Translation
RESOLUTION against plundering gardens belonging to blacks and Indians
Resolution drawn up at Fort Amsterdam on Curaçao, 26 February 1643.
Pursuant to the complaints of the Indians and Negroes that some of the Company’s servants have robbed their abandoned gardens of fruit left behind [ ] near the Quarter, Piscadero[i] and Enchorro[ii] and destroyed the fruit trees, as well as now having trespassed on the Company’s cultivated plantation and stolen some fruit; in order to prevent such irregularities, we have decided first to forbid such plundering through an ordinance carrying the death penalty, and if our intention is not thereby attained, to prevent movement into the country. In acknowledgment thereof, we have signed this with our own hands. Done at the place, year and day as above.