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No. 20.

Nothing grows here except tobacco, which is raised only once a year, to the amount of about 100,000 pounds (without the inhabitants having any returns from it, on account of the dampness of the country). They plant it in December and January, gather it about May, and have it all twisted by the middle of that month, as toward the end of the same month or early in June they expect a ship from Spain to take it off their hands, about which time those of Orinoco also bring their tobacco there to the amount of some 50,000 pounds.

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About one mile east and one mile west of the aforesaid town there are several plantations, where the negroes, together with the Indians and the Dutch boys from Tobago, plant provisions and tobacco for the Spaniards. The name of the eastern place is Tacaribe, and of the western Aracao.

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The negroes and Indian slaves may number about 300 in all, namely 100 negroes and 200 Indians, and there is nothing they would rather see than to be delivered from the Spaniards.

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Among the Nipujos there is a certain Indian named Hierreyma, who eleven years ago, when a slave or encomendado among the Spaniards, ran away from them and has more than once joined in expeditions against them; and because he has killed two Spaniards in some encounters, he is the most famous and powerful among those people and considered as their chief by the others.

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These Indians are for the most part Christians, speaking good Spanish almost all of them, and are free men. The King in writing to them uses this form of address: "A nuestros leales vasallos los cavalleros Indios de Paria." The Señores Cavalleros go altogether naked, like other Indians. Among them dwells a certain Indian called Don Juan, who surely is the principal person; he, in return for knives, furnishes the canoes with pilots. to go to Margarita.

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The town is situated about two miles from there, inhabited by Spaniards, few in number but rich in money and pearls as well as in slaves. The other occupants of the island are mostly Indians and negroes with their women and children, probably numbering in all as many as 3,000. On this island 100 Spanish soldiers are also kept.

Two miles S. by W. from the aforesaid bay lies a prominent point, called Punta de Mosquitos on account of the multitude of mosquitoes found there. The place near by is called La Rancheria; here lie the boats that go pearlfishing. Here it is very shallow and full of stones. Some few Spaniards live there, who keep watch there with the negroes of the boats. The boats sometimes go from there, 10 or 12 of them together, 3 or 4

No. 20.

miles to the S. E. into the sea, as the writer saw on June 22, 1637, manned with 8 or 10 negroes and 2 negro women, who bake the maize bread for the negroes. A Spaniard is in command; he is the pilot, and is called mayordomo by his master. They stay out from 6 to 8 weeks, each boat bringing home on an average 8 to 10 marks of pearls, and sometimes

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Nine miles from the aforesaid Pueblo de Mar, on the mainland, lies Punta Araya, in front of which, on the south side, a royal fort is constructed, the lower part, from the sea up, of gray granite, and the land side provided with deep ditches. On the fort lie 50 guns of bronze; it has 12 gunners and provision of water for 4 years, which they lay up in large tanks of several hundred barrels. Here lies a garrison, said to be of 500 men.

The canoes and boats that come from the east and want to go to Cumaná must heave to there, and the corporal of the guard comes to inquire whence the boat comes, what is her cargo, and what persons are in her.

Three miles away, opposite the fort, on the other side of the gulf, lies the town of Cumaná, distant about 2 musket shots from shore on the slope of an arid mountain, having good houses more than 80 in number. By the side of this town there runs into the sea a fresh river, off which the ships come to anchor.

Between the town and the shore stand numbers of trees, so that the town can not be seen from the strand, and the land here along the seacoast is entirely arid and barren. Nothing is produced here but pearls and tobacco. These Spaniards trade their wares against pearls, to be turned into money in Cartagena and Havana, not to be taken over to Spain, because they are of less value there.

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Caracas is a sea-village of about 40 houses on the shore of a bay, some built very high of brick (which is made there). Here two new castles have been made of gray granite; the easternmost is a half-moon with 6 pieces, and the westernmost, distant from it fully a musket-shot, is square and provided with 8 pieces of ordnance, situated quite low on the shore close to the sea, commanding the entire bay, and both manned with 100 Spaniards. In spite of the aforesaid forts it ought to be possible to get away with the ships that lie at anchor there.

In these castles watch is kept in the following manner: The sentinel of the westernmost fort, approximately every half hour, strikes on a bell, to which the sentinel of the other fort at once answers with a like stroke on a bell; for the first quarter-watch he strikes one stroke, for the second quarter he strikes each time or half hour two strokes, and for the third quarter three strokes.

The town of Caracas, called Santiago de León, lies on the other side of the mountain range, which is very high here, five miles from the aforesaid

No. 20.

sea-village, an entire and very difficult day's journey on foot; the inhabitants come on mules to the sea-village to trade. It is a rich town in money and inhabitants. The chief trade here consists in cocoa, skins and salsaparilla. When it has rained much, one finds in the mountains many small grains of gold. Here is the seat of the Governor and the bishop of Venezuela, who usually reside in the court-town Coro.

Cartagena is a rather large and well-built town, well protected with new walls and fortifications of gray stone. Fresh water must here be brought from outside on mule-carts.

To sail into Cartagena, one must first pass to starboard, in the mouth of the harbor, a small, old fort, in which there are 3 or 4 guns, with which they can easily shoot across the mouth of the harbor; on the opposite side lies another, and larger, old fort, now entirely deserted and grown over with verdure, and in place of this, half a mile farther inland, a royal fort has been built, with four points, fortified below with half-moons that shoot at water-level, and lying in the water on all sides except for one very narrow land road, and having more than 44 guns. Opposite this fort, on the other side of the water, lies another similar one, and a little farther up in the direction of the town still another, all built of gray granite, and as one goes on, two more small forts, each with six iron guns, and all likewise surrounded by the water; after this, there follows on the same side the suburb where stand the Franciscan monastery and some fine houses, all this on the starboard, likewise fortified with walls. From here one can go into the town across a large bridge, though one can come to the town by water without having to pass through the aforesaid suburb. At the town lie three galleys and three or four small war-vessels; 500 Spaniards are garrisoned here for the defense of the aforesaid forts. To the southeast, fully a mile from the town, lies a high mountain, called by the Spaniards Nuestra Señora de la Popa, where is built the monastery of the barefooted Augustinians, which from afar looks like a castle, but in reality is not.

Havana, as one comes in, has two castles. The one on the port side, called El Morro, lies high up the mountain; the one farther inward is square, with four little turrets on each corner. On the land side it has deep ditches, from where to the harbor lower and lower lie many tiers of guns, so that in the mouth of the river or harbor six tiers are counted, the lowest tier lying at water-level and consisting of 17 guns that are called by the Spaniards "los doce apóstolos," and they correspond to the platform lying on the opposite side. It is said, and seems quite plausible, that on the aforesaid fort there are indeed more than 100 bronze guns. Opposite the aforesaid fort is a level strand, where a platform is built, with 27 bronze guns, from where, in the direction of the town, an entrenchment or straight line has been drawn as far as the old fort, fully two musketshots long, altogether of gray stone, which is got from the mountains opposite, on which entrenchment lie at least 60 guns. The old fort is

No. 20.

built almost in cross shape; it is very small in circumference, protected roundabout with deep ditches, and on the water side with halfmoons, having a few guns.

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Behind the old fort lies the town, which is open and fully as large as Cartagena, but not so well built; through it runs a small stream of fresh water, which provides the whole town with water.

When there is any suspicion of the enemy the harbor is closed with an iron chain from El Morro to the platform; as many ships as are seen at sea by those of El Morro, so many strokes they sound upon a bell, and they also signal to the town with so many white flags, whereupon those of the platform answer, and give the same signal to the old fort and likewise to the town.

Watch is kept here in the same way as in Caracas, with this understanding, that those of El Morro begin, then those of the platform, and then those of the old fort.

The Spaniards call Havana the key to all India, because it would not be easy for the galleons to sail to Spain without provisioning there.

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Extract from Order and Regulations of the States-General, by which the Inhabitants of the United Provinces shall be permitted to take away Wood, Tobacco and other Merchandise from a certain part of the Boundaries of the Charter of said Company, January 6, 1635, and October 16, 1637.

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First, the vessels of the aforesaid inhabitants shall be permitted to sail to the West Indies: to wit, the River Oronocque, westwards along the coast of Carthagena, Portobello, Honduras, Campeche, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida, together with the islands lying within those boundaries; but they shall on no account be permitted to sail to the coast of Africa or New Netherlands, or to any other place where the said Company carries on trade.

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

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1640-1645.

[Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 99, 102, 104.]

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The Committee on the affair of Jan van der Goes, having examined the instructions given on behalf of the Chamber together with the journals and

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other papers relating thereto, reports that it can find no satisfactory reason why the aforesaid [instructions] were not strictly followed by the said Jan van der Goes, and especially why he erected no fort at the place prescribed in his instructions, since by the testimony of the journals and of persons who have come from there the enemy offered our people no hindrance there; points which proved of so very evil consequence, the more so as the Company was brought into great and excessive expense, that the Committee therefore deems the payment of the wages earned might with justice be withheld and refused.

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There were read the following letters: One to Adriaen Jansz., Commandeur, and Adriaen van de Woestyne, Clerk, at Fort Kykoveral in Essequibo, dated May 5.1

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As for the river of Essequibo, the Committee's opinion is that now for some time it bas been traded to with small profit to the Company, for the reason that private colonists are permitted to trade there as well as the Company, so that the goods coming from there can not fetch their proper price, by reason of undue competition. On this point they are of opinion that, at the expiration of the charter, either the trade there ought to be held exclusively for the Company, or else it were better that the aforesaid place should, subject to the proper fees, be thrown open to free trade.

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Extract from Resolutions of the States-General of the United Netherlands,

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Firstly, we hereby declare that we annul and quash all former Orders and Regulations according to which all ships in the respective provinces, either armed or unarmed, have been permitted to sail for private trade in timber, salt, tobacco, cotton, or other wares and products there obtainable

1 Note by Prof. Burr.-The letter itself is not given-only this address. It is not impossible that "Adriaen Jansz." is but an error for Jan Adriaensz, van der Goes.

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