SURINAM AS A DUTCH POSSESSION. 



1667— FEB. 27th— 1917. 

 By Fred. Oudschans Dentz. 



The 17th century was without doubt the golden age of the Nether- 

 lands, a period in which heroes established the great colonial possessions 

 which now give the Netherlands the third place among the Great Colonial 

 Powers. 



We cannot be otherwise than grateful when we look back across the 

 centuries on the stout resolute men, which that small community produced ; 

 they have made the Netherlands great, although the leaves, on which 

 their heroic deeds were written are now yellowed with age. There is 

 scarcely any corner of the world, where traces of them cannot be found ; 

 they sailed round the world and planted settlements in far away lands, 

 though in the course of time many of them were lost and fell into the 

 hands of more powerful competitors in the racial struggles, mostly on 

 account of neglect and the lukewarm spirit of their successors. 



Dutch pluck, Dutch enterprise, Dutch reminiscences cling round 

 many places on the globe. ( x ) 



They cling to our present colonies, so much more extensive than 

 that small and often misjudged Motherland, wedged in between so many 

 powerful neighbours. One of these colonies is Surinam ; a costly, tropical 

 possession five times as large as the Motherland and greater than Java. It 

 is situated on the N.W. coast of South America, that great continent of 

 the future of which it forms, it is true only a very small part, but still a 

 part that promises much. On February 27th, 1917, this Colony — with 

 the exception of three short English periods — had been in Dutch hands for 

 two and a half centuries. On this occasion the name of Suriname and 

 naturally the name of her Conqueror Abraham Crijnssen has been on the 

 lips of many in the Motherland and the Colonies. He was a sturdy son 

 of the Province of Zealand, a second de Ruyter, though unlike him, little 

 known and even less appreciated. 



The history of Suriname, before the settlement was wrested from the 

 English is well known, but may be here shortly recalled. 



The coast of Guiana, solemnly annexed by the Spaniards in 1593 for 

 Philip II., was, however, speedily abandoned hy them. The colonisation 

 of Guiana was attempted by Spaniards, who failed, by the French who 

 shared the same fate aud by Zeelanders and English who succeeded. At 

 the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, Guiana formed the 

 great point of attraction for fortune-seekers of all races, they came thither 

 to seek for the reported newly- discovered Manoa del Dorado, the golden 

 town situated on the shores of the unknown Parirna Lake, where 



