No. 164. Art. 6. That the Chief of the said post is granted liberty to trade by the noble Company on his own account, on condition that whatever fruits or produce or other articles he may so acquire, the Company shall have the refusal of the goods at the same price as others, in good merchandize and for good prices. Art. 7. That the Chief of the post is obliged to collect all outstanding debts remaining due to his predecessor, the former Chief of that post, for which duty 10 fl. will be paid for every fugitive slave, and 1 fl. for every hammock, the Governor being informed of all the sales and purchases. Art. 8. That in like manner the official of the post is bound to make a report twice a-year of all matters of interest relating to his district, and, as a good and loyal officer, he should always reside at his post. (Signed) LAURENS STORM DE GRAVESANDE. River Essequibo, November 29, 1757. No. 165. Extracts from letter from L. L. Van Bercheyck, Military Commandant in Essequibo, to the Spanish Commandant in Orinoco, December 8, 1758. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 377-378.] SIR: I received safely the letter which was written to me by Mr. Don Nicolas de Castro, whose person or quality I do not have the honor to know, in answer to the letter which our Governor had written to you on the subject of the outrage com mitted in our river of Cuyuni. I have communicated that letter to His Excellency, who was extremely surprised to see that you did not even deign to give him an answer. Having read the contents of the aforesaid letter, and seeing the frivolous pretexts which are alleged in order to justify a proceeding so directly contrary to the law of nations (for, sir, even if the allegations were true, which we in no way admit, usage among neighboring, friendly, and even allied, nations demands previous complaints before having recourse to violence), His Excellency has ordered me to write to you. That in the name of the States General his Sovereigns he persists, and now for the second time demands the freeing of the prisoners and a suitable satisfaction for this violation and insult done to the territory of his Sovereigns, and that, since it seems to him, according to the letter in question, that you in Guayana and at Cumaná are ignorant of the boundaries of the territory of His Catholic Majesty and those of the States General according to the treaties at present subsisting, he has ordered me to send you the enclosed map on which you will be able to see them very distinctly. No. 165. The letter which I have received shall be sent next week to Europe, and His Excellency has no doubt but the States General will be able to obtain from His Catholic Majesty, of [whose] great justice and royal equity we are convinced, a full and ample satisfaction. Extracts from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, January 24, 1759. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, p. 379.] SIRS: The Governor of Berbice having acquainted me that a clipper there is to depart for Europe in the beginning of next month, I profit by the opportunity to inform you that my envoys to Orinoco have returned from thence with a very unsatisfactory reply of the Governor of Cumaná to my letter to the Commandant of Orinoco, wherein he maintains among other things that the river of Cuyuni is Spanish territory, and refuses to give back the imprisoned postholder, by-lier, and creoles. In closing this letter, I take the liberty earnestly to recommend to your attention the occurrence in Cuyuni, as being of the greatest importance to this colony, that river constituting one of the three arms of this river, wherein your indigo and coffee plantations and a great part of Duynenburg used to lie. If the Spaniards hold possession of it, we have them in the heart of the colony, and no one is for one hour sure of his possessions, the mouth of the said river being only a cannonshot from the old fort Kykoveral. Wherewith, RIO ESSEQUIBO, January 24, 1759. L. STORM VAN'S GRAVESANDE. No. 167. Letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, (no date.) [Reprinted (with correction) from Blue Book, No. 3, p. 110.] The fact of Captain G. E. Boef having changed his mind and put into Rio Demerary for another fortnight, in order to avoid all cause for complaint, affords me the opportunity of writing your Lordships the present letter, my last being already on the way to Essequibo, and of informing No. 167. my Lords that the men I sent to the Upper Cuyuni to inquire into the reports of the Indians have returned. The said reports turn out to be only too true, the Post-house being burnt down to the ground, the Post-holder and his assistant, together with the creole Ariaen, and his wife and children, carried off to Guiana as prisoners, and all that the Post contained taken away. There not being the slightest difficulty or doubt concerning the ownership of this branch1 of Essequibo, most undoubtedly belonging, as it does, to the West India Company, this unexpected and unheardof act is a violation of all existing Treaties-a violation even of the universal law of nations, and as a matter of the greatest importance it demands your Lordships' attention and vigilance. As Yesterday I sent Mr. Spoors a letter addressed by me to the Commandant of Guiana, to be communicated to the Council, and then to be sent per express to Orinoco. In this I spoke of the raid in the most serious terms and demanded full satisfaction and compensation. there will be no meeting of the Council until a day after the departure of the "Peter and David," I cannot have the honour of sending your Lordships a copy of the above-mentioned letter, not knowing whether the Council might not consider some alterations or additions necessary. I shall not fail to send your Lordships a copy of the letter at the earliest opportunity, together with whatever answer I may receive. I have explained to them amongst other things how easy it would be for me to exercise the right of reprisal, but have added that I have not the slightest intention of doing so unless I receive express orders to that effect, or my hand is forced by extreme measures on the other side, being con. vinced that their High Mightinesses would be able to obtain full satisfaction from His Catholic Majesty. No. 168. Extract from letter from Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in The letter from the Commandant here to the Commandant in Orinoco, of which I had the honor to speak in my letter via Berbice, has been sent back unopened, there being joined to it two letters, the contents of which are as yet unknown to me, as I do not know the Spanish language and await the arrival here of Mr. Persik to have them translated. * * * * 1Note by Prof. Burr.-In place of this word branch the Blue Book has portion. * No. 169. Extract from letter from West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) to Storm van's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, May 31,1759. * [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 380-381.] * * * * * We have not as yet received the originals of your letters per the Pieter en David, but our correspondent at Cork has furnished us a faithful copy of two letters written by you, the first in Rio Demerara, September 9, 1758, and the second without mention of place or date. We defer answering these until we shall have received the originals, or at least until the sailing of Essequebo's Welvaren; but we cannot help remarking, as to the surprisal of the post of Cuyuni by the Spaniards, that not only does it exceedingly astonish us, but also seems to us of the gravest consequence for the Colony. For that reason we shall not fail, as soon as we shall have received fuller information from you, to make upon that subject the necessary representations to the StatesGeneral. Meanwhile we should like on this occasion to be exactly informed where the aforesaid post on the river of Cuyuni was situated; for in the latest map made by you of the colony we have found, indeed, that river, but have not yet succeeded in finding the post itself. Furthermore, what grounds you might be able to give us to support further our right to the possession of the aforesaid post--perhaps a declaration by the oldest inhabitants of the colony could in this connection be handed in, which might be of service. We should also like to have a more specific description of the map of America by Mr. D'Anville, to which you appeal; for that gentleman has issued many maps dealing with that continent, and in none of these which have come to our notice have we been able to discover any traces [of what you mention]. Extracts from proceedings of the West India Company (Zeeland Chamber), July, 1759. [Reprinted from U. S. Commission, Report, Vol. 2, pp. 381-383.] Read a letter from the Presidial Chamber of Amsterdam, written there the 26th of last June and addressed to this Chamber, containing, in answer to this Chamber's letter of the 18th of the same month, that No. 170. they were of opinion that it was not for them to present to the States General a remonstrance regarding the attack of the Spaniards upon the Company's post in Rio Cuyuni, because neither they nor any other Chamber had concerned themselves about the river Essequibo since the well-known differences in regard to the said colony had arisen between them and the Chief Shareholders of this Chamber. For this reason they returned the documents which had been sent them, together with a translation of the Spanish appendix, that we might make such use of them as we should see fit. Whereupon, after discussion and taking the sense of the meeting, it was resolved to file for reference the aforesaid letter with its appendices, and, this notwithstanding, to request the Committee on Commerce that they consider more fully the documents bearing upon the said attack; and that they instruct the Advocate to formulate their views in a remonstrance to the States General, and submit it for approval to this Chamber. Mr. de Chuy, in the name of the Committee on Commerce, reported that in fulfillment of the instructions of the 2d of this month they had examined the letters of Director General's Gravesande, and the appendices concerning the attack of the Spaniards upon the Company's post in Rio Cuyuni, and that the Advocate had formulated their views in a remonstrance to the States General, which they submitted for approval to this Chamber. Whereupon, the remonstrance aforesaid having been read and the question put, it was, after discussion, resolved to approve said remonstrance as it stands, and, moreover, the Committee on Commerce were thanked for the pains they had taken, and Mr. de Chuy for the report he had made. Extract from letter from Storm van 's Gravesande, Director-General in Essequibo, to the West India Company, July 20, 1759, The despatches received from Orinoco having been translated by Mr. Persik, I found one to be from the Commandant Don Juan Valdez, in which he informs me that, being forbidden to enter into any correspond |