Copy
To the Honorable Lucas Rodenborg Vice-Director on Curacao.
Honorable, Esteemed etc.
With the ship De Goede Hoope we have duly received your letter together with accompanying books and papers from the 2nd of April of this year, for which we give the following reply.[1] First, we have viewed with displeasure and dissatisfaction the extensive disruption caused there by the Jewish nation and Jan de Yllan in the sale of their produce and old trifles at such excessively high prices, which your honor is instructed and ordered to prevent by all means and not allow any longer. In order that the occasion for such might be diminished, we have decided to send your honor at the first opportunity some necessities such as clothing for the soldiers, provisions and writing materials as well as some military supplies, as can be seen on the accompanying list. Your honor is instructed to distribute them with care and in the most profitable manner to the most needy of the Companys servants there, and to employ and make use of the other items, as elsewhere, with care and prudence wherever most needed, and for the necessary repairs of the fortress.
Furthermore, we have known for some time with regret that the colonist Jan de Yllan accomplishes little there or concerns himself little with agriculture, for which reason we informed your honor of our orders and intentions by our letter of 24 July of this last year as to how he was to act therein, to which we still refer ourselves.[2] In the meantime your honor must not neglect to collect on the debts for which the aforesaid De Yllan still owes the Company; all the more because nothing can be gained from his partners here in this country.
We can well believe that the small number of persons, whom the aforesaid Jew has there in his service, would certainly prefer to be released by him; nevertheless, as long as they are properly dealt with and treated, they are indebted to complete their obligated term. When it expires, then they are free to seek other masters.
Because we understand that there is a good quantity of dyewood there ready and in stock, your honors need not only await a ship from the director-general of Nieuw Nederlandt in order to take it aboard and transport it here, but we also intend to send off a second ship immediately in order to haul away the remaining wood and salt which may be there. Therefore, we hereby instruct your honor most earnestly to promote the cutting of dyewood as much as possible, but paying attention, nevertheless, that the young saplings are spared, and also that the regulations framed and issued concerning this are observed and adhered to.
We have conceded to the setting up of the forts walls in mortar for the reasons provided by your honor, and instruct your honor to strive to be as frugal as possible in its repair. This can now be tolerated all the more because there are presently no foreign enemies in particular to anticipate since the recent conclusion of the long awaited peace between the government of England and this state; as your honor shall be able to see by the authentic published articles accompanying this.[3] For this reason we have also considered hauling away from there not only the brass but also about half of the iron guns; however, we first prefer to hear your honors feelings on the matter, which we shall expect at the earliest opportunity.
The reasons given by your honor concerning why it is necessary to buy a yacht there we also consider to be sufficient and valid enough, and therefore we do not disapprove of the purchase but somewhat of the conditions and methods to be observed therein; namely, that the costto the sum of 1500 would be paid here and balanced against the recognition duties which will be due the Company from the sale of the aforesaid yacht. We would have preferred that your honor had made the payment there and not bothered us with it here, which your honor is to observe hereafter.
We are deeply suspicious that the aforesaid yacht which your honor sent to Nieuw Nederlandt with salt may have experienced some misfortune.[4] If this is found to be the case, we have instructed Director Stuyvesant to purchase at once another suitable vessel of 18 to 20 lasten to be employed between Curacao and the islands of Aruba and Buenairo, the procurement of which your honor is hereby most urgently ordered to make, because we have staked much on the preservation and retention of those places in relation to the territories of Nieuw Nederlandt.
And so that the contact between those of Nieuw Nederlandt and Curacao also might be maintained in better fashion, for the consolation of both places, it is our intention at the first opportunity here to look for and buy a suitable vessel of 60 to 80 lasten to be employed upon the sea and between both of those places, about which your honors have to have information immediately.
Just as your honor can see our zeal and financial commitment for the promotion of those places, so must he as well always turn his attention to the consideration of measures which somewhat could or might tend to the advancement thereof; about which also to be considered is the propagation of small animals, and because your honor decided in his letter of 8 March 1653[5] that the breeding of such could occur much more conveniently on Bonnairo than on Curacao, we also concur therein for reasons stated by him.
In examining the books sent over by your honor, we could not find that the goods bought and traded for the horses etc. have been completely and properly accounted for in the book of merchandise; especially those under the name and title of William Aires and the voyage to the Caribbean islands. And because we also cannot find here the books for the year 1650, either for merchandise and provisions or ammunition and equipment, your honor is hereby instructed to furnish us therewith at once (together with the books lacking for provisions, supplies and equipment for the years 1651, 1652 and 1653) and to furnish for the others plain and clear information; just as he is also earnestly instructed and ordered to send over to us the general and specific books precisely every year and without any delay in order to be able and allow us to regulate ourselves more assuredly by bringing everything into better order here.
With regard to the balance owed us for the purchase of horses by the owners of the ship St. Nicolaes, amounting to the sum of f 3362,4,10: it has just been remitted to us by draft from Hamburg.
Concerning the attached copy of the petition submitted in the name and on behalf of the Jew Jan de Yllan,[6] colonist on the island there, we have replied to each point as can be seen in the margin thereof, for which your honor is to regulate himself as much as it concerns him.
Hereby,
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