No. 308.

those upper lands, they sent thither all their old and decrepit slaves, who can be of no use on the new plantations.

Thus one finds above this island (which is distant only one tide from the mouth) not one sugar, coffee or cotton plantation except only that of the ex-Councilor S. G. van der Heyden, situated a great tide above this island, at the mouths of the two rivers Mazaruni and Cuyuni.

In these rivers, likewise, just as in the river of Essequibo, properly socalled, there can be found not one plantation which furnishes any products except a little cassava bread, and this of so slight importance as not to deserve mention. And this is also the case with the navigable creeks of Bonnasieke, Arriwary, Supinaam, and Itteribisie, each of which has only one sugar plantation at its mouth, and all the other lands in those creeks and rivers are and remain uncultivated; they are only stripped of the best timber, much of which is for the sake of gain exported for the use of the sugar mills and other windmills on the English islands, which gives not the least profit to the Company, and in course of time our own plantations will lack such wood or at least will have to pay for it much more than at present; while, as long as this trade lasts, the lands remain lying uncultivated.

It is true that, so long as the lower lands are to be had, few will care for the upper lands; but, if you do not throw open the river Pomeroon, there will within a short while be few, if any, lower lands open to occupation; besides, I do not doubt that, if at home the interest in this colony should revive, the upper lands will increase in value. At present the difference is very great, for the latter are sold for f. 4 and the lower lands for f. 40 to f. 50 per acre.

Extract from proceedings of West India Company (the Ten) April 24,

The Representative and the Directors, in order to facilitate these their precautions, have, in accordance with their resolutions of April 8 and 15, 1773, requested the Directors of the Society of Surinam to give orders to their Governor there that he send out from there to Essequibo and Demerara an able engineer, furnished with proper instructions, for the purpose of surveying the situation of both the rivers, and drawing up and sending to the Representative and the Directors a plan of forts and batteries for the defense of those rivers.

The first lieutenant of artillery and engineer, Johan Christiaan von Henneman,1 having in pursuance thereof arrived in the month of November, 1Note by Prof. Burr.-He wrote his own name was clearly of German origin.

66

von Henemann," and later, van Heneman." He

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1773, from Surinam in Rio Essequibo, and having remained in the two rivers until March, 1775, has subsequently drawn up his maps, plans and report, and sent it hither on September 18, 1776, which plan and report was received and read in our meeting on March 20, 1777.

Extract from letter from C. Boter, Administrator of the Company's Plantations, to the West India Company (Amsterdam Chamber), August 31, 1778.

From olden times it has been a very injurious custom here on the Company's plantations to send the slaves to salt fish even into the river of Orinoco, and many boys were sent along in order to learn salting and the roads and the languages of the various nations of Indians. Now, the boys have grown up, and know every where the road and the language so well that I could not help wondering.

For these reasons, and in order that the slaves may frequent no more the road to Orinoco, I have been led to solicit your kind permission that the three plantations of the Company be allowed to catch fish in the creek Boerasiri.

Extract from letter from G. H. Trotz, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, October 12, 1778.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 556–558.]

I have no doubt that the Captain-Commandant has informed you that there must be established on the Moruca a military post.

But why has he not rather urged that there should first be established again at least a lookout at the mouth of Essequibo, [to enter which river] the English ships must pay f. 2-10, whereby he profits.

2d. Is the Commandant so firmly assured of the loyalty of his soldiers as to plant a command at so great a distance and on so slippery a route to Orinoco [soldiers] whom for the most part he is now forced to guard at night at the fort by his few trusty soldiers in order that they may not desert?

No. 311.

And, finally, even if one could plant there again with some profit a new post, yet on account of the great distance it can never be kept under proper discipline.

You will ask how, then, do you keep the Postholder and Bylier in order? To that I must answer: "Only tolerably." But their office is rather to keep an eye on things and hold the Indians in order there, etc.; and they are under no military discipline.

I should on this account, salvo meliore, be of opinion that it would be for these and sundry other reasons very dangerous, absolutely useless, and moreover very costly for the Company if we should plant that post in that quarter.

Extract from letter from A. Siraut-Destouches, Colonist and Land-Surveyor in Essequibo, to the Director-General and Court of Policy, in Essequibo, September, 1779.

Respectfully makes known A. S. des Touches, planter and inhabitant of this river.

That he, the petitioner, having for some time past been considering, on the one hand, the prospect at present of a rupture between certain of the Powers in Europe, and whether and in how far this might in time involve this colony, and, on the other hand, the scant protection which this colony has, especially that part in which the petitioner is established, these thoughts have recently been greatly quickened by the rumor that a considerable number of Spaniards are sojourning in the neighboring river Pomeroon, without as yet any reliable information having been received as to their intentions; and, weighing the danger which immediately threatens the colony in general and the sea-coast in particular, with the plantations there made, in case of any secret plans for aggression by our foes, he the petitioner has hit upon the thought that by building on the coast a redout, intrenchment, or bulwark, a means of security might be found, if not to ward off entirely an invasion into the colony, at least to check it for a considerable time, until more efficacious means could be employed.

No. 313.

Extract from letter from G. H. Trotz, Director-General in Essequibo, to West India Company (Amsterdam Chamber), September 23, 1779. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 561.]

Having thus replied to your greatly esteemed resolutions on my behalf, I take the liberty to inform you that three weeks ago a party of about 80 Spaniards and half-breeds were for some days in the river Pomeroon, without, however, doing any damage; but the Indians report them as having said that they were coming back in three months and would then establish a fort there.

Extracts from Journal of J. C. Severyn, Military Commandant in Essequibo,

1781.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 564–566, 569.]

Several reports which came in yesterday and to-day state that the Spanish privateer has already seized some negroes of English planters in this colony who were on the river in boats, and holds them prisoners in his vessel; while he has hailed many others and made them heave to, but, on learning that they belonged to Dutch planters, he allowed them to depart unmolested, he having gone so far as to threaten with musket in hand that he would fire upon them if they were unwilling to come to. This Spaniard's name is Mateo, and it is a matter of speculation whether he has a commission.

The Director-General arrives at the island at 8 o'clock, and communicates to me that he intends sending the assistant Luyken with a flag of truce to Orinoco to the Spanish governor, in order to claim back the boats and slaves captured and stolen by the Spaniard Mateo in this river and on its coast.

The ex-militia captain Steeneken, being at the island, was requested along with me to constitute a session of the Council, in which the Director-General presented what was said above, together with a letter in the French language to the Spanish governor, already prepared by the Director-General, in which at my suggestion various changes and additions were made and certain piratical acts which had been forgotten were writ

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ten in; among these especially the seizing and stealing of two boats and eight negroes of the planters Milleken and Vernon, before February 28 and therefore at a time when no articles or compact had yet been made by us with the English force and the river still was entirely under the sovereignty of the States General; that this could not be called otherwise than a piratical act committed by Mateo. With this Luyken departs.

The assisiant Luyken, who had set out with a flag of truce and letters for the Governor of Orinoco, returns and says that in the river he had met a boat with Indians, who had told him that Mateo was lying with his craft in the river of Barima, and was carrying off everything without distinction.

The planter Cramer reports to Captain Ingram that in the river Pomeroon Spaniards with boats have again been seen.

To whom I give orders to reconnoitre this more fully and then make reliable reports; wherefore he has resolved not to depart to-morrow to Demerara with the brigantine the Star, but to await these reports

Extract from proceedings of Court of Policy in Essequibo, April 13, 1781. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 569–570.]

In answer to this, however, Commodore Thompson declared that in this respect his orders were so positive that he could make no change therein, but must assume possession of it all for His Majesty of Great Britain, because this war had mainly been occasioned by the behavior of the city of Amsterdam, where the greatest part of the Company has its home; he consequently demanded a precise statement of its possessions and their estimated value, and of all plantations belonging to owners in that city, and also of all the mortgages upon plantations in this river which had been there negotiated.

And, lastly, a copy of such map of this river as might exist here, so as to give His Majesty a fair idea of the importance of this colony.

All possible representations and remonstrances which were made by the Court against these demands having remained fruitless, and in view therefore of the compulsion and obligation under which the Court finds itself in this condition of affairs,