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Noble, Honorable, Valiant, Wise, Prudent and very Discreet Lord.

My Lord. My last letter was sent to your honor aboard the ship Diemen, which left here last 14 September with salt in return for provisions, together with copies of letters to which I shall refer.^[1] Because it has not been heard from again here, it has thus not been disregarded that it may have suffered some misfortune either in going or coming; which we, however, hope has not happened.

Early in the month of February I freighted a private ship here of about one hundred and fifty lasten with dyewood bark for the Company which departed from here on the 4th of March to go the backway around England to Amsterdam;^[2] it also carries a good quantity of cash for private parties as well as some for the Company. May the Lord God be entreated to guide it to safety without misfortune. And whereas the opportunity offers itself here quite unexpectedly that the ship with which this is going passed De Vergulde Meulen putting in here for lack of water, giving us, as a result, the occasion to write these few lines as a cover to those enclosed for our honorable lords- superiors in Amsterdam. I have left them open so that your honor can also be apprised of what has been happening here; and excuse myself thereby for not going into greater detail, with the humble request to close the same when your honor has made use of it and to forward it under your honor’s cover at the earliest opportunity.

I am sorry that we have so little opportunity and occasion here to correspond with your honor and that there is no ship capable of continually navigating the seas between here and N. Nederlandt in order to carry necessities from thereto here and again from here to there; therefore, a more capable vessel is needed than the ship Diemen, one with a trustworthy skipper and crew aboard with which one can dare to risk important items.

If the occasion arises that your honor is in need of salt, we have here at St. Jan^[3] about two hundred last at your honor’s disposal.

While writing this Mr. Augustijn Heermans, praise God, arrived in the harbor here with the galiot Nieuw Amstel, by which I received several letters from your honor as well as from other friends^[4] whom I shall answer by way of the same galiot, God willing; and in order not to detain the bearer of this any longer, I shall conclude this.

Hereby,

Noble, Honorable, Valiant, Wise, Prudent and very Discreet Lord, I commend your honor, together with all those dear to your honor, after our greetings, to the merciful protection of the Almighty, and remain as long as I live,

Curaçao in Fort
Amsterdam, the
end of April, 1659.

My Lord,
Your honor’s devoted
friend and servant.

[ Addressed below on recto: ] To the Noble Lord Director General Petrus Stuyvesant.

Notes

References

Translation: Gehring, C., trans./ed., Curaçao Papers, 1640-1665 (New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute: 2011).A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.