158 Timehri. 



Whenever an English vessel was reported on the coast the English were 

 put prisoners in the fort. There were about 200 English and 300 Dutch 

 and 7,000 to 12,000 negroes. The English and Dutch were very sickly 

 and died very fast. 



One P. Vorsterre " seeming the chief agent in Surinam " (really the 

 Governor) wrote home to the Committee of the States of Zealand in Sep- 

 tember. He gave a woeful account of the settlement. The population 

 had fallen to about 200 men only, of whom 50 or 60 were sick " for want 

 of refreshings having nothing to eat but rotten bacon, peas and gruts, and 

 but little of that. . . . Most planters' negroes have nought to eat but 

 the greens they pick in the fields. . . . The English prisoners are very 

 quiet, being mostly very sick, vizt., Capts. Kender and Vermiman, and 

 Mr. Knight, with little hope of life." Vorsterre had detained the English 

 there, for as soon as the negroes had heard that their masters were sent 

 away prisoners they mutinied against their overseers. 



In the following December Sir Jonathan Atkins, Governor of 

 Barbados, asked for a private commission " to take or destroy Surinam 

 or any of the Dutch islands or plantations." 



On the 9-1 9th of February, 1673-4 the Treaty of Westminster was 

 concluded between England and Holland. The fifth article runs as follows : 

 " Whereas the Colony of Surinam and the articles made on the surrender 

 thereof in 1667 betwixt William Byam, then Governor for his Majesty, 

 and Abraham Quirini [Crynsens], Commander for the States-Geneial, 

 have administered much occasion of dispute and contributed much to 

 the late misunderstanding betwixt his Majesty and the said States ; to 

 remove all grounds of future mistakes, the said States agree, that not 

 only the said articles shall be executed without any manner of equivocation, 

 but that it shall be free for his Majesty to depute one or more persona 

 thither to see the condition of his subjects, and to adjust a time for 

 their departure ; and that it shall be lawful for his Majesty to send 

 one, two, or three ships at one time to carry away his said subjects, 

 their goods, and slaves ; and that the Governor there shall not make 

 any law whereby the buying or selling of land, paying otf debts or com- 

 mutation of goods shall be otherwise qualified to the English than to other 

 inhabitants of the colony, but they shall enjoy the same laws and 

 privileges as are usually practised amongst the other inhabitants . and 

 that when His Majesty shall desire of the said States authentic letters to 

 the Governor to sutler the English to depart and the ships to come, said 

 States shall within 15 days deliver the same to whomsoever deputed by 

 His Majesty." And ia March the Council of Trade and Plantations 

 recommended that steps should be at once taken to remove the English 

 and their negroes, being of the number of about 700. In June the King 

 ordered the Council of Plantations to nominate one or two persons fit to 

 be sent to Surinam to arrange for the removal. They nominated on 

 June 8th Ferdinando Gorges, of Barbados, and William Stede ; a week 

 later the King expressed the wish that Mr. Cranfield (one of His Majesty's 



