EXPEDITION TO SURINAM, 



Company; which they did in the year 1682, for the fum 

 of ^.235636 fterling, including all the warlike ftores, 

 ammunition, occ. amongft which were fifty pieces of 

 cannon. At the fame time they obtained a charter from 

 their high mightineffes the States General, exempting 

 them from duty for ten years. A few months after this, 

 however, the Weft India Company, notwithftanding the 

 above charter of indemnification, finding the other ne- 

 ceflary expences of the fettlement alfo too great for 

 them, again transferred two-thirds of the colony of Su- 

 rinam, the one to the town of Amfterdam, the other to 

 the houfe of Somelfdyk, at the fame price for which 

 they had bought it, and thefe three together formed a 

 fociety, to whom (ftill under the fandlion of their high 

 mightinefies) was fome time afterwards intrufted, by a 

 refolution of the States General, the fole and entire di- 

 redlion of the affairs of this country. 



Such was the fituation of Surinam, and in this manner 

 all matters were finally fettled, when Cornelius Van Aar- 

 fen, lord of Somelfdyk (as being one of the proprietors) 

 went over with three hundred men, with whom he alfo 

 took fome felons fentenced for tranfportation. At his ar- 

 rival, in 1684, he took the command as governor general 

 of the colony. He then created a court of policy, to af- 

 fift in the adminiftration of juftice ; with the members 

 of which, as well as with the inhabitants, he lived in a 

 ftate of continual difienfion. The confequence v/as, that 

 they fent feveral complaints againft him to Europe, not- 



withftandino- 



