Extract taken from the Register of Resolutions by the Directors of the West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam, on Monday the 11th of March 1658.
After having read a draft letter to the vice-director Beck concerning the salt trade at Bonairo and a more direct regulation or order to this end, arising from the present war with the crown of Portugael, whereby all private parties are permitted to haul salt from there in an orderly and proper manner and to transport it here to these lands or even directly to the East, both of which were approved after due deliberation; therefore the draft letter is to be engrossed and the regulation published in order to inform everyone here of it and to dispatch the same to Curacao aboard the ship t Postpaert, which is ready to sail. The text of the aforesaid regulation reads as follows:
The directors of the Chartered West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam, hereby serve notice to everyone concerned that their honors have decided, for the promotion of navigation of these lands and especially for the benefit of the Caribbean and Nieuw Nederlandt traders and all others who sail out of these lands with a commission by the aforesaid Company within the district of the same Company, to institute such regulations and make such provisions at the saltpans on Bonairo and Curacao, so that they firmly trust that each and everyone shall be able to find a cargo of salt there at any time, in order to transport the same from there and bring it to these lands or elsewhere under the following conditions:
First, that whosoever comes first with his ship to Curacao or Bonaira and requests a load of salt, shall also be diligently helped first with the available salt before all others who come thereafter.
It shall be delivered on behalf of the aforesaid Company into the ships boat, sloop or other vessel without payment of any wages for it; however, instead of payment the skipper shall issue there a bond with the following text:
I, the undersigned skipper on the ship named , hereby acknowledge to have received at Bonajra in my aforesaid ship on behalf of the lords-directors of the West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam, lasten salt, on the condition that, without being subject to freight costs and any common average, the rightful fourth part of it shall be paid to the aforesaid or their representatives in specie or from that which clearly shall be gained by sale thereof, and delivered promptly on their terms, without any adjustments or discounts on the Caribbean tonnage, if the Lord God grants me a safe journey with the aforesaid ship; obligating hereto my ship with all its appurtenances, and furthermore, any person and goods, subject to all laws and judges. In acknowledgment of the truth three identical bonds were signed on the on the island of Bonairo, of which the others are invalid when one has been satisfied.
If one should find it advisable not to transport salt to these lands but rather to go to the East or elsewhere to trade the same, then the skipper shall be obligated to declare this and to sign three bonds of identical content:
I, the undersigned skipper on the ship named , hereby acknowledge to have received at in my aforesaid ship on behalf of the lords-directors of the West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam, lasten salt, on the condition that, without being subject to freight costs and any common average, the rightful fourth part of it shall be paid to the aforesaid lords or their representatives according to the price which it brings them at Amsterdam at the time when the first of these is shown to one of my owners, and that without any discount, adjustment or exception on the Caribbean tonnage, even though the aforesaid ship and salt should be lost; pledging hereto the same ship with all its appurtenances, in addition to my person and goods, subject to all laws and judges. In acknowledgement of the truth three identical bonds were signed on the island of , the , of which the others are invalid when one has been satisfied.
Whosoever goes to N. Nederlandt with his load of salt shall sign a bond according to this form:
I, the undersigned skipper of the ship named , hereby acknowledge to have received at in my aforesaid ship on behalf of the lords-directors of the West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam, lasten salt, on the condition that a true fourth part of the aforesaid salt or the true value thereof shall be delivered freight-free to the lord director-general on behalf of the same Company in N. Nederlandt for the account and on behalf of the same Company, at the aforesaid chamber, on the terms of the same lord director, if the Lord God grants me a safe journey; pledging hereto my aforesaid ship with all its appurtenances and also my person and goods, subject to all laws and judges. In acknowledgment of the truth, three identical bonds were signed on the island of the , of which the others are invalid when one has been satisfied.
At the above-mentioned occasion concerning the Bonairo salt, the Curacao and Aruba horses were also discussed. Whereas they are multiplying daily in great abundance and nevertheless very few have been traded either in N. Nederlandt or in the Caribbean islands and other places, from which the Company consequently draws little or no profit, because apparently too high a price has been fixed on the same; therefore it has been decided, in order to provide N. Nederlandt with an increasing amount of horses, which will be most beneficial there for the cultivation of the land and, as a result, be greatly responsible for the populating and growth of these places, as well as to accommodate thereby the Caribbean islands and other places situated thereabouts, as is appropriate, that from now on whosoever may be inclined to haul horses from there and to transport them to the aforesaid place or places, has permission to do so from this chamber or the vice-director on Curacao, with payment here or on Curacao for each horse, which is transported to N. Nederlandt, equaling fifty guilders Holland value, and for those transported to the Caribbean islands and other foreign places, eighty true Carolus guilders. Provided nevertheless, in order to prevent any fraud which might arise in these horse dealings by the ease with which they can be exported to N. Nederlandt, that the skippers and merchants who take on horses for that place, be obligated to sign a document and pledge themselves and their ships and goods that they shall not alter their voyage but transport their horses, as stated above, to N. Nederlandt; on pain, if they should do otherwise, that they shall pay beyond the first promised or paid fifty guilders for each horse an additional fifty guilders for each one.
After collation this was found to agree with the original.
L. van Ruyven.
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