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I, the undersigned, hereby acknowledge to have received from the honorable lord Matthias Beck, governor over the Curaçao islands, sixty-two slaves, young and old, as satisfaction and fulfillment of the contract made by Messrs. Hector Pieters and Guilliamme Momma with the honorable lords-directors of the chamber at Amsterdam on the 26th of June 1659; and because those Negroes were traded by the ship Den Conincke Salomon long before the arrival of us, the undersigned, and because the ship Den Eyckenboom has as of today not arrived as is stipulated in the aforesaid contract, therefore the aforesaid lord governor, to the best of his ability, accommodated me, the undersigned, with the aforesaid sixty-two slaves; and because there were both young and old among the aforesaid Negroes, a two Negro discount was allowed; therefore, that leaves exactly sixty head, of which I, the undersigned, have paid here to the lord governor for forty-six head, according to contract, at one hundred twenty pieces of eight, amounting to five thousand five hundred and twenty pieces of eight.

So that the remaining fourteen unpaid for Negroes can be paid for, according to the contract in Holland, by Messrs. Hector Pieters and Guilliamme Momma in Amsterdam upon presentation of this my receipt to the honorable lords-directors, I have hereby executed three of these with identical content and have signed them in the presence of the two undersigned credible witnesses; when one of these has been satisfied the others are invalid.

Curaçao in Fort Amsterdam, the 11th of February 1660.

It is to be understood that the aforesaid remaining fourteen Negroes to be paid for in Amsterdam, are not to be calculated higher than according to the contract at two hundred and eighty guilders for each head, amounting together to three thousand nine hundred and twenty Carolus guilders. Dated as above.

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.