the great fort, which is likewise a stockade, built only as a defense against the Caribs. This he closely besieged, and after those of the fort had fired some shots upon the enemy, the men at last resolved to parley with him, being pursuaded and induced thereto by the aforesaid Irishman, whom they thought to be not a deserter but a prisoner, and who had been instructed by the Governor. It was finally agreed upon, and the Governor granted it under solemn oath, that the officers with their arms and baggage, and the others without these but with the clothes they had on, each and every one, regardless of nationality, rank, or condition, should be sent by the Governor to Saint Christopher, or any other place where they should wish to go, as free men and at the expense of the King. Thereupon the Governor brought all these colonists of Tobago together to the Bocas de Drago, and not having means of conveying them to Saint Christopher, he judged best to send them, in all 45 men and 20 boys, to Margarita and let them take ship there for any destination they should choose, and meanwhile he kept with him the present writer, the agent, and Cornelis de Moor, son of Mr. Jan de Moor, together with 16 other boys, until as he said, he should have a better opportunity for embarking them.

No. 20.

Extracts from letter from Jacques Ousiel to West India Company, 1637.

One mile inland there is a very good opportunity for obtaining a supply of bananas from the old plantations of the Caribs who were driven from the aforesaid island by the Spaniards, and still are wont to come there every year with their canoes to lay in provisions.

The Governor of Trinidad told the writer that the King had often intended building a fort at the mouth of the aforesaid harbor.

From the aforesaid harbor to the habitation of the Spaniards, called San José de Oroña, the distance is S. by W. 7 miles, over very high mountains, which are not to be crossed without unspeakable difficulty.

As one sails from the Bocas de Drago along the west coast S. by E. through the Golfo Dulce, there lies 5 miles from there a large bay named Puerto de España, where the ships that come to trade there drop anchor.

About half a mile to the north of the aforesaid river there also is a road by land to the aforesaid town, running due east three miles among trees; this road the Spaniards take when on foot or on horses (which are only 8 in number there) they wish to go to the aforesaid bay. This road can be recognized from the sea by some posts of two ruined houses which stand in the sea north from there.

The aforesaid town of San José lies on a small hill at the foot of the high mountains; at their south side, and on the north and east sides of the town, flows the aforesaid river, about half a foot deep, where the inhabitants of the town get their water.

The town is open, consisting of 30 houses and 40 to 50 men, sometimes more and sometimes less, inasmuch as some who come there, either sent there by the Dutch or otherwise, are against their will held there by the Governors, and get away again in canoes when they can, as happened as many as three different times within the six months that the writer lay there.

The houses are made of earth stamped solid, which they call tapias, and roofed with thatch or other combustible material.

Almost in the centre of the town stands the church in which the Span. iards keep a watch of 5 or 6 men, day and night except from Sunday till Monday; the reveille is sometimes beaten and again not, and one cannot rely upon the drum beat, for it is quite frequently employed for any trifling reason.

To the S. E. and also E. of the town there is for some 7 miles only plain and even country, also for some 4 miles S. and N. down to the aforesaid bay.