UNIVERSAL
LIBRARY
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
How ihc colonies were actually
governed; wkai Ae
colonists
did
at work and
Tplay;
horn
the motker
country
stamped
her image upon
ikem^
and
to
tvkat
extent
the
lineaments
of
that
image
toere
modified, by
contact
with
local forces—these
are matters
that
interest
the
reader of
to-day —IP.
jij. Shepherd.
CHHIr^TIAXSTKI).
ST.
fit*
flX.
IX
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
UNDER COMPANY RULE
(1671-1754)
WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER
1755-1917
WALDEMAR WESTEEGAABD Ph D
ASSISTANT PEOFBSSOB OP HISTOET AT POMONA COILBGB
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BV
H MORSE STEPHENS M A
Litt D (Harv)
6AIEBB PKOIESSOK 01 HISIORY AX XHE OIOVEItStlX 01 CAUXOSmA
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Npm fotit
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1917
All r%ghta reserved
Ooi»YRtOMT,
1917
Bt THK macjsui.i.an company
Hi^t u|> anti printed,
l^ublitihtui June, 14)17»
PREFACE
Since the opening of the Panama Canal, the attention of
the United States has been drawn more and more to those
Caribbean and Gulf regions, which were, until comparatively
recent times, the economic center of the New World and the
source of a considerable part of that wealth which kept the
wheels of industry running in the Old.
If Tobacco was King
in the seventeenth, and Cotton in the nineteenth, then Sugar
surely held the scepter in the eighteenth century.
This book was written before the United States began the
negotiations that have resulted in the transfer of the Danish
West Indian islands to the United States.
The increased in-
terest of Americans
in Caribbean lands, and the scarcity of
authoritative historical books upon the subject will it is hoped
justify its appearance now.
It assumes a certain curiosity on
the part of the reader,
first, as to how the Danish-Norwegian
state became interested in the islands
off the Spanish Main,
and second, how so small a state has managed to retain its hold
for nearly two centuries and a half.
The pages which follow record an episode in the time when
Sugar was King.
They are the result of ah attempt to identify
and appraise a number of official and other papers found in
the Bancroft Collection at the University of California.
These
documents had come from the Danish West Indian islands,
and were fihst brought to the writer’s attention by Professor
Henry Morse Stephens under whose inspiration and guidance
the subsequent investigations were carried on.
The paucity
of the printed material
dealing with the history
of Danish
colonization in America led to a search in the Danish libraries
and
archives
for further
light.
The
entire
archives
of the
Danish West India and Guinea Company were found substan-
tially intact in their repository in the state archives building of
Denmark near Christiansborg castle.
Except for the labors of
VI
PREFACE
a few scholars in search of genealogical and biographical
in-
formation, the collection had to all appearances scarcely been
touched.
With such a wealth of material to go through, the writer
caimot claim to have exhausted his subject, but he hopes to
have made more intelligible than hitherto the story of one of
those commercial joint-stock companies that were so
closely
associated with the seventeenth and eighteenth century
ex-
ploitation of New World resources.
Treated by
itself, colonial history
is well-nigh meaningless.
Only when considered as part of European history—indeed,
when related somehow to universal history—does
it become
vital.
It is obvious that the political and economic development
of American colonies cannot be adequately followed without
giving considerable attention to the forces that prompted, and
largely guided, commercial ventures-
The present work is the
history
of a company composed mainly
of Danish business
men intent upon embracing such commercial opportunities as
the New World seemed to
offer them.
Their headquarters
were in Copenhagen, their factories, or trading centers, in the
West Indies and on the Guinea coast.
Business was the chief
aim, the establishment of a colony an incident, of their en-
deavors.
Yet one caimot be understood apart from the other.
The r6le played by Denmark-Norway in tropical
colonijza-
tion was indeed not large and not infrequently the interest of
the English—or American—^reader will center in what the men
of the North saw and heard in the West Indies, rather than in
what they did there.
Yet, there was enough of what might be
called economic
solidarity in the Western commercial world
to lend the Danish occupation a genuine
interest.
Despite
local differences, the experiences of the Danes were fairly typical
of those of the Dutch, the French, the English, and even the
Spanish merchants and administrators.
The physical condi-
tions with which all had to contend were nearly identical.
The
political and economic ideas which the Europeans who sought
to earn their livelihood in the West Indies brought witli them
had many points of similarity.
In fact, the population of many
of the islands was surprisingly cosmopolitan.
PREFACE
Vll
In the eighty-four years of its existence, the Company led
a varied and interesting
life.
During
its early years
it sur-
vived the competition of Dutch, French, English, and Branden-
burg business, whether private or corporate.
With the opening
of the new century it experienced the welcome, if rather hectic,
glow of a period of prosperity induced by a general European
war, that of the Spanish Succession.
In the era of speculation
and depression that followed the return
of peace, the Danish
Company had its experience with paper money expedients as a
cure for hard times.
In the history of the slave trade and of that tropical agri-
culture which it was calculated to promote, and in the growth
of the idea of self-government, the experience of the Danish
colonies
is suggestive.
Though St. Thomas has been popularly
associated with buccaneers and pirates, some of whose exploits
are recorded in the following pages,
it has scarcely been sus-
pected heretofore that a considerable part of Captain Kidd’s
‘‘treasure” found its way to the warehouses and ships of Danes
and Brandenburgers on the island.
But what was after all far more important than random calls
by pirates was the fact that the Company helped to supply
Europe with sugar, cotton and what are still known in Danish
shops as colonial wares.
Moreover, it served as a training school
for statesmen who after this experience found the transition
from the business of the Company to affairs of state less dif-
ficult to compass.
The writer has not hesitated to let the actors tell their own
story, but to obviate
needless
obstruction to the
narrative,
and for the benefit of those readers who may care to probe
deeper into the subject, such illustrative and
statistical ma-
terial as could not well be included in the body of the text has
been incorporated into the appendix.
Many names of char-
acters and places not familiar to English readers in their Danish
form have been anglicized where possible.
The following
list
of Danish equivalents for the rendering of proper names given
in the text is offered in the hope of preventing undue confusion
for such as may care to consult the original records.
Chris-
tian « Christiem;
George ~ Jdrgen;
Peter == Peder,
Pieter;
PREFACE
viii
John = Jan, Johan, Johannes, Jens; Oliver = Oliger; William =
Willem, Wilhelm; Severin == Sciren;
also
Unicorn = Enhiorn-
ingen;
Unity = Eenigheden; Electoral Prince ~ Churprinz;
tlie
Peace = Freden;
the
Gilded
Crown = den
Forgyldte
Krone;
the Red Cock = den Rode Hane,
To friends who have assisted him
in numerous ways,
the
writer wishes to express his gratitude.
Chief among these
is
Professor H. Morse Stephens, Sather Professor of History at
the
University
of
California,
to whose
generous
ent^ourage-
ment this work owes its inception. He has followed the progress
of the investigations with a never-flagging interest, and has
always been ready to place his great store of knowledge at the
writer's
disposal.
To
Professor Charles IL Hull of Cornell
University for patient guidance and valued instruction during
a year at that institution as Fellow in American history,
to
Professor Herbert E. Bolton of the University
of
(^/alifornia
for
constructive
criticism,
to Mr.
Herbert L
Priestley
for
valuable bibliographical hints, to Professor W. R. R. Pinger
and Miss
Florence Livingstone
for
suggestions
as
to
style,
sincere thanks are due.
To the oflGicials in the Danish archives
and libraries whose services were generously placed at his dis-
posal, the author takes pleasure
in acknowledging his debt,
and especially to former Rigsarkivar^ Dr. V. Secher and
his
staff at the state and provincial archives, Dr. V. Christensen
of the Raadsticearkiv, Professor Knud Fabricaus, Dr. Ove Paul-
sen, the officials of the Royal and University Libraries, atul to
Fru Anna Backer.
Their uniform courtesy and
helpfulness
are among the writer’s pleasant memories of his year in Co|H^n-
hagen.
To His
Excellency Dr. Maurice Francis Egan.
Axiieri<*an
minister to Denmark, the writer desires to express his gratitude
for assistance in securing access to materials.
To the Regents
of the University of California for aid in making p<KHsible
tlie
procuring
of needed transcripts,
grateful acknowledpnent
is
due*
The difficulty of correcting proof and checking up references
to manuscript sources when archives are thousands of miles
removed from the scene of writing may serve to explain, though
PREFACE
IX
not to excuse, textual errors.
The writer is indebted to Pro-
fessor Hull for generous assistance in reading the final proofs.
The present work, submitted as a thesis in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
the University of California in May, 1915,
is the first volume
of three which the writer hopes to devote to the history of the
Danish West India Islands.
The second will follow the for-
times of the colonies down to the end of the Napoleonic Wars,
and the third will bring the story down to the present time.
In
view, however, of the current interest aroused in the islands as
a result of their purchase by the United States, a supplementary
chapter has been added
to
this
volume, summarizing
their
more recent history.
Pomona College,
Claremont, California,
April 15, 1917.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
1660. Coup d'itat of Frederick III.
1671. Establishment of West India Company.
1673. West India and Guinea companies united.
1685. Brandenburg treaty concerning St. Thomas.
1690.
ArflE takes over Guinea factory.
1690. Thormohlen lease of St. Thomas begins.
1694. Company receives back St. Thomas.
1696-97. Arff gives up Guinea trade.
1697. Company begins slave trade in earnest.
1706. Planters send first delegation to Copenhagen.
1715. Planters send second delegation.
1717.
St. John occupied by Danes.
1726. Drought and famine on St. Thomas.
1733. Negro insurrection on St. John.
1733.
St. Croix purchased from France.
1734. New charter granted by king.
1747. '"Union plan and convention’’ enlarging Company.
1748. Planters send third delegation to Copenhagen.
1754. Company’s shares sold to king; Danish islands become
royal colonies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE
v~ix
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
xi
INTRODUCTION BY H, MORSE STEPHENS
xvii
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION ; Geographical and Historical
1
Chap,
I. The Establishment of the Company
31
11.
The Critical Period (1680-1690)
45
III. The Brandenbxjrgees at St. Thomas
71
IV. The Leasing of Guinea and St. Thomas
95
V. The Governorship of John Lorbntz
105
VI. St. Thomas and St. John as Plantation Colonies (1688-
1733)
m
Vn. The Slave Trade in the Danish West Indies
137
Vni. The Slave and the Planter
157
IX. The Planter and the Company
179
X. The Acquisition of St. Croix
199
XI. The Company under the New Charter
213
BIBLIOGRAPHY
263
APPENDIXES
A. Governors in the West Indies and in Guinea
285
B. Directors and Board
op
Shareholders
in
Copen-
hagen
290
C. The First Charter of the Danish West India Com-
pany
294
D. Charter op 1697 por the West India and Guinea Com-
pany
299
E. Letter op Charite Esmit to Adolph Esmit
803
F. Report of Board op Police and Trade to King Fred-
erick IV (1716)
306
G. Governor Erik Bredal to Directors, 1719, 1722
315
H. Statistics por St. Thomas: Population, Plantations.
.
. 818
I, Statistics for
St. John and
St. Croix: Population,
Plantations
—
819
[xwl
XIV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPENDIXES
PAGE
J. List of Slave Cakgoes Arriving in Danish West In-
dies
3^0
K. Prices on St. Thomas (1687-1751)
327
L. West Indian Sugar Exported prom Copenhagen. .... 328
M. Company’s Receipts and Debts at St. Thomas
3S£
N. Company’s Receipts and Debts at St. Crodc
$34
O. Capital Invested at St. Thomas under Plan of 1747
$35
P. The Company’s Business IN Brown Sugar
336
Q. The Company’s Business IN Cotton
337
R. Returns on Company’s Capital
338
S. St.Thomas Statistics: Miscellaneous
340
T. St, Crodc Statistics: MiscelXuANeous
341
U* List of Shareholders in the Year 1751
34Sfc
INDEX
351
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
CimiSTiANSTED,
St. Ckoix,
IN
1815
Frontispiece
FACING
PAGE
Map op the Danish West Indian Islands
8
{Botanisk Tidsskrift.
Bd, 29-
F, Borgesen)
Map op St. Thomas (P1715-1733)
(MS. Map, undated, Royal Library, Copenhagen)
•
Map op St. John (1780)
127
(Published by P. L. Oxholm, Copenhagen, 1800)
Map op Northeen Europe; Baltic and North Sea Lands.
.
136
Christiansborg Castle, Guinea Coast
139
(Engraved by M. Rosier, Copenhagen, 1760)
Map op St. Croix
202
(MS. Map, undated, Royal Library, Copenhagen)
Sketch op St. Croix’s Town
216
(Watcrcolor drawing, State Archives, Copenhagen)
Map of St. Thomas (1767)
245
(Oldcndorp’s Geschichte der Mission, 1777)
Map op St. Croix (1767)
245
(Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission, 1777)
Map op St. Croix (1754, 1766)
248
(Survey by J. M. Beck; engraved by 0. H. de Lode, 1754;
names of plantation owners filled in, 1766)
St. Thomas Harbor (View to Westward)
257
Map of Caribbean Lands
262
(xv]
INTRODUCTION
In the month of December, 1916, the Danish Government
solemnly transferred the sovereignty of the Danish West India
Islands to the Government of the United States, and three
months later the United States took possession of the islands of
St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix.
From one point of view,
this was the natural development of the United States as a
West India power.
The island of St. Thomas closely approaches
the island of Porto Rico, the first island of the Caribbean Sea of
which the United States became possessor.
All that will appear
upon the map will be the extension of the American Govern-
ment from Porto Rico a little to the southeast.
Prom a stra-
tegical standpoint, the chief value of the Danish Islands to the
United States
is the possession of the harbor of St. Thomas;
from an economic standpoint, it signifies a little further territory
producing tropical fruits for the states of the eastern seaboard;
from a political standpoint, it means another step in the expan-
sion of the United States.
But from the historian’s outlook, it
means the ending of the colonial power of Denmark, and thereby
marks an epoch in history.
The history of the West India Islands has a particular signif-
icance to all students of the history of America.
It was in the
West Indies that took place the most bitter and prolonged
struggle in American waters during the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries.
It is generally pointed out, with a sniff of con-
tempt, that through the lack of prophetic vision among the
statesmen of the eighteenth century, it was proposed during the
negotiations of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, that the triumphant
English Ministry should not take Canada from France, but one
of the French West India Islands, so much more valuable did the
commerce of the West Indies appear than the possession of
Canada.
It was in the West Indies that the most famous naval
combats
of
the
seventeenth and
eighteenth
centuries
were
[xvii]
XVlll
INTRODUCTION
fought, by the English against the Spanish in the seventeenth
century, and by the English against the French in the eighteenth
century.
The struggle for the possession of the West IndicKS was,
among the European nations
of the seventeenth and
eight-
eenth centuries, both political and economic.
To use a phrase
of Doctor Westergaard s, those were the days when "‘sugar was
king.’’
The importance of the sugar trade overcame all other
considerations, and
tlie European nation that could grow
its
own sugar cane and import its own sugar in its own ships had an
immense
commercial
advantage
over
other
countries.
The
peculiar geographical formation of the West India Islands gave
every one of the maritime nations of Europe a chance to grow
its own sugar.
The earliest of these nations in the West Indies,
Spain, counted rather on other staples than sugar, and paid
more attention to
its mainland possessions than to
its island
possessions.
Great Britain, by its settlement of Barbados and
St.
Christopher and by
its
conquest
of Jamaica,
definitely
started its career as a planter and importer of sugar, and the
French,
the Dutch,
the
Danes, and even
the
Courlanders
followed the example.
One of the most interesting experiments
in this direction was that of Denmark.
Doctor Waldemar Westergaard, a scholar of Danish extrac-
tion, though bom in the United States, undertook, some years
ago, to study the history of the Danish West India Islands.
His knowledge
of
the Danish language from
his
childhood
caused him to study with great interest certain Danish West
India documents of primary importance which had been col-
lected for Mr. H. H. Bancroft of San Francisco, and which now
form part of the Bancroft Library,
in the possession of the
University of California.
In his study of these particular <locu-
ments, Doctor Westergaard discovered that not even in the
Danish language was tliere any reliable history of the Danish
West Indies.
He therefore resolved to go to Denmark, and
there soon found that the Danish historians had n^lected the
history of their colonial possessions.
He spent about a year
working among the Danish documents, and was thereby enabled
to obtain first-hand information as to the history of the Danish
West India Islands, and to write a history of the Danish ^ttle-
INTRODUCTION
XIX
ments based principally upon primary authorities.
This
in-
troduction
is not intended to be mere laudation
of Doctor
Westergaard or an account of his researches, which are described
sufficiently
well
in
his
bibliography.
The
originality
and
merits of his book can be seen by the most superficial reader.
Still less is this introduction intended to be a review of his book;
it will be rather an attempt to set forth the results of Doctor
Westergaard’s labors as bearing upon the general history of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Students of American colonial history know well enough the
importance
of the chartered companies, through which was
made
possible the
early
English
settlement
of
the Atlantic
seaboard of the present United States of America.
But these
companies which
dealt with the mainland
settlements
only
exhibit on a small scale the general principles by which com-
panies were chartered for trade and plantation, not only by the
English Government, but by other European countries as weU.
Some day it may be possible to bring out the likeness and un-
likeness between the conditions under which companies were
chartered
in
Great
Britain,
France,
the
Netherlands,
and
Denmark.
M.
Pierre Bonnassieux,
in his Les Grandes Com-
'pagnies de Commerce, has given the outlines of such a study, and
other French writers have dealt with phases of the French East
India Company in particular.
More interesting,
if it could be
made accessible from the primary sources, would be the history,
and especially the early history, of the Dutch companies.
The
story of the English companies before 17^0 has been written by
Mr. WilKam R. Scott, but their later history is scattered about
in many different books dealing with India and America.
On
all of them is light thrown by Doctor Westergaard’s elaborate
study
of the Danish company.
In these modern
days, an
attempt is being made to revive the chartered-company idea in
England, and the British North Borneo Company, xmder Sir
Alfred Dent;
the
British East
Africa Company, under
Sir
William Mackinnon; the British South Africa Company, under
Cecil Rhodes; and the British West Africa Company, imder Sir
George Taubman-Goldie, have all of them been an adaptation
of seventeenth-century ideas to nineteenth-century conditions.
INTRODUCTION
There have been two great principles of expansion and settle-
ment of European nations in Asia, Africa, and America.
The
one,
direct conquest and settlement by the governments
of
European nations, and the other the tapping of the financial
resources
of
different countries through
charters
granted
to
companies of merchants who subscribed capital for settlement
and trade beyond the
seas, under the
direct permission
or
license of their respective governments,
Spain and Portugal
were the two countries that believed in direct expansion under
royal authority.
In some ways, the Portuguese experiment is
more interesting,
especially in regard to trade, than the far
larger Spanish development of empire.
The Portuguese Govern-
ment, after the discovery of the direct sea route to India by
Vasco da Gama, kept in its own hands as a government the
entire trade of Asia.
It was the Portuguese king’s agents who
purchased the cargoes for Portuguese royal ships in India and
Ceylon, in China and Japan and Malacca, in Persia and Arabia.
These cargoes of Asiatic produce were brought to Lisbon in the
king’s ships, and the goods were then purchased by individual
merchants out of the king’s warehouses.
It would be possible to
dwell at length upon
the
direct
action
of the Spanish and
Portuguese Govermnents in the work of expansion, settlement,
and trade in Asia, Africa, and America, but the illustration of
the Portuguese Government’s control of the Asiatic trade will
serve to point out the chief characteristics of government direc-
tion.
Other coimtries, notably Great Britain and the Protestant
Netherlands in the sixteenth century, and Prance and Denmark
in the seventeenth century, did not, for the most part, work
through
direct goveriomental agency, but through chartered
companies.
The relation between these chartered companies
and the governments of their respective countries is a matter of
great interest, and much new light is thrown upon it by Doctor
Westergaard’s very careful presentation of the relation betw^n
the Danish West India Company and the Danish Government.
It so happened that Danish expansion into the West Indies
took place
at the time when the government
of Denmark-
Norway was entirely in the hands of the Crown.
The Bevolu-
tion of 1660 had put an end to any body of representatives in a
INTRODUCTION
XXI
legislature, and the Crown took entire charge of all matters of
administration.
In Denmark, therefore, there was none of that
interference on the part
of the legislature which marks the
history, in particular, of the English East India Company, which
never quite knew, in the seventeenth century, whether it was
under the Crown or under Parliament, while it knew very well
in the eighteenth century that it must expect the interference
of Parliament whenever an opportunity offered.
The Danish
Crown, therefore, played a considerable part in the history of the
Danish Company, even more than that of the French Crown
in the history of the various French companies.
In France, as
in the Protestant Netherlands, the main reliance of the respec-
tive
chartered
companies was upon
the
various
mercantile
corporations, or rather organizations of the business interests of
France; while in England it was the individual merchants that
rallied together to form the first holders of stock in the great
plantation and commercial companies.
A point to be noticed is that the Danish Company was, at the
same time, a plantation and a trading company.
In the minds
of the expansionists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
there was no great distinction made between trade and planta-
tion, and
all students
of English history
will remember the
important functions
of the Board
of Trade and Plantations,
whose administrative powers extended over the varied interests
of English colonial expansion.
Doctor Westergaard has clearly
distinguished between plantation and trade, and has shown how
different were the problems presented by each of them.
The staple product of the Danish West India plantations, as
of the plantations in all the other islands, was sugar.
Doctor
Westergaard
explains
at
length the
character
of
the
sugar
plantations, the working of the manufacture of sugar, and the
intensive cultivation of the sugar cane followed by the mevitable
exhaustion
of the
soil.
But the
chief problem
of the sugar
planters was
labor.
At
first, the Danish Company tried to
make use of the dregs of the white population of Copenhagen.
But these first Danish immigrants died off like flies.
They were
unable to withstand labor in the Tropics.
This had also been
discovered by the English
in the seventeenth
century,
and.
XXll
introduction
indeed, by
all European planters
in the West
Indies.
The
natives of the islands could not work, and the labor probletn,
therefore, produced the negro slave
trade.
This meant the
establishment by Denmark, as well as by the otlier countries
owning plantations,
of barracoons, defended by
forts, on the
west coast of Africa, where negro slaves could be collected for
transport
to
the West
Indies.
Very
carefully
has
Doctor
Westergaard described these establishments, and shown their
importance to the prosperity of the Islands.
Indeed, a careful
study of his book and of his appendixes will show what some may
think a disproportionate amount of space devoted to the slave
trade.
On the other hand,
it must be borne in mind that the
negro slave trade was one of the most important pluises of com-
merce in the eighteenth century, and that the wise stockhold<T
in a West India trading and plantation <iomj)any would nat urally
endeavor to have the company import slaves for its own and
tlu’?
planters’ use in company ships rather tlnin to buy them at a
big profit to slave traders of other countries.
Denmark is a very small country compared to Spain, Prance,
and Great Britain, and yet shows in the history of her West
India Islands,
it
is possible to say, many illustrations of the
mistakes that ruined the more extensive experiments of otlier
nations.
This is not the proper place to describe Doctor Wesier-
gaard’s treatment of individuals, although he lias made quite a
picture gallery of governors, factors, captains, chaplains, states-
men, and politicians.
To some readers, his personal description
of individuals will appeal more than any other feature, but to
others the larger economic and political questions involved will
seem of greater interest.
One episode in particular might
bc^
here mentioned, the story of the Brandenburg Company.
Tlie
Great Elector of Brandenburg is a figure to conjure with; from
him started the larger growth of the House of Hohon^iollern and
its development into King of Prussm and German
EnifKiror.
Those who read the past in the light of the present have some-
times wondered that neither Brandenburg nor Prussia had its
part in the great movement of colonial expansion.
Close stu-
dents of HohenzoUem history know that Frederick the Grt^ai erf
Prussia deliberately resolved not to make his state into a naval
introduction
xxiii
or a
colonial power, but comparatively few know that
the
attempt was made
earlier, not in the direct fashion
of sov-
ereignty, but through an arrangement with the King of Den-
mark, in the West Indies.
It seems curious, at the present
time, to think of the Hohenzollern Prince, and one as famous as
the Great Elector, making arrangements with Denmark for a
West India sugar experiment.
The story of the Brandenburgers
has been dealt with at considerable length by Doctor Wester-
gaard, and doubtless, to some readers, this will prove the most
interesting new fact brought to their attention.
We have to
remember that Brandenburg was a poor country in the seven-
teenth century, and that it had not the capital or the means to
develop a colonial power. We must remember also that it had
no sea power, while Denmark-Norway was one of the great sea
powers, on account of its extended coast line, its geographical
position, and the efficiency of its sailors.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Danish
West Indies passed through various stages of prosperity and
failure, and were at times profitable to the Danish Crown and to
the Danish people, and at other times a drain upon their re-
sources.
But the time at last came, in the nineteenth century,
when there was no more profit to be made out of cane sugar, and
the Danish Islands definitely declined.
The abolition of the
negro slave trade, the development of beet sugar, the building
up of larger political and economic units,
all played their part
in decreasing the value of the Danish West Indies
either to
Denmark or to the inhabitants themselves.
The same depres-
sion from the same causes was to be seen in the West India
possessions of other European countries.
Ever since the aboli-
tion of negro slavery, the English West Indies have been profit-
less.
But for pride, the Danes might have easily abandoned
their West India possessions many years ago.
But pride in
their past is pretty strong in small nationalities that have once
been powers in the world.
' Denmark, after losing Norway in
1814, and Schleswig-Holstein in 1864, became a very small na-
tion indeed, and the Danish West Indies became rather a burden
than anything else.
Only one nation in the world desired the
possession of the Danish West Indies, and that not for economic
XXIV
INTRODUCTION
reasons.
I think that
it can be asserted that neither Great
Britain nor France would have taken them as a gift, but the
United States of America has, for more than a half century, de-
sired the harbor of St. Thomas for strategic reasons.
Porto
Rico, acquired after the Spanish-American War in 1898, had no
naval base, and when the Panama Canal was finally undertaken
and then built,
it became worth while for the United States to
look again towards the acquisition of St. Thomas,
The only
argument against the cession of the Islands was historic pride,
and in these days of European crisis, historic pride could not
stand further against actual need.
So the Danes made up their
minds to forget that they had been a West India power, and to
the great delight
of the inhabitants
of the Islands, who, as
Doctor Westergaard points out, are generally not Danes, and to
sell their West India possessions to the United States of Amer-
ica.
It might be imagined that some patriotic Danes would
feel deeply the loss of the Islands as signifying the passing of an
historic
relic
of the Danish past, but the neglect which the
Danish people have shown for the history of their West Indies,
as shown in Doctor Westergaard’s statement that no Danish
scholar has written the history of the Islands, and that even the
most valuable primary authorities have been utterly neglected,
shows that the feeling of historic pride has not gone very deep
among Danish scholars.
At any rate, it should be noted as an
interesting fact, that the first history of the Danish West Indies,
written from primary sources, should be the work of the son of a
Danish family which immigrated to North Dakota, and that he
should have received his historical training at the University of
California.
H. Morsb Sterhuns.
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
THE DANISH WEST INDIES UNDER
COMPANY RULE
(1671-1754)
INTHOBUCTION; GEOGBAPHICAL and HISTOEICAI/
If Belgium has been described, and not inaccurately, as ‘‘the
cockpit of Europe,” the West Indies may be regarded as "‘the
cockpit”
of
sea
power.
The
islands and mainland
of the
Caribbean and Gulf regions have been among the prizes for
which European
states have contended in
practically every
war of consequence that has been fought during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
Just why Spaniards, Frenchmen and Englishmen, Dutchmen
and Danes, Swedes and Brandenburgers, and even Knights of
Malta and Courlanders, should all at one time or another havfe
directed their energies to West Indian commerce and commer-
cial exploitation is a question that very few, beyond a limited
number
of
specialists, are able
intelligently to answer.
The
heterogeneous character of the West Indian political map of
to-day has behind it an interesting story, and one thoroughly
worth studying, for those who wish to grasp imderstandingly the
reasons for European interest in America before Spain lost her
various American colonies on the mainland.
So far
as the
immediate
eflPects upon Europe were concerned, the beating
back of the Spanish frontier in the Caribbean regions by Spain’s
commercial rivals was far more important at the time than the
distant frontier struggles of Spaniards, Frenchmen, and English-
men on the maiiiland of America.
The present study is an attempt to separate from the tangled
skein of West Indian history the single small thread that con-
cerns the early efforts of Denmark-Norway to establish itself
in those distant regions.
It is an attempt to explain the strange
[ 1 ]
2
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
fascination that drew the blonde and hardy blue-eyed traders
and sailors from the cold Baltic shores to distant tropical regions
where the bounties of Nature—^it must often have seemed—only
served to lure the newcomer on to sickness and death.
Denmark possesses three small islands in the West Indies;
St, Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix.
With the exception of a
few months in 1801 and the period 1807-1815, when England
seized them to prevent their being of use to Napoleon, with
whom Denmark was to
all intents and purposes
allied, they
have
since
remained
continuously
under Danish
rule.
St.
Thomas was
first permanently settled by Danes in 1672; St,
John, although claimed as early as 1683, was not actually settled
until 1716-1717; St. Croix was purchased from France in 1733,
and settled by colonists from the other two islands early in 1735,
Spasmodic attempts at occupation had taken place before by
the Dutch and English on St. Thomas, and by French, Knights
of Malta, and miscellaneous rovers on St. Croix.
The total area of the three islands
is but a
trifle over one
hxmdred and thirty-two square miles, or about three and a half
townships.
The acreage of St. Thomas is 18,080; of St. John,
1^,780.8, and of St. Croix, 53,913.6.^
At its greatest length, St,
Thomas extends about thirteen and three-fourths miles (22 km.),
its breadth at the town of Charlotte Amalia is but one and one-
half miles
(2.8 km.), and
its greatest width three and three-
fourths miles (6 km.).
The two northern islands form part of
the Virgin island group, and all three belong to the group still
frequently designated as the Leeward Islands. *
Together they
form part of the northwestern extremity of that ‘*bow of Ulys-
ses’’
constituting the Lesser
Antilles,
stretching from Porto
Rico to the east and then southward in a mighty sweep of seven
hundred miles, ending at Trinidad off the South American main-
land.
With the Greater Antilles and the mainland, they enclose
1 Eggers (8t Croix*a Flora, p. 88), gives 51,881 acres for St, Crdac,
The
figures quoted are
taken, from The National Oeograj^hic Mojfamm
for July,
1916, p. 89.
* The Leeward Islands include the Vurgin Islands, St. Chnstophar (St Batts),
St Etistafius, Antigua, Montserrat Guadaloupe, Martimque, and their various
dependencies.
INTRODUCTION
3
the Caribbean Sea, which is separated from the Gulf of Mexico
by Cuba and the peninsula of Yucatan.
The spectator who stands in clear weather above Botany
Bay in the west end of St. Thomas and looks westward beyond
the little islands of Culebra and Vieques or Crab may plainly see
Porto Rico.
From the hills that command St. Thomas harbor,
the observer may discern
St. Croix on the southern horizon
thirty-five miles away.
St. John, near neighbor to St. Thomas
and equally mountainous,
is
less than three
miles from the
eastern end of that island.
The trip from Smith’s Bay, St.
Thomas, to Crux Bay, St. John, is but a matter of an hour by
rowboat or sail.
The British Virgin Islands lie immediately to
the eastward, the nearest of them, Tortola, being but twenty
minutes distant by rowboat from St. John.
Like the rest of the
entire archipelago, these islands are of volcanic origin, and sub-
ject to frequent earthquakes,^ which are however rarely de-
structive.
The two islands, St. Thomas and St. John, rise out
of the same plateau.
Between them and St. Croix the Caribbean
Sea
deepens
to
15,000
feet.
Sail-boats
plying between
St.
Thomas and St. Croix must be extremely cautious during the
summer months, in the so-called hurricane season.
The islands
lie directly in the track of the tradewihds that blow down from
southwestern Europe and Madeira.
This was the reason why
they were among the first lands to be sighted by Columbus on
his initial voyage westward.
The Spaniards devoted their attention to the larger islands,
and, naturally enough, with the increasing importance of the
Spanish trade, the lesser islands became desirable outposts for
those nations whose traders were all, by lawful means or with-
out, to gain a share in that trade.
Of such islands few had more
natural advantages than St. Thomas.
Its harbor afforded pro-
tection to ships in all but the severest storms, its beaches were
admirably suited to the careening and overhauling of
sailing
vessels,^ and it was easily fortified and defended.
® During a period of five and one-half years, Dr. Hombech noted not less than
thirty-three quakes, none of them violent (Bergsoe, Den danske Stats StatisUh,
IV, 579).
* See Origri or Qregerie on map facing p. 8, just west of harbor.
4
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Besides the harbor, St, Thomas has along
its coast line nu-
merous smaller indentations, usually referred to on the islands
as
''bays/’
although many
are
scarcely more than
landing
places.
It
is the existence of such bays in this and in many
other West Indian
islands that has made
it
practically im-
possible in the past for
officials to put an end to smuggling.
Christian Martfeldt, a Danish economist who visited the islands
about 1765, listed and described forty-five such "bays” in St.
Thomas, and thirty-one in St. John.
It is worthy of note that he
considered Coral
(Croat) bay in St. John as not only a better
harbor than the one in St. Thomas, but the bCsSt in the entire
West Indies.
It
is
in fact about twice as deep, and can hold
about twice as many vessels.®
But St. Thomas harbor has al-
ways been quite large enough to accommodate sucdi Kshippiug UvS
came to it; hence the harbor of St, John, with perhaps greater
natural advantages, has been practically ignored
in favor of
that of St. Thomas, which after all was first settled and lay
closer to Porto Rico.
Ships sailing for the West Indies steered for the islands off the
west African coast, whence they were swept on their way south-
westward by the tradewinds.
The journey usually occupied
about seven or eight weeks, although under particularly favora-
ble circumstances it might be made in four.
On the return trip
the vessel steered north and west of its outward course, passing
as a rule about two hundred miles to the east of the Berrauchu?.
The usual procedure for a ship from Copenhagen was to leave
in September or October for St. Thomas, remain there until the
® **Iii it (Coral Bay] 400 to 500 vessels large and small can ride at anchor.
It has various suitable landing places for the plantations lying round about,
separated from each other by out-jutting points which form the said bays.
Beside the 6 English families mentioned in the [appended] table there are 18
others, (which he names], from which one may perceive its great extent.
It
is,
besides, pro^dded with a beautiful hurricane *hole^ on the east (north?) sidei,
where 40 to 50 vessels and more may lie safe against storms and so dose in to
the shore that one xnay walk ashore on a board, not to mention those that am
lie in the ‘stream/
In this hurricane hole ... a number of careening places
could
[easily] be constructed
-
.
. where
vessels could convotuently be
ca-
reened,”
Martfeldt, SmtUviger
.
.
. Vol. ItL
Bryan Edwards, Ristorp
of tke British Colonies in the West Indies, 1, 450:
John is of importance as
having the best harbor of any island to the leeward of Antigua*’’
INTRODUCTION
5
winter’s sugar cane crop had been harvested, boiled down and
put into casks, and then in April or May to sail for home with a
completed cargo.
Almost from the
first, the chief product of the islands has
been sugar, although tobacco and cotton have played an im-
portant part in the economy of the islands at certain periods.
Their prosperity as plantation colonies has always been pecu-
liarly dependent upon the rainfall.
St. Thomas in particular
has ever been subject to severe and protracted droughts, and
has not infrequently suffered from torrential downpburs.
“We
have had no rain for six months, and the cane is drying up in the
fields,” is a plaint frequently found in the reports of governors.
Nevertheless, St. Thomas and St. John are the most fertile of
the Virgin Islands.
The rains are on the whole fairly evenly distributed through
the seasons, though the period from the beginning of May
till
the close of November is more subject to showers than the winter
months.
The showers are usually local and of short duration;
hence
it
frequently happens
that one plantation may have
plenty of rain while
its neighbor suffers -from drought.®
Dr.
Hombech’s
carefully
kept
meteorological
journal shows
an
average annual precipitation for St. Thomas of 43+ inches for
the decade, 1828-1888.
On St. Croix, Major Lang made pains-
taking observations at the plantation Eliza’s Retreat, situated
four.hundred feet above sea level and just east of Christiansted,
covering the period 1888 to 1861, and he found the aimual rain-
fall there to be but thirty-seven and six-tenths inches.
Egger’s
calculations for the whole of St. Croix for the years 1852 to 1878
give an average downpour
of forty-four and
forty-eight one
hundredths inches, indicating a fairly uniform rainfall on the
smaller islands.^
The species of calamity that strikes deepest terror in the
heart of the West Indian
is the hurricane, and St. Thomas
is
^ In BergsSe (IV, 571 et seq.) is given a thorough discussion of climatic condi-
tions on the Damsh islands based in part upon the observations of Dr, Hom-
bech and Prof, Pedersen.
See also Baron Eggers, 8t. Croix'e Flora, pp. 41 et seq.
^ Eggers, p. 46, quotes A. S. Oersted’s estimate for the precipitation in the
southern part of Jamaica as forty-six inches.
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
one of those
islands that has suffered most from hurricanes.
The custom that long prevailed on the Danish islands, of setting
aside two days for prayer, one on June 25 and the other on Oc-
tober 25, at the beginning and end of the “hurricane season,’’
reflects the popular fear of these storms.
They are not limited
altogether to these summer months, for according to an author-
ity whose work is dated 185S, one hundred and twenty-eight
destructive hurricanes have visited the West Indies during the
past three hundred and fifty-eight years, and of these, eleven
occurred in July, forty in August, twenty-eight in September,
and the remaining forty-nine during the other months.^
Besides being dangerous to human life on land and sea, they
may when violent, pull the roofs off the houses, uproot trees,
cast vessels in the harbors high up on the beach, and completely
demolish the growing crops.
On August 31, 1772, St. Croix was
visited by a hurricane which was described in the
locuil news-
paper ^ as the “most dreadful Hurricane known in the memory
of man.”
It began about nightfall and “blew like great guns,
for about six hours, save for half an hour’s intermission,”
The
shipping in the harbor was driven ashore, houses everywhere
were shattered, “the whole frame of nature seemed unhinged
and tottering to its fall
.
.
. terrifying even the just, for who
could stand undisturbed amid the ruins of a falling world.
,
.
.
A few such events would ruin us in temporals, but help us in
spirituals, and make us fit for the Kingdom of Heaven; for the
Turk, the Jew, the Atheist, the Protestant, and Papist would
join
in unanimous
prayer
to
appease
the Lord
of
Hurri-
canes.”
This catastrophe, which cost the lives of seven whites and
nine negroes, was so eloquently described
in a letter written
by a young counting house
clerk on
the
island, Alexander
Hamilton, to his father, that attention was attracted to
his
ability and he was sent to King’s College, New York, to com-
plete his education.
The letter
ran as follows:
« BergsSe, IV, 579, note.
* Royal Danish Anmoan 0<mUe (St. Crok), Sept. 9, 177^.
^ Ibid., Oct.
3, 1772.
Mrs. Gertrude Atherton m A few of EamiUmCs
ters
.
,
. (New York, 1903), pp. 201 d seq,, quote# this iHter b full*
INTRODUCTION
7
St. Croix, September 6, 177^.
Honored Sir,
I take up my pen, just to give you an imperfect account of one
of the most dreadful hurricanes that memory or any records
whatever can trace, which happened here on the 31st xiltimo at
night.
It began about dusk, at north, and raged very violently till
ten o’clock.—^Then ensued a sudden and unexpected interval,
which lasted about an hour.
Meanwhile the wind was shifting
round to the south west point, from whence it returned with re-
doubled fury and continued
till nearly three in the morning.
Good God! what horror and destruction—^it is impossible for me
to describe—or you to form any idea of
it.
It seemed as
if a
total dissolution of nature was taking place.
The roaring of
the sea and wind—^fiery meteors flying about in the air—^the
prodigious
glare
of almost perpetual lightning—^the crash
of
falling houses—and the earpiercing shrieks of the distressed,
were
sufficient to
strike astonishment
into Angels.
A great
part of the buildings throughout the island are levelled to the
ground—^almost all the rest very much shattered—several per-
sons killed and numbers utterly ruined—^whole families roaming
about the streets, unknowing where to find a place of shelter
the sick exposed to the keenness of water and air—^without a
bed to
lie upon—or a dry covering to their bodies—and our
harbors entirely bare.
In a word, misery, in its most hideous
shapes, spread over the whole face of the country.—
strong
smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night;
and it was observed that the rain was exceedingly salt.
Indeed
the water is so brackish and full of sulphur that there is hardly
any drinking
it.
.
.
.
Our General has
issued several very
salutary and humane regulations, and both in his public and
private measures, has shown himself ike Man,
Notwithstanding these occasional stormy visitations, the is-
lands are endowed with varied and interesting plant resources.
Along the coast line, where the land has not been cleared,
is a
thick belt of well-nigh impenetrable bush and trees of which the
manchilla tree, the mangrove and the cocoanut palm are among
the most striking.
The cultivated region is especially adapted
to the growing of sugar cane, although the hilly eastern third of
St. Croix has had in times past a considerable acreage devoted
to cotton.
The forest region on St. Croix
lies mainly in the
eastern third where croton brush covers nearly aU of the moun-
tains except an occasional patch suitable for cotton culture, and
8
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the belt on the north side of the ridge west of Salt River, where
the most characteristic growth is the eriodendron, or silk cotton
tree.
On
St. Thomas the croton and eriodendron are found
chiefly on the southern slopes
of the
ridge.
The
northern
slopes of St. Thomas and
St. John are reputed to be better
suited to plantation purposes than the southern.
The former
island,
practically a submerged fragment of mountain
ridge,
varies in elevation from about one thousand two hundred and
fifty feet (380 meters) near the west to about one hundred and
fifty to two hundred and
fifty feet (45
to
75 meters)
at
its
broader eastern extremity.
Settlers seeking plantation ground
had first to find a piece of grassland, if possible, or ground not
too thickly covered with bush or forest.
Some fustic, pock-
wood,
or mahogany was not objectionable, for the dyewood
often made a profitable ballast for a sugar and tobacco cargo,
while cabinet and building woods found a ready market in the
older English settlements to windward.
Despite the fact that
St. Thomas and St. John were but poorly adapted to plantation
purposes as compared with St. Croix, which was the last island
occupied by the Danes, St. Thomas had acquired a prosperous
planting population before the close of the war of the Spanish
Succession in 1713, and had one hundred and sixty-six planta-
tions by the time St. Croix was purchased (17SS); while St.
John, the permanent occupation of which began in the latter
part of 1716, had one hundred and three plantations surveyed or
assigned and nearly three-fourths of them under cultivation at
the same date.^^
The severest drawback, especially when the colony was new,
was the inevitable fever, probably mainly malarial.
The white
inhabitants,
governors,
preachers,
planters,
seemed
helpless
when the fever was rife; and epidemics of smallpox frequently
carried off great numbers of slaves.
Newly arrived settlers, and
particularly
recently
imported
soldiers,
of
whose
habitual
drunkenness the governors constantly complained, were par-
Eggera, pp. 51 ff.; Bdrgesen (Dansk Vaitindien), pp. 601 ff.; Bdrgc^ og
Paulsen, Om VegeMonm pm de damJM^Ttduhe der» pp. 60
Land Lister for St Thomas og St Croix,
The usual sam of a plantation was
SOOO X £000 feet.
MAP
OF
THE
DANISH
WEST
INDIAN
ISLANDS
INTRODUCTION
9
ticularly liable to att^*cks of fever, which carried
oflP many of
them.
It
is quite likely that the hookworm took
its
toll
of
victims.
A brief resume of that European overseas expansion in which
Denmark-Norway played a small but rather interesting part, is
necessary to the understanding of how that state came to be a
colonizing power at
all.
The two great regions which became
subject to European commercial and colonial expansion as a
result of the age of discovery were, broadly speaking, America
and the coasts of southern Asia with those East Indian islands
lying to the southeast beyond the Straits of Malacca.
To the
first of these regions, excepting Brazil, the Spaniards claimed
exclusive title, while the Portuguese laid claim to Brazil and to
those East Indian localities to which their explorers had first
discovered the sea route, and which were for a tune to make
Lisbon the commercial center of Europe.
Of the two regions,
the Far East offered at first far better opportunities for trade.
The Portuguese merchants found there peoples of a relatively
high degree of civilization, who produced a surplus of goods
beyond their needs.
The Spaniards on the other hand found a
nearly virgin land peopled by savages who for the most part
had only the most rudimentary ideas of trade.
Until these new-
found lands could be made to open their store of mineral and
agricultural treasure, they would seem to be merely an obstacle
that blocked the way to the real India.
But colonization was promptly begun after the discovery, and
by 1580, when Philip II of Spain became king also of Portugal,
the Spaniards had made large settlements in the New World.
The wealth of Peruvian and Mexican mines had begun to flow to
Spain, and the news of that wealth to Spain’s neighbors in
Europe.
The Keformation had divided Europe into two armed
camps.
'Religious feeling intensified political and commercial
rivalries.
Protestant England under Elizabeth was ready to
contest with Catholic Spain the supremacy of the sea; while the
seven northern provinces of the Low Countries, which in 1579
had formed the Union of Utrecht and two years later had pro-
claimed their independence from Spain, were ready to assist in
10
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
breaking that commercial monopoly in East and West which
was now made doubly dangerous through the union of Spain
and Portugal,
The Dutch continued, though with increasing
difficulty, to carry Par Eastern goods from Lisbon to the ports
of northern Europe.
When, however, in 1595 Philip II caused
the seizure of four or five hundred Holland and Zeeland ships
then lying in Spanish and Portuguese harbors,
it was clear to
the Dutch that a readjustment of their commercial methods
must take place before they could hope for good times.
Jan
van Linschoten had already published some of those geograph-
ical and trade secrets long jealously guarded by the Portuguese,
and on April 2, 1595, ten rich Amsterdam merchants sent out a
fleet to the East Indies under Cornelis Houtman.
Not until
July, 1597, did Houtman return to Amsterdam with three of his
four ships and only a third of his men, and with a small cargo for
his pains.
The enterprise cost more than
it yielded, but
it
showed that with good fortune larger profits miglit be expected.
The entering wedge had been driven into the Portuguese
monopoly.
Houtman's voyage was followed by the organiza-
tion
of other and competing Dutch companies, which were
finally on March 29, 1602, merged into one great organization,
the Dutch East India Company,
Meantime Queen Elizabeth
had followed up the English victory over the Invincible Armada
in 1588, when the hollowness of the Spanish naval prestige had
been decisively demonstrated, by sending an expedition under
Captains Raymond and Lancaster in 1591 around the Cape of
Good Hope to Cape Comorin, Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula*
On December 31, 1600, the Queen granted a charter to ‘*The
Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading to
the East Indies,” otherwise known as the London East India
Company.^^
The organization of these two companies, English
and Dutch, was followed by that of French, Danish, and Swe<lish
companies, and marked the beginning of the end of Portuguese
monopoly in East Indian regions.^^
This
is not to be confused with the English East India Company mcor^
porated in 1698 and amalgamated with the above company in 1709,
C. P,
Lucas, The Mediterranean and Baetem Colmiee, p. 189, note,
A good working list of commercial companies organised in
tmn
INTRODUCTION
11
In the West similar attempts were made to break the hold
of Spain on the New World.
Even before the destruction of the
Armada, Sir Walter Ralegh had attempted the colonization of
Newfoundland and Virginia.
Not until the reign of Elizabeth’s
successor did the English found a permanent settlement, when
the English Virginia Company sent out an expedition which, in
spite of Spanish protests, settled on the James River.
These
successes emboldened the rivals of Spain and Portugal in East
and West to fresh activities.
The Dutch, encouraged by the
success of their early expeditions, first established factories at
Bantam, Amboyna, and other places, and in 1619 proceeded to
the conquest of the province of Jacatra in Java.
As early as
161^ they had begun the occupation of Ceylon (at Trinkomalee),
though they
did not
finally
drive the Portuguese from the
island until
1658.^^
By 1641 they had gained control of the
Straits of Malacca and had become supreme in the Malay seas.^®
The English had established their first settlement in India in
1611, and organized the Presidency of Madras in 1639.
Mean-
while the Danes, through their East India Company, organized
in 1616, had founded one factory at Tranquebar in southern
India in 1618, and others near the mouth of the Ganges, at
Pipley and
Balasor
shortly
thereafter,
while Danish
ships
navigated as far as the Spice Islands in search of cargoes.
That part of the western world the settlement of which was
calculated to affect Spanish trade monopoly most vitally was the
West Indian archipelago.
The Spanish treasure fleets which
sailed from Porto Bello and Vera Cruz were obliged to pass some
of these islands in crossing the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of
Mexico.
The occupation of these islands was one of the surest
means by which Spain’s enemies could gratify their cupidity,
and it gave them a base for other activities of a more strictly
commercial nature.
The Bermudas, situated near the route
1554 to 1698 is given by E. P. Cheyney in European Bachground of American
History, 187-139.
Lucas, The Mediterranean and Eastern Colonies, 102.
Keller, Colonization, 416.
See Kay Larsen, De dansk-ostindiske Koloniers Historie (KSbenbavn, 1908),
for a detailed account of Danish activities in the East Indies.
The factory at
Pipley was established in 1625.
1^
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
used for the return trip to Europe from the Spanish Main and
the islands, were settled by the English in 1609-1616.^®
Tfie
first footholds gained by the English in the West Indies them-
selves were in Barbados, just east of the Windward Islands, and
in St. Christopher (or St. Kitts) in the Leeward group.
These
two islands became centers of English influence and settlement
in the West Indies.
From St. Kitts, which was oc^cupicd jointly
by French and English in 1025, English settlers went in 16*^28 to
Nevis and Barbuda, and in 1632 to Antigua and Montserrat, all
of them islands belonging to the Leeward group.
The Dutch
took joint possession of St. Croix with the English in 1625, and
seven years later stationed themselves in St. Eustatius, a tiny
island some half score miles to the northwest of St. Kitts, and
in Tobago, near Trinidad.
Pushing down closer to the Spanish
Main and nearer to the isthmus of Panama, they oecupitHl the
island of Curaggo, lying near the entrance to the gulf of Ven-
ezuela, in 1634.
Saba, an islet near St. Eustatius, was occupied
in 1640.^®
The outlook for profitable trade in the West Indies had led the
Dutch to organize in 1621 a West India company whi<di was to
become an important factor in the struggle of the Dutch state
with Spain.
The next nation to found a West India company
was the French, which, under the encouragement of Richelieu,
formed in 1626 the Company of St.
Chri.stopher.^
This wiw
reorganized in 1635 under the name of the Company of the Ishw
of America-
In the latter year the company began tlie settle-
ment of Guadaloupe, while a group of settlers from St.
Kitts
established themselves at Martinique at about the same time/-^^
Tortuga, or la Tortue, a little island off the north
of His-
paniola (San Domingo) was likewise colonized by Protestant
settlers from St. Kitts who in 1640 joined a few Frenchmen who
had attempted settlement before but had been disturbed by
Spaniards.
Some Frenchmen who had been driven from St.
Kitts by Spaniards in 1629 had settled on the north c*oast of
“ Luoas, 11,7 d»eq,
^ JWrf., n. Sec. II, CL 1, pmdm.
^ Mims, Colberfs
India PoUey, p, 15.
INTRODUCTION
13
San Domingo, where they remained a small buccaneering and
filibustering colony until the time of Colbert.^^
During this first half of the seventeenth century, the sugges-
tion for the formation of a West India company came up both
in England and Denmark, but without tangible result in either
case.
English commercial companies were directing their chief
attentions
in America
to the Atlantic and Caribbean main-
land,
while Denmark, which had already entered the East
India field, was forced to neglect that for a considerable period
on account of more urgent affairs nearer home.
Not until the
century was nearly three-fourths past was the latter state able
to
devote
itself
seriously
to American
trade and
coloniza-
tion.
But what was this Danish state, that could thus presume to
seek a share of the world’s newly opened commerce, that had
won a Hapsburg princess for one of its kings, that could venture
to send a prince to sue for the hand of Queen Elizabeth, that
had furnished an asylum for Bothwell on the death of Mary
Stuart and a queen for James VI of Scotland, and that had had a
king who had become for a time the recognized leader of Prot-
estant Europe?
After the great outburst
of activity in the
Viking Age, when the Northmen succeeded for a brief period
in maintaining a North Sea empire, the Scandinavian lands had
passed through a period of strife with north German princes and
between local rulers.
Out of this welter of conflict arose the
Union of Kalmar (1397) with Queen Margaret as the sole mon-
arch of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
This union lasted with few interruptions until Sweden broke
away under the leadership of Gustav Eriksson {Gustams Vasa)
in 15^3-
During this period
of a century and a quarter,
a
desperate struggle with the Hanseatic League for the control of
the Baltic and the North Sea had retarded the development of
commerce and sea power in the three kingdoms.
Denmark had
long been the chief enemy of the League, and had been forced to
see Bergen arise as a rival to Copenhagen, although Bergen was
located in a land closely united to the Danish crown.
Not until
2® Mims, Colberfs West India Policy, p.
Jid.
The Guinea Company was formed in 1609.
14
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the reign of King Hans (+1513), was Denmark able to meet the
Hanseatic League in battle on an even footing and to curb its
privileges
in Scandinavian
cities.
It was King Hans’
chief
glory that he furnished Denmark with a fleet and made her once
more a sea power.
The
last ruler to hold the scepter of the three kingdom's,
Christian II, succeeded through the help of his uncle, Frederick
the Wise of Saxony, in negotiating a marriage with the mighty
house of Hapsburg.
His queen, Elizabeth
(Isabella)
of Bur-
gundy, whom he married on August IS, 1514, was a sister of the
Archduke Charles, who ascended the imperial throne in
1511)
as
tlie Emperor Charles the
Fifth.
The king continued the
fight which he had begun while prince, with Liibeck and the
other Hanseatic
cities, in his attempt to make Copenhagen a
staple city for the Baltic trade.
After the suppression of a
Swedish uprising (15^0) marked by the bloody ‘‘massacre of
Stockholm,” the king called certain Danish and Swedish mer-
chants into a conference at Stockholm with the idea of estab-
lishing a great northern commercial company with Copenhagen
and Stockholm as the leading centers.
It was planned to have
smaller distributing centers in Finland and the Netherlands,
after the fashion of the Hanseatic League, which it was Chris-
tian’s design to crush.
The king was even intending to send one
of his captains, S5ren
(or Severin) Norby, to Greenland and
“India”
(i. e., America) in search of a direct pjissage,^ but be-
fore he could bring his plans to fruition, Gustav Eriksson had
led the uprising in Sweden which resulted in the breakup of the
Union of Kalmar and the accession of the rebel lea<ler in 15£3 as
King of Sweden under the title of Gustavus I (Vasa),
In the
general crash Christian lost his throne, and plans for American
exploration were not seriously considered until nearly a century
later.
Meanwhile the feeling of nationality was gradually develop-
ing in Denmark.
During the reign of Christian II the humanis-
tic movement had already gained considerable headway.
The
Banmatht Bigea Historie (Kdbenhavn, ISST-iaOT, 0 v.). Ill (a), 13S (cited
hereafter as D. R. H,).
^D,R,E., 111(a), im, m.
INTRODUCTION
15
university of Copenhagen (founded 1479) was reorganized in
accordance with the new ideas. The introduction of the printing
press
into Denmark make possible the rapid spread of new
ideas.
The
printing
of
the
rimed
chronicle
of
the Danish
kings, den danslce Rimkrdnike, in 1495,^® of Saxo’s history and
the like, stimulated national pride.
In his triumphal visit to the
Netherlands in July, 15^1, the king had come in contact with
Dutch culture, had met leading Dutch thinkers and workers,
and in conversation with Erasmus of Rotterdam had shown a
certain sympathy
for Luther.^^
Christian
Pedersen, a close
personal friend of the king, became a leader in the humanistic
movement and an exponent
of Lutheranism.
A history
of
Denmark from earliest times to 1474, when Christian I visited
Rome, was partly finished by Pedersen, but was not printed un-
til our own time.
Its pages show that through this period of re-
adjustment to new conditions, Denmark, or Denmark-Norway,
as the state was properly called after Sweden achieved its in-
dependence, was becoming conscious
of
itself.
Of
this new
feeling of solidarity,
of national consciousness, the Lutheran
reformation was at once a phase and a symbol.
The sixteenth century in Denmark-Norway was nevertheless
an age of economic decline.
That state had indeed gained com-
plete control of the entrance to the Baltic, but its energies were
spent in internal disorders, in feuds between the nobles, and in
powerful peasant uprisings.
This decline is strikingly shown in a
negative way by the fact that the number of Netherlands ships
that passed through the Sound increased from filve hundred and
forty-three in 1528 to two thousand eight hundred and ninety-
two in 1563.
But as long as Denmark retained control of the
Sound it was a power to be reckoned with.
In the reign of
Frederick II (1559--1588), when Spain and England were pre-
paring for their great naval duel, the Spanish ambassador to
Sweden actually suggested to Philip II that he direct an attack
against Elsinore and Helsingborg, in order to wrest the Baltic
This was the first printed Danish book, and came from the press of Gotfred
of Ghemen, a Dutchman, who established the first printing shop in Denmark.
D, R, H., Ill (a), m.
16
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
trade from the English and the Dutch.^
Denmark’s position in
the North makes
it possible to understand how Frederick II
could venture to join the ranks of Queen Elizabeth’s suitors, and
how James VI
of Scotland should be
led there to seek
his
bride.
By the time the young king, Christian IV, came of age,^
Denmark was recovering from the turbulent fever of the Ref-
ormation.
Its resources were not strong enough, however, to
enable it to take part with the Dutch and the English in break-
ing the monopoly of the Portuguese and Spanish in the Par
East.
Denmark was destined to play but a secondary part in
the history of those regions, but the fact that it was able to
play a part at all was due very largely to the vigorous policy of
Christian FV and his advisers, who knew how to make the most
of the growing feeling of nationality in the Danish-Norwegian
state.
To be sure, the state still lacked in large measure two
essentials for successful trade; the right kind of men, and plenty
of money.
This deficiency Christian IV hoped to supply from
the Protestant
Netherlands,
which
in
the beginning
of
his
reign, were stiU engaged in the struggle for their independence
from Spain.
As early as 1607 he sent a capable envoy, Jonas
Charisius, to Amsterdam to encourage Dutchmen, artisans as
well as capitalists, to come to Denmark to live.^
Despite their
war with Spain, the Dutch did not flock to Denmark in very
great numbers, but enough came
to
affect
profoundly
the
commercial
development
of
the
countiyt
as
will
presently
appear.
The king’s keen interest in exploration and the development
of trade led to the sending of three expeditions to Greenland in
1605, 1606, and 1607.^^
The first two succeeded in landing on
the west coast, but failed to find any trace of the lost colonies,
Climfian IV was bom in 1577, was piodauned king xmd«r a cotindOi of
rogmcy on the death of bis father in 1588, and assumed the government in
his own name in 1598.
In 1521, Christian H had idvm ovec the little island ol Amagw near CqE>en-
hagen to IH Dutdb famiUes who were bwmiJit In to encourage gardening.
D. B. E., m (a), 245.
** C. C. A. Gosdb, Danish Ardio BafpsdMam, I (Haldiiyt Soc.).
INTRODUCTION
17
which was part of their errand.
These colonies had been planted
in the Viking Age,^^ but Denmark had had no conununication
with them since the Black Death in the fourteenth century.
It was the King’s desire to reestablish the dominion of the
Danish-Norwegian crown
over
these
regions.
In
1619
the
search
for the northwest passage to
India, which had been
proposed in the reign of Christian II, was actually attempted by
the famous Jens Munk, whose Navigationes septentrionales has
become one of the classics of North Atlantic exploration.
Jens
Munk had been suggested as captain of that fleet which the
newly organized Danish East India Company sent out from
Copenhagen on November ^9, 1618, to sail around the Cape of
Good Hope for the East Indies; but he seems to have been
unable to come to terms with the company, in the establishment
of which he had been interested.
Instead he ventured out from
the Danish capital on May 9, 1619, with two ships, the Unicom
with a crew of forty-eight and the Lamprey with sixteen men.
After passing through the Hudson Strait, they sailed south-
westward over Hudson’s Bay, waters that had been crossed so
far as is known only by the discoverer Henry Hudson, by Cap-
tain Thomas Button in 1612--1613, and possibly by Hawkridge
in 1617.
They wintered at the mouth of the Churchill River
and after fearful sufferings from cold and scurvy, the captain
and two other survivors arrived on the Norway coast in the
Unicom on September 21, 1620.^®
After so severe a disappoint-
ment, the expedition that had been planned for the following
year was given up.
The most lasting contribution of Christian IV to overseas
commerce was the chartering of the Danish East India Com-
pany in 1616.
The prime movers, besides Jens Munk, were
two Dutchmen, John de Willom of Amsterdam and Herman
Rosencrantz of Rotterdam.
The fact that the Danish factory
at Tranquebar in India was kept alive at
all during the early
years of the company was due, more than to any other cause, to
the
skill and perseverance
of
the
second
governor, Roland
Crapp^, a Dutchman by birth, who directed the factory from
Erik the Red discovered and settled Greenland in 985.
C. C. A. Gosch, Danish Ardic Explorations, II-
18
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
16^1 to 1636.^^
In organizing this company the Danes were
following closely in the footsteps of the Dutch, whose great
company had already scored some conspicuous successes.
So
long as states did not possess navies strong or numerous enough
to patrol distant as well as home waters, the plan employed to
secure reasonable safety for trading vessels was for merchants
to band themselves together in joint-stock companies under
liberal charters from the crown and then send out, when neces-
sary, whole merchant
fleets, properly armed, to Muscovy or
Turkey,
to India or Cathay.
These companies became the
instruments by which states fought each other openly or by
intrigue for the control of the foreign trade of alien lands-
The
custom of issuing letters of marque and reprisal had become
prevalent in the wars of the sixteenth century.
Privately owned
vessels were thereby permitted to make
seizures of enemies’
ships.
Hence trade by means of single private vessels became
exceedingly unsafe.
Danish merchants organized other companies for trade nearer
home. A company organized in 1619 secured a monopoly of the
trade with Iceland.^®
The salt and wine trade with Spain and
France had
suffered
so
severely from
captures and
lack
of
capital that the king, again taking his cue from the Dutch,
decided to have the trade carried on by a large number of com-
panies with seats to be located in the various cities of the king-
dom, that should serve as distributing centers.
It was hoped to
produce a merchant fleet that would be of service in defence, but
the plan failed, and with its failure the whole scheme of govern-
mentally encouraged commercial companies received a serious
setback.^®
It
is interesting to note that in this period of commercial
activity, in which the"king plays a leading part, we hear for the
first time of proposals for a Danish West India Company.
They
come as one might expect, from a Dutchman, in fact from that
John de Willom who had helped in the organization of the East
India Company.
On January 25, 1625, he received permission
K. Larsea, 1, 14 ei seq., 170.
104.
Ibid,, 105, 109.
INTRODUCTION
19
to establish a company which should have for a term of eight years
the privilege of trade with the West Indies, Brazil, Virginia, and
Guinea.^^
Nothing is known to have come of the venture.
The extent of Christian IV’s commercial plans
is strikingly
illustrated by his foundation of cities.
In 1616 he had begun the
building of Gliickstadt, on the Elbe, with the intention of making
it a rival of Hamburg.
In 1624 he compelled the inhabitants of
Oslo in Norway to move into the newly planned city of Chris-
tiania, named in the king’s honor, a city that was to become a
rival
to
Bergen, which had
lost
its
Hanseatic
privileges
in
1559.^®
But just
as conditions appeared to favor the rapid
development of Danish commerce in new fields, Christian de-
cided to take a hand in settling the religious strife in Germany.
The intervention of the king as champion of the German prot-
estant princes and head of the Lower Saxon Circle of the Em-
pire came to an inglorious end (peace of Ltibeck, May 22, 1629)
and reacted unfavorably upon commercial conditions
in the
kingdom.
The East India Company was reorganized in 1684
and a Greenland company formed in 1686, but the results seem
to have been exceedingly meager.^^
Peace with her neighbors, particularly with Sweden and the
Netherlands, was the chief condition on which the prosperity of
Denmark-Norway rested.
Her selfish policy with regard to the
navigation of the Sound drove the Netherlands into an alliance
with Sweden (1640) which was to last for fifteen years.
At the
instance
of Axel
Oxenstierna, Sweden
declared war
against
Denmark in 1648.
As a result of aid extended by Dutch ships
and the threat of Dutch intervention in Sweden’s behalf, Den-
mark was forced in 1645 to conclude a peace at Bromsebro in
pe Willom had in 1616 with the assistance of Jens Munk organized a com-
pany to undertake whale fishing on the Greenland coast; in 1623 he had taken
over the royal silk weaving factory in Copenhagen from the king. He is buried
in the cemetery of Nicolaj church, Copenhagen.
D. R. H., IV, 104.
V. Chris-
tensen, HistorisJce Meddeles&r om Kjdbenhavn, II, 420.
D. R. H., IV, 97, 98.
®®Two ships were sent out to Greenland in 1636, and mention
is made by
Thaarup of “an unfortunate voyage undertaken by Commander Kirk Albertz
in the year 1639.”
Vejledning
til del dcmshe monarchies Staiistik (KjSbenhavn,
1794), n, 365.
£0
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
which she made important concessions concerning the Sound
duties.
This was the beginning of Denmark’s actual decline as
a Baltic power.
Immediately on the accession of Charles X as king of Sweden
in 1654 began that series of wars which involved Sweden in
struggles with Poland, Brandenburg, the Empire, Russia, and
Denmark, and which finally ended, so far as the last named state
was concerned, in her humiliation by the peace of Copenhagen
(1660). Denmark lost the three southern provinces of the Swed-
ish peninsula, Scania, Hailing, and Bleking, as well as her lord-
ship over the Sound.
In this strenuous period, when the Danes
were fighting for their very existence as a nation, they had no
means or energy to devote to commerce with distant lands.
During the lull between the two Swedish wars, however, Henry
Muller, chief of the Copenhagen customs house and a man of
extensive manufacturing and trading interests, sent expeditions
to Greenland in 165^ and 1653.^
In the later year Frederick III
granted privileges to certain '"participants” to engage in West
Indian trade.
It was a grant, as the royal letter reads, "to our
subjects who have already sailed to the Caribbean islands in the
West Indies in a recent year, and who now desire with such
other shareholders as may join them to
sail again to these
islands.”
The privileges had mainly to do with Sound and
harbor dues and had nothing to say of occupation of any terri-
tory.'^^
The results were at first exceedingly meager.
It appears
that in 1654, the year that Charles X began his martial career,
eleven ship owners from Elsinore ventured to send a
single
ship to the West Indies.
Though the beginnings were small and early efforts timid, the
possibilities of the Guinea-West Indies trade loomed large.
It
^ No further expeditious appear to have visited Greenland until Hans Egede
went there to establish his famous mission in 1721.
Thaamp, 30S.
The Dutch
had organized a Gre^and company as early as 1614, but apparently made no
attempt at settlement.
BergsQe, Pen danshe Sicds StaMHik, IV, 607.
No. 73, Sjodl. aabne Breee, Apr. 29, 1662 {Indkeg).
Mads Mortensen, Joh. Hansen, Lambert Ebbesen, Jac. Albcrtsen, Xsbrandt
V.
Holten, Hans
Jensen, Joan
Wilders, and Hans Hansen, Herm. Voogt,
Berendt WiUumsen, and Jan Hm.
No. 73, BjmlL aabne Breee, Apr. 29, 1602
(IndUefff
5, 1663).
INTRODUCTION
21
was not long before the scene of Danish-Swedish rivalry was
shifted from the Baltic Sea to the coast of Guinea in Western
Africa.
Just as the Portuguese monopoly in the East Indies
gradually crumbled
before
the
onslaughts
of
skippers
with
letters of marque and
reprisal, and
of companies with royal
charters sailing under the Dutch, English, French, or Danish
flag, so had the Portuguese monopoly of the African slave trade
been broken into, first by the English, of whom John Hawkins
stands as a type, and later by Dutch, French, and Courlanders,
and in 1614 by the Swedes.
Negro slaves were in chief demand
among the Spanish planters on the mainland of America and the
larger islands, where the use of native labor had threatened the
extermination of the Indians and the Caribs.
The Swedes had
built their Guinea factory in the neighborhood of Cabo Corso or
Cape Coast, where they seem to have displaced the Portuguese.^^
During the war of 1657-1658 with Denmark, the Swedish factor,
one Henry Carloff, turned traitor and went into the Danish
service as a privateer, and captured the chief factory, called
Carolusberg.
Although forced to give up this place, the Danes
secured other places near at hand where they built the forts of
Fredericksborg and Christiansborg. An African company with
headquarters at Gliickstadt appears to have been established
without delay (1659), though the extent of its activities is not
yet known.
There was some trading by private Danish adven-
turers who took cargoes of slaves from Guinea to the Spanish
American colonies early in Frederick Ill's reign.'^^
In the realm of political history the most important event
in Frederick’s time (1648-1670) was the establishment of the
absolute monarchy, probably the most thoroughgoiag abso-
lutism that Europe has ever seen.
Recent events had demon-
strated the necessity for unified and efficient action, and cer-
Lucas, in, 67.
On 17 Nov., 1653, Jens Lassen, a treasury clerk and merchant, with certain
associates, petitioned Philip IV for permission to carry on a trade with Spanish
America in Guinea slaves.
The Spanish ambassador in Copenhagen, the Count
of Rebolledo, had favored the grant on the ground that if the king refused, the
trade would no doubt stUl take place. He reported that all the northmn lands
traded with the Spanish colonies.
E. Gigas, Cfrev Bernardino de RehoUedo
.
.
.
(Kidbeohavn, 1883), pp. 181, 877.
22
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
tainly it is diflScult to imagine a more ‘'eflScient” government
than an absolute monarchy under a capable despot.
Since
it
was not until this reorganization of government had taken place
that the
state assumed a leading and consistent part in en-
couraging commerce and industry, a brief summaiy of what
happened in 1660 will be appropriate.
There was felt a crying need, especially by the peasantry,
for a new order, and the nobility was held mainly responsible for
existing oppressive conditions.
It was in fact chiefly upon the
peasants and burghers, assisted to some extent by the clergy,
that the king depended in putting through his coup d'Stat.
For
government by the king and estates, was substituted govern-
ment by the king alone, who delegated a large part of his work to
colleges or boards appointed by himself.
Some of these as the
Privy Council
(Rigaraadet)^ a remnant of the old order, the
Council of State (Statskollegiet)^ and the Board of Trade {Kora-
merce-kollegiet), were advisory; others, as the Danish and Ger-
man chanceries and the treasury board
{Shatkarrvra&rkollegiet),
were adininistrative.
The supreme court which had hitherto
been filled entirely by the nobility, now came under the Danish
chancery.
The chancellor became
its president, and trained
burghers were given
seats
in
it.
Besides these
institutions,
which were modifiied as conditions changed and circumstances
demanded it, special commissions were at one time or another
appointed to investigate special subjects; sometimes the king
would issue acts or ordinances under his own hand, and some-
times one or another board would prepare an act which would
be issued from the royal chamber or cabinet.^^
It was this con-
centration of power in the royal hands that made possible a
concentration of effort in matters of trade.
About the time
when Danish and Norwegian merchants
were
beginning
to
think
seriously
of securing the establishment of a chartered
company for trade with America
{%,
e., the West Indies), or of
making some arrangement with the French who were preparing
^ Medddeker fra ArUvet, t886-‘8b, 65 ei seq,
D. R. H., IV, 470 ei
“ Cab-
inet Orders” play an important part during the Guldberg period (177J^-1784)
when much of the government was carried on through orders xnade out by
advisers and signed by the king.
INTRODUCTION
23
under Colbert’s direction to reorganize their West India Com-
pany, that the Board of Trade was established (1668) as a de-
partment of the Danish government, with the Dutchman Simon
Petkum as its first president.^
The question naturally arises. What was the actual situation
in Europe and the West Indies with which this new-fl.edged
absolutism would be called upon to cope before it could success-
fully launch a colonizing and commercial company for New
World exploitation?
The sudden death of Charles X in 1660
had lessened the immediate danger from the Swedish quarter.
The accession of Charles II to the throne of the restored mon-
archy in England could not but be viewed hopefully in Denmark,
which state had all but openly assisted the Netherlands against
England in the first Anglo-Dutch war (1652--1654).
Denmark’s
position in the second Anglo-Dutch war (1665-1667) was
still
more diflGicult.^^
The Dutch, by virtue of alliances with both
powers, were
straining every
effort to
secure the
assistance,
active or passive, of France and Denmark, while Charles II was
laboring to draw Frederick away from the Dutch alliance.
Al-
though forced to resist the Dutch, Louis XIV succeeded through
a combination of circumstances in thwarting Charles’ Danish
plans.
Frederick HI made a show of remaining neutral, but he
succeeded in saving the Dutch East India fleet in Bergen harbor
from English captors.^
Events in Europe reacted on conditions in the West Indies.
Jamaica had been seized in 1655 by the Penn-Venables expedi-
tion sent to American waters to make
reprisals against the
Spaniards.
In 1660 the English, French, and Caribs signed a
peace at Guadaloupe by which the Indians should be allowed
undisturbed occupation
of
the two Leeward
Islands
of
St.
Vincent and Dominica,
provided they kept the peace
else-
where.^^
During the second Anglo-Dutch war, the French had
« D. R, R., IV, 490; MedddeUerfra Arkivet, 1886-1888, p. 106.
One of the immediate causes of this war was the rivalry between Dutch
and English traders on the Guinea Coast.
^ Schoolcraft, “ Anglo-Danish Relations, 1660-67,^* in The English Historieal
Review, vol. 25, p. 479.
" Lucas, n, 57.
24
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
seized the English part of St. Kitts, Antigua and Montserrat in
1667, only to give them back by the treaty of Breda in the same
year.
The English in their turn had seized Surinam in South
America from the Dutch, but returned it in 1674 on the final
cession to England of New Amsterdam.
In Europe, the ambitions of Louis XIV were presently to
change the general aspect of affairs. The treaties of Breda were
followed by the Triple Alliance between England, the Nether-
lands and Sweden (1668).
This alliance Louis immediately set
about to break; only by
isolating the Netherlands could he
hope to carry out his plans on the Continent.
He was aided in
this by the circumstance that Charles II had scarcely any more
liking for the Dutch than Louis, and was quite inclined to lend
his aid to any scheme that promised to cripple or destroy the
United Netherlands.
The
secret treaty
of Dover by which
Charles pledged his aid to Louis in the event of a war with the
Dutch was signed June 1, 1670.
Under these circumstances an
alliance between England and Denmark would weaken
the
Dutch and hence should add to the joy of France.
And so it
happened that not later than June ^1, 1670, Arthur Capel, first
Earl of Essex, left England for Copenhagen as ambassador ex-
traordinary to conclude a treaty of alliance with the new Danish
king, Christian
Denmark’s interest in the West Indies was only secondary,
and was based upon the interest aroused in her merchants as a
result of recent voyages which will be considered later.
What
English as well
as French diplomacy played upon
in Den-
mark was fear of Sweden and a feeling that the Dutch had long
treated them insolently in the Sound disputes and would be
“ever ready and resolute in defence of Hamburg, whenever the
Danes should have strength enough to attack it; ” for Hamburg,
as Sir William Temple expressed it, was their "‘chief ambition
abroad, it seems.”
In Europe England’s wars with the Dutch had materially
“ Cd. Dom., 1$70 and Add., 166(hl670, pp. 105, 378; Cd. Trm., m^im,
V. 3, pt 1 (Nov. 10, 1670).
The rdusal of Essac to strike his flag on entering
Damrii waters created considerable stir in En|^and.
Sir W. Templet, WoTh$, H, *17 (London, 1814, 4 vj.
INTRODUCTION
£5
enhanced her sea power, while in the West Indies her ability
to hold Jamaica against Spanish attempts at reconquest had
made her a serious rival of France as a West Indian power.
If
Denmark hoped to secure any lesser islands as footholds from
which to carry on trade with Porto Rico or other of the larger
Spanish islands, an understanding with England was imperative,
for while the French had their buccaneering colonies on San
Domingo and Tortuga, and some small Leeward colonies to the
north, French ships of war were mainly concentrated near the
fertile islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique, the southernmost
of the Leeward group.
But although Spain had lost Jamaica, she yet remained the
leading colonial power in the West Indies and on the neighboring
mainland.
The destruction of the Armada in 1588 had lost
Spain her naval prestige, and had left her commerce and her
colonies all but helpless at the hands of all sorts of searovers,
privateers, buccaneers, pirates, or by whatever name they might
be called.
These men were gathered from many nations; their
common enemy was Spain and their common aim was plunder;
while French,
English, and Dutch
authorities
in the West
Indies winked at their depredations, when they did not actually
encourage them.
Not infrequently did the Spaniards send out
punitive expeditions that wreaked terrible vengeance for
ills
previously suffered, by capturing or dispersing many a young
colony which ventured to settle in their proximity.
A secret article to the treaty of Vervins arranged between
France and Spain in 1598 had expressly provided that the peace
should not hold good in regions west of the longitude of the
Azores and south of the tropic of Cancer.
French and Spanish
ships meeting each other beyond these
lines,
“les lignes de
Tenclos des amities,” might make lawful prize of one another
as in time of war.®^
With the Dutch, lawlessness had often
enough been possible without a treaty, though they had secured
the recognition by the Spaniards of their independence in the
Treaty of Miinster in 164!8.
The first state to negotiate a treaty
with Spain that would actually prepare the way for order in
West Indian regions was England, whose buccaneers and log-
Haring, Buccaneers in the West Indies, 48.
£6
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
wood cutters were threatening to extend the English frontier
from Jamaica to the Spanish Main in the logwood district about
Campeachy and Honduras Bay.^^
The time had come for Spain to admit by treaty what was
already an established fact; that she no longer held a monopoly
over the Caribbean Islands.
So while Essex was negotiating in
Copenhagen,
Sir
William
Godolphin had
been
received
in
Spain, where on April 18, 1670, he secured from Charles II of
Spain the Treaty of Madrid,
composing diiBEerences, restraining
depredations, and establishing peace”
in America.
For the
first time, Spain definitely recognized England’s right to possess
undisturbed
the
American
islands
and
coloixies
which
she
actually occupied, although the Pacific was to remain, as hereto-
fore, strictly a closed sea.^^
Before the news of the treaty could
be published
in the English and Spanish colonies, the arch-
buccaneer, Henry Morgan, most notorious of his tribe, had led
an expedition which had sacked the two isthmian cities of Porto
Bello and Panama.
The subsequent knighting of Morgan by
the king and his appointment as lieutenant-governor of Jamaica
were hardly calculated to inspire confidence in England’s inten-
tions to bring about peace in Caribbean waters.
And yet, as we
shall see, an honest attempt was made in that direction in which
Sir Henry Morgan figured as the faithful representative of law
and order.
Though the treaty was far from instantaneous in its effects, it
furnished a basis for mutual relations and strengthened Eng-
land’s position in the West Indies to the extent that she was
An expedition from Jamaica had attacked the Castle of Santa Cnu; on the
Campeachy coast in February, 166S.
Logwood cutting on the coast of Cam-
peachy, Honduras and Yucatan had begun among the English about
1665.
Haring, Bticcanem, 107, SW)8.
An interesting episode that forms a connecting link between the Elizabethan
struggle with Spain and the English conquest of Jamaica is the Puritan coloniaa*
tion scheme of 1629-164f0, when the Providence Company hdd the islands of
Providence (Santa Catalina), Henrietta (San Andreas), and Association (Tor-
tuga) until they were seized by the Spaniards. A detailed account is to be found
in A. P. Newton's The Colonizing AdmUes of the Early Furitane (New Haven,
1914).
Haring, op, ait,, 197,
INTRODUCTION
27
able actually to bring about peace by ‘^composing differences”
and ‘‘restraining depredations.”
Denmark’s position could not
but be improved by her being an ally of the power that had been
able to humble the Dutch sea power and to score a diplomatic
victory over his Most Catholic Majesty.
A word remains to be said concerning the position of Denmark
with respect to France whose king persisted in treating the
states of Europe as pawns on the diplomatic chess board.
The
immediate aim of Louis XIV, as already indicated, was to check
the United Netherlands and if possible wipe them off the board.
England had been brought within his schemes by the Treaty of
Dover.
It remained to detach Sweden from her alliance with
the Dutch, after which he would be ready to throw off the cloak
of diplomacy and
disclose the iron
fist.
Meantime Colbert,
Louis’ great minister of finance, was quite willing to make use of
Denmark to help destroy Dutch commerce in the Baltic, and to
promote that of the French; but he was unwilling to go as far in
the matter of reciprocal trade privileges in Danish and French
ports as the gentlemen who were engaged in 1668 in organizing
the Company of the North.^®
The proposal of these French
merchants was considered by the Board of Trade, a body created
at this time apparently for the very purpose of giving proper
consideration to the French suggestions.
But the president of
this board was a Dutchman named Simon Petkum, who pro-
fessed to
see small prospects
in
this French trade.
Private
Danish traders had already visited the French West Indian
islands.
An attempt had been made
in
fact
to occupy
St.
Thomas, and hence a counter proposal of the Board of Trade
must have been made with the previous experience in mind and
in the hope of increasing this trade.
The Board proposed that
the Danes send annually to the French colonies of St. Christo-
pher and Martinique such goods as were needed and at a reason-
The Danish ambassador at Paris) Frederick Gabel, had reported that “the
French trade was so managed that in time it woxdd center entirely in France
and that a foreign state would hardly go into a partnership with it unless it
received very considerable advantages [referring to French subsidies].”
GabeFs
Relation, October 5, 1668 (N.
S.), and October 19 ^quoted in K. Fabridus,
“ Colbert og Danmark,” 9).
28
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
able price on condition of Denmark’s receiving certain staple
rights in France,
e. g., in La Rochelle and Nantes.
But Colbert’s idea was protection, not reciprocity. He had no
desire to encourage the establishment of a Danish West India
company that might become an active competitor with the Com-
pany of the North, so he turned the negotiations to the subject
of Dansborg, the Danish factory on the Malabar coast of India,
which he attempted in vain to buy for France.
In these futile
negotiations the idea of co5perating for the pursuit of West
Indian trade was lost sight of, and Danish merchants were left
to form their own company
Of the expeditions which were sent to the West Indies by
private Danish adventurers previous to the couf d'Hat of 1660,
mention has already been made.
It remains to consider those
expeditions which took
place
after the
disastrous war with
Sweden, and which led eventually to the choice of St. Thomas as
the site of Denmark’s
first West Indian colony.
A memorial
dated February 15, 1662, and hitherto unpublished, epitomizes
the state of Danish trade in the West Indies during the troublous
years that had just passed.
We have to thank Your Majesty, ”
runs the meihorial, '‘most graciously and humbly for the priv-
ileges [to trade] upon the Caribbean islands, which were granted
to us several years ago, although by God’s will
we suffered
great losses on the journeys undertaken during those times, in-
asmuch as Cromwell and those ruling with him took away from
us two ships with cargoes, worth over 32,000 rdl.
And besides,
one of our ships with
full cargo and twenty-two persons was
swept away from the land by God’s weather, by the wdnd called
hurricane, on the 11th day of August, 1657, and never has there
been heard of ship or men since; so that we have suffered a very
great loss during the two years.
Since that time we liave been
unable to continue our voyages thence, both for the reasons
given and because of the dangers due to the present wars.
.
.
.
Meantime our former privil^es have expired, and we have
again undertaken in the Lord’s name to have our former skipper,
“ Knud Pabridus,
** Colbert og Damnark
.
.
(Bistomk TUiskift, B R.,
IV, TUL).
Qud hedged disverr.
INTRODUCTION
£9
Erik Nielsen Schmidt, navigate these islands in the good hope
that God Almighty will grant us some share of the good things of
the land by way of restitution for our former losses. We pray
Your Majesty to renew the grant of our former privileges for
another term
of years.”
Hans Nansen, Schmidt, and three
others
signed their names to the petition which was granted
substantially in the form asked, for ‘‘the present year” only.
The Hans Nansen who signed this petition appears to have
been the son of the wealthy burgher and Iceland merchant of the
same name.
After attendance in a Copenhagen “Latin school”
he had been sent to Danzig in 165£ to learn bookkeeping, and
went thereafter on business missions to Prussia, the United
Netherlands, and Iceland.
In 1655 he was the “winter mer-
chant” of the Iceland-Paero company; in the winters of 1656-
1657 he was in Amsterdam learning seamanship and nautical
mathematics.
In the summer of 1657 he was made merchant
in Iceland for the new company; the year following he was in
GlUckstadt and Hamburg.
During the last Swedish war, being
unable to return to Copenhagen, he was
in business
for his
associates and himseW in Hamburg,
Gliickstadt and Iceland.
He was certainly one of the organizers of the West India Com-
pany in 1671, and may be taken as a type of the shrewd, ad-
venturous
entrepreneurs
of the age
of the commercial com-
panies.
The skipper, Erik Nielsen Schmidt, was evidently selected for
his knowledge of West Indian waters and conditions.
How
many previous voyages their “former skipper” may have made,
it is impossible to say, but he is certainly found on February £5,
1663, passing through the Sound with a cargo of tobacco, ginger,
etc., from the West Indies; ^ he is referred to in a contract dated
June 8, 1665, at Copenhagen as royal commandant and governor
of the island of St. Thomas.®^ On July 1 he passed Elsinore with
No. 73, SjcsH, aahne Breve, April 29, 1662 {Indlmg).
Rind Nielsen, Cliris-
toffer Hanse, and Jorgen Hansen Raffn.
Schmidt's name appears as Erich
Nielsen ScKmit in the document, and is signed Erich Nielsen Smit,
It was granted on April 29, 1662, udi nosrvfBrende Aar,
dremndstoldregrishdbei for 1663.
In KirhehiH, Sami., 5 R. II B., pp. 293 et seq.
E, V. Lose quotes in extenso
the contract entered into between Schmidt and Kield Jensen
Slagelse, the
30
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
a cargo of provisions bound for the West Indies.®^
Early in 1666
(February 15) he sent a small cargo containing three hundred
“rolls” of tobacco and one and one-half hhds. of sugar to Co-
penhagen.®®
Not long thereafter, in the same year, he died at
St. Thomas.
The Lutheran minister, Kjeld Jensen
Slagelse,
seems to have succeeded him and to have returned to Denmark
with the remaining colonists.
The
last ship from the West
Indies recorded as passing through the Sound before the or-
ganization of the Company in 1671, and probably the one by
which the St. Thomas colonists came, sailed into Copenhagen
harbor on August 30, 1666, under Holger Freder’s command.
The cargo contained 50,000
lbs.
of pockwood, 20,000
lbs.
of
sugar, and 70,000 lbs. of tobacco,®® which may partly have been
bought on French or English islands.
Such then, in its main features, was that long train of cir-
cumstances that had attracted the interest of kings and sub-
jects of Denmark-Norway to the western world, and particu-
larly to those parts adjacent to the Spanish Main.
The success
of those trading vessels that had returned with fair cargoes from
successful ventures in those distant tropical waters had at least
served to whet the appetites of Danish-Norwegian merchants
and skippers.
They began to hope that by following the course
laid out by other western European states, notably the Dutch
and the English, they, too, might secure some share in that
commerce of which Spain was finding it increasingly difficult to
keep a monopoly.
It remains to explain how Danish mer-
chants were able through a royally chartered commercial com-
pany to gain for the state a permanent foothold in those regions.
Lutheran minister who was to accompany him. A copy of the same is to be
found in the Bancroft Collection, but the date given is 1655.
OremmMoldregruhabet for 1655.
•' Ibid, for 1666.
for 1666.
CHAPTER
I
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
By 1671, circumstances were more favorable to the establish-
ment of a Danish West India Company with broad powers and
considerable latitude of action than at any previous time.
The
several expeditions already described gave sufficient encourage-
ment to suggest a more ambitious plan for getting into the field
of Caribbean commerce.
An unoccupied island with an excel-
lent harbor had been found, the peaceful occupying and retain-
ing
of which had become a more likely possibility as a result
of
recent
diplomatic developments
in
Europe.
The newly
founded Board of Trade took on a new lease of life after the
accession to the throne of the new king, Christian V, in 1670.
On September
of that year the Board received its first official
instructions, and
presently
it was
organized with Frederick
XJlrik Gyldenlove, the illegitimate son of the king, as its president
and Jens Juel, a statesman and diplomatist and a brother of the
famous admiral,
as
vice-president.
The remaining members
included the well-known merchant Hans Nansen, Peter Peterson
Lerke, the Danish master of the mint, Andrew Timpf who had
held a similar position in Poland, Gabriel Marselis, a reputable
Dutch merchant, and as secretary, Melkior Rotlin, formerly
employed in Bergen as secretary of the Liibeck office.
To these
men the
king’s
trusted
adviser, Peter Schumacher
(created
Count Griffenfeld and made Chancellor in 1673)
lent his en-
thusiastic support in
all matters pertaining to the encourage-
ment of trade and industry.^ On November 20* 1670, the second
Danish East India Company was organized and given a charter
for forty years.
On the eleventh day of the following March,
^ K. Fabricius, Oriffenfeld (KSbenhavn, 1910), 160, 166.
The contemporary
spelling of Lerke’s name is Lerche.
2 Z). JB. H., IV, 539.
[ 31
]
32
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the Danish West India Company received its charter from the
royal hand.^
In America and the Far East Denmark was
planning to enter into commercial competition with her enter-
prising neighbors.
As directors of the West India Company the king named three
of the members ("^assessors*’ or judges) of the Board of Trade,
Jens Juel, Peter Lerke, and the burgher, Hans Nansen,^ the
last named on the nomination of Peter Schumacher.
This charter, like the usual seventeenth century commercial
company charters, conferred very broad powers upon the com-
pany.
In describing it, reference will be made by way of com-
parison with an organization established just the year before,
the continuous existence of which from that day to this renders
it unique
in the annals of chartered companies, namely, the
Hudson Bay Company, whose official corporate title was “the
governor and company of Adventurers of England trading into
Hudson Bay.’’
The English had no company exactly corre-
sponding to the Danish company.
The Royal African Com-
pany, founded in
1672, made Guinea the main scene
of
its
operations, with the British islands in the West Indies the chief
market for what soon came to be their principal article of com-
merce, African slaves.
But the Hudson Bay Company was,
like the Danish, intended for the exploitation of the New World
and offers at
its inception, despite the different nature of
its
sphere
of
action, some
interesting resemblances
to
its con-
temporary.
The charter issued by Christian V authorized the Danish
West India Company
to occupy and take possession
of the
island of St. Thomas “and also such other islands thereabouts or
near the mainland
of America as might be uninhabited and
* C. P. Lucas,
II,
52,
III,
67, naistakenly places the incorporaticm of the
company in 17S4.
For the second East India Company, see Kay Larsen, D$
dm^h-ostindiBhe Koldniers Hisiorie (Kdbenhavn, 1907), I, 4S.
* P. Manager, ffutoruk Efterretning w&r de VestindUke og Otdneuke Com-
pagnies EiabUs$e7nmter udi VesUndim og OuinoOf p. 2.
This xnazmsoript work
by a bookkeeper of the Company is in the Royal library at Copenhagen and is
of prime importance.
(Cited hereafter as Manager M8J)
Hans Nansen was also a judge on the Admiralty Board, and lata? became, as
his father had been before him, president of the dty of Copenhagai (168S).
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
33
suitable for plantations, or
if inhabited, then by such people
who have no knowledge concerning us/’ ^
Like the Hudson Bay
Company, it was authorized to build forts and lodges and to
take proper measures for its own defence in case of attack; it ad-
ministered justice to all in the Company’s service or within its
immediate jurisdiction.
Direct appeal to the Supreme Court at
Copenhagen was permitted by the Danish company; the Eng-
lish government granted the Hudson Bay Company final juris-
diction, merely stipulating that all causes should be judged and
local justice carried out by one of the local governors and his
council, where such authority was available, ‘‘according to the
laws of this kingdom.” ®
The Danish king bound himself to issue no “seabriefs” or
passports
to Danish
captains
navigating
the Danish West
Indies and promised the Company the proceeds of
all prizes
except the usual tenth part which was the perquisite
of the
admiral of the realm.
The Hudson Bay Company was origi-
nally empowered to seize the persons of English or any other
subjects who sailed into Hudson Bay or were found in the Com-
pany’s
territory without
its
permission.
No
such amazing
powers were conferred on the Danish company; and in any case,
there would have been no opportunity for their exercise.
The
En^sh company like the Danish had government oflSicials on its
board of directors, but the association of government and com-
pany was far closer in Denmark than in England because of the
absolute, thoroughly centralized administration established by
Frederick III and continued by his son Christian V.
The in-
ternal government of each company was managed by a general
assembly, or “general court,” as the arrangement was called
in the English charter.
The Danes were charged with the re-
sponsibility of converting the Indians, not a difficult task, as
only two or three are to be fotmd
in the entire period of the
Company’s existence.^ We may judge of the success with which
this injunction was carried out by the fact that “John Indian,”
* J. e,, Indians.
® Cawston and Keane,
The
Early
Chartered Companies
(London,
1896),
292
ei eeq.
See Appendix C for translation of Danish charter.
7 Cf. Lucas, H, 188.
34
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
himself a large fraction of his tribe, finally was punished by the
loss of a leg for his various attempts at running away.®
Besides the three royally appointed directors, two of whom
were
nobles,
three were
to be
elected by the
shareholders
(‘"participants”) from among themselves by a majority vote,
those chosen being required to have a minimum of 2,000 “Slet-
tedaler” invested in the Company’s stock.® A paragraph (If13)
the consequences of which the promoters could not have fore-
seen was that which provided for the upkeep of the population
of the young colony by the promise of as many of the men
condemned in the home country to labor in irons or to serve in
prison as the company might deem necessary for its plantations,
and as many as they might wish of those women whose dis-
orderly lives had brought them into arrest in the “spinning
house” and other
places.
This was not the
first time that
Europe deliberately plaimed to empty her jails on American
soil nor was it to be the last time, but on St. Thomas as in the
English
colonies, the
authorities soon learned that
convicts
were not deemed good timber for plantations by the colonial
oflGlcials.
Not like the English company, where the owner of
each block of stock worth £100 was entitled to vote, the Danish
company gave each shareholder one vote, and only one vote.
The minimum
size of the shares was one hundred rixdoUars.
The Company received free use of rooms in the Copenhagen
Stock Exchange, and was provided with suitable pack house
quarters on “Holmen” near the present
site of “Hohnens”
church.
The king, the queen, and Prince George, each sub-
scribed 3,000 SkUedakry while the total amount of this
first
subscription was 64,300
sldl*y which was to be paid in three
® Even the negroes did not becsome the objects of serious missionaiy effort
until the arrival of the Moravian missionaries in
and then the imf^tus
came from drdes entirriy outside of the official class.
• A Slettedaler « 64 SkilhEg; a rigsdaler (rixdoUar) * 96 SidUing « 0 Mark.
1 i>eso8
8 reals « 96 granos (or 48 stivers). A rixdolkr was about equal to
a pesos or piece-crf-rig^it, and to four kroner (1 J5>.
»»
in present day
coin.
The purchasing value during the Company’s career was perhaps two to
three times that of the present time in Denmark. Onmon^ values, see D.iiH.,
IV, 103, note; W. Sdharling, Pengetm eynkende VosrM (Edbenhavn, 18^);
Arent Bemtsen, Danmark og Norgee Frugibar HerUghed,
(Kj^^b^^vn, 1656).
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
35
equal parts, the first to be available on June 11, 1671, the last
instalment on March
31,
1673.^^
A proposal to require the
royal assent to the election of directors by the shareholders was
struck out by Peter Schumacher, who was responsible for the
arrangement by which two directors instead of six should have
the full power to attend to the Company's current business.^^
As a sort of advisory body there was formed a group of those
who had invested not less then 1,000 rdZ., and who were known
as the chief participants.^^ From this group a committee of four
was provided for,—^two nobles and two burghers, who should
have the power to inspect the Company's books at any time,
and who audited the bookkeeper's accounts once in each year.
The
first
chief
participants appointed were Admiral Kordt
Adeler and Frederik Poggenberg.^^ The former was by birth a
Norwegian and had distinguished himself in the Venetian navy
in the struggle with the Turks.
Such was the constitution of the Danish West India Company
whose corporate existence continued, although with a number
of changes, for eighty-four years.
Under this charter and the
‘^reglement” which accompanied it, preparations for the settle-
ment of St. Thomas were begun in the summer of 1671.
On
the nomination of Lerke, the directors selected George Iversen
as governor of the new colony.
The new governor, though a
man but thirty-three years of age when he received his appoint-
ment, had led a life full of incident and of the sort of experience
that served to prepare him for his post.^^
His surname of Dyp-
pel, the modern Dybbol, testifies to a Schleswig origin, although
he was himself born in Elsinore, where his father was a baker.
Not long after his twelfth year, when his schooling was ended,
he was bound to service and sent to the West Indies by one of
those privately owned ships referred to above, perhaps by the
^0 Manager MS., 14, 15.
Fabricius, Griffenfeld, 169.
12 See Regiment of March
11, 1671 (C. P. Rothe, Christian Vs Rescripter
for Norge ... 11 B.).
12 Mariager MS., 15.
i^This account of Governor George {Jorgen) Iversen*s life is based mainly
on the excelleat and eadiaustive sketch by Fr. Erarup in the PersonaUdstorisIc
Tidsshrift, 11 R. 6 B. (Kobenhavn, 1891).
86
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ship that left Elsinore in 1654.
It is at any rate certain that he
entered the service of an English merchant on St. Christopher
(St. Kitts), and that about 1660 he returned to Europe with a
Dutch merchant.
There he joined a company including three
business men from Zeeland, of whom one John Bassplaer, was the
leader; Iversen participated in the enterprise, holding one-sixth
of the capital.
He was himself to accompany the ship to the
West Indies and to take charge of the trade there, of which he
was to enjoy one-half of the profits.
All went on smoothly until 1665, when Iversen returned to
Europe and there learned that war had broken out between
England and the Netherlands.
This information was brought
in upon him in a way that was not to be mistaken, and he paid
dearly for
his
instruction.
His
ship and cargo were seized
by an English privateer.
The skipper himself went to Copen-
hagen hoping to obtain restitution through diplomatic channels.
Admiral Henry Bjelke procured him an audience with Fred-
erick III.
The king not only acceded to Iversen's desire that
Charles II of England be petitioned to deliver over to the in-
jured party his share of the damages, estimated at 8,000 rdZ.,
but had Iversen come to him three times to teU him concerning
life in the New World and of his personal experiences there.
Inasmuch as the Danes appeared to show too much sympathy
with the Dutch, and particularly since the failure of the Danes
to coSperate with the English
fleet in capturing the Dutch
East Indiamen in Bergen harbor, Iversen’s petition came to
nothing.
Although he kept up his connections with his Zeeland
partners, he appears to have remained in Denmark during the
years following.
In 1670, the year of the embassy of Essex, he
was married
‘‘in the house,'* a distinction which indicates a
fairly high social position, and with other evidences, shows him
still to have been a man of some means, despite his severe
loss.
The newly elected governor invested 1,000 rdl. in the West
Indian enterprise at the start. He also took charge of fitting
out two ships provided by the new king, Christian V, for the
use of the Company.
About 20,000 fdl. were espended in the
outfitting.
Captain Arent Henriksen, a Dutch skipper, took
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
87
the yacht, The Gilded Crown^ and set sail on August 80, 1671.^®
He was to look over the ground, for it was not entirely certain
that the English might not have occupied it.
On the failure of
the Fero to
arrive within the time
expected. Captain Hen-
riksen returned to Denmark with ship and cargo, only to find
that the Governor had left on February 26,^® after having been
delayed in Bergen since November ^0, because of a leaky ship.
The passenger list of the Fero makes interesting reading.
Be-
sides the crew, which totaled only twelve men, those who had
bound themselves to service and engaged themselves as em-
ployees of the Company numbered one hundred and sixteen.
The remaining sixty-one had been selected, as the charter had
permitted, from the convicts in Bremerholm and other places.
Several culprits had escaped at Bergen, but were promptly re-
placed by others equally unpronaising.
With this motley throng, to manage, an assemblage that was
to form the nucleus of the new colony, Governor Iversen would
have abundant opportunity to show of what stuff he was made.
After leaving Bergen, and especially on the approach to the
warmer latitudes, the toll of death began to be taken in earnest.
Eighty-six persons of both sexes died on the journey or had es-
caped in Bergen.
One of the victims was Kjeld Jensen Slagelse,
the minister, who had accompanied Erik Schmidt on his voyage
in 1665.
The ship,, with a cargo valued at 18,172
sldl. arrived in St.
Thomas harbor on May 25, 1672,^^ just three months after its
departure from Bergen.
The pioneer band went ashore on the
following morning,
raised the Danish
flag, and took formal
possession.
They found an island that seemed to them, as the
governor expressed
it, well suited and large enough for their
purposes. No one was there to dispute ownership, the English
who had occupied it, having left six or seven weeks earlier, after
burning
off the roof of the storehouse.^®
The land had to be
cleared of bush and forest before it could be planted; pockwood
Mcariager MS., 15.
Mariager MS. has it February 29 (p. 16).
Mariager MS,, 16, 18.
^Ihid., 18.
38
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
was sufficiently in demand in Denmark to furnish a profitable
ballast for returning ships during the earlier years of the colony.
The problem of securing cane for the newly cleared patches of
plantation ground was solved by the aid of the English, who had
recently seized Tortola, a
little island just northwest of
St.
John, from the Dutch.
The English officer
in charge there
generously gave the Danes full permission to use anything they
found on the island, and they made no find more precious than
the shoots of sugar cane.
The new
masters had
scarcely
begun
settlement,
before
colonists of various sorts began to seep in.
The greater number
of them belonged to the Dutch nation, and were seeking the
protection of a state that they supposed to be on friendly terms
with the English, who were harrying the Dutch wherever they
dared.
Some of these, as John von Beverhoudt, became plant-
ers of distinction and even founded influential families; others,
like Carl Baggaert, an absconder from Middelburg, became
trouble makers who soured the life of the governor and those in
authority with him.
Although French, Germans, English, and
Jews were among these early settlers, Dutch became the pre-
vailing language from the beginning.
To keep such a variously confused assemblage in reasonable
restraint while the necessary pioneering work was being done,
was the new governor’s task.
That Iversen should succeed in
laying the foundation of a civil government out of the crude
materials that he had at hand was in
itself a creditable per-
formance, and something for which his masters had reason to
be grateful.
But in putting through this pioneer work one is not
surprised to find that he gained for himself a reputation for
severity that made the directors declare that Governor Iver-
sen^s brutal management ‘‘has given the Company such a bad
reputation among the common people in Denmark that they
are of the opinion that if they should serve in the West Indies
they would be worse off than if they had served in Barbary.”
There was indeed considerable ground for such a belief, and the
fault did not all lie with Iversen’s government.
w Spoken of by Kranip (Jdrgm Ivmm, S^) as Burd.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
39
Besides the eighty-nine who died on board the Ferd, seventy-
five died not long after landing.
The Pelican, which arrived in
St. Thomas March 29, 1673, lost seven of its people en route and
fifty-three after landing, out of a total of only sixty-seven. The
galliot St Thomas, which arrived at the island June 2, 1675, lost
five out of nine men; and the Merman, which arrived on May 12,
1675,
lost thirty-four out of fifty-eight persons.
There were
enough survivors, however, to spread reports which required no
exaggeration to give the West Indies the reputation of being a
veritable charnel house.
The resulting
depletion was made
good by further recourse to convicts and nondescripts, immi-
grants against whom the governor never ceased to rail.
“Un-
controllable fellows, whom neither Holmen ^ nor the penitentiary
could improve,”
^‘lazy; shiftless louts, who were of no use at
home,” “vagabonds and idlers,” are terms employed by Iversen
in describing various of his former charges, even after several
years had intervened.
To obtain honest or capable employees
under these circumstances became well-nigh impossible.
The
knotty problem of securing suitable ministers reflects the pre-
vailing difiSculties.
After Kjeld Jensen’s death on the outward
voyage in 1672, George Jensen Morsing was appointed minister,
but he dropped dead on April 23, 1673, just as he was about to
take possession of the house assigned to him.
The Schleswiger,
Theodore
Christensen Risbrich
(Theodoras
Christianm HoU
satus), who succeeded to the post, quarrelled with the governor
from the beginning, called him a tyrant, and insisted on preach-
ing in German, to the governor’s disgust.
He was finally per-
naitted, in fact urged to leave the land in October, 1677.
In
1679 he brought a damage suit against the Company, and met
its counter-charge of drunkenness by explaining that such a
state “was
easily brought about by the
terrible
stuff they
make in that land,”—^referring to the young rum called “kill-
devil” because of its reputed powers.
The Danes were obviously passing through the most difficult
pioneering period m the founding of plantation colonies, and
learned, m common with other plantation pioneers, whether
Spanish, English, Dutch or French, that the first serious prob-
^ Holmen: workhouse for prisoners in Copenhagen.
40
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
lem clamoring for solution was that of labor supply.
As early
as the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the Spanish
government began to concern itself with the preservation of the
aborigines, who proved unadaptable to severe labor, African
slaves had been resorted to as a substitute for native and white
labor.
White convict labor was cursed at in Virginia, Barbados
and
]>Iartinique
as heartily as at
St. Thomas.
Indentured
servants were among those who accompanied Governor Iversen
on the initial voyage; but fevers, climate, and careless living
killed them off faster tlian they could be replaced.
This labor
difficulty seems to have been anticipated in the charter to some
extent when provision was made for absorption of the African
company of Gliickstadt into the West India Company.^^
The
union was in fact complete November £8, 1674, when ChristianV
issued an edict allowing the Danish West India Company to
trade on the Guinea coast.^^
Meanwhile the African company
had sent over a ship to Guinea in 1673 which added one hundred
and three slaves to the St. Thomas labor supply;
some smaller
purchases were made from local dealers, and another voyage
was taken by the Cornelia in the summer following, probably for
the same company.^®
In 1675 a Portuguese bark was found wrecked on the shore
with
a
slave
cargo, from
which
were
secured
twenty-four
wretched negroes,
of whom ten survived long enough to be
entered on the books of the Company.
The Dutch traders
seemed peculiarly gifted with the power to scent a bargain from
afar, whether in slaves, sugar, or silks. A certain Landert van
See Mims, Cdberfs West India Policy, p. JfcSS, for a statement of the con-
ditions in the French islands; also Pierre Heinrich, La Louxsiane scm la Ctmr
pagnie des Indes, pp. SSS et seq,
** G. iScelle, La fraiti negnbre am Indes de CastiUe (Paris, 1906),
I, lS83-ljW,
139-161.
** See If 16
octroi*
*'*Kramp, Jdrgm Iversen, 81.
Christiansborg
Castle, near Accra on the
Guinea coast, had been built by the Swedes in 1646 and captured from them by
the Danes in 1657.
The history of the Gliickstadt African Company up to the
date of its merger with the Danish West India Company is estceedmi^y meager.
Denmark finally sold its African possessions to Great Britain in 1850.
^ Mariager M8*p StSt,
** L. Fogtman, Alphahetish Register
,
.
.
(see July 10, 1^4).
THE ESTABLISHMENT OP THE COMPANY
41
der Busse disposed of a batch of sixteen slaves to the Company
in 1678, perhaps the remnant of a cargo that he had retailed
down the islands.
One Paul Jensen from Stade on the Elbe, but
recorded as a “Swede,” also sold slaves to the Company.
That
the slave trade of the Company was practically at a standstill is
shown by the fact that the king in 1680 granted permission to
Oliver Pauli, for a time secretary of the Company in Copen-
hagen, to send a ship to Guinea for slaves.
The growth of the
colony in these early years, when rumors of pestilence and dis-
affection were plentiful and dividends were scarce, was nat-
urally slow.
From a population of barely a hundred each of
whites and blacks in 1673, the number had risen by 1680 (the
last year of Iversen’s stewardship) to a himched and fifty-six
whites and one hundred and seventy-five blacks.^^
During these early years the colony at St. Thomas was too
much concerned with keeping alive to become a dangerous com-
petitor to the 'Dutch, French, or English.
Nevertheless, the
appearance of the Danes was greeted by a number of protests.
The English governor
of
the Leeward Islands, General
Sir
Charles Wheler, lost no time in denying the rights of the Danes
to any of the Virgin Islands, but on the vigorous representations
of the Danish ambassador in London, Marcus Gioe, Charles II
disavowed Wheler’s
actions, recalled him from his post and
appointed Sir William Stapleton in his place.
Charles’ letter
was dated September ^3, 1672.^
Spanish protests came in from
the governor of Porto Rico in 1673 and 1675, based on the argu-
ment that St. Thomas lay on the coast of Yucatan and Cam-
peachy, which with the surrounding islands were the property of
Spain.
The directors, by way of reply, presented a memoran-
dum to the Danish king, setting forth the fact that Spain claimed
all the Virgin Islands in opposition to the claims of all nations,
but that she did not actually occupy one; and further, that the
Danes were looked upon by Charles 11 of England, in his letter
(September 23, 167^) as rightful occupants.
Christian V had
his envoys at Madrid, George Reedtz, set forth these arguments,
^ Erarup, Iversen, SS; E. V. Lose (in Kirkehistomk Sami., 6 R. 11 B., 298)
28 GqL CoL 1675-76, Addenda 157Jhl67^ No. 397.
The relations of Stapleton
with the
Thomas authorities will be discussed in the next chapter.
42
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
and gradually the pretensions of the Spaniards dwindled down
for the time to an occasional more or less innocuous reference.^
The French had no valid grounds for protest.
Their nearest
colony was St. Croix which had been taken from the Spaniards
in 1650 by an expedition sent by de Poincy from St. Christopher.
Colbert, in his efforts to build up French commercial power, had
practically
closed French colonies to
foreign
trade, but the
Dutch wars of Louis XIV made traffic between France and her
West Indian colonies so precarious that Governor de Baas of
St- Croix was forced in 1678 to open the island to Danish com-
merce during
six months to save his people from
starving.^^
But when Denmark joined in the war against the French, this
trade ceased, and the St. Thomas creditors were left with some
thousands of rixdollars worth of valueless paper on their hands.^^
The news that war had broken out came in September, 1675,
and for the time being the French contented themselves with
seizing the Company’s yacht at St. Croix.
Finally, on Feb-
ruary 2, 1678, the French actually attacked St. Thomas.
Gov-
ernor Iversen had made valiant efforts to complete the fort to
the point where it could withstand attack j a tower had recently
been finished, and when requested to surrender he was able to
bid the enemy defiance.
The French left after carrying off a
few slaves and some free negroes.
After their departure the
work on the fort was continued with greater vigor than ever so
that by 1680 the governor was able to record that the fort was
completed.
With the one hundred and fifty men, white and
black, that he had available, he felt himself able, so he reported
to his masters, to beat off six hundred or even one thousand
men.
But the strenuous work involved in preparation against out-
side attack had driven the planters as well as the governor al-
most to desperation.
With the malcontents under the Dutch-
man Baggaert against him, with his health undermined by the
strain
of
responsibility, and his temper becoming more and
Manager MS,, 18, 19.
Mims, 8ZS; Krarup, Iversen, 85.
** Debtors on St. Croix** were still ia 1708 debited with
rdl,, 5 marks in
the Company’s books at St. Thomas.
N. /. for St Th„ 1705-1708.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY
43
more violent, his wife dead, and revengeful enemies on all sides,
Governor Iversen finally insisted so strongly on being relieved
that the directors proceeded in August and September, 1679, to
choose a successor.
They found one in the Holsteiner Nicholas
Esmit, the only available candidate applying. He did not arrive
until July 4, 1680, when he was received by Governor Iversen
with appropriate pomp and ceremony.
The new governor found
the harbor supplied with a good fort, a road running through
the island, fifty plantations surveyed, of which forty-sis were
actually occupied, the other four not having recovered from the
attack of the French; he found the Company in possession of
two plantations
of
its own, equipped with forty-nine
slaves
(men, women, and children), thirty-one
cattle, seven horses,
poultry, numbers of hogs, and with sheep and goats pastured on
nearby islets.®^
Although the little colony showed signs of vitality, the Com-
pany could not begin to pay dividends.
Of seven
ships,
in-
cluding yachts and the like, which the Company or King had
put into the West India or Guinea trade, several had undergone
expensive
repairs
or
costly
seizures, and two,
the
Charlotte
Amalia and the St
Vincent^ had been wrecked altogether,
bringing about a direct loss of 40,000 rdt to the Company.^®
In the cargoes brought into Copenhagen hadbeen included sugar,
cotton,
indigo, tobacco,
ginger, cacao, ‘‘carret”
(sea
turtle),
hides, pockwood and other valuable timber.^^
Only a haU score
of passports had been issued during the years 1671-1680 to
ships bound from Copenhagen to the West Indies, and five for
ships sailing to Guinea.
Even the extension of trading priv-
ileges granted by the Company in its mandate of February
1675, did not bring about the hoped for results.^®
Matters had
®*Buck (“Bocken”) and
St. George (“S.
Jorris”)
islets, and particularly
Water Island,
just
outside the harbor, were used
for
pasturage purposes,
Krarup, Iversen, 38.
Manager MS,, 22.
Ibid,, 19, 23.
By this mandate, the Company permitted its own shareholders to trade
with St. Thomas on the payment to the government there of a ten per cent,
duty on goods imported; while if they imported slaves they should pay a “recog-
nition’* or duty of one slave out of each fifty.
Strangers might bring in goods
44
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
come to a low pass largely because of the reaction of conditions
in Europe upon the commercial situation both in the capital and
in the colony.
In carrying out his second war against the Dutch, Louis XIV
had indeed secured the assistance
of the former ally
of the
United Provinces, Sweden, and for a time that of England.
The
Netherlands were allied from the first with the Hohenzollern
elector of Brandenburg and were later to be joined by the Em-
peror and by their traditional enemy, Spain.
Into this armed
camp Denmark threw herself on the side of the Dutch, but
against the Swedes, from whom she hoped to regain her lost
provinces.
Such a state of war not only militated against the
success
of
the Company’s
efforts, but
threatened
the very
existence of its American factory.
for these return cargoes at the same rate of ten per cent.
Each of"the Danish
skippers was to bring to St. Thomas two capable workingmen, for whom the
Company would pay 10 rdl. each; while each failure to make such delivery was
to be penalized by a fine of iiO rdl.
This was very similar to the ArrU promulgated by Colbert, January 22, 1671,
to encourage the importation of white servants.
Vessels of 100 tons or over
were to carry two cows or two mares, and those of less to carry two indentured
servants in place of each cow or mare.
Mims, op, dU 282.
Three Bergen
merchants,
Jfirgen Thonnohlen, Cordt von Woyda, and Daniel Wolszman,
received permission to send ships to the West Indies in this trade. A Christiania
ship seems to have got to St. Thomas with a passport from the king, but with-
out the knowledge or permission of the directors.
Mariager MS., 26-28.
CHAPTER
II
THE CEITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
The conclusion of the peace with Sweden in 1679 was followed
by a series of efforts on the part of the Danish crown to revive
and quicken the economic life of the kingdom.
The Board of
Trade applied itself anew to the task, and a special commission
with Jens Juel at its head was created in September, 1681, to
supplement that body.^
In this revival of interest in commer-
cial and kindred matters, the West India and Guinea venture
came in for its share of attention.
On March 3, 1680, the king
issued an order, the provisions of which indicate clearly the low
state of the company and the heroic measures necessary to fan
into a flame its spark of remaining life.
In this order the king
pledged his assistance by offering to fit out and send a ship to
Guinea to fetch slaves for use in St. Thomas; and he promised to
send the needed number of men to the Guinea forts, which were
sadly in need of assistance.^
The resolution of February
8,
1675, confiscating to the Company the capital of participants
who had not paid in their full quota was confirmed, and now
each shareholder was assessed an amount equal to ten per cent,
of the par value of his share.
If he failed to pay, he was liable
to lose his entire investment.
Moreover,
all government em-
ployees in his majesty’s dominions were “invited” to invest
ten per cent, of their salary, if the latter was over 300 rdl. a year,
in shares; if th^ had not paid in the required amount within
four or
six weeks,
it would be deducted from their salaries.
Finally, the king reached out after those wealthy but apathetic
burghers and others who had hitherto refrained from investing
or had been unduly cautious, by requiring that
all carriage
^ Other members of this commission were Michael Vibe, Peter Brandt, Paul
* Rosenpalm, and ^^procureur-^giniraV^ Peter Scavenius.
D. R. H., TV, 615.
* Manager MS., 37, 38.
[ 45 ]
46
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
owners whose shares did not amount to 500
sldl. must invest
60 rdl, once for all.
Whatever the king and company’s directors might propose,
it was after all the servants of the company in the West Indies
and on the Guinea coast on whom would rest the duty of dis-
posing; and the success of their efforts would be largely condi-
tioned by various external circumstances over which they had no
control.
To carry out the details required by this scheme of
rehabilitation and readjustment, a committee of four ® headed
by Herman Meyer, councilor of war, admiralty and commerce,
was appointed to take charge of supplying the Guinea forts with
men and munitions and equipping ships for both Guinea and the
West Indies.
The result was that the Merman was sent out to
Guinea ^ under Captain Ove Ovesen, who took with him a new
merchant and commander for the Guinea factory, while the
Crowned Griffin was sent to St. Thomas, passing Kronborg castle
on September 4, 1680, under Captain John Blom.^
The home authorities had done all that they could, and as-
suredly no less than was needed.
It remained to be seen to what
extent their efforts would be seconded by their employees and
favored by circumstances.
The new governor of St. Thomas,
Nicholas Esmit, had given the directors plenty of promises, but
had been unable to produce any recommendations.
The pend-
ing resignation of Iversen gave them no time to search about for
candidates.
Esmit claimed to have been a skipper, called him-
self captain, and asserted that he had served his apprenticeship
with the English at Jamaica.
His name Esmit was probably
* The others were Peter Bladt, Assmor in the Board of Trade, Mauritz van
der Thy, and Claus Sohn.
* No pass appears to be recorded in VeaHndish Reg, 1671-^99 for this ship.
Merman »» Bafmanden or Haimandm,
* Manager MB,, 84 rf eeq,; Vest, Reg,, 1671-99,
The Crowned Griffin » dm
Cronede Griffs
THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690)
47
originally Schmidt and would point to a sojotirn in Spain.
He
was apparently related to that John Esmit who, according to a
petition filed in 1671 had been consul in Spain for four years and
thereafter receiver of customs in Copenhagen for twelve years
and had been at one time in charge of the renovation of the
city.®
On his arrival at St. Thomas, Captain Esmit was all amiabil-
ity, but he began very soon to lend his ear to George Iversen’s
enemies, particularly to the Dutch absconder, Carl Baggaert.
He released one Peter Jansen from the prison into which his
predecessor had cast him, and before Iversen had got ready to
leave for home via St. Croix, which he did on September ^0,
1680, Esmit had so far broken with the former governor as to
forbid his living at the fort.
The obvious attempt of the new
encumbent to curry favor with the lawless element did not bode
well for the colony.
It must be borne in mind that since the treaty of Madrid
(1670)
the English governors in the West Indies had been
strictly enjoined to suppress privateering.
Their task had been
a
diflSicult one,
for Spain not only protested against English
logwood cutters being allowed to exploit the swamps of Yucatan
but effected a considerable number of captures.^
The distinc-
tion between logwood cutting and piracy was apparently not
very clear to the Spanish official mind.
Among the most
conscientious
officials were
Sir Thomas
Lynch, who was governor of Jamaica in 1671 and after an ab-
sence of a few years was reappointed in 1681, and Sir William
Stapleton, governor of the Leeward Islands.
Assuredly pri-
vateering and the development of plantations and legitimate
trade did not go hand in hand.
Until there was reasonable
guarantee that plantation products would be safe from seizure
on the high seas, men would be chary of sinking their funds or
investing their labor in plantations.
From the viewpoint of British expansion, commercial and
territorial, the Danish islands, like the Dutch and French, were
® Nielsen, KdherJtam^ V, 62 et seq.
^ It was reported in 1674 that 75 English ships had been seized by the Span-
iards since 1670.
Beer, The Old Colonial System, 166(hl688, 11, 68.
48
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
on the frontier between the Spaniards and the English.
This
frontier had been pushed forward by a straight conquest to in-
clude Jamaica; buccaneers had made sport of it and were finally
to extend it permanently into Campeachy.
It was in this twi-
light zone, haunted by buccaneers and men of their type, that
St. Thomas had found itself since its settlement.
To keep the
island out of complications with its powerful neighbor required
more
firmness and
clear-headedness than was
possessed by
Nicholas Esmit.
Of his early history as governor only a few en-
lightening documents exist, but a letter written by him to the
directors May 17, 168^, is sufficiently illustrative of the ways of
the privateers and of their reception in St. Thomas to justify
quotation:
** There arrived here February 8 [1682] a ship of unknown
origin, some two hundred tons in size, without guns, passport or
letters, and with seven men, French, English, and German.
On
being questioned they replied that they had gone out of Es-
paniola [Hispaniola] from the harbor of Petit Guava (sic) with
two hundred men and a French commission to cruise on the
Spaniards.
They had come to the coast of Terra Firma and
landed in the river of Danan [Darien?] where they were joined
by the wild Indians who were to show them the way over the
landtotheSouthSea, which they also did;
.
.
. and they took a
little ship or bark with a hundred blocks [bars?] of silver, next a
large vessel, and finally a Spanish galleon, with which they did
much damage over all the South Sea; and after having robbed
for two years in the South Seas, they escaped around Terra de
fago
[del Fuego]
.
.
. and on January 28 came to anchor in
Antigo [Antigua], where all the English in the crew went over
on the English ship with all their gold and silver.
The rest,
namely seven men, who had risked [?] and doubled their money,
sailed for Petit Goava, but on the way the boat leaked, so they
asked to come in to
St. Thomas and there careen the boat,
which was done at Strand Slucken [Gregerie Beach?] by the aid
of thirty men sent out by me.
I bou^t what little cacao they
had, the rest of their plunder they brought ashore and divided
among our people.
The ship was no longer usable.
I have
decided not to confiiscate it, in order to avoid any unfriendliness
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
49
with sea-robbers.
The inhabitants of St. Thomas have decided
that the said seven men shall remain among them.” ®
But clearly enough such cheerful receptions coidd not go on
very long without arousing serious misgivings in the watchful
governor of the Leeward Islands, Sir William Stapleton.
On
August
18,
168^,
one Captain ^^Toms Wadsten”
(Thomas
Watson?) came into
St. Thomas harbor with his
sloop, the
Prosperous^ and received permission of the governor to come
in to revictual.
The vessel had come from Barbados,
it was
said, and was bound for Jamaica.
On the captain’s remaining
in the harbor longer than the time agreed on, and selling great
quantities of ‘‘kiU-devU,” stuffs, linen, gloves, and the like, his
vessel and remaining goods were seized and declared good prize.
A commission headed by the Carl Baggaert before mentioned,
and including ‘‘Mr. William Borth” (Burke?) an “expert buyer
of English and Irish wares,” found the confiscated cargo to be
worth £108, ISs. M.
On August 26, Captain Watson and his
mate, John Campion, were condemned to be hanged.
This in-
teresting ceremony occurred “in the proper place, where or-
dinary justice is done.”
There the victim was suspended “by
a strap;” “Robbert Wautersen van Rotterdam” was ordered
banished, while the chief witness, John Finlasson, was to leave
8 Breve og DoJcumenfer, 1683-1689, from a copy by O. Pauli, the company's
secretary in Copenhagen.
This rather quaint account of the rovings of a buc-
caneering expedition in the South Seas is really the Danish version in a nutshdU
of the famous voyage described at length in John Exquemelin’s history of the
buccaneers.
In the London edition of that work, which was published in 1685,
was included under a separate title “The Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts
of Capt, Bartholomew Sharp and others, written by Mr. Basil Ringrose, who
was all along present.”
One of the nine “captains” of whom that writer makes
mention was Bartholomew Sharp, who was sent to England with some of his
f^ows, at the instance of the Spanish ambassador in Iiondon, where they were
to be tried for piracy.
After having secured his acquittal with the others on
the plea that the Spaniards had fired tihe first shot. Captain Sharp returned to
the West Indies, eventually settling down in St. Thomas, where he succeeded
in making the governor’s existehce miserable.
In John Lorentz’s term of ojEce,
sixteen years after his South Sea exploit, after sickness had deprived him of the
use of his hands, he was still able, through the indiscriminate use of an active
and violent tongue, to earn a sentence of imprisonment for life from an indig-
nant governor and council.
Lorentz to Directors
(24 June,
1698)..
(7. R.,
mo-ms.
60
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the island within a fortnight.
The order was signed by Bag-
gaert and one Jochum Delicaet, a wily Dutchman who
will
come in for attention later.®
Before Governor Stapleton could
get a chance to secure the delivery of the sloop to him, Nicholas
Esmit was replaced by his brother Adolph, who had become the
leader of a faction of the more unruly planters.^®
Adolph was
shifty, shrewd, vain, and at times boastful, and an exceedingly
exasperating neighbor to deal with.
It is in the period when the Esmit brothers were responsible
for the government of St. Thomas, that the island gained
its
reputation as a resort for pirates.
For that reason their relations
with pirates, or with persons suspected of being such, deserve to
be examined with some
minuteness.
On October
7,
1782,
Governor Stapleton sent Thomas Biss, his deputy on Tortola,
to ‘*the Honorable Governor Esmit in St. Thomas Island,” for
to have written
of St. Thomas Island” would have been an
official recognition of the usurpation.
On the demand of Biss
for the restoration of a sloop, which he maintained had been
seized from its lawful owner, as well as on the request for the de-
livery of seven white servants who had run away from Mont-
serrat, Adolph Esmit gave contradictory and evasive answers.
When the English
official demanded the runaway
servants,
Esmit had replied that this was a free port
and that anyone
asking for protection was entitled to it.
“ Sir,” was the reply of
Biss, ‘‘if your port is free, why did you seize the sloop?
If some
rogues have freedom here, why not all?”
Later, in a communication to Biss, Esmit offered to restore the
sloop (which he had already sold at auction for twenty-five
pieces of eight) on the presentation of a certificate from Gover-
® -4. E.,
.
.
. 1689-85, “Lit. A.** and “Lit. B.” appended to A. Esmit’s letter
to the king (1 Sept., 1683).
Delicaet’s first name was frequently spelled Jo-
achim,
^ On 8 August,
1682, Nicholas had discharged a debt of 8,000
rdl. to hia
brother, described in the document as “yoimg of years and faithful,*' by deeding
him
his share
of a plantation 8,000 feet long and stocked with 87
slaves,
houses,
indigo, “works,”
etc.
The deposing of
Nidbiolas took place
in the
autumn.
(B, & D,, 1685-89)
This appears to be the first reference to St. Thomas as a free port.
« Cd. Col,, 1681-85, No. 777 (11 Nov., 1682).
THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690)
51
nor Stapleton showing that he had authority to receive it, and
on payment of certain charges.^^ In a moderately toned letter of
December 12 , addressed to “Capt. Adolphus Eastmitt/^ Staple-
ton reiterated his demand for restitution of sloop and runaways
'^now that I understand that you have the power in yr hand/’
Esmit’s reply did not entirdy suit the English governor who
wrote,
‘‘It doesn’t show much inclination to live in peace, to
say that some [of the seven servants] have gone to Leeward and
one is in the [Danish] king’s service, which is all one with saying
their money in part is employed in the king’s service soe is the
boat in which they were transported and ye sloop and goods
too.”
But the governor wanted his neighbors to understand that
his patience had limits.
“You may be confident,” he added,
“that the detention of sloop goods and servants will not be
forgotten.
It were no hard matter for me to let you otherwise
know it but my inclination is otherwise.”
Esmit declined to be
bluffed, however.
In his reply, dated January 8, 1688, he re-
fused to assume responsibility for the acts of his brother or to
trouble himself further concerning the whole matter,
saucily
adding that “I know you serve his Mayts (Majesty) of Engen-
lant whom I have had the Honner to Serve as Capt: whose
Commission I have [and] alsoo another from his Rojail Heighnis
:
and att present I Sarve my Master the Souerin King of Denne-
marck and thus I conclude.”
Meantime Governor Stapleton had incorporated his griev-
ances into a vigorous letter which he had sent to the Lords of
Trade and Plantation on November 11, 1682.^®
They suffered
alike, he explained, from Dutch and Danes, froii fugitive serv-
ants, black and white, and from seamen and other debtors, who
had run away to these islands and were never restored, on the
ground that the freedom of their port protects all, and he de-
spaired as to how to proceed except by the law of the Turks and
Algerines.
The
complaint was promptly
conveyed
to
the
Danish envoy
at London,
Christian Lente, by
the Earl of
A. Esmit to Mr. Biss (20 Nov., 1682).
A. E*, 1682-89,
iM. E., 1682-89,
Cd, Col, 1681-85, No. 777.
52
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Sunderland, with a request for the restoration of the sloop and
servants.^®
Within a fortnight the Danish king had written a
vigorous
letter to Esmit rebuking him and ordering him to
restore ship and fugitive servants forthwith, on pain of summary
pxmishment
of death.
Further complaint of violence would
certainly bring this punishment upon him.^^
It could assuredly not have missed the observation of the
de facto governor that serious trouble was in the wind; and so
long as he had secured no commission, his position was bound to
be exceedingly precarious.
The directors of the company in
Copenhagen had early learned of Nicholas Esmit’s doings at
St. Thomas, and decided to have him replaced at the earliest
opportunity by a more
likely incumbent.
In March
168^
George Iversen who had recuperated from
his severe expe-
rience again sought his former post.
In this and in his plans for
strengthening the colony by another consignment of convicts
Iversen was supported by Jens Juel and Albert Gyldensparre
who with Edward Holst, assumed the direction of the company's
affairs in 1682, on the resignation of Hans Nansen and Herman
Meyer.
The governor-elect received his commission Septem-
ber
26,
1682,
his
final
instructions on October 28, and
left
Elsinore on November 10, just when Stapleton was formulating
his charges against Adolph Esmit.
But Iversen was never to
reach his destination, for after he had passed the Azores, he and
those in authority with him fell victims to a mutiny instigated
by their convict cargo.^^
As the news of this latest misfortune was reaching the direc-
tors at Copenhagen, Adolph Esmit was sending his recently
married English wife Charity to Denmark to plead his case and
procure him a commission.^ He sent in numerous documents
“ Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 993 (Mar. 8, 1683).
Ibid., No. 1003
(Mar.
17,
1683).
Another
copy
of
the same docu-
ment has been calendared by mistake under date
of Mar.
17, 1684 (No
1597).
Manager MS., 44.
Krarup, Iversen, 43 et seq.
Most of the mutineers were caught and horribly
put to death in Copenhagen.
Cf Haring, Buccaneers, iS7, where
**Everson”
is confused with Milan.
^ A. JE., 168^-89 (May 1, 1683).
THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690)
53
intended to prove his brother’s treachery and justify his own
actions.
Charity Esmit was a shrewd woman, of wide ac-
quaintance in official, if not indeed in royal circles.
She was an
adept at intriguing, and lost no time in pulling all available
wires to keep her husband in his place.
Her insistence was
rewarded when the king and the directors decided early
in
July that the low estate of the company demanded that for the
present the incumbent be confirmed in his office, and issued the
commission on July 17.
Before Charity could bring her husband the much desired
commission, matters had rapidly approached a
crisis
in St.
Thomas.
In response to requests from West Indian governors
for men of war to protect their interests, the English king had
sent H. M. S. Rvby under Capt. Richard May to the Leeward
Islands early in 1683.
In his search for a French pirate ship,
La
TrompeiLse, captained by the notorious Jean Hamlin, he
visited St. Thomas early in July,^^ but failed to find the ship,
although Sir Thomas Lynch had reported the presence of La
Trompeuse in a letter to the Lord President of the Council,
written on May 6}^ But the English were not to be balked so
easily of their prey.
At three o’clock on the morning of July 30,
Capt. Charles Carhle put into St. Thomas harbor with H. M. S.
Francis
y
a ship sent by the king early in the year with ammuni-
tion and supplies for the new forts at St. Christopher, Nevis,
Montserrat, and Antigua.
Carlile had with him a letter of
recommendation from Sir William Stapleton. The obj'ect of the
search. La TrompeusCy a ship of thirty-two guns and six boats
(patararoes) was lying at anchor within, and
(according to
Capt.
Carlile) the Francis was greeted by some shots from
either the pirate or the fort.
On Tuesday, July 31, the English
An English pirate, George Bond, was one of those whose depositions were
included.
Various threats made by Nicholas Esmit at St. Christopher and St.
Eustatius
against
St, Thomas inhabitants were adduced.
A,
E.,
168^-^89
(May 1, 1683).
One of Adolph Esmit’s most steadfast friends was Steen Andersen Bille,
vice commandant of Copenhagen in 1676, appointed to the war college in 1679,
and made a noble in that year.
<^ A
E., ms-86 (Juty 2/l2, 1686).
« Co/. Co/., 1681-86, No, 1066 (May 6, 1683),
54
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
captain sent a protest to the governor concerning the shooting,
and planned to burn up the pirate ship that night.
The gover-
nor’s explanation that he had already taken her into custody
and sent her men ashore did not help matters, for in that case
he was responsible for the firing on the English flag.
Esmit’s
efforts to cajole Carlile ashore by sending him a present and an
invitation to dine were too transparent to succeed.
Carlile was
in no mood to risk a delay that might bring in the pirate ship’s
consort, which was daily expected, so he sent his men on board
her that evening (Tuesday) and fired her.
In the conflagration,
another privateer lying near at hand caught fire and was burned.
In vain did Esmit fulminate against this confessedly high-
handed measure and against Carlile’s threat to summon three
more frigates to his assistance if Esmit did not deliver up the
pirate Englishmen who were
ashore.
Esmit
admitted
the
firing of a shot from the castle but maintained that his purpose
was merely to secure due salute.
Since he was accused of undue
intimacy with pirates, he sent over in irons the man who fired
the shot.
The rest, he explained, had fied.^®
Esmit’s first care was to notify the French governor of St.
Croix, for the French might be expected to put in a claim for the
restitution of property belonging to one of
their subjects,
although in his claim to Carlile Esmit argued that the frigate
belonged to the Eang of Denmark.
Stapleton had now secured
the means by which he could back up his words with powder
and ball, and was prepared to press his advantage.
On Au-
gust 15 he demanded that Esmit deliver up Jean Hamlin, whom
the St. Thomas governor had evidently befriended.
‘‘Have a
care,
he wrote, “I shall come from the Leeward Islands with
an armed force, blow you up as quickly as the Trompeusey and
pound any pirate that you may have fitted out.
If you have a
spark of honesty in you restore me the sloop and runaway serv-
« Cd, Col, 1681-85, Nos. 1168, 1173, 1188, 1190; A. E., 1682-89 (Aue. 1,
1683).
Ibid., No. 1173.
Esmit to Stapleton (Aug. 1, 1683).
^ Ibid,,
No.
1381.
The
Chevalier
of
St.
Laurens,
Preach
governor
of Martinique sent a protest to Governor Stapleton Nov.
13,
1683, main-
taming not without reason that his men should have spared the ships and
punished the pirates.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
55
ants that I have already claimed.” ^
In a letter to the Lords of
Trade written on the same day Stapleton expressed himseK with
equal vigor and at greater length.
He was sending Carlile out
after Cooke and Bond, two other English pirates who had been
befriended by the Danish governor.
'‘There is more need of
such
[i.
good ships] in the Leeward Islands than in any other
government,” he wrote, "with their mixture of Spanish, French,
Danes, Dutch, and Indians.”
Stapleton’s wounded feelings
received some bahn when a copy reached him of Christian V’s
order to Esmit’s brother Nicholas to deliver to the English island
of Montserrat the sloop and goods seized, and likewise to restore
the seven runaway servants.^® He may also have extracted com-
fort from the success of his men in breaking up the "castle” that
Esmit had caused to be built on St, John, and in despoiling of
their hve stock the grazmg islets near St. Thomas harbor.^^
Esmit was
nothing daimted by
Stapleton’s
threats.
He
seized English sloops when he could lay hands on them and sold
Jean Hamlin a new sloop, perhaps one of those seized from the
English. Hamlin went back to his old trade
in company with a
Captain Morgan, a pirate and a namesake of that other Morgan
who was trying in the capacity of lieutenant governor of Jamaica
to suppress piracy in Caribbean waters.
Captain George Bond,
master of the ship Summer Island of London, had bought a
Dutch vessel at St. Thomas, fitted her out there, turned pirate,
and sent some of his captured booty back to St. Thomas for safe
keeping.^^
Madame Esmit’s return from Copenhagen in November 1683
with the coveted commission was a triumph of which neither she
28 Cal. Col, 1681-85, No. 1189 (Aug. 16, 1688).
28 Ibid., No. 1188. The Indians were on the rampage in the Windward Islands
at this time.
*8 Adolph Esmit’s commission was dated July 17, 1683.
The order for the
release of the sloop was signed Oct. 4, 1683.
Cal. Col, 1681-85, No. 2087.
81 A. E., 1682-89 (Aug. 26, 1683).
*‘Lit. D.”
82 Cal. Col, 1681-85, No. 1223.
Stapleton to Lords of Trade (Aug. 30, 1683).
Before long Hannlin is again heard of as a captain of La NoumlU Trompeuse,
which Stapleton asserted was fitted and protected by the godly New England
independents.
Ibid., No. 2042 (Jan. 7, 1686).
88 Ibid., Nos. 1471-1474, 1636.
56
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
nor her husband was slow to take advantage.
Difficulty of
communication between new and old world meant that the
offences and grievances of the summer, which had been accu-
mulating in London and Copenhagen, became the topic of dip-
lomatic negotiation in the winter following.
The commission
arrived none too soon, for malcontents within the colony were
already plotting Adolph Esmit’s overthrow. Now that he was
governor in his own right, he could proceed against his local
enemies with a vigor born of authority.
The first to become
a target for the governor’s wrath was the leader of the plot, Otto
Eden, who was condemned to death in the month following
Madame’s return.^^ His two chief accomplices got off with fines,
and banishment to their plantations for nine months.^®
Esmit
showed very much the same instability of character in dealing
with the inhabitants, that he showed in his relations with his
neighbors, on other
islands.
The return of Madame Esmit
could not but further embitter the life of the conscientious, if
irascible, Stapleton.
‘"Never was like impudence on the earth
as of Esmit and his wife,” he wrote to the Lords of Trade, Feb-
ruary
13,
1684.
“She gives out that she
is the relict of an
English baron.”
Had Governor Iversen lived to arrive safely at his post early
in 1683 when he was expected, the company might have been
spared much expense and annoyance, and the colony a harrowing
experience.
For Esmit was no more inclined to give up his
habits than Stapleton was to let him cultivate them in peace.
In April 1684 Sir William issued an order to Col. Thomas Hill,
authorizing him to secure any persons that he might find in the
Virgin Islands,
especijally Danes, and bring them to Nevis.®®
Before long Esmit’s secretary, Martin Borel, with three negroes
was captured and detained in arrest at Nevis.
When Esmit
threatened to send the
secretary’s seven children over into
Stapleton’s safekeeping in case their mother who was danger-
ously
ill, should die,®^ the secretary was returned.
** A. E., 168^-89 (Nov. 20, and Dec., 1683).
Ibid, (Jan. 26, 1684). They were Jodimn Ddicaet and Jan Borris.
Cd, Cd., 1681-85, 1947, IH (April 8, 1684).
37 Ibid., 1947, n (June 11, 1684); A. E. (June 16, 1684).
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
57
About two months before Madame Esmit's return, and too
early to permit the news of it to reach Copenhagen before she
had made ofiE with her husband’s precious commission, Stapleton
had sent in two letters with his latest grievances against his
recalcitrant neighbor.®®
The news transmitted by Stapleton
concerning Jean Hamlin proved the last straw, and on Novem-
ber 14, 1683 th^ king issued an Order in Council authorizing
Governor Stapleton to seize the governor of St. Thomas and to
hinder the further harboring of pirates in that place.®^
The
Danish envoy was notified of the action taken, and the sending
of the order was delayed until he could communicate with the
government at Copenhagen.^
In
February,
1684, the Earl
of Sunderland, Secretary of State, was informed by Christian
Lente, the Danish envoy, that the King of Denmark had ordered
the arrest of the governor of St. Thomas.'^^
Affairs were by this time moving rather too swiftly for the
comfort of the directors at Copenhagen. On account of Iversen’s
death, they had been forced against their will to confirm the
usurper and harborer of pirates in his office until they could se-
ciue a new incumbent.
But the patience of the English govern-
ment was evidently exhausted, and it was in no mood to listen
to Esmit’s counter complaints.
So in a shareholders’ meeting
held on March 10, the directors of the Danish company were
asked to choose a new governor.
Two available candidates presented themselves,
‘^auditor”
BalthasarLachmann and Gabriel Milan. The latterwas selected
because of his knowledge of languages and of his business ability
to fill the vacant place.^ The recommendation, dated March 14,
was signed by the executive committee of the directors, con-
sisting of Albert Gyldensparre, a brotjher of the disgraced Count
Griffenfeld, Abraham Wtist, later to become a member of the
Board of Trade, and Edward Holst.
The terms on which the
office was to be bestowed were presently agreed upon, and on
C(d. CoU 1681-85, No. 1188 (Aug. 15) and
(Aug. 80, 1683).
Ibid., No. 1382.
^9 Exanip, Milan, 3.
" Cal. C6L., 1681-85, No. 1547 (Feb. 10).
-
** Krarup,
3.
58
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
May 7, 1684, the king issued an order deposing Adolph Esmit
and naming Gabriel Milan as governor of St. Thomas in his
stead.^^
To take the new governor and his retinue over to the West
Indies, the king set aside the warship, Fortuna, armed with forty
guns and provided with a crew of eighty men, and placed in
command Captain George Meyer, a German-speaking
oflScer
who had been in the Danish service for five years.
Besides his
own family, consisting of a wife, a grown son, Felix, and four
children, Milan brought with him a governess, three maids,
three lackeys, a laborer, and a Tartar.
As merchant at the
St. Thomas factory and next in authority to the governor, the
directors sent along Niels Lassen, and as “assistant” in the
company’s office (a clerical place) John Lorentz, a young man
from Flensborg in Schleswig who had contracted to serve the
company for four years.
Lavish
provision was made
for
the
governor’s
conofort.
Various kinds of foreign wines were taken on board, and place
was even found for six or seven dogs.
The king had furnished
him with 6,000 rdl. cash for his immediate needs and given him
part of his salary in advance.
Certainly no charge of niggard-
liness could be laid against the Company, the entire original
stock of which amounted to not more than 44,866 rdl, (64,300
sldL),
Captain Meyer was entrusted with a secret order direct-
ing that in case of Milan’s death Niels Lassen should succeed
to the governorship, and that in case of the death of the latter.
Lieutenant
Christopher
Heins
of
St. Thomas
should
take
charge.
The Fortuna remained long enough to receive a copy
of Charles II’s orders to Stapleton to assist the new governor in
case Esmit should resist.^®
The man who was charged with the responsibility
of re-
deeming the good name of his country in the far-off Caribbean
had led an eventful
life.
Milan came of a reputable Jewish
family
which had
coimections
in
Portugal,
Flanders,
and
“ Christian V. to A. Esmit.
A. E., 168^-89,
Krarup, MUan, 5.
6 .
^ Cal. Col., 1681’-85, No. 1676 (May 18).
THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690)
59
Hamburg.
His family was related by marriage to tbe well-
known Portuguese-Jewish houses of da Costa and de Castro.
He had, according to his own account, begun his career as a
soldier, and had served under Cardinal Mazarin
in France.
In 1667 he appears in the r61e of an Amsterdam merchant; he
was concerned with financing a foreign journey undertaken by
Prince George of Denmark; in 1668 he was made Danish factor,
and in 1670 factor-general, in Amsterdam.
In this capacity he composed reports on political and com-
mercial matters, a circumstance that brought him into con-
fidential relations with various important personages at the
Danish
court, among whom
the Peter Schumacher
(Count
Griffenfeld) before mentioned was his chief stay imtil the latter’s
fall
in
1676.
Among
his
linguistic
acquisitions he counted
Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Dutch.
Milan had tried in vain to get an appointment to the Board
of Trade on the ground that he knew the tricks of traders and
money-changers, and he had accumulated a list of claims against
his royal master for services rendered in the Netherlands—^from
espionage to loans of money—which he had small chance of
collecting in cash.
His prospects of getting into the employ of
the state were improved when on January 18, 168^, he secured
a certificate showing that he had discussed with a Hamburg
Lutheran
minister
the
relative
merits
of
Catholicism
and
Protestantism, had thereby become convinced of the truth of
the Augsbxirg Confession, and had partaken of the Holy Com-
munion.
In depending upon the favor of princes he had been
forced, even before
his appointment
as
governor,
to
drink
deep from the cup of misfortune.
However praiseworthy the
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
King’s selection of this fifty-three years old soldier of fortune for
service in the company might have been from motives of human-
ity, his choice could scarcely have been looked upon by hard-
headed business men with anything but misgivings.^’^
The Fortuna arrived at St. Thomas on October 13, 1684, after
a voyage of about nine weeks.^ At Nevis Milan called on Octo-
ber 6 to pay his respects to Governor Stapleton and to receive
the latter’s “instructions.”
Sir William seems to have availed
himself of the opportunity to accompany Milan and to witness
Adolph Esmit’s final disgrace.
Esmit handed over the reins of
office without delay or
resistance.
He
also handed over a
treasury so empty that when the English were ready to depart,
after having been entertained for ten days, the money needed
for the purchase of parting gifts for the English dignitaries had
to be borrowed by the government from a planter.
What was
worst of all, Esmit handed over to Milan an island that had
become an outlaw among its more reputable neighbors.
This
was shown clearly enough two months before the latter’s ar-
rival, when, on May ^2, a Spanish captain, Antonio Martino,
landed and carried fifty-six slaves off to Hispaniola or Haiti.
Lieutenant Heins had been sent over with two planters to de-
mand the return of the loot, but without success.^
That Esmit had been prepared for the present contingency
there could be no doubt.
The gold, silver, and other property
that he was able to scrape together had been sent to the Dutch
island of
St.
Eustatius, whence they were to be shipped to
Flushing.
Although Milan had been instructed only to secure
the persons of Esmit and his fanodly and to have them sent to
Copenhagen, he took it upon himself to try to secure the latter’s
property as well, by sending Niels Lassen to Governor Hout-
coper of St. Eustatius with an alleged copy of his instructions and
a demand for the delivery of the goods.
But neither this nor
subsequent attempts availed the crafty governor.
Instead of
In Persondhistoriak
TidahriSt, 3 R. 2 B.
(KjSbenliavii, 1898) 102 ^ $eq,
F. Krarup has given an admirable and exhaustive account of Milan’s early life,
which has been followed in the preceding paragraphs.
6.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
01
seeking redress through diplomatic channels, as his masters ex-
pected him to do, he authorized Captain Delicaet to take the
company’s
ship
Charlotte Amaliay
find the skipper who had
transported the goods and make his ship lawful prize.^
It was
to avoid just this sort of complication that Esmit had been dis-
placed.
But Milan was an exponent of direct action, he sought
advice from none, and the council dared not oppose his will.
Instead of sending his deposed predecessor back to Copen-
hagen to answer for his stewardship over the company’s affairs,
and to act as defendant in a suit brought by his brother Nicholas,
he clapped him into confinement, first keeping him at the fort as
his guest, but later putting him in a prison
ceU.®^
Madame
Esmit had rightly decided that she could be more useful in
Copenhagen than in St. Thomas, and had started on her journey
before Milan arrived.
By this time matters had grown rather
beyond her power of control, despite all her influential friends
and her genius for intrigue; so she confined herself to taking
measures to save what she could of the fanuly property.
She
returned to St. Thomas in December to share the hardships of
prison life with her husband.
The story of how Governor Milan, his sick body racked with
fever almost from the first, restlessly suspicious and ofttimes
with reason of his fellow men, jealous of his official power and
position, administered the
affairs
of
St. Thomas during his
sixteen months’ incumbency may be dealt with rather briefly.
In Captain Meyer’s attempt to provide the Fortuna with a good
return cargo the governor took but an indifferent interest, and
as to the Esmits’ returning on the Fortunay he would have none
of it.
Just why he should deliberately keep with him persons
who could not but be a source of trouble as long as they were
near,
is
difficult to explain on other groimds than cupidity.
Milan had been unable to lay his hands on Esmit’s gains.
In his
relations with his council, he showed his arbitrariness and wil-
fulness.
In place of Lieutenant Heins, who happened to be
absent on the company’s business when Milan arrived, the
Personalhistorisk
TidsTcrift, 3 R. 2 B.,
9.
The skipper’s name was Jochum
Samuelsen.
Esmit to Gyldensparre (September 23, 1686).^.4. E., 168^89,
62
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
governor promptly appointed liis son, Felix.
Instead of select-
ing permanent councilors from among the planters as he had
been instructed
to do under certain
specified
conditions, he
put in now one, now another, until fourteen planters had taken
part in the government with him.®®
With the other planters Milan was equally whimsical.
For
trifling misdemeanors he instituted elaborate investigations and
meted out extravagant fines and punishments where a wiser
man would have overlooked the whole
matter.®^
Offending
negroes were made to feel the pressure of the governor’s heavy
hand.
A runaway who might have been mercifully beheaded
was impaled alive on a sharpened stick to die in horrible agony.®®
Another negro, arrested on a similar charge, had his foot cut off,
after which he was confiscated to the governor’s use and put
to work in his kitchen.
When in the spring following the departure of the Forluna
(on March 31, 1685), Milan got wind of what he at once sus-
pected to be a nefarious plot against his life, he vented his fury
upon the unfortunate persons with swift and fiendish vengeance.®®
In the midst of charges and counter-charges, one fact stood out
with a clearness that was unmistakable.
Milan’s stewardship of
his own
plantation
property was
above
reproach;
seventy
negroes remained on the plantation even after twenty-five had
been returned to an Englishman from whom they had been
forcibly seized.®^
Here prosperity was rife.
In
Copenhagen
Captain
Meyer’s
arrival
was
naturally
awaited with a good deal of interest, even anxiety.
The cap-
tain’s report when he arrived on June 10, 1685, without Adolph
Esmit, and even without a word from Milan, gave the directors
and shareholders food for thought.
Although they had only the
captain’s
unsupported
word,
the
small
cargo and
Milan’s
silence could not but rouse
their
fears
that something was
Ejarup, Milan, 9.
Ibid., 10.
Ibid., 12, 23, 26, 36.
Ibid., n, iS.
w Ibid., 23-26.
^Ubid.,SQ.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
63
seriously wrong at St. Ttomas. A meeting of the Company’s
shareholders was held within two days, and it was decided that
the situation was serious enough to justify sending a memorial
to the king asking once more for the loan of the Fortunay and
for the sending thence of a commissioner with power to settle all
the diflSculties.
They suggested an attorney or fiscal in the navy
department, Michael (MiJcheT) Mikkelsen.®^
The king could do
nothing but fall in with the company’s recommendations.
Commissioner Mikkelsen, armed with full power, left Copen-
hagen on the Fortuna October 15, 1685, touched at Nevis on
February 19 to get the latest St. Thomas advices, and arrived at
his destination on February
£4,
1686.
The
governor’s
son,
Ferdinand, had already sent his father a warning from Copen-
hagen that it was planned to send out a new governor, namely.
Captain Meyer, whom the governor had blamed for most of his
misfortunes, even his illness.
Milan, whose nerves had scarcely
recovered from the shock of the ‘‘conspiracy,” called the plant-
ers together
in the “German”
(Dutch Reformed?)
church.
There he informed them of this last “conspiracy,” namely, the
attempt to place this “rascal” Mikkelsen in the governor’s seat
“when he ought to be hanged to the highest tree.”
He coun-
selled
resistance,
exhorted
their
aid, and by
cajolings and
threats secured their signatures to a document by which they
pledged themselves to leave the land before they would see their
governor leave them.
But if he proposed to give battle, he must needs secure the
sinews of war.
He chose a method consistent with his nature.
On February 17, 1686, just as the royal commissioner was ap-
proaching the West Indian waters, the governor authorized
Captain Daniel Moy to
take the company’s
ship,
Charlotte
Amalia, and cruise upon the Spaniards wherever they might be
found.
With a ship scarcely seaworthy, provided with a crew
of thirty men. Captain Moy put to sea to make war upon the
kingdom of Spain.
The Charlotte Amalia had no difficulty in
finding a Spanish ship on the Porto Rico coast, but the latter
vessel had the temerity to answer Captain Moy’s fire, wounding
Manager MS., 49, 50.
Krarup, Milan, 27.
64
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
one man,
killing another, and forcing the valiant captain to
beat a hasty retreat to
St. Thomas.
It was withal an
in-
glorious ending to a sorry enterprise, and not calculated to re-
deem the good name of the island.®®
The commissioners had arrived
in the harbor before the
news of the ‘‘reprisal” fiasco could reach the governor, and
before his “valet,” Moses Caille, could return from the French
islands, whence he had been sent by the desperate governor in
search of help.®^
Sitting in his private room and surrounded by
all manner of firearms, the governor drew the parley out for
three days before he finally surrendered to the king’s repre-
sentative.
Mikkelsen’s intimation that Milan’s attitude ren-
dered him liable to the charge of rebellion, combined with the
fact that the men on whom he could depend were rapidly dimin-
ishing in number, brought the governor to his knees. A guard
consisting of twelve men from the Fortuna and twelve planters,
all under the command of Christopher Heins, was placed at the
fort.
With his removal to the ship the reign of Gabriel Milan
came to a sudden end.
Adolph Esmit and his wife. Charity,
likewise the company’s merchant, Niels Lassen, who had been in
prison since April 30, were taken out of their dungeons and put
on board ship.
The scene of interest, as far as the company is
concerned, was soon to shift to Copenhagen.
Nicholas Esmit had
already lost his reason while in a Copenhagen prison waiting for
a chance to clear himself and to bring action against his brother.
The two successors of Nicholas were now to be given a chance to
defend their oflScial actions in the Danish courts and before the
directors of the company.
Commissioner Mikkelsen was employed from March until
July with
collecting
evidence from the
planters concemkig
Milan’s conduct. A few extracts from a letter written by the
official
reporter, Andrew Brock,
to
director Albert Gylden-
sparre on June 30, 1686, just before the Fortuna sailed, will give
an idea of the proceedings.
“I wish for my part that your
Excellency could have been here a single day and heard what
Eramp, MUan, 29.
Caille’s mission appears to have borne no fruit beyond arousing the Span-
iards.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1680-1690)
65
thundering there has been in the commission, with howling,
shouting, and screaming, one against the other, and I had to
write it into the protocol just as fast [as they spoke]
.
.
. but
God be thanked it is over, and former Lieutenant Christopher
Heins was yesterday made governor and
vice commandant
here.
May God in heaven aid him to carry on his government
better than his predecessors, which I expect him to do, as he has
shown himself only as an honest and upright man.
.
.
M^an himself dictated a letter to the directors in justification
of his conduct in which he vented his wrath on those inhabitants
and employees who had attested to his zeal and faithfulness, but
were now shouting, Crucify him, crucify him ! The letters of the
two prisoners, Esmit and Lassen, which were sent over at the
same time, bore out on the whole the testimony of the planters,
whose sympathies were on the side of those two victims of
Milanas wrath.®®
Mikkelsen left St. Thomas with his rather uncongenial com-
pany on July 5, and did not arrive in Copenhagen until Octo-
ber
1^, 1686.
Besides the two governors with their families
and negro servants, the list of passengers included Niels Lassen,
Gerhart
Philipsen, and John Lorentz, whose testimony was
desired in the
suits.
A commission was appointed within a
week to try the case against Milan, but delays in getting the
tangled
evidence
straightened
prevented
a
decision
being
reached before November 17, 1687.
An appeal to the Supreme
Court brought further delays, but finally the case was opened
on February 14, 1689.
The judges rendered their individual
opinions on March 14, and judgment was finally pronounced on
March £1,
The sentence was not a surprise to those who had
followed the case.
After a fair, impartial trial Gabriel Milan
was found guilty and condemned to lose his property, honor, and
life, and his head and hand were to be put upon a stake.®^ A
royal pardon saved him from the last grim disgrace,®® and at
168S-89.
•• Esmit to Directors; Lassen to same (March 13, 1686).
A,
1682-^9.
^ Erarup, Milan, 47.
^ Qneen Charlotte AmaHa had earlier befriended Madame MRan, and was
one of the
chief participants” in the company.
She had hdped to mitigate
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
dawn on March 26, 1689, he was beheaded on the New Square
(Nytorv) in Copenhagen.
Adolph Esmit’s long imprisomnent both on St. Thomas and
in Copenhagen in 1686 and 1687 had given him grounds for ap-
pearing as the injured party, and for demanding some form of
restitution.
While the Milan trial was dragging slowly on, the
former governor and his wife seem to have been kept in prison
in Copenhagen.
From their arrival on October 12, 1686, until
March,
1687, when Nicholas’
case
against
his brother was
finally ready for trial, they remained in confinement.®®
Here, as
in the case of Milan, a commission was appointed,®^ and
al-
though a number of petty irregularities and cases of tampering
with accounts were found, Adolph Esmit was on November 2,
1687, given a verdict of not guilty.
On the same day, the di-
rectors of the company actually named him governor of St.
Thomas,®® and a few days later a fleet of three ships, the Young
Tobias^ the Red Code (Den Rode Dane) and the Maria
left
Copenhagen
for
the West
Indies.
Accompanying
Adolph
Esmit, and in command
of the
fleet, was vice-admiral Iver
Hoppe who seems to have had secret orders to bring Esmit back
with him to Denmark in case he proved intractable.
The latter
was evidently being given his last chance, but at best
it
is
difficult to see how the directors could have hoped that a speU of
confinement could make the leopard change his spots. A report
Comnussioiier Mildk^lsen’s instructions, and may have used her good oi^ces
here.
Adolph’s “brothers-in-law” Steen Andersen
Bille and Jurgen Jurgensen
gave bonds for his appearance.
A. E., 1682-89 (March 585, 1687).
Jens Jueb Mathias Moth, Muhle and Hbyer.
** One condition was that he should invest 2,000 rdl, within one year after
he took possession at St. Thomas.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690)
67
of the Swedish ambassador at Copenhagen (Anders Leyenclo)
dated November 11> 1687, oflFers an explanation for the strange
conduct of the directors:
‘‘Three ships are now lying at anchor here and entirely ready
to sail out of the harbor with the first wind.
The first of these
carries thirty, the second twelve, and the third six pieces, which
[ships] those in charge are to take over to St. Thomas in the
West Indies, and there install Governor Adolph Smitt [Esmit]
who was brought here from thence as a prisoner.
He has now
been entirely acquitted of the serious charges made against him,
but Milan [has been] condenmed to lose his life, although the
judgment has not yet been carried out.
And inasmuch as said
Smidt [Esmit] has informed the king of a scheme concerning a
Spanish galleon, which is said to have been very heavily laden
with silver and stranded not far from St. Thomas some forty
years ago, Vice-admiral Hopp[e] is accompanying him with some
divers and a lot of machines and implements with the intention
of finding the silver.
With what success it may be possible to
report by the dose of next May, especially since January and
February, the months when the sea is most calm, are to be used
for that purpose.
Not only his Majesty, but other private
persons, have advanced as much as 20,000 rdL to promote this
fishing scheme in the hope of securing a large return.”
In the February following, after the two smaller ships had
arrived,^® vice-governor Heins in a letter to the directors ex-
plained the circumstances concerning the treasure ship.
It lay
on the north coast of “ Spaniola,” he wrote; twenty-six ships and
sloops were gathered about the wreck until a royal English ship
of fifty-six pieces came there and drove them all away.
“We
have received news from the English themselves that their
captain has employed one hundred and fifty divers, and I think
he had made a clean sweep, for many tons of gold had already
been taken out.”
The incident is not without significance, for
DansJce SamUnger, 11 R. 5 B., p. 175.
The Young Tohias arrived at St. Thomas on January 29, 1688, and the EM
Cock on February 28.
The Jfana with Esmit and Hoppe arrived a monlh
later (March 24).
C. Heina to directors (February 24, 1688).
R. & Df^JMS-89.
68
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
it indicated the king’s willingness to jeopardize the interests of
the colony by an impossible appointee for the chance of securing
precious metal from a galleon wrecked on a Spanish coast.
After his arrival on March 24, 1688, in the leading-strings of
vice-admiral Hoppe, it took Adolph Esmit just three months to
convince all concerned of his utter incapacity.
On June 22, his
quarters were moved from the fort to the ship, where they re-
mained until he had finished his last voyage to Denmark.
Be-
fore the Ifana’^
departure,
the vice-admiral
called the
in-
habitants together (July 7) and told them that he wished to
know if Esmit’s statement that he held the affection of all on
the island was true.
‘‘If you want Adolph Esmit to become
governor, speak now while there is yet time,” the vice-admiral
said.
To
this the planters
all responded as with one voice,
“No!
if that should happen, we should
all leave the land!”
When asked concerning vice-governor Heins, they replied that
they asked for no better governor."^^
This time Charity’s pulling
of wires could not avail, but she pulled at them with her wonted
vigor to the last as the directors learned from an intercepted
letter to her husband,^^
Thus ended nearly a decade of weary
&
jD., 1683-89, Esmit’s diary
(July
7,
1688).
This was finished in
another hand, apparently Lorentz’s.
See Appendix E, p. SOS.
The case against Adolph Esmit was resumed by
the company on his return,, but apparently without result, for the ship and
goods he had sent to Flushing m 1684 were confiscated before he could get hold
of them, so he had nothing to be seized.
Early in 1689 he offered the Swedish
ambassador in Copenhagen his services in seizing the island of St. Thomas for
Sweden without loss of life.
Nothing came of it, and on January 25, 1690, the
case against him was finally dropped, and he was allowed to go whither he would.
He seems to have left Denmark for Courland, after whidi all trace of him is lost.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
(1080-1690)
69
administrative turmoil.
During this time three governors had
been tried and found utterly wanting.
Of dividends there had
been no thought;
the
stockholders
could
count themselves
fortunate that the island was
still under Danish sovereignty.
It became the business of Christopher Heins to cany out the
work with which Adolph Esmit had been charged.
Esmit had
brought with him a lengthy series of instructions, the cariying
out of which came
to be
left
in
the
steadier hands
of his
successor, who served the company
faithfully and well until
his death on October
1689.
He was ably seconded by John
Lorentz, a young man who had begun his career in St. Thomas
as assistant in the company’s office, had been in Copenhagen at
the Milan and Esmit
trials, and had returned with Adolph
Esmit in 1688 with a commission as bookkeeper and assistant
for
the company.
The
young man was
engaged
for
four
years at a salary of 14 rdZ. per month.
Heins’ administration
was a quiet one if contrasted with the turbulent times when the
Esmits and Milan held the fort.
There was nothing for the
Company to do but mark time until conditions might invite
renewed action.
As a result of a mandate issued in Esmit’s
last brief term offering eight years’ exemption from taxes to
intending settlers from other islands, a few French Huguenot
and Dutch planters moved to St. Thomas with their negroes.
Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was car-
ried out by zealous Jesuits for whom distance did not dim the
sense of duty.
Some
slight progress
in
planting was made during these
troubled years.
Cotton, sugar, tobacco, and indigo were sold
by the planters to the Company.
Trade with the home country
being irregular, considerable petty trade was carried on with
the lesser islands, with the French on St. Croix and St. Eatts,
with the Dutch on Saba, St. Eustatius and Curasao.
Besides
planting, some of the inhabitants, as Captain Delicaet, made a
living by fishing turtle, which were particularly numerous in the
Vest,
Beff,, 1671-99
(January
SS5, 1690); Damhe
Sami,,
II B.
5
B., p.
jJ97
(March 1, 1689); H. FRug, den dansJce PtUegrim, p. 1174.
Hdna* council alter Esmit’s departure consisted of Henry Irgens, Capt.
Delicaet, John de Windt, and John Lorenta.
70
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
vicinity of Crab Island.
The company had begun before Heins’
time to go into the planting business, and managed to secure
eighty slaves from one of the Guinea cargoes brought to America
by Pauli, the secretary of the Company.^®
A most significant effort to start the island on the road toward
prosperity had been made in 1685, when the Elector of Bran-
denburg entered into a treaty with the King of Denmark, by
which a company organized under his protection and patronage
was to be permitted to establish a factory and a plantation at
St. Thomas under certain conditions.
Occupation had been
begun in 1686, and hopes were entertained that the Branden-
burg occupation might help put new life into the poor, distracted
little colony .
The accession of John Lorentz to the post of act-
ing governor in 1696 was the beginning of an oflGicial career of
notable efficiency which ended with the death of Lorentz in 170^.
Although not governor during the entire interval, he never re-
laxed his interest in the Company’s welfare.
The connection of
John Lorentz with the Danish West India and Guinea Company
as its acting head brings to an end what may properly be called
its most critical period.
The contract was made October 26, 1686, and the slaves were delivered by
Captain Cordt (Cort) May 14, 1687.
C. E. (May 26, 1687.)
CHAPTER HI
THE BHANDENBTJRGERS AT
ST. THOMAS
It will be remembered that in the second war of Louis XIV
against the Dutch, which was ended by the treaties of Nimeguen
(1678-1679),
the
Elector
of Brandenburg and the King
of
Denmark-Norway were both allied with the Protestant Nether-
lands against Prance and Sweden.
Brandenburg, like the other
German states, had not yet recovered from the horrors of the
Thirty Years’ War, and was distinctly to be reckoned among the
weaker European states.
That it was able to play even a small
part in European diplomacy was due in a considerable degree to
the energetic and capable government of Frederick William
of Hohenzollem, the Great Elector, who was Duke of Prussia
as
well as Elector
of Brandenburg.
Sweden’s Baltic ambi-
tions, and particularly her possession of Western Pomerania
on the south shores of that sea, made her a natural rival of
Brandenburg-Prussia.
The fact that Sweden was the common
enemy of Denmark and Brandenburg would of itself tend to
drive the two states into an alliance.
Early in the reign of Frederick William, Brandenburg had
attempted, through negotiations first with Denmark, and later
with Austria and Spain, to form a company and establish fac-
tories in East Indian lands, but without success.^
During the
negotiations in connection with the peace
of Nimeguen, she
had attempted to secure French support in her efforts to estab-
lish a trade in Guinea that would survive the opposition of the
Dutch and English
companies.
Her ambassador
in
Paris,
Meinders, was instructed to try to secure a permanent factory
on the Guinea coast.
In a letter from Benjamin Raule, at that
time director-in-chief for naval affairs (OberdireJctor in Seesachen)
he was urgently requested to
‘Tabor
energetically to bring
^ R. Sdillck, Brandenburg-Preuisens Kolonial PolifUc ... 1, S et aeg., 48 et
eeq.
The attempt was made to buy the Danish factory of Dansborg in 1647.
im^ 19.
171 ]
7i
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
about the sanction [of France] to lands,” and be willing to make
considerable
sacrifices by way
of reciprocal trade privileges.
The French, however, did not consider Brandenburg trade of
sufficient importance to be worth the trouble of a treaty,^
The first proposal to establish a Brandenburg African com-
pany appears to have been made by Benjamin Raule in Decem-
ber,
1679.'
It was to this Dutchman, more than to any other
one man, that the interest of Brandenburg in Guinea and the
West Indies during the last two decades of the seventeenth
century
is due,
Raule was born at Flushing
(Vlissingen)
in
Zeeland, and had become, before the outbreak
of war with
France, a shipowner on a large scale (Orossreeder)^ and a coun-
cilor in the nearby town of Middelburg.
In the naval war of
167£ he was practically ruined, and in the war that followed
Sweden’s invasion of the Mark of Brandenburg he sought to re-
coup his fortunes by serving the Elector as a privateer.
On the
conclusion of peace the Elector made him director-in-chief for
naval affairs, and in 1681 he became director-general of marine
with the rank of colonel, A man of restless activity and bold
imagination,
he was brimful
of schemes
for promoting the
commerce of Brandenburg-Prussia.
At one time it was an East
India Company, at another an Iceland company, and now it was
a company for trading with the Guinea and Angola coasts in
“wax, gold, ivory, grain, blacks, and whatever the coast pro-
duces.” ^
In June, 1677, before the French had concluded their
treaty with the Dutch, he had offered to lead a privateering
expedition against the French and another against Spain, the
latter for the purpose of securing the equivalent in ships for the
subsidies promised by Spain to Brandenburg in a treaty made
in 1674.
That, he argued, would cause not only the Spaniards,
but the entire world to open their eyes in astonishment at the
Elector’s sea power, and would lead French, Swedes, and Dutch
to try to make commercial treaties with him.^
* Schtick,
I,
135,
136.
Haule had proposed engaging in the Guinea trade
and having the Elector partidpate with him when he was first called to Berlin
in 1676.
im,, IS7.
11.89-94,
<rWd..I,98, 99, 112.
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
73
Frederick William I fell in readily enough with Raule’s plan.
The Peace of Nimeguen prevented any attempt against the
French, but the rest of Raule’s program was actually attempted
in 1680, when two expeditions were sent out, one to Spanish-
American waters, and the other to the Guinea coast.
As the
America-bound
fleet of six ships of war and one ^‘Brenner,”
(fireship?)
sailed by Copenhagen and through the Sound
in
August, 1680, the curious inhabitants never dreamed that they
were gazing at the embryo of an imperial German navy that was
destined to become in two centuries the dominant naval factor
in the Baltic sea.^
After sending back two vessels with a Spanish
prize captured near Ostend, the remaining four vessels proceeded
westward.
“About
20th December
last,”
wrote
Sir Henry Morgan,
deputy governor of Jamaica, to his master early in 1681, “ar-
rived here four small frigates, between sixteen and thirty guns,
under the command
of four Flushingers,
Captain Cornelius
Beers, Admiral, belonging to the Duke
(sie) of Brandenburg,
having letters of reprisal against the Spaniard.” ®
The failure
of the fleet to accomplish more than the capture of a few small
prizes was ascribed by the Swedish ambassador at Copenhagen,
in a letter written to his government four years after the event,^
to the fact “that the Elector had no harbor in America, and
that therefore the fleet was forced to return with its mission un-
performed.”
This
letter was written at the time when the
Danish company was at its lowest ebb, and while the negotia-
tions that ended in the Brandenburgers securing a factory site
at St. Thomas were in progress.
The Guinea expedition from
Brandenburg landed in 1680 at Cape Three Points and on
May 16, 1681, the Elector’s representatives made a treaty with
three of the native chiefs.®
This was followed by the establish-
® The fleet was equipped with 165 guns, and had a crew of 519 sailors and
180 soldiers.
SdiUck, I, 114 et seq,
« Cal. Col, im-85. No. 13 (January 27, 1681),
^ Danske Sami,, 11 R. 5 B., p. 145.
Report of Leyenclo, October 16, 1685.
The letter mentions the report that Denmark would likely cede Crab Island or
St. John to the Elector.
® Schtick, I, 313, and H, 199 (No. 51a).
The text of the treaty is quoted in
full in Vol. n.
74
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ment in December, 1682, of the first Brandenburg factory, just
east of the Dutch station at El Mina, near the former Branden-
burg landing place; they named their station ‘^Den Grossen
Friedrichsberg.” ®
In February, 1684, they occupied Accada, just to the east of
their first factory, and in January, 1685, a place called Tacca-
rary.
They lost the latter to the Dutch, the leading traders on
this part of the coast, in 1687, and in its place the Brandenbur-
gers took up a station at Tacrama (or Tacerma), not far from
Cape Three Points, which they named Port Sophie Louise.
In plaiming to secure a West Indian factory where they could
dispose of the human part of their Guinea cargoes, the Branden-
burgers were following the lead of the English, Dutch, French,
Swedes, Danes, and Courlanders.
Despite threats and acts of
violence by the Dutch West India Company against the Bran-
denburg factors Raule proceeded with his Guinea plans, which
he promoted with the help of disaffected shareholders of the
Dutch company.
Some extracts from Haulers
letters to the
Elector will show what was transpiring.
“John Pedy writes me
from Rotterdam,” he remarks in 1681 (August 16?) “that the
Messrs. Coymans and Van Belle from Holland, who are two of
the leading contractors with the Dutch West India Company
and deliver to
it six thousand slaves annually, have informed
him on the quiet that they would be glad to consider entering
into a contract with me instead of with the company, provided
it would be possible to arrange matters with the Danish crown,
so that either we could buy their place St. Thomas or secure full
and
free permission
to bring
slaves to the
island.”
Pedy’s
suggestion prompted Raule to propose
bringing the matter
before the Danish court.
“ Pedy and I and our company would
be able, I believe,” Raule wrote, “with the help of the said Van
Belle and Coymans to bring together 40,000 florins, of which we
would present half to the Danes on condition that half of the
returns [from the capital invested] should go to Copenhagen
[apparently in retmn for the use of St. Thomas], and the other
half to Kdnigsberg.
I believe that
if
it were properly inau-
® Schiick, I, 314 et seq.
This factory is referred to by Lucas (ii, 38) and others
as Fredericksburg.
THE BRANDENBURGEKS AT ST. THOMAS
75
gurated we would be able to put the scheme through.
And the
[Dutch] West India Company would thereby be entirely ruined.
And we should then be able to send twenty-five ships out from
this land each year and develop a very large trade, indeed bring
much fine silver to you and marked advantage to your subjects.
But everything must be done under the authority
of your
Electoral Highness and the King.
That would promote friend-
ship between you and him.
I should veiy much like to hear
the opinion of your Electoral Highness upon the matter.’*
Four years later, the negotiations with Denmark were taken
up in earnest.
To Raule and those interested with him it was
becoming clearer and clearer that a permanent station in the
West Indies was necessary to make the Guinea trade profitable.
‘"Every one knows,” wrote Raule to the Elector on October 26,
1685, “that the slave trade is the source of the wealth which the
Spaniards bring out of the West Indies, and that whoever knows
how to furnish them slaves, will share their wealth.
Who can
say by how many millions of hard cash the Dutch West India
Company has enriched itself m this slave trade! ”
Raule had tried in vain during the previous year to buy or
lease the French islands of St. Vincent and St. Croix,^^ and he
was now ready to take up negotiations with Denmark.
Inas-
much as two of the recently appointed governors of the Com-
pany at St. Thomas were at that time in custody, and the last
appointed, Gabriel Milan, was about to be displaced, the Danish
company was likely to favor anything that would promise a
regular income for the shareholders.^^
Inquiries were in fact
begun in March, 1684, when Raule and von Knyphausen, repre-
senting the Berlin and East Friesland shareholders in the new
company, were deputed to soimd the Danish coint and see
whether it would permit the establishment on St. Thomas of a
few “lodges” and negro stations {Logen and Neger&ien) on the
SchUck, 1, 148.
1, 192.
im,, 1, 192.
Schtick’s statement (1, 193) that no news had come out of St. Thomas for
three y^rs will not hold, though its trade certainly “lag damala hemake vdllig
damieder**
76
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
condition of paying to the Danish company two slaves out of
each hundred brought in.
In
1685, when Raule betook himself to Copenhagen with
instructions from the Elector, negotiations moved rapidly for-
ward.
He was to try to purchase or lease St. Thomas, or at
least make it accessible to Brandenburg ships, because, as his
instructions
said,
without
the
slave
trade
to
America
the
African company cannot make any headway
{nicht emergiren
hann)}^
Jens
Juel, the
chief
director
of
the Danish com-
pany, opposed the Brandenburg plan from the first,^® so Raule
had to work through such other men of influence as chancellor
(Storlcansler) Frederick Ahlefeldt, Count Ulrik Frederick Gyl-
denlove, councilors Conrad Bierman and Conrad Reventlow.^®
In an audience granted on October 13, 1685, Raule learned that
the king favored a union
of the two
companies.^^
Shortly
thereafter, Raule and Gyldensparre, a
director with
Juel
in
the Danish company, conferred at Hadersleben in Schleswig,
and prepared a scheme of union
based upon the king’s ex-
pressed desire.
It was proposed that the Danes should retain
their stations
in Guinea (Cape Coast) and the West Indies
(Christiansfort on St. Thomas), and the Brandenburgers like-
wise
their Guinea
stations
of
Great
Fredericksburg
{Gross-
Friedrichsherg) and Accada; that both groups should share the
garrisoning of these stations on equal terms.
Cape Coast was
to be the African headquarters. A governor-general elected by
both companies in common was to reside in Copenhagen, and
he was to have the supreme command over the garrisons
in
those places; an officer known as ** chief in commercial matters ”
was to be selected by the Elector; Calvinists and Lutherans
were
to have
free exercitium
religionis on
St. Thomas, and
Catholics and Jews were to be tolerated and allowed to hold
private services, provided they permitted no scandala.
Two
Schlick, I, 198.
His instructions were dated September 25, 1685.
Ibid., 1, 194, note 185.
Ibid.,
I, 194, note 188.
Bierman was created Count von EbrensdbUd in
1681.
Ibid., 1, 194.
^Ibid., 194,195.
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
77
chambers, the one
to be
in Copenhagen and the
other
in
Emden, each composed of three shareholders, and the whole to
be presided over by Raule, were to constitute the governing
board.
In case of war the colonies should be considered as neu-
tral territoiy.
Private individuals were to be entirely excluded
from the colonial trade.
The Elector refused to sanction this scheme of union, and
after much trouble, including the bestowal of "‘gifts” by Raule
upon
influential persons, a treaty was
finally concluded on
November £4, 1685, which in effect laid down the terms on
which the Brandenburg African Company should be allowed to
do business in St. Thomas.^®
As the bulk of the shareholders
came from East Friesland and Emden, that city became the
business headquarters of the company.^
Supplemental agree-
ments were made on March 5
and October
1686.
The
treaty should remain in force for thirty years, reckoning from
the time that the first ship with men and materials was sent
thither,^^ and might then be renewed by mutual agreement.
Sovereignty over St. Thomas and the surrounding islands was to
reside in the King of Denmark.
The Brandenbmgers were to
receive a plantation ground of sufficient size to employ two hun-
dred negroes, and this land was to be exempt from taxes during
the first three years, reckoning from the time that the first ship
with budding materials and necessaries arrived in St. Thomas;
after that time they were to pay five pounds of tobacco or its
equivalent as an annual tax on each hundred square feet of land
thus occupied.
This loosely drawn provision, which was
re-
ferred to in the opening paragraphs of both of the supplemental
“declarations” of 1686, was to become the pivotal point in the
Schuck, b 197.
Tlie text in the ori^al German is given in ibid,^ Ib 257
et seq.
The Great Elector ratified the treaty on December 19, 1685, and Chris-
tian V ratified it on June 6, 1686.
20JWd.,1, 174.
See ** Declaration m dem Vertrage wegen St Thomas txm
November 1685**
in ibid., H, 278-281.
** See ‘*Femere Declaration ...” in ibid., U, £93-295.
** Ibid., n, £58 (H 3).
Ibid., n, £58, 259 (1[s 2, 5, 6).
Schtick (1, 197) seems to have confused 3
and 5 in discussing the time from which the 30 year period was to be reckoned.
78
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
vexatious troubles that shortly arose between the representa-
tives of the two companies.^^
On all products exported from St. Thomas, the Brandenburg
African Company was to pay the Danish company
five per
cent, in kind {in natura) ;
on slaves imported, one per cent., on
those sold or shipped out of the land, two per cent.^’'
The con-
tract provided further that
all goods coming in or going out
were to be subject to a weighing fee of one pound of sugar or its
equivalent for each one hundred pounds,^®
Provision was made
for the settlement of disputes in which subjects of both states
were involved.^®
To the Danes the greatest promise held out by
the treaty was contained in the paragraphs dealing with the
plantation which they expected the Brandenburgers to estab-
lish, and which, with poll taxes, weighing fees, export and im-
port dues, was calculated to yield a moderate return upon the
Danish company’s capital stock.
To the Germans, the Guinea
trade was the main consideration; they seem from the first not
to have looked upon the plantation idea as anything obligatory
for them.^®
Baule’s dream that an investment of 150,000 Thaler should
be able to yield a million in two or three years
was going to be
rudely shattered when the application of the treaty was to put
to the test his diplomatic ability; and the stubborn obstacle that
blocked the way to friendly intercourse was to be the provision
which demanded or did not demand the establishment of a
plantation, according to the reader’s predilections.
What the
treaty really did was to raise up on St. Thomas a rival to the
Danish company which still might deal in slaves
if it desired,
and which already owned and managed a couple of good-sized
plantations.
So long as the respective fields of the two com-
panies were not strictly limited by agreement, there would be
For the Company’s viewpoint see the directors’ instructions to A. Esmit,
November », 1687.
A. K, 168S~^9.
» SohUck, n, 259 (H 7).
“'IWd.. 11,260 (If 8).
“ Ibid., n. 260 (If 10).
lUd., n. 261 (If 15, f 16, 1 17).
»» lUd.. I. 281.
“ Ibid., 1, 195.
TBE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
79
trouble about m proportion to the vitality developed by the
two companies. A second and serious occasion for friction lay
in the provision which made the Brandenburg company respon-
sible to the Danish company for whatever damage might result
from carrying on ‘^a dangerous trade” with foreign nations.^^
This was
to
protect the Danes
against
complications from
Brandenburg encouragement of privateering. Denmark could ill
afford being dragged into trouble with Spain through circum-
stances over which she had no control.
The first director of the Brandenburg factory at St. Thomas
was one Laporte whose knowledge of French and whose business
shrewdness made him well suited to his task. He left Emden in
August, 1686, on the Marschall Dorfling
which Captain John
Catt had taken out from Pillau in Prussia and passed Elsinore
early in June.^^
Captain Catt arrived in St. Thomas via Guinea
on November 23.
The Falcon dropped anchor on the 24th.®^
Meanwhile the Peace, Captain Jacob Lambrecht, was sent out
with four other vessels,—^all of them with Danish passes—^to
the Guinea coast for slaves.
So confident was Raule of success
that he had sent out the ships without consulting the share-
holders.®®
Before the Falcon had left St. Thomas with its cargo of sugar,
cotton, cacao, etc.,®^ the vice-governor, Christopher Heins, had
had a disagreement with M. Laporte regarding the payment of
e^ort and import duties and the use of the Danish company's
scales for weighing the goods shipped in or out by the Branden-
burgers.®®
Strict insistence by the Danes on the latter point
SchUck,n, 266 (If 35).
Also r^erred to as the ** FddTnwrschaU Derflinger,^' Schiick, 1, 206; Iiaporte’s
name is variously given as La Porte, Delaporte.
Oresundtoldbdger for 1686.
35 Heins to directors, January 4, 1687.
R. & D., 1683-89.
»« Schiick, I, 206.
The cargo as reported by the vice-governor, Hdns, was as follow?
*• 64,681
lbs. sugar, 7,250 lbs. cotton, 1,430 lbs. cacao, 1,024 lbs. tobacco, 55 lbs. cmfituren
(sweetmeats?), 21 lbs. Caret (seaturtle), 20 lbs.
Bastaf<^Canel** (a sort of spice
resembling cinnamon), 566 pieces of pockwood, and 220 tons oi other wood.
Heins to directors. May 26, 1687.
C. H., 1685-89.
wjWd.
80
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
gave them a very definite idea of what their neighbors in St.
Thomas were doing.
The Brandenburgers seem never to have
entertained seriously the idea of actually establishing a bona
fide plantation.
Neither Laporte nor Moses Caille, who acted
as deputy director on Laporte’s visit to Berlin in 1688, were
willing to admit the soundness of the Danish interpretation.
On the pretext that they must await instructions from home
before taking up
plantation ground,
they kept the Danish
officials in suspense until their impatience was turned into a
suspicion that the Brandenburgers were looking for a chance to
seize the entire island.
The vigor with which the Brandenburg
authorities pushed their business in procuring slaves and dis-
posing of them on St. Thomas and the surrounding islands (as
St. Eustatius) aroused the fears of the Danes who were receiving
next to no assistance from the Company.
The fact that the
planters became indebted to the Brandenburg company led the
Danes to fear that in case of trouble the planters might side
with the foreign company.^®
The persistent annoyances to which the Brandenburgers were
subjected led them to attempt the occupation or purchase of
neighboring islands.
They tried to secure Crab Island, but the
Danes laid vigorous claim to
it, and the Spaniards sent ships
around at intervals to drive off such settlers as they might find
there.^
The Brandenburgers finally did take possession of St.
Peter, an appropriately named rocky
islet just northwest of
St. John, but it was ill adapted to their purposes.^^
Except for
the refusal of the English to give up their claims to the island,
they might have
secured Tobago,
near Trinidad, from the
Duke of Courland.
The negotiations were begun early in 1687,
but the duke’s rather shady
title and the opposition of the
Dutch made it impracticable to push the matter to a conclusion
at that time.^^
The death of vice-governor Heins in October, 1689, and the
election of John Lorentz to take his place, did not improve the
*»
to Directors, (September 2, 1687).
0.
JST., 168SS9 (?)
«Schtldc.I,28S.
Heins to Directors (August 20, 1689).
B, &
1$8S^9.
"SchUck,I,207.
THE BRANDENBXJRGERS AT ST. THOMAS
81
position of the Brandenburgers nor the relations between the
two companies.
Within a fortnight after his election Lorentz
issued an order forbidding the Brandenburgers to bring any
privateers or prizes into St. Thomas harbor.^®
This was
in
strict accordance with paragraph 35 of the treaty,
and with
Denmark’s neutral position in the European struggle (War of the
Augsburg League or “King William’s War”) which was just
beginning; hence it could not reasonably be objected to; but
when on November 7 he issued a mandate forbidding the Danish
inhabitants from buying any wares from the Brandenburgers’
magazine that could be found in stock at the Danish company’s
warehouse, and further forbade the payment of debts to the
Brandenburgers
until the debts
to the Company had been
satisfied, there was reason for the Brandenburgers to feel appre-
hensive.^®
The most trifling complaint against the rival com-
pany became the subject of solemn investigation by the zealous
governor.'*®
Laporte naturally looked towards the planters for
moral support.
They had two representatives in the governor’s
council and would expect to benefit from the presence of two
rival companies on the island.
The result was that government
and colony were soon divided into two rival camps, each affect-
ing to suspect the worst of the other.
In Copenhagen the administrative tangles
of the Company
had been partly solved when Milan had been decapitated in
March, 1689.
From the West Indies the shareholders had re-
ceived great numbers of complaints and coimtercharges, but no
dividends on their shares.
The
directors were consequently
ready by this time to relieve the Company from further expense
and were eager to consider any proposal that could assure it a
moderate return on
its investment from
this time
on.
On
July 27, 1689, a life lease was granted to Nicholas Jansen Arff,
by which he secured the right to use Christiansborg, the Danish
Lorerdz^s Journal (October 19, 1689).
**Schtick,n, 267.
Lorentz*s Journal (November 7, 1689); P. B. 0., 1683-1728 (November 7,
1689).
" C. B., 1690-1713.
See especially Lorentz’s letters to the directors in 1696
and 1697.
82
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
“castle” on the Guinea coast, and to carry on the slave trade
with the West Indies, on the payment to the Company of a
two per cent, duty.^^
This was followed on February 13, 1690,
by a contract with a reputable and venturesome Bergen mer-
chant,
Councilor
of
Commerce
(Commerce-Raad)
George
Thormohlen of Mohlenpriis, who leased St. Thomas from the
Company for a period of ten years.
He was to pay 4,630 sldl.
each year, which was just four per cent, of the 115,750 sldL
capital entered on the books of the Company.^ By these two
contracts the management of both the Guinea and West India
ends of the Company's business went into the hands of private
proprietors.
The result of this experiment will be discussed in
a later chapter.
Before the news of these changes could be received at St.
Thomas, and before Lorentz had received a request from Thor-
mohlen to remain at his post until further orders, the vice-
governor was preparing to bring the matter of the contested
land rental to a definite settlement in the Company’s favor,
if
necessary, by force.
He was proceeding according to secret
instructions from the directors
in Copenhagen.^®
The rental
which was calculated upon the current price of tobacco was
estimated at 20,000 rdL annually, that
is, more than six times
the rental fixed in the Thormohlen contract.®®
If strictly en-
forced it would spell ruin, which was apparently precisely what
was intended.
The efforts of Danish statesmen were at this time applied
toward
keeping Denmark
from
becoming
involved
in
the
European war.
A defensive alliance between Denmark and
Sweden was negotiated February, 1690, and a treaty of com-
merce and navigation for the mutual protection of their trade
Vest. Reg., 1670-99 (July Z7, 1689).
The slave trade had been carried on in
the few years immediately preceding by ships sailing from Gltickstadt. A Por-
tuguese (?) Jew, Moses Joshua Henriques, was appointed factor in Gltickstadt
for ships sailing to Guinea on April 27, 1680.
Arff’s ships were to sail from
Copenhagen.
Rothe, Rescripter, H.
C. B., 1690-1718.
ThormShlen himself wrote his name Thor MoMen.
Lorentza Journ. (November 24, 1690); directors to Lorentz (December 22,
1691); C. B., 1690-1718.
(December 5, 1691).
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
88
was concluded in the following year.^^
In the same year (1691)
Denmark made a secret treaty with France in which she agreed
to maintain neutrality during the war.^^
Because of Denmark’s
suspected leaning toward France early in the war Raule had
counseled the new Elector, Frederick III, who had succeeded
his father at the latter’s death in 1688, to make reprisals upon
Danish commerce through Zeeland privateers, a proposal which
it was found impracticable to carry out.®®
With these and other
European complications threatening, the Brandenburg African
Company could
scarcely be expected
to show a
flourishing
state
of prosperity.
Between their Dutch neighbors on the
Guinea coast and jealous Danish officials at St. Thomas the
prospects were far from alluring.
In a report sent out from
Emden on August
22,
1690, by
the two Brandenburg ad-
miralty colleges and Raule,®^ three causes were mentioned as
having impeded the prosperity of the Company, namely: the
persecutions
of
the
Dutch
West
India
Company,®®
the
scant sums
of money
flowing
into
the
marine department
treasury, and the
difficulties caused by their Danish hosts at
St. Thomas.®®
On St. Thomas, an atmosphere of suspicion pervaded every-
thing.
On the last day of October Lorentz declined an invita-
tion to a banquet given by director-general Laporte, for he felt
that it was to be merely a meeting of Laporte’s adherents among
the planters,—^his ‘‘creatures.”
Among those suspected of dis-
loyalty to the Danish company were two members of the gov-
R. R. H,, IV, 660, 661.
This treaty (with additions made in March, 1693)
is notable as being the first instance of an armed neutrality for the protection
of neutral commerce.
62 Ibid.
6® Schiick, I, 230.
6^ Raule was discredited for a time following the Great Elector's death, but
by 1690 he had regained some of his former influence.
The troubled career of
Raule and the internal strife that marked the government of the Brandenburg
company fall outside of the scope of the present study.
66 The seizure by the Dutch of the two Guinea factories of Aocada and Tac-
carary was the subject of negotiations from 1690 to 1694, when the arbitrating
board awarded the Brandenburg company
a
substantial sum
in damages.
Schiick, 1, 218 et seq.
66 Ibid., I, 231.
84
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ernor’s council. Captain Delicaet
and Lawrence Westerbaen,
the latter a refugee from St. Eustatius.
Every remark of these
men that might possibly be unfavorably construed was carefully
noted by Lorentz in his diary.
At a meeting of the council
called by the governor with a view to ascertaining how these
men stood. Captain Delicaet was quoted as having declared:
‘‘It is a difficult matter, for we have to do, not with common
people, but with lords and princes.’^
The governor informed
him significantly that he would know well enough what was
proper
to do when the time
for the payment approached.
Among the planters the governor worked cautiously, drawing
the loyal ones among them
still more closely to his side.
He
was fully determined to be prepared
‘^in case any should be
inclined to rebellion.” ^
The time limit for the payment of the tax according to Lor-
entz’s calculations was November 2S; so on the 24th the latter
called the
council together again and had an itemized
bill
prepared
for
20,000
rdl.
styvers.
This
bill
together
with a letter was taken by the two professedly loyal coun-
cilors ^
to Laporte on November
25.
Two days
later the
director-general came before the council to read his reply in
which he stated his reasons for refusing payment.
The main
argument advanced was that he had no orders from his chiefs to
make any such payment.®^
After Laporte’s departure the coun-
cil decided, in view of the expected arrival on any day of three
Brandenburg ships,®^ to
institute
judicial condemnatory pro-
ceedings
after three
days"
elapse.
Finally, on December 2
(0. S.), 1690, came the day of reckoning, when the vice-governor
and his council marched over to the Brandenburg warehouse.
Captain Delicaet, scenting trouble, bad left on the day of the banquet.
**Als
hat er nch Revernren mussen innerkalb
Tage vnederumb eirmtsteUen; Weile
es seine Oewohnkeit war, wann etwas wichMges solie vorgenomen werden da er sick
in miUerweile an aeiie
Lorentz's Journal (October IS, 1690).
Ibid, (November 14 and 17, 1690).
Thomas Berentsen and the secretary Joachim von Holten.
Ibid* (Novem-
ber 25, 1690).
Ibid, (November 27, 1690).
Raule had sent 3 ships {Churprincess, Salamander, and Draeke) to Guinea,
and 2 (Churprinz and Fuchs) to St. Thomas.
Schiick, I, 281 (note 53).
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
85
with the Company’s smith to break the lock, and a committee
of inhabitants, mainly planters,
to
appraise the condemned
goods.®^ On Laporte’s refusal to accede to the council’s formal
demand to open the magazine and after vigorous protests and
appeals by the Brandenburgers the doors were forcibly opened
and the appraisal begun.
Lorentz carefully notes in his journal
Laporte’s remark to Delicaet and Berentsen that ‘"if they (the
Brandenburgers) were as strong in the land as we (the Danes)
we should not have done what we did.”
He quotes this as an
evidence of their “good(!) intentions” and of “what they had
up their sleeves.”
By Christmas Eve, two of the Brandenburg
warehouses had practically been emptied of all their sugar and
cotton.®^
The value was estimated by the director-general at
24,65^ pieces-of-eight, remarkable precision,
considering that
he had refused to send a representative to participate in the
weighing.®^
The seizure was not carried out without a certain danger to
the colony.
Meetings were held on the quiet at the houses of
various planters, and were attended by the Brandenburg offi-
cials.
At some of these gatherings anti-Company indignation
found vent.
Thomas Berentsen, one of Lorentz’s most trusted
councilors, who tried to investigate one of these meetings, found
Laporte and aU the Brandenburg employees there as well as an
English captain from
St. Kitts, one “Callehan” and several
planters.
Laporte himself forced Berentsen out through the
door, uttered sundry threats against the Danes and accused
him of being one of the demons of the Brandenburgers.®® The
proposal to seize the Brandenburg houses and slaves was con-
sidered by the vice-governor and council, but was finaUy dropped
as inexpedient.®^
Three Brandenburg ships, the frigates Electoral Prince and
Salamander, and a snow arrived
in
St. Thomas harbor on
Francis (Frans) Martens, Lucas Voidkers, Adrian (Ariaen) Sorgeloos, and
Jacob Elias.
Lorentz^s Journal (December
1690).
w Ibid.
Ibid. (December 24, 1690).
« Ibid. (December 2A2» a^d December 8/18, 1690); Sdiuck, I. 232.
^ Lormbta Journal (December 19, 1690).
^ Ibid. (December 30, 1690).
80
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
March 7, having on board about four hundred men, and pro-
vided with a commission to seize French ships
The arrival of
the three vessels set numerous rumors afloat concerning their
intentions; but their passports had been issued on August 18
preceding, over three months before the seizure of the sugar and
cotton, hence any action they might have taken would have
been entirely upon the authority of the captains and the St.
Thomas ojEcials of their company.
As it was, Laporte confined
himself to repeating his request for restitution of the confiscated
goods and to making an offer of forty marines to supplement the
weak garrison at the fort, both of which overtures were firmly
but politely declined by Lorentz.
The latter even sent in a
further claim of his own for the balance of the rental, his esti-
mate falling considerably short of that of the director-general.®^
The vessels left in a little over a month with only a part of the
expected cargoes.^®
Meanwhile a Brandenburg bark had
left
St. Thomas on
January 8 to carry the news of the Danish company's violence
to Emden and Berlin.^^
With that the scene of interest shifts
from St. Thomas to Copenhagen, whither by June the Branden-
burg envoy Falaiseau had betaken himself to demand on behalf
of his master the recall of Lorentz and the punishment of the
guilty parties
ChristianV hastened to send a letter to Lorentz
(June 20) asking for an explanation and for the necessary docu-
ments.
When in September the news came that Lorentz had
seized the Electoral Princess and her cargo of slaves new force
was added to the former complaint, and to persons outside of
oflidal circles it began to look as if the Esmit-Milan drama was
to be acted over again in a revised version with Laporte in
Stapleton’s r6le.
The distance and the slowness of communication between the
home government and the West Indian factories were bound to
Journal (March 7, 1691); Cal. Col., 1689-9^, No. 1S8Z (April 3,
1691).
A snow is a two-masted, square rigged vessel.
Ibid. (March 10 and 17, 1691); Host (p. 34) says sixty.
Ibid. (April 10, 1691).
CJ. Schiick
(I, 232), who asserts that they had to
return empty.
Ibid. (January 8, 1691),
Schiick, I, 232.
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
87
delay final action many months.
The problem for the Danish
government was no easy one, for it was forced oflScially to dis-
avow the violence of its representative who had been guilty of
nothing worse than carrying out the orders of the Company’s
directors.^^
The loosely drawn provisions in the treaty of 1685
were the main obstacles to
satisfactory
settlement.
As the
Elector’s envoy Falaiseau and his colleague expressed
it,
‘‘if
M. Baule had drawn up a clearer contract, he would have spared
us considerable trouble, but it is all over now.”
The exigencies
of the war had nevertheless forced the two states to consider a
closer alliance, so a temporary settlement of the St. Thomas
difficulties was hastily concluded on April ll/£l, and ratified by
Christian V on April 28 (0. S.), 169^. A supplementary agree-
ment of June 10/20 fixed the mode in which payment should be
carried out.^®
It was arranged that the seized goods, the value
of which was fixed at 16,000
rdl., should be restored to the
Brandenburg company with such other
seizures
of
ships
or
goods as might have been made thereafter; and that for the next
three years the Brandenburg African Company
should pay
3,000 rdl, annually in lieu of all other sums due or claimed, the
sum to be paid yearly to the Danish company through the Ham-
burg bank.
The difficulties with the Danish authorities at St. Thomas had
led the Brandenburg government to make renewed efforts to
secure an independent foothold m the West Indies.
Again they
tried to take possession of Crab Island, but when the Branden-
burg party arrived there on December 19, 1692, they found the
Danes
already on the ground and
their Dannebrog banner
The dose association between goveniment and commercial enterprise in
Denmark at this time is indicated in a statement by Hugh Greg, secretary of the
English legation in Copenhagen, made in a letter to George Stepney, secretary
of the Berlin legation, that “all the ministers here are merchants.”
Danshe
Samlinger, 2 R. IV^ 212.
The directors' orders to Lorentz were issued April 9,
1690.
Manager MS.t 93.
Falaiseau and Worckum to Frederidc HI.
Schtick,
I, 233, n. 63 (Febru-
ary 6/16, 1692).
Ibid., n, 898 (No. 137a; Interiraa-Vergleich mit Ddnemarh wegenSt, Thornasy,
403 (No. 137b: Ddnisehe lUiIifikaMon)
;
405 (No. 137c: Neben Rezees zum Interims-
Vergleudi),
88
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
defiantly waving above
John Lorentz, who continued in
office ad interim until the proprietor Thormohlen could provide a
governor, had sent a captain with some men to Crab Island a
few
days
before
the
Brandenburg bark made
its
landing.
Though Laporte spread rumors threatening forcible seizure of
the island, no further serious efforts were made in that direc-
tion.^^
The Tobago negotiations were renewed and a treaty
made with Duke Frederick Casimir who had only recently mar-
ried the Elector Frederick’s sister, Elizabeth Sophie; but Eng-
land
still refused to give up her claims to the island/^
St.
Eustatius
likewise came
in for attempts.
The French had
captured it from the Dutch in 1689, but had been forced in 1690
to surrender it to the English,^^who in turn delivered it up to the
Dutch in 169^.^
The English were naturally unwilling to give
up an island originally belonging to an ally;
and of course the
Dutch had no desire to surrender their most valuable slave
trading factory in the Leeward Islands.
This series
of untoward experiences had had depressing
ef-
fects upon the financial state of the Brandenburg company.
At the close of 1691 it was practically bankrupt, so the Elector
Frederick decided in the beginning of the following year to re-
organize
it on the plan of the Dutch East and West India
Companies.®^
This was the aim in the octroi of February 27,®®
and in the ‘‘new octroi^' granted on September 14/24, 1692. The
latter gave the
“Brandenburg-African-American Company”
the right not only to conclude alliances, but to wage defensive
warfare, to make peace, and to privateer against the ships of the
Elector’s enemies on a payment of ten per cent,
of the prize
money into his treasury.®^
In a report on the state of the com-
Schtick, 1, 238,
Dannehrog is the popular designation for the flag of Dennaiark.
Lorentz to directors (June 6, 1698),
C, B,, 1690-1713.
78 Schudc, I. 234.
7« Cd. Col, 1689-9S, Nos. 65 (April 3, 1689), 1004 (August 3, 1690),
*8 IJyid., No, 2010 (January 14, 1692).
81 Schiick,
I, 285.
Cf. **Neue» Oktroi
.
- .” of September 14/24, 1692 (t4),
in Schiick, tl, 417.
8* Ibid.t I, 236 et seq., II, 385 et seq. (No. 135a), 393
seq. (No. 185b).
88 Ibid., n, 385 et seq.
84 Ibid., n, 416 et seq.
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
89
pany issued in August, 1692, the resources were found to be
415,944 rdl.y 8 st.^ the liabihties, 333,555 rdZ., 4
and the cash
balance, 82,389
rdZ., 4
Strenuous
efforts were made to
fulfill the oft disappointed hopes of the stockholders.
Six ships
were sent out in August, five in December, and three more in
1693 to Guinea and the West Indies.
An asiento or contract
for the delivery of slaves was made with Spain and promised
large profits.^® But the efforts of the Brandenburgers exceeded
their available means, dissension reappeared in the ranks of the
shareholders, and by 1694 the Company was again in serious
straits.
The attempt to secure the island of Tortola just north-
east from St. John in 1695 was frustrated by the refusal of the
English government to guarantee the Brandenburgers posses-
sion or to sell the English claims.®*^
By April, 1695, the three-year provisional treaty with Den-
mark had expired and 9,000 rdL were due the Danish company,
whose proprietor Thormohlen was to be
credited with that
amoimt.^®
But the latter had already been forced after a brief
and bitter experience to give up the proprietorship.
His ap-
pointee, Francis Delavigne, had proved a poor substitute for
the experienced Lorentz (who replaced him November 22, 1694).
Delavigne
repeated
Lorentz’s performance by
seizing
9,320
pieces-of-eight, according to the Brandenburg estimate, from
the
latter company,
apparently
a
forcible
collection
of the
rental dues.®®
They suffered a misfortune for which there was
less chance of redress, when a French privateer named Legendre
(dit
blond^') swooped down upon the Brandenburg bufidings
on the night of November
4, robbed the magazine
of over
24,000 rdl?^m cash, and robbed the employees, from the director-
general to the humblest, of everything except the shirts to their
backs.®^
The injured Brandenburgers were inclined to blame
Sdiiick n, 407 et seq,
st. = stivers.
88 Ibid., I, 240.
87 Ibid., I, 244, 246.
88 /Wa., I. 246.
88 Directors to Lorentz (July 24, 1694),
C. B., 1690-171S.
8“ SdbUdc (I, 251) places the damage at 24,578 pieces-of-ei^t.
8*^ Lorentz to directors (January 17, 1695) C. B., 169(hX71S,
This is beyond a
doubt the incident
referred to by Labat in his Nomeaux
aux ishs
90
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Governor Delavigne for failure to keep proper watck.
They
contented themselves for the time, however, with sending out
requests through Delavigne’s successor, Lorentz, to the neigh-
boring French governments, asking them to detain the pirate,
should he land, and to compel him to give “satisfaction” for
his misdeeds.
The negotiations at Copenhagen for the renewal of the three-
year lease took place early in 1695 while the Elector was at-
tempting to obtain full title to Tortola.
Falaiseau succeeded in
securing an extension of a single year, for which the Branden-
burg company had to agree to pay 4,000 rdh instead of 3,000,
and to furnish surety for the unpaid 9,000.
Meantime the two
contracting parties were to attempt to come to an agreement on
the interpretation, among other things, of the paragraph in the
1685 treaty which dealt with the cultivation of the plantation on
St. Thomas.
The Danish company reserved the right to take
up the trade itself, as well as to permit such others to trade in
St. Thomas as might desire to do so.®^
In November,
1695, the stubborn question was taken up
afresh.
To assist Falaiseau at Copenhagen the Elector had de-
puted Laporte who had been ordered to Berlin from St. Thomas
and had been made a councilor of marine.®^ The Danish com-
missioners were Baron Jens Juel who had been director of the
Company since 168^, and Mathias Moth, secretary in the for-
eign office and also director of the Company.
These were the
men who had counseled Lorentz’s violent action and had sent
him back as governor on the breakdown of the ThormShlen pro-
prietorship in 1694, in the face of the fact that the Elector had
but two years before insisted on his
recall and punishment.
Their conviction that the Brandenburg treaty was a mistake
had no doubt been much strengthened by their conferences with
Lorentz in Copenhagen in 1693 and
1694.
Falaiseau in his
d^AmSrique
(i la Haye, 1724), Vol. II, p. 91, and ascribed to tbe year 1688.
Labat's garbled story has reappeared in many versions, especially in guide books
and works of travel.
Resolution by Christian V (April 9, 1695), C. J5., 1690-1713; Schtlck, 1, 244,
245.
Laporte’s place as factor at St. Thomas was taken by Peter (Ped/ro) Van
Belle whom Labat (op. cit, II, 286) refers to as “M. Vambel.’^
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
91
letters to the Elector Frederick III described Juel as
‘‘a ma-
licious, selfish, violent, passionate, vindictive man,”
and Moth
as ‘‘a peevish, obstinate, and passionate man who was governed
only by caprice and with whom it was possible to have dealings
only in the morning, for from the time that he had had his first
glass of wine at luncheon, he was not to be reasoned with the
rest of the day.”
At another time he referred to Moth as ‘‘a
ferocious beast.”
With such men as advisors of the Danish
king the prospects for the success of the Brandenburg mission
were dark indeed.
Falaiseau felt that he had scored a victory
when he succeeded in having the consideration of the treaty
laid before all the ministers, and not before Juel and Moth alone.
The Danish commissioners were not particularly modest in their
demands.
Among other things they asked a yearly rental of
10,000 rdl.
Frederick III tried in vain to settle the matter with
Christian V
directly, projects and counter-projects were dis-
cussed and cast aside; and so the case dragged on through 1696
and 1697.
Meantime the Brandenburg factors were buying con-
demned prizes when they dared, securing good cargoes now and
then from Guinea,^® and incidentally managing to give Governor
Lorentz considerable
anxiety.
No doubt Lorentz’s growing
enthusiasm for the resumption of the slave trade by the Danish
company helped to confirm the directors in their intention to
crowd the Brandenburgers entirely out of St. Thomas.
Unable to conclude a satisfactory treaty the Elector Freder-
ick refused to expend any more perfectly good money on the
West Indian factory but left the merchant and his few assistants
there to carry on what business they could as best they might.
His successor. King Frederick William I,^^showed his willingness
^***un homme mdin
et
violent,
emporte,
vindicatif”
Falaiseau
(Copenhagen) to Elector, March 20/30, 1697 (quoted in Schttck, I, 246).
homme difficile, erdeste, passion^, qm ne se gouveme que par caprice et
avec qui outre eda on ne pent traitter que le mcdin, parceque
qu^U a hue un verre
de vin h disni, U n*est pas iraitahle la rests de lajoumkJ* Same to same, Nov. 19/
29,1695.
Schiick, 1, 246.
^ Falaiseau (Copenhagen) to the African company, June 2, 1696, Schiick, 1,
246.
The Elector Frederick IH had been crowned as Frederick I, king in Frusria,
in 1701.
92
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
to dispose of the African company’s interests in 1713, as the
War of the Spanish Succession was nearing its close.^^ On the
return to Emden of the St. Thomas factor, Sivert Hoesz, in
1714, the rumor was started that he brought with him over
200,000 florins in cash which he had amassed at the Company’s
expense.
He declared under oath that he brought with him
ordy
9,800
thaler,
his
savings
during
twenty-one
years
of
service.
Finally in 1721 the suit against him was settled by the
payment of 800 ducats.^® In 1715, when the thirty-year privilege
at St. Thomas had about expired, the assets of the Branden-
burgers on the island were estimated at 23,843 'pesos, which in-
cluded houses, negroes, goods, and claims.^®^ Even these slender
resources it proved impossible to rescue, for the Danish claims
against the Brandenburgers for rental and other dues amounted
by this time to the stately sum of 1,078,229 pieces-of-eight. The
Prussian estimate was 90,000 thaler, while the Prussian counter-
claim for accumulated damages was only 264,959 thaler
In
1717 the Dutch West India Company contracted with Branden-
burg for the purchase of Gross-Friedrichsberg for 6,000 ducats,
and in 1724 Emden was lost from Brandenburg control for a
generation
to
come.
Some
fruitless
negotiations with
the
Danish court in 1716-1718 brought this strange episode to an
inglorious close.^^^
To fix the responsibility for this diplomatic coup of the Danish
West India and Guinea Company is not difficult.
It lay with
two directors who had the zealous cooperation of the governor
of the colony, and the work was practically completed before
1700.
Jens Juel had lived long enough to see the beginning of
the Brandenburg decline in the West Indies, and Matffias Moth
had witnessed the fulfilment of one of his most cherished ambi-
tions in the abandonment by the Brandenbmrgers of their West
Indian factory.
The Brandenburg venture at St. Thomas had
SdiUck, I, iSS, passim.
Ibid,, I,
A ducat was equal to 5/6 pesos,
i®0 25id.,I;S01.
Ibid,, I, m.
Ibid,, X 802 (note 66); H. A. Perry, “ The Traditions* of German Coloniza^
don ” in MacimUan*s Magazine, vol. 62, p, 118.
THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS
been mercifully permitted to die a lingering and not too painful
death, while the Danish colony was preparing for its first period
of prosperity, which was to
result from Denmark’s
neutral
position during the War of the Spanish Succession.
Before concluding this curious chapter in West Indian history,
a quotation from the close-fisted but practical father of Fred-
erick the Great, Frederick William I, may serve to reflect the
royal feeling regarding the Guinea-West Indian trade in prosaic
but unequivocal terms:
"‘The resolution which we have previously made shall remain
as it was [namely] that we will not divert any more of our means,
either in goods or in cash, to this African and American trading
business, and from now on, our sole design must be directed
toward trying to see in what other ways some profit might be
derived by us from the Establishment founded in Africa and
America by our father and grandfather, and this is our actual
opinion, hitherto variously expressed, concerning the abandon-
ment of this business, namely, that we should not indeed give
away the said African and American Commercium or let it go to
the first who will take it,^®^ but that we should nevertheless not
use any money on it and cause ourselves expense on account of
it.
So far as the colony on St. Thomas is concerned, it will not
be easy from all appearances to come to an agreement with the
Danes. ...
As time goes on.
It will be advisable eventually
to consider how the effects that are still on St. Thomas may be
saved before the Danish Company unexpectedly
seizes them
and claims them for themselves.
That we should equip and
send two or three ships at our expense to the Guinea coast, as
our
director-general
at
Gross-Friederichsberg
suggests,
is a
plan to which we shall never accede.”
From 1717, when the dissolution of the Brandenburg African
Company was practically complete, until the Danish-Prussian
troubles over Schleswig and Holstein began in 1848, the house of
Hohenzollem remained without either fleet or colonies.
The
colonial maritime
policy
of Emperor William
11,
himself a
Frederick William. I to von Creutz, von Kraut, Walter and Cramer, dated
on battlefield before Stralsund, September 8, 1715 (quoted in Scbiick, I. 301).
primo occupanti
.
.
.
94
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
profound admirer of the Great Elector, makes the study of the
policy of his distinguished ancestor a subject worthy of sober
consideration.
The dreams of Benjamin Raule and the Great
Elector Frederick William I, have come to a belated and partial
fulfilment in the days of Bismarck and of Emperor William II.
CHAPTER IV
THE LEASING OF GUINEA AND
ST. THOMAS
''The shareholders of the West India Company on St. Thomas
have not had the slightest returns from the capital invested
since the Company’s establishment because of the many changes
of governors and their wretched administration; so they have
now resolved to lease the island of St. Thomas to a merchant
from Bergen named Termolm [Thormohlen], for 4,000 rdl, each
year.
He is to support the garrison, which
is very small and
of but httle account.
.
.
.
The arrangement
is to begin this
coming June.”
In these words did the Swedish ambassador in Copenhagen,
Leyenclo, report the low state of the company and the change
to the proprietorship of Thormohlen in a letter dated March 14,
1690.^
In the year preceding, the company’s factory in Guinea
had been leased to Nicholas Jansen ArfP for a period of eight
years.^ In describing that series of events which ended in the
company’s reassuming control of St. Thomas in 1694 and of the
Guinea station in 1698, some repetition will be risked for the
sake of clarity.^
ArflE was not able actually to take over the Guinea trade until
1690, when on July 2^ he sent three ships ^ out of the Sound
under Captain George Meyer,
After over five months of sailing
and the loss of twenty-two men from scurvy. Captain Meyer
arrived at Christiansborg on December 31, 1690. The forts were
repaired with building materials brought from Denmark, and
^ Leyenclo to Charles XI.
Danske SamMnger, 2 R. V. $14.
® Arff’s grant was dated July 27, 1689, and appears to have given him the
Guinea trade for life, but apparently he was limited by some supplementary
understanding to the eight-year term.
Vest. Reg., 1671-99 (July 27, 1689).
* The paragraph on the Arff venture is based entirely on Hartwig Meyer^s
account, incorporated into Manager MS., pp. 82 ei seq.
^ These were Kwhenhavns Nye Waaben
{Copenhagen's New
Coat‘of-<irms),
Gylderdoves Waaben, and the galliot Laurwigen.
Mariager MS., 82.
[95]
96
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
in March, 1691, the ships returned to Copenhagen, leaving Meyer
there as governor.
The next ship arrived in July, 1692, took on
as much of gold and other Guinea products as it could secure,
and left for Denmark in September. Why none of these ships
took on slave cargoes for the West Indian market does not ap-
pear, for the slave trade was the lessee^s avowed aim.
During
the governorship of Harding Petersen who succeeded Meyer in
1693, the fort at Christiansborg was seized by natives of the
Quambu
tribe and the
inmates were
either
maltreated
or
killed.^
The governor, to whose negligence the capture was
ascribed by the company, managed after fearful hardships to es-
cape to the neighboring Dutch fort.
This fort, the loss of which
would have cost Arff the sum of 71,315
rdZ.,® was ‘‘bought^’
back from the Quambu chief for 3,000 rdl. worth of goods in the
following year by the merchants Hartwig Meyer, stationed at
Christiansborg, and John Trane, factor on board one of the
ships.^
Shortly afterward, during the governorship of Thomas
Jacobson, a pirate from Prince’s Island ^ attacked the castle and
captured and killed many of its defenders including Harding
Petersen, the former Danish governor.
During the two years
just preceding the expiration of ArflP’s contract (1696 and 1697)
only two of his ships visited the coast, and these went mainly
for the puiTpose of bringing his effects at the fort to Europe
before he gave back the factory to the company.
As a factor
in the West Indian slave trade the Arff venture appears to have
been negligible.
It is probable that a few slaves were sold to
foreign companies or to interloping traders.^
® Manager MS., p. 84,
• By tte loss of the fort, Fensman, according to the account books, lost 4,000
riL (in goods?) and 4,164 rdl. in gold.
^ Two ships sent out from GlUckstadt, the Christiansborg and the Gyldetdoves
Waaben, had arrived in December, 1698, and anchored at the Dutch fort during
the negotiations.
Mariager MS., 85,
« A tiny island new the Portuguese island of St. Thomas in the Guinea gulf.
* On August 2, 1695, Moses Joshua Henriques, a Jew from GlUckstadt, who
had petitioned the king for permission to trade with the West Indies and Guinea,
asked to have Lis ri^ta transferred to one Jacob Cohen and his fdlow investors.
The directors to whom the petition was referred advised against a project that
wotdd necessitate outside capital.
At the same time they advised the revoking
THE LEASING OF GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS
97
With such a list of misfortunes at his back there was nothing
for
ArjBf to do but give up the Guinea trade.
This business
which had been precarious enough in time of peace became
quite hopeless as an object of individual entei^rise during a
general European war.
It was in the last two years of Arff’s
contract that Governor Lorentz was sending glowing reports to
Copenhagen from St. Thomas regarding the slave cargoes that
the Brandenburg company had been securing from its Guinea
factory.
The directors allowed themselves to be infected by the
governor's enthusiasm to the extent of preparing to assume the
Guinea trade in earnest when the company was ready to take
over the fort or “castle” of Christiansborg.
During this period the Company’s attention was naturally
mainly directed towards what was hoped would be the dividend
paying factory of St. Thomas.
With Denmark maintaining a
neutral position in the European war, St. Thomas should nor-
mally have been a profitable place for neutral trade.
But the
island had had too many weird experiences to have acquired a
dependable commercial
character, or to be
in a position to
reap the hoped for advantages of neutrality.
Privateering at
its best is sadly demoralizing to legitimate commerce, but when
local governments, as that of the French at Petit Goave, issued
letters of marque and reprisal to owners of pirate vessels, then
the task of distinguishing between pirates and privateers be-
came well-nigh impossible, and lawful commerce suffered
in
proportion.
The plan of leasing St. Thomas for a term of years
was not an entirely new one.
In a letter written to the Com-
pany in 1686 by Commissioner Mikkelsen who in that year had
brought Governors Milan and Esmit back to Copenhagen for
trial, the commissioner had intimated that he and a few others
might be willing to consider paying the Company “a reasonable
rental (Recognissie) or interest on their capital” if the directors
cared “to relinquish their present
position and privilege for
a
few
years
.
.
. instead
of making
a
new
contract
each
of Aiff*s contract on the ground that he had discontinued the trade.
The latter
advice does not appear to have been followed.
King to Directors, enddsing
memorial of August 2 (August 5, 1695), the Directors to king (September 25,
1695).
C.
1690-1713.
98
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
year.” ^
It was not, however, until the wealthy Bergen mer-
chant George Thormohlen began to negotiate with the Com-
pany, that the proposal
to
lease
St. Thomas was
seriously
considered.
George Thormohlen was a man whose enterprise and business
genius gave biTn a distinguished name in commercial circles in
the north.
Although apparently less sound in his ideas accord-
ing to present standards, he bears comparison in enterprise and
boldness of conception with his distinguished Scotch contem-
porary, William Paterson.
About the time that the Scotchman
was bringing about the establishment of the Bank of England,
the Scandinavian was
seeking permission to found a paper
money bank in Norway.
Failing in this project at
first, he
brought the idea up again early in the reign of Frederick IV, but
in a modified form, providing for a considerable redemption
fund in gold.
As it was impossible to raise the required sum the
scheme finally fell through.^^
Thorm5hlen seems to have been
of North Grerman origin, but had lived since 1670 in Bergen,
where he had promoted an astonishing variety of manufacturing
and commercial ventures including works and factories for the
production
of
salt,
soap, woolen products,
sailcloth,
spikes,
copper goods, and gunpowder.
He was a prime mover in the
establishment of the Bergen Stock Exchange in 1684.
At the
time that he embarked on the West Indian enterprise he was a
vigorotis man of about fifty, with a score of active and eventful
years before him.^^
The
contract
entered
into between Thormohlen and
the
“Mikkel Mikkelsen to Company (December 8, 1686).
Cf. Krarup, Milan
(H), 238.
B. &
1683-89{}).
” In 1695 (April 24), ThormSMen presented to “the commission whidi met
in the palace coimcil chamber” {Kcmmisgumen
i Raadstuen for
Slottet)
his
proi>o8als for establishing a paper money bank in the district of Nordenfield in
Norway and submitted to a searching cross-examination. On December 6, 1697,
U. E. GyldenlSve, Stadihcdder in Norway, expressed himself as entirely opposed
to the paper money idea.
Protocol over Kommissionen i Raadstuen for Slottet,
2 B (April 24, 1695); tbid^ 4 B. (December 6, 1697); ibid, (December 9, 1699);
E. Hohn, Danmarh^Norffes Indre Rist., H, 403.
^ For a brief biographical sketch, see C. F. Bricka, DaneJc Biographish Lexi~
Icon, V. 17, p. 278.
THE LEASING OF GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS
99
Company was
signed February
13,
1690.
Thormohlen con-
tracted to lease the island of St. Thomas and the surrounding is-
lands for a term of ten years; but the Company was to have the
privilege of resuming the trade at the end of three years, when
he likewise might abrogate the lease (Hl^) if he did not care to
continue the arrangement.
The annual rental was to be 4,630
sldl, (3,086 rdL 64 sic.), which was four per cent, of an estimated
capitalization of 115,750 sldL (77,166 rdL 64
The con-
tract was to become eflFective on June 11, 1690.
The first pay-
ment was to become due on that date
if he took possession
of the land by that time, or if not, then immediately after re-
ceipt of the news that he had taken possession.
He was to take
charge of all the Company’s property, including fort, planta-
tions, negroes, and magazines, which he was to deliver back in
the condition or number that he found them.
He was on the
whole to be allowed the same privileges in disposing of his goods,
entering his ships and the like, that the Company had enjoyed.
If he took any of the surrounding islands into possession the
Company was to have the right of buying them from him at
double their cost to him.
Failure to pay the rental promptly
would make the contract void.
It was understood that any
dues received from the Brandenburg company should be appUed
to Thormohlen’s account.
Thormohlen’s orders to vice-governor Lorentz, whom he re-
quested to continue in office until a successor could be named,
did not reach St. Thomas until January
1691,^® and the
actual transfer of authority took place on February 7, just after
the Candlemas holiday.
In the contract with the Company the
proprietor had agreed to maintain as many soldiers at the fort
as had the Company; but he met his first rebuff when he at-
tempted to induce the colonists to share in bearing the burden of
defence.
In this, as in his efforts to raise the duties on out-
going goods from five to six per cent., he was unable to secure
C. B., 169Chl713.
See Appendix
Jf.,
p.
SS2, for recdpts duiing these
years.
Moth to Thormohlen (August 15, 1693).
C. B., 1690-1713.
Lorentsts joumxd (January 29, 1690 et seg.). The dqparture of ThormoHen’s
ship had been delayed until September 27, 1690.
Manager MSn 94.
100
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the support of the directors who declared that any increase in
taxation was contrary to the agreement and would tend to drive
the planters off the island.^®
It was becoming painfully evident that the demands of the
West
Indian
situation had grown beyond
the
proprietor's
ability to meet them.
To Thormohlen’s request for a hundred
officers and men at a total cost in wages of 5,110 rdl. the directors
replied that they did not care how many were sent over, pro-
vided he paid the bills. To his plea that “ the greatest part of the
resources belonging to me and my modest house are sunk in that
lease" the directors Juel and Moth turned an unsympathetic
ear.^^
Their interest was now directed towards the prospects of
being able to satisfy the shareholders with the proceeds expected
from the lessee-ship.
Among the passengers on one of the three ships sent out by
Thormohlen in the summer of 1692 was the latter's new ap-
pointee to this governorship, Francis Delavigne, who arrived on
September
17.^^
Lorentz had no taste for continuing in the
service under the new management and handed over the reins
of power to Delavigne with a light heart.
He described his
successor as ‘‘a person by the name of Franz de la Wigne who is
reported to have been born in Copenhagen, and whose stepfather
is said to be the queen’s master in languages^ namely Visconti.” ^
Again an untrained hand was chosen to direct the affairs of this
distant colony in a difficult time.
Whether Delavigne’s zeal for
his master could make up for his lack of experience wiU presently
appear.
One of the first duties that fell upon his shoulders was
the painful one of returning to the Brandenburgers the 16,000
rdl, worth of sugar which Lorentz had seized during the previous
year and which was already on board ship ready to be taken
^ ThormShlen to government and people of St. Thomas (September 1, 1691),
P. B. 0.y 168S-1728; Directors to Lorentz (December 22, 1691), Directors’ reso-
lution (November 12, 1692), C. B,, 1690-1713,
Thormohlen to Directors (November 28, 1691); Directors to ThormOhlen
(Decemb^ 5, 1691); ThormShlen’s reply (December 5, 1691), C. J5., 1690-1713,
“ Lorentz to Directors (September 17, 1692), ibid.
The names of the ships
were the St, TJumas, Madame ThormSMen, and Jmg&ren (the Huntsman).
Delamgne papers (November 25, 1692).
Lorentz to Directors (January 6, 1693), C, B., 1690-1713,
THE LEASING OP GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS
101
home.^^
The governor’s chagrin must have been
still deeper
when he received a copy of the king’s order of September 3, 169^,
directing Thormohlen to pay 8,000 of the 16,000 rdl.—^in case he
had not dehvered the contested goods to the Brandenburgers al-
ready—^to Vice-admiral Iver Hoppe-
This was by way of resti-
tution for a seizure made by the Brandenburg commissioners at
Emden in 1689,^^—sl characteristic seventeenth century mode of
‘"settling” an international dispute.
But the king’s previous
order of June 7, 1692,^^ had already been received and executed.
Delavigne made a poor
start when he tried to carry out
Thormohlen’s schemes
for
raising the
taxes.
His attempts
to curry favor with the Brandenburg director-general imme-
diately
after
his
arrival made him
an
object
of
suspicion
to John Lorentz, who was watching his every move with an
eagle eye and reporting his observations to Juel and Moth in
Copenhagen.
Lorentz was a man worth reckoning with, for he
retained a strong hold upon many of the planters and hold-over
officials (like the factor, von Holten and assistant, Peter Chris-
tensen), and he could no doubt have been of real assistance as
an adviser on matters of inter-island trade.
Before Lorentz had
returned from Copenhagen in the autumn of 1694 to replace
Delavigne, the latter had imprisoned and put von Holten
in
irons,
charging him, and apparently on good
grounds, with
misappropriating funds and juggling accounts.^^
Likewise the
assistant Peter Christensen, as a result of the irresponsible talk
of a negress,—“a loose heathenish female,”—^had been chained
to a block in a cell at the fort, and his entire estate condemned
“without any judgment, summons
or warning,”
One Engel
Huysen had been kept for months “in a dark room, without
air, sun or moonshine” because of alleged rebellious action.^^
The “vexation and chagrin” which this caused sent the governor to bed
“with a deathly illness” for seven weeks, according to his own account.
Dela-
vigne to Thormbhlen (November 25, 1692).
Ddavigne pa'pers.
^2 Christian V to Iver Hoppe (September 3, 1692).
Vest, Reg., 1670-1699.
See NeberirRezess zum Interime-Vergleick, June IO/20, 1692 (Schilck, op, eit.,
II, 405-407).
Von Holten,
Lisle paa hvis jeg Jcommer tiU kort paa Cassen^* (November 15,
1694).
Delavigne papers.
Lorentz to Directors (January 17, 1695).
C. B., 1690-171S.
10^
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Thomas Berentsen, an influential planter, had been removed
from his lieutenant’s post and his place on the council.^®
Delavigne’s relations with the Brandenburgers did not long
retain that spirit of mutual confidence which Thormohlen and
the king had imposed upon him as one of his first duties.
On
Thormohlen’s failure to secure from the Brandenburg company
the 3,000 rdl, with which he expected to make part of his annual
payment for the lease, Delavigne had seized Brandenburg goods
to the amount of 0,320 pieces-of-eight.^’^
The directors seem in
fact to have left the collection of the rental dues from the Bran-
denburgers to Thormohlen, who naturally disclaimed all respon-
sibility for the whole Brandenburg matter.^^
Acting upon his
master’s orders Delavigne had successfully protested against
the attempt of the Brandenburgers to lay claim to Crab Island.^®
While the governor was being kept thoroughly occupied with
local problems, the proprietor Thormohlen was having troubles
of his own with the implacable directors of the Company.
This
dfficulty began when the first payment became due in 1692.
The situation had even then begun to look dark to Thormohlen.
Brandenburg had negotiated a new treaty with Denmark pro-
viding for a rental very much lower than what the directors had
insisted on when the Thormohlen lease had been drawn up, and
the latter had not even been consulted in the matter.
The king
had peremptorily ordered Thormohlen’s governor to deliver up
the 16,000 rdl, worth of sugar which Lorentz had seized.
Al-
though not included, according to Moth’s statement, in the in-
ventory of the property taken over by Thorm5hlen, the latter
had looked upon it as one of his perquisites.^®
^ Berentsen to Delavigne (December 18, 1694); Delavigne to Berentsen (Feb-
ruary 20, 1695).
Delavigne 'papers.
^ Directors to Lorentz (July 28, 1694).
C. B,, 169(hl713,
^Molh to TliormSblen (August 15, 1693); ThormOhlen to Juel and Moth
(February 28. 1694).
lUd.
^ Ddavigne had sent Capt. Peter Iversen to Crab Island on December 19,
1694, just two days before the Brandenburg director had sent his frigate, the
Licm, there with orders
to tahe formal possession.
See above, pp. 88,
90.
Delamgne papers, Joum. (December 17 et seq.) ; Lorentz to Directors (January 6,
1693), C, B„ 1690-1713.
Moth to Tliormbhlen (June 25, 1692); same to same (July 15, 1693).
C. B.,
1690-1713.
THE LEASING OP GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS
lOS
By the end of the second year of the contract, the directors
began to breathe forth threats as to what the lessee might expect
if he failed to make prompt payment of his arrears.^^
Finally
in February, 1694, Juel and Moth went to the length of making
a formal demand on Thormohlen through a royally appointed
notary public, for categorical answers to the following questions:
(1) whether he desired to abide by the contract any longer, and
(£) whether he would make immediate payment of the rental for
1693.
Failure to render a satisfactory reply on these points was
to constitute a breach of contract.
In his reply Thormohlen
pointed out that the Brandenburgers had not only been awarded
16,000 rdl. ‘‘of my effects, which according to the inventory, I
should have and hold as long as the contract lasted,” but that
he had seen nothing of the 3,000 rdl. rental dues, in vain search
of which he had made a difficult journey.®^
In March Thormohlen began to bring suit for damages against
the Company, and immediately the directors nominated John
Lorentz as governor, giving him the title of “vice commandant
in our land St. Thomas in the West Indies.”
The king conJBrmed
the latter as governor on March £4, and on April 7 issued an
order to Delavigne to hand over to Lorentz the command en-
trusted to him by Thormohlen.®^
On Lorentz’s arrival in St.
Thomas with these letters the connection of Thormohlen with
the proprietorship of St. Thomas was entirely severed.
It only
remained to determine the extent of the damage caused to
Thormohlen by the company, or the reverse.
Before the court
appointed to investigate his claims
Thormahlen maintained
that the damage suffered from Brandenburgers, or from 21ee-
landers and Hamburgers masquerading under the Brandenburg
name, brought his losses up to 76,000 rdl, not counting other
Moth to ThormSMeii (July 1 and 16, 1693).
C. B,, 1690-171$.
Jud and Moth to ThonnOhlen (Fcbruaiy ^6, 1694); Thomibhlen^s reply
(February iS, 1694). Ibid.
Keport of Directors’ rdeetiiig (March 19, 1694), C. B., 1690-171$; Christian
V’s
order to Lorentz (March
24,
1694);
Christian V’s
order to Delavigne
(April?, 1694); Vest.
1671-99.
This commission consisted of “his HI^ Excellency,” Stadtholder U. P.
GyldenlSve, Reventlow, J. Jud, von Plessen, Moth, von Jessen, and Harboe.
Pfotokd over Kimmhaionerne udi Baadstuen
.
.
. voL 3 (July 24, 1694).
104
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
inconveniences, loss of credit, and the like.
Out of 98,875 rdh
expended, he had received oiJy 39,341 rdl in return, making a
total cash loss of 59,534 rdl.
The court admitted that he had
considerable ground for complaint, and in recommending that
the king extend him his good offices, that body called to mind his
former enterprises in various lines and held that he might render
the state considerable service in the future by remaining in
business.^^
Whether Thormohlen secured any further satisfac-
tion from the Company is doubtful.
Though he never recovered
from the shock which the West Indian proprietorship and the
accidents of war
gave his finances, he rose during the reign of
Frederick IV (1699-1717)
to membership once more on the
Board of Trade (1704-1708), and just before his death in 1708
(December 25) he was made a member of the newly established
Board of Police and Trade.^^
The leasing of the factories in
Guinea and the West Indies had brought profit neither to the
lessees nor to the Company’s stockholders.
If the investors
were to enjoy any appreciable returns, it was more likely to come
about through the honest efforts of their own trained employees,
loyally supported by directors who were willing to repose con-
fidence in them.
One great Europ^n war was nearing its close;
another was to begin after the death of Charles II of Spain in
1700.
In the lull between these two great struggles the Danish
West India and Guinea Company was to go through a period of
internal readjustment that was to enable it, better than in the
past war, to reap the advantages of Denmark-Norway’s neutral
position in any future complications.
In this attempt to bring
the Company into line with the commercial demands of the age,
a chief part was played by the oft-mentioned John Lorentz who,
beginning afresh in 1694, gave the Company nearly eight years
of continuous and capable service.
Protokol ewer Kommi^sioneme tidi Raadstum
.
.
.
vol. 3 (July 24, 1694.)
He stated tliat twelve of his ships had been seized by one or another of the
warring factions.
0.
Nielsen
(op.
cit,
VI,
171), mentions a petition from
N. J. Arff, IliormShlen and W. and N. Edinger, presented in 1697 in which they
claim to have lost 500,000 rdl. on ships seized during the war.
^ ArhiihMeddel., 1886—88, 163, 164.
The Board of Trade was united with
the Police Board by a royal order issued on March 23, 1708.
The new Board
continued in existence until 1781.
CHAPTER V
THE GOVERNORSHIP OP JOHN LOEENTZ
When John Lorentz returned to St. Thomas to replace Dela-
vigne as governor in November, 1694, he had been for ten years
a participant in the troubled history of the company and its
colony as above related.
This young Flensborger, according
to Pere Labat, had traveled in France, Spain and Italy, and
spoke French fluently.
He first came over as assistant in the
company’s
oflSce with the
irascible Milan.
He had humbly
done the governor’s bidding and bent before his violent wrath,
and he managed to survive Milan’s administration and to do
service as a witness against him in Copenhagen.
When Com-
missioner Mikkelsen was sent to
St. Thomas to give Adolph
Esmit a trial as governor and as loadstone for Spanish treasure,
Lorentz returned to his former post to the gratification of the
company’s directors whom he had impressed as a young man
of promise.
After Esmit’s return to Denmark Lorentz served
under vice-governor Heins as the company’s bookkeeper.
On
Heins’ death in October, 1689, two deputies from each of the
“nations” on the
island (Danish, Dutch, French, and pos-
sibly German) elected him vice-governor to the great satisfac-
tion of the inhabitants.
In 1691 he induced Madame Heins to
remam on the island as his wife, and on May fifth and skth a
brilliant wedding was
celebrated
in
die town
of
Charlotte
Amalia, to which the leading planters, Brandenburg function-
aries, and French and English captains in the harbor lent dis-
tinction by their presence.^
^ Lateniit Journal (Match 31, May 5, etc., 1691).
[105]
106
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
After Thormohlen had leased the island Lorentz remained in
charge until Delavigne’s arrival in September, 1692.
Even be-
fore Lorentz had been displaced, the directors had required him
to keep them accurately informed as to the state of Thormoh-
len’s trade.
In the summer of 1693 he returned to Copenhagen
to give the directors a verbal report on the St. Thomas situa-
tion.
About the time that Lorentz was departing for Copen-
hagen, Joachim von Holten
(who was
later to become the
eighth governor of St, Thomas) wrote a letter to Thormohlen
filled with complaints against Delavigne and assuring Thormoh-
len that he had ‘Tost a good servant {Sorgtrager) in John Lor-
entz.^
Whether the letter was written with or without the
latter’s knowledge may not be said, but it was certainly in line
with Lorentz’s personal ambitions.
Captain Peter Iversen’s
arrival in Copenhagen that summer with but a small cargo for
the proprietor Thormohlen led to an investigation by the latter
which caused him to issue a long list of charges against Gov-
ernor Delavigne, and to order one George Lorentzen (or Lau-
rentsen), whom he
asserted that he had
‘Trained
to
take
charge of the government,” to proceed to
St. Thomas, place
the incumbent under
arrest, and assume the vice-governor’s
position.^
With
another
administrative
dispute
threatening
at St. Thomas, and with the directors preparing to bring suit
against the proprietor at Copenhagen, it was surely the part of
the discreet office-seeker to be on hand where he might
fish
in the troubled waters.
For some unexplained reason the new
appointee never took office.'
Lorentz assumed charge of the government on November 23,
1694, immediately following his arrival.
He had come over by
way of the Dutch island of Curasao whence he had sent the
directors a letter telling of the bad conditions reported at St.
Thomas.^
Lorentz, according to his own account, had come
® J, von Holt^ to Thormohlen (May 25, 1693).
Delaxdgne papers,
® Thormohlen’s examination of Captain Iversen and “Imst” Rongel (Sep-
temb^- 20); Thormohlen's nine charges against Delavigne (September 25); Thor-
mohlen’s order to George Lorentsen (September 25, 1693).
Ibid.
The latter’s
name was also spelled Laurenisen.
* In his letter of January 17, 1695, Lorentz mentions haying sent a letter
from Cnragao on October 22, 1694.
0. 5., 1690-1713 .
THE GOVERNERSfflP OF JOHN LORENTZ
107
not a wliit too soon, for the English authorities in the neighbor-
ing islands had already forbidden
their people from trading
with St. Thomas, while the French were designing to remove
Delavigne from his fort by force and bring him to the general
at Martinique because of
alleged high-handed treatment of a
French ship in
St. Thomas
harbor.
Lorentz found two
of
the company’s three plantations
® badly run down, the inhab-
itants dissatisfied with the government, and the Brandenbxirgers
still smarting under the robbery perpetrated by the
‘‘blond
Legendre scarcely three weeks before.
He prepared to apply
himself immediately to the task of rehabilitating the colony as
best he might under the Kberal set of instructions with which
the directors had furnished him.
These instructions deserve
some
passing
notice.
With
respect
to
the Brandenburgers
(^14) he was to abide by the three-year arrangement made on
April ^3, 1692, after which he should proceed according to the
original treaty of 1685.
He was to keep on good terms with all
foreign ‘^generals’^ and governors, assert the company’s right
to
St. John, Passage (a small island just east of Porto Rico),
and Crab Islands, resist attacks from without, and prevent re-
bellion, whether of blacks or whites, from within.
Governor Lorentz was especially urged, by way of keeping on
good terms with his neighbors in the West Indies, to have noth-
ing to do with ‘"sea-robbers,” though he was to be allowed to
buy properly condemned prizes when they might be offered
for sale.
In his relations with the English, who were becoming
more aggressive as the war went on, he was soon to have a
chance to show his mettle.
The most radical departure from
the previous policy, however, came as a result of an offer made
by Lorentz himself to the directors.
“Inasmuch as he [Lo-
rentz] had undertaken to support himself tod all the company’s
employees and
soldiers on the income from the company’s
plantations and tihe poll tax,” so ran their acceptance of his
offer (1[ 8), “we are satisfied on behalf of the company to accept
for it such surplus as may be left over, if any there be, leaving
it to his honesty and his oath to see that the company may re-
® These ware known as the “New Quarter plantation/’ the “ Sugar plantation ”
and **£xum]bays plantation.”
108
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ceive what is due/’®
In other words, Lorentz was given a free
hand to administer the Company’s affairs in the West Indies
exactly as he saw fit.
The concluding paragraph of their in-
structions gives a still better idea of the new incumbent’s lati-
tude of action.
"‘He may do whatever he finds needful for the
Company’s
best
interests, provided he immediately
notifies
the directors; and inasmuch as we have confidence in his re-
liability and in his desire to promote the Company’s welfare in
all things, we shall not hold him responsible
if he should risk
some of the Company’s resources and (which may God in his
mercy prevent) it should not turn fortunately as was expected.
And we shall besides, when the Company gains headway and
gets upon its feet, show our appreciation for his faithful service
in such a way that he shall see that he is not dealing with un-
grateful people.
Finally,” they concluded by way of a parting
benediction, “we will wish him such a measure of success that
his good resolution may redound to the service of his Majesty,
the prosperity and growth of the Company, and to his own
honor and fame.” ^
The success or failure of the West Indian colony was put
squarely up to the new governor.
The part he played in curb-
ing the efforts of the Brandenburgers and helping to bring about
the collapse of their plans for commercial expansion has been
discussed in the previous chapter.
The perfect unity that had
characterized his former relations with directors Juel and Moth
continued during the years following his return.
In March,
1701, he was able to report to his masters that the Branden-
burgers were carrying on little or no trade, having for a long
time bought nothing from outside merchants but a few slaves ®
®The original resolutions of the shareholders, passed at
their meeting of
March 19, was signed by the following directors and shareholders: Jens Juel,
P. Bran[d]t, M. Moth, W. Worm, A. Gyldensparre, N. Ejag, R. Meier, W.
Mule, V. Lerdie (Lerke), F. C. Adelaer (Adeler), P. Hiort, P. Lemvig, Nicol.
Janson (sic) Arf[f], C. Braem, J. Wurger, J. Kroyer, J. Matisen (for *‘Hr Cane.
Raad
Adela^*’),
and
Frid. and
Niels
Moller.
Resolutions
of
Directors
(March 19, 1694).
G, R., 169(^1713.
7 Directors’ instruclions to Lorentz (March 29, 1694).
C. B., 169(hl713.
® Lorentz and Van Belle had together bought a cargo of 154 slaves from a
Zeeland slave ship.
THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ
109
and some ‘^Campeachy’^ wood.
On the island they had no
trade except a little in cotton when th^ made an occasional
purchase from
a
planter.
*‘On
the
whole,
they
are
quite
civil,” he reported, "^and are waiting for a new treaty.”^
John
Lorentz had every reason to be pleased with such a quiescent
situation and to pray for its long continuance.
The most numerous nation among the planters of St. Thomas
was the Dutch. Inasmuch as the number of prosperous planters
largely determined the
size of the return cargoes, there was
considerable competition among the islands to secure planters
of means and induce them to settle permanently.
Organized
into a militia corps these burghers could become an important
factor
in defence against outside attack.
As early as
1688,
when Europe was on the verge
of war, Adolph Esmit had
oiBPered eight years’ exemption from taxes to intending planters.
In the years 1690 and 1691 a number of Dutch planters had
come from St. Eustatius and Saba to avoid confiscation of their
property, especially their negroes, by the French who had just
taken possession of the island.^®
During the course of the war,
Governor Lorentz took measures to prevent their leaving.
As
the war closed, and the refugees repeated their desire to go, on
the ground that St. Eustatius was a more healthful place to live
than
St. Thomas
(which was admittedly true) he intimated
that their real reason was the expiration of the eight years’
tax exemption.
He tried to induce those leaving to pay the
tax for four of the eight years but was unable to prevent five
families from going, although one planter, Lucas Beverhoudt,
left his plantation on St. Thomas in full working order, to the
governor’s great joy.
Just how many others eventually
re-
turned does not appear.
The greatest obstacle to Lorentz’s constructive efforts was
privateering.
Although Brandenburg was ostensibly an enemy
* Lorentz to Directors (March Z7, 1701).
C. R., 1690-1713.
Among these were Adrian RSnnds, Lawrence Westerbaen, Adrian Sorgeloos,
and John le Ducq (Duq).
Delavtgne papers; Lorerdsfs Journal (February 11,
1691, passim).
Lorentz to Directors (September 6, 1696), C. S., 1690-17IS; same to same
(January
1698), Oov. C. B., 169!rt700; same to same (June 20 and 24, 1698),
V. B., 1690-1713.
no
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
of France,
its African company’s factor
5n the West Indies
bought Spanish and English prizes captured by French priva-
teers whenever opportunity offered.^^
These difficulties reached
their height in 1696 when French captains holding commissions
from Governor Du Casse of Petit Goave swarmed like birds of
prey around the mouth of St. Thomas harbor, seizing not only
enemies’ ships but vessels belonging to St. Thomas inhabitants.^^
To Governor Lorentz’s vigorous protests against these acts of
violence towards a friendly power, Du Casse gaUy replied that
those complained of were rascals, and advised Lorentz to have
them hanged when they came to St. Thomas again.
Further,
Du
Casse
accused
Lorentz
of sellmg passports
to Curagao
skippers at 10 rdL each.
According to Lorentz’s account, the
Petit Goave governor bore a particular grudge against the St.
Thomas government because of Delavigne’s failure to pay him
for two kegs of indigo which he claimed were stUl due him, and
he threatened to get Lorentz out of his government ‘‘as he had
Delavigne.”
The last thrust probably did not disturb Lorentz,
who knew better than Du Casse why Delavigne had been re-
moved.
For the Count of Blenacq,
general” at Martinique,
the governor had mainly words of praise for the good order he
had kept among his privateers.^^
Although Denmark had not openly sided with Louis XIV, her
attitude of neutrality was looked upon as an indication of her
friendliness.
For the Spaniards who had joined the league
against Louis XIV and Sweden it was not difficult to find an
excuse for attacking St. Thomas.
The report that they were
planning an attack upon the island with three thousand men in
the summer of 1696 spread consternation among the planters
and well-nigh demoralized the population.
The planters took
Lorentz to Directors^ (October 19,
1697); same to same (November 30,
1696), c, 5., mo-ms.
Governor Lorentz cites several instances.
Benjamin Frank, a Jew, but a
Danisb subject, bad his ship detained and his skipper maltreated and robbed;
John de Wbidt^s ship was seized on the way from Curagao to St. Thomas, the
cargo was confiscated and the ship only released on deposit of 5,080 rdl. as
surety; two inhabitants who had a bill of sale from thg Brandenburg factor had
their bark seized.
Lorentz to Directors (September 6, 1696).
C,B., 1690-1718,
THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ
111
measures for their own protection by sending their families and
movable property to Curasao
and some of the Leeward Islands
ofver
Eilande^').
The
report that the
Spaniards had
planned to get the negroes* help in turning St. Thomas over to
them made the governor take measures to send as many slaves
as possible out of the island, especially the most unruly ones.^®
The arrival of the French fleet imder Pointis in West Indian
waters made the Spaniards retire to Havana, so by November
the Danish refugees had begun to retum.^^
Lorentz hastened to
advise the directors of the company to procure protection for
St. Thomas by making representations at Madrid,^® which ad-
vice they promptly followed.^
But the Spanish plans were
only postponed.
Fortunately for St. Thomas a squadron of six
French men-of-war met the Spanish “Barlovento” fleet ^ when
it was reported to be on its way to attack St. Thomas, probably
early in 1697.
The battle took place in the waters between
Porto Rico and San Domingo, with the result that the Spanish
vice-admiral,
three hundred men, and
fifty-four guns
were
captured by the French and brought into Petit Goave.^^
While this danger was thus averted by the opportune ap-
pearance of a French squadron, an equally serious danger was
threatening from another
quarter.
The Brandenburgers on
St. Thomas had been carrying on considerable trade with the
French colony at Petit Goave by collusion with the local French
authorities who should by right have seized the Brandenburg
vessels as belonging to an enemy of their king.
At a time when
France and England were getting ready to grapple for naval
supremacy in West Indian waters it behooved Denmark with
her little colony strictly to avoid getting into the melee.
Madame Lorentz was among the refugees to Curasao,
w C. R., 1690-171S.
.
Lorentz^$ Journal (November, 1696, passim).
Lorentz to Directors (Nov, SO, 1696).
C. B., 1690-171$.
Directors to Cbiistian V (April 16, 1697).
Ibid.
The “Armada de Barlovento” was a small fleet that the Spaniards had
used for the protection of their mainland and for catching int^lopers.
The
visits of this fleet to Crab Island prev^ted its permanent occupation by either
Danes or English.
The fleet at this time consisted of five ships and one small
snow.
Cf. E^tring, Bttoeaneers, 109.
Lorentz to Dkectors (March 17, 169T).
C. R., 1690-171$,
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
In January, 1697,^^ the French fleet above referred to left
Brest for the West Indies under Jean-Bernard Desjeans, baron
de Pointis.
At Petit Goave, Pointis was joined by a fleet of
privateers under the command of Governor Du Casse and de-
parted in March for Carthagena on the coast of New Granada.
After a difficult siege the citadel was captured, and booty esti-
mated to be worth forty million crowns
(ecus) was loaded on
the French ships and promptly started for home.
The English
vice-admiral Nevell had meantime come to the West Indies in
search of the French, who were assumed to have gone to some
part of the Spanish Main, probably to Porto Bello.^^
It was
important to prevent the captured loot from reaching Louis XIV
who might be able with it to prolong the war considerably.
As
soon as a Martinique bark had brought the news of Nevell's
presence in Caribbean waters to Petit Goave, the French au-
thorities compelled a Brandenburg captain in the latter harbor,
one Arduin, to take on board a French captain, a steersman, and
six French seamen and proceed to Carthagena to warn Pointis
and Du Casse of NevelFs whereabouts.
The French fleet ar-
rived in Brest on August £9 with the loss of but a single ship.
Admiral Nevell was furious when he heard how the warning
had been sent and fixed the blame upon the Danish authorities
on St. Thomas, who were after all responsible for the govern-
ment there. He wrote to the surrounding English governments
that they should try to break up St. Thomas’s trade on the sea,
and three privateers from Curagao and several from Jamaica
‘‘were sent out to cruise on this island’s vessels, to prevent the
carrying on of trade with the French islands.”
The conclusion
of the Peace of Ryswick in September, 1697, helped presently to
relieve the tension between St. Thomas and her neighbors.
With the consummation of peace, however, piracy took the
place of privateering.^^ During the course of the war it had been
Chevalier, in his Eistoire de la marine frangaise (Paris, 1902), p. 205, mis-
takenly places the date at June 7, 1696.
Guerin (Eistoire maritime de France,
Paris, 1862) is probably more nearly accurate in placing the date of de Pointis’
departure at January 9, 1697 (TV, 69).
« Cal. Cd., 1696-97, No. 824 (March 18, 1697).
Lorentz to Directors (October 19, 1697).
C. B., 1690-1713.
Cod. Cd., 1697-98, No. 269 (March 1, 1698) and passim.
THE GOVERNORSHIP OP JOHN LORENTZ
113
deemed necessary only to determine whether a prize had been
legally condemned by a properly constituted admiralty court
before it was offered for sale in a neutral port. After the peace
it would be more necessary than ever for skippers to present a
clean
^^bill of health” for ships brought into foreign harbors.
The attitude of John Lorentz toward strange craft suspected of
irregularities is well illustrated by his action in the case of cer-
tain ‘‘rovers of the sea” of whom the most notorious is Captain
Kidd.
Captain Kidd has passed into tradition to such an extent
that it may be interesting to see how this arch-pirate of legend
impressed people of his own time who had had unusual facilities
for studying men of his alleged profession at close range.
Kidd
appeared before St. Thomas harbor on April
6, 1699 (O. S.?)
having lately come from Madagascar in the Quidah Merchant^
a Genoese vessel of four himdred tons, thirty guns, and eighty
men, and having been refused succor by the English at An-
guilla.^
His appearance and action may best be told in Gov-
ernor Lorentz’s own words as he put them down at the time in
his carefully kept diary.^
“April 6.—^Today, Maundy Thxnrsday, there arrived before
the harbor an English ship which anchored just outside of can-
non range.
Presently the captain sent his sloop [boat] ashore
with a person on board who came to ask the vice commandant
[i.
e.y Lorentz] whether he might come in free with his ship,
which his men had compelled him to seize from the Moors in the
East Indies—he could produce proof that he had been com-
pelled to seize
it.
The vice-commandant answered that it he
could produce proof in writing that he was an honest man, he
might enter, which message he sent by Lieut. Claus Hansen and
Peter Smith [a well-to-do merchant who had been associated
with
the Brandenburgers
in the
slave-trade] who, however,
were not satisfied with his explanations, for he [Kidd] had re-
» Cal, Col, 1$99, No. 404 (May 18); qf. Cal. Col, 1689-9^, No. 136 (May IS,
1689), where a letter from coundl of Nevis to Blathwayt has been dated 1689
instead of 1699.
^ LormtzU Jovmal (April 6, 1609, etc.).
Lorentz spelled the captain’s name
Odd.
Maundy Thursday: the day preceding Good Friday, Green Thursday.
The tran^fio^n is not qlose, though reQonstrncted from very full npt^
114
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
quoted the vice-commandant to give him protection from the
English royal ships, should they seek him here without orders,
from which the vice-commandant saw that he was a pirate, and
therefore deferred his answer tUl the morrow.
April 7.—^In the morning the vice-commandant called the
council together to consult as to whether or not the said sea-
robber’s request could be granted; but as he saw that it would
produce considerable friction between this land and the English
if the pirate were admitted and not delivered up on their re-
quest, it was resolved that no word, beyond yesterday’s mes-
sage, should be sent to him.
A man came ashore
.
.
. with a written request that Kidd
receive protection on land until he could send a bark to New
England, present his case there, and prove that he was no sea-
robber, inasmuch as the governor there, Mylord BeUamont, was
the chief owner in the ship in which he sailed out of England
three years ago to cruise on the Red Sea for pirates.
But his
request was flatly refused him, and besides, he was forbidden
to send bis men ashore again unless they came into the harbor
with the ship.
‘"Long Friday was celebrated in the church today.
“April
8,—^Today
the
pirates
lying
outside
the harbor
have twice sent boats ashore at the harbor’s point.
The vice-
commandant at once sent his men there, and they found that
seven men had been put ashore who maintained that they were
passengers
.
.
.
[and proved it]. Two of these secured permis-
sion to take a canoe and fetch their baggage, but when they
were on the way the ship sf>read sails and left, the canoe follow-
ing.
“Watch was kept in the harbor that night by Captain Vinck’s
boat.”
Although Captain Kidd was forced meekly to leave the harbor
of St. Thomas in his leaky vessel, and ceases thereupon to have
any personal connection with St. Thomas history, the island
authorities were presently to concern themselves with part of
his
cargo,—his
“treasure.”
On
leaving
St. Thomas, Kidd
steered for San Domingo, but instead of risking putting in at
Petit Goave, he stopped at the little island of Mona, just off the
THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ
115
southeast
coast
of
Hispaniola, and
apparently he anchored
later in the mouth of the ‘‘River Romano” near “Catherine”
island on the same coast.^
Here he was met—or followed—^by
traders from Curagao, Antigua, and St. Thomas, to whom he
disposed of a large part of his cargo.
According to information
given by the St. Thomas trader, Peter Smith, to Nevis officials,
one Henry Bolton of Antigua had furnished him with provisions,
and had undertaken to act as his agent in getting rid of his
cargo.
To William Burke,^ an Irish trader who had recently
taken a cargo of slaves from Barbados to Carthagena, and who
had done considerable business with the Dutch at Curagao in
his time, Kidd sold one hundred and twenty or one hundred and
thirty
bales of muslin,^® and finally, when he had disposed of
nearly all of his cargo, he bought a smaller boat (from Bolton?)
and left for New York.^^
There he was to attempt to prove his
innocence before Lord Bellamont, part owner of the ship in
which he had left England, and the admiralty judges.
On Friday, May 27, 1699, about seven weeks after Kidd^s
departure, Burke came into St. Thomas on an English barken-
tine, approached Governor Lorentz, and asked the favor of a
private interview.
With only Madame Lorentz present to act
as interpreter, Burke stated that he had been with the sea-
robber Captain “Cidd” and that if the governor would partic-
ipate with him, a large profit could be got from the said pirate.
To this the governor vigorously replied that he would have
nothing to do with pirates, and thereby give the land an evil
reputation.
But if Lorentz was unwilling to receive the stolen
goods, the Brandenburg factor, Van Belle, had no such scruples.
That very night the searobbers’ goods were landed and stored
in the Brandenburg warehouse.
The guard had informed the
governor of the stir in the harbor during the night, so the latter
began an investigation on the following day with a view to
finding out whether Van Belle had made the investment on his
own account or on that of the Brandenburg company.
28 Cat. Col, mo. No. 616, 1 (July 7), No. 680, IX (July 10).
28 Also spelled Bourck, Burch, Burcke.
80 Cal, Col, mo. No. 616, 1 ^uly 7).
Lands-Protokoller for St. Thomas
.
.
. 1694-1711 (June 7, 1600).
116
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
The governor’s prompt measures alarmed the Brandenburg
officials.
Their bookkeeper, Sivert Hoesz, as well as Burke,
came to parley with him in the hope of reaching an agreement.
On Monday the governor managed to seize some of the goods
which had been brought into the house of an inhabitant.^^
Lor-
entz, in a letter written July .-4,
1699, mentions fifteen small
packages and sixty sacks of saltpetre as having been seized and
placed in the fort,^^ Perhaps these
included the goods referred
to.
On June 1 Burke was arrested, to be released on June 7,
when the suit against him was begun.
In the course of the
hearing, Burke testified that besides Van Belle, Messrs. Beck
and Moyart from Curagao and some gentlemen on Barbados
had a share in the cargo in question,^^ and that he remembered
haviug paid Eidd 1^,000 pieees-of-eight.
A [Brandenburg?]
gunner testified that he had recorded dehvery of 158 packages,
large and small, into the Brandenburg magazine.
The court
concluded that Van Belle must have been cognizant
of the
origin of the goods, and that he should therefore have a protest
sent to him, charging him with action prejudicial to the island,
that Burke should pay a fine of 300 pieces-of-eight for his In-
solentie, and deposit 5,000 pieces-of-eight by way of guarantee
that Kidd’s title to the goods was a legal one.®^
In his letter to the directors describing the affair, Lorentz
mentions their having fined Van Belle 5,000
which helps
to confirm a suspicion that the latter was forced to put up the
deposit for Burke, who was only a go-between.
The governor
refrained from seizing those goods which actually reached the
Brandenburg magazine.
They were eventually put on board
the Brandenburg ship, the Seven Provinces^ which Lorentz re-
Lorentz’s Journal (May 27, etc., 1699).
Lorentz to Directors (JiiTy 4, 1699).
C. B., 1690-1713.
In a letter of April
15, 1700, Lorentz informed the Directors that he had caused the 69 sacks of
saltpetre and 12 bales of cotton and “Netteldug’^ to be loaded on the Christian
V on the company’s account.
** Burke case (June 7, 1699).
Lcmds-Prot., 1694.-1711.
Ibid.
The court was composed of the governor and John (Johannes) de
Windt, Thomas Berentsen, Claus (Claes) Hansen, J. Rasmussen and Abraham
Matheusen, who signed with his mark.
Lorentz to Directors (June 19, 1699).
C. B., 1690-1713.
THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ
117
ported to be laden with ‘‘a deal of searobbers" goods, of pock-
wood, some cotton and money,
for no sugar was to be had.^
The governor and council considered the case extremely grave.
The governor’s instructions had expressly prohibited him from
having dealings with pirates, but from the point of view of the
colony it was just as dangerous for the Brandenburgers to engage
in such traffic as for the Danes, for the Company would be held
responsible in any case.
Councilor Claus Hansen was sent over
on the Danish ship Gyldenlove^ Captain Vinck, which left St.
Thomas on Jime 20, 1699, provided with documents to prove
where the responsibility for collusion with the pirates really
lay.^
The problem for the Danes in the West Indies was how to
convince the English that there was no collusion between them
and the
pirates.
From New York, the
Carolinas, and the
Bahamas, came complaints from zealous English officials like
Edward Handolph against the encouragement given to piracy
and to evasion of the acts of navigation.^®
In the West Indies,
the Danes and the Dutch were held largely responsible for such
wrong-doings, although it was the attitude of the planters that
made smuggling practically impossible to repress.
The English
had made some progress
in discouraging piracy when they
succeeded in getting Captain Eidd shipped off to England for
trial.
Local laws did not permit hanging, and conviction by local
authorities would have been problematical.^
Another victory
for the forces of order was secured when Bolton was seized and
brought to England for trial.^^
With respect to Burke they were less
lucky.
Threats
of
Rear-admiral Benbow, who appeared at St. Thomas in October,
1699, with a ship of fifty-four pieces and two small frigates of
twenty or twenty-two guns each, could not make the governor
give up Burke, who had sought refuge with the Brandenburgers,
liOreatz to Directors, Gov, C, B,, 169^-1700 (August 10, 1699).
Lorentz^s Journal (June 20, 1699).
Edward Randolph was Collector of Customs and Deputy Auditor for New
England.
Beer, op. cit., I, 222.
^ See, e, g. Cal. CoL, 1701, No. 180 (February 19).
Cd, Col., 1699, No. 1034 (December 4); ibid., 1701, No. 26 (January 11).
118
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
or surrender the money that Burke (or Van Belle) had deposited
in the Company’s treasury.
Instead, Benbowmade a report on
the island and its harbor, in which he stated that it '"would be of
great use to our English nation in case of war in these parts,”
that it could be easily fortified, whereas at present it was but
"a receptacle
for thieves.”
The stubbonmess of Lorentz,
whose main concern was the retention
of the five thousand
pieces-of-eight and the seized goods for the Company, led the
Earl of Bellamont, the English governor of New York, to con-
tend that Burke had bought protection from the Danish gov-
ernor with the proceeds of Kidd’s spoils.^^
His statement that
Burke "will not be parted with” turned out entirely true, for in
August, 1701, that pirates’ friend was reported out of reach of
the arm of English lawin the French part of St. Kitts.^®
Lorentz
was able to assume so bold a front because he knew through in-
formation secured by Peter Smith on Nevis that Admiral Ben-
bow was merely putting up a bluffing game, and was exceeding
his orders in the hope of forcing the restitution of Kidd’s and
Burke’s boat.^®
In July, 1699, another Madagascar pirate, Tempest Roger
(or Rogers) a former acquaintance of Kidd’s from those regions,
appeared in St. Thomas harbor to ask leave to repair his ship,
but he was not allowed to remain.^^
But pirates did not always
get off so easily.
In a letter written in April, 1700, Lorentz
mentions having meted out exemplary punishment to four out
of nine pirates "who came here some time ago,” leaving the fate
of the remaining five in the hands of the directors.^®
Their con-
fiscated goods, amounting to £,600
rdZ., helped to justify his
zeal for the interests of his masters and make the performance
of duty doubly joyous.
^ Lorentz to Directors (November 9, 1699).
Gov, C. B., 16H-1700; Cal. Col,
1699, No. 907 (October 28),
^B^bow to Vernon, Cal. Col, 1699, No. 907 (October 28).
^ Bellamont to Lords of Trade, ibid.. No. 890 (October 23, 1699).
Codrington (Antigua) to Council of Trade, ibid., 1701, No. 784 (August 25).
" Lorentz to Directors (November 9, 1699).
Gov. C. B., 1694.-1700.
^ Same to same, ibid. (August 10, 1699);
Cal. Col, 1699, No. 880, 11 (Au-
gust 17, etc.); ibid., 1700, No. 848 (October 18).
^Lorentz to Directors (April 15, 1700).
C. B., 1690-171$.
THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ
119
The willingness of the Brandenburg factor to encourage un-
lawful commerce did not escape the English Leeward Islands
governors.
In September, 1698, Van Belle attempted to send
two score slaves to St. Eitts in a boat flying a Danish flag, but
a Mr. Mead, the English commissioner and collector of customs
at Nevis, seized them, apparently on the basis of the first clause,
of the Act of Navigation, which provided that ‘^no goods or
commodities whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out
of any of his Majesty’s plantations except in English or Planta-
tion shipping, and manned as specified in the Act.”
The Coun-
cil of Trade and Plantations were not disposed to intervene in
Van Belle’s behalf, since they had ^^rather much reason to sus-
pect him well versed in methods of interloping and trading there
illegally, a practice very prejudicial to
[British]
service and
interests.” ^
Prom the various circxunstances above related it will be seen
that the governor’s position at St. Thomas was not a sinecure.
He must stand ready to assert the claims of King and Company
against all comers.
In 1698 the governor sent an expedition to
Crab Island to protest against its occupation by that Scotch
Darien conipany promoted by William Paterson, an enterprise
through which the sponsors hoped to revolutionize Caribbean
commerce.^®
The
conscientious governor must
discriminate
between legal and illegal commerce, he must permit the Bran-
denbmgers a certain stipulated freedom in trade without en-
dangering Danish sovereignty on the island. He must keep on
good terms with the planters, prevent uprisings among the
^ Peter Vanbelle (Van Belle) to king.
Cal. Colt 1699, No. 648, 1 (July 13);
Council of Trade and Plantations to Earl of Jersey, ibid.. No. 685 (July 27).
Lorentz to Directors (October 12, 1698), Gov. C. B., 169Jhl700; Cal. Col.,
1699, No. 866 (October 16): Host, op. cit., 40 et seq., gives Lorentz’s protest to
Captain Robert Pinkerton, of October 2, 1698, and extracts from Lieut. Claus
Hansen’s Journal of the Danish expedition to Crab Island.
It is curious to note
that as early as October 15/25, 1688, four “English {$ic) merchants” had ap-
plied to the Elector of Brandenburg for an octroi for a new "American Com-
pany.”
The names given by Walter (Schiick, H,
528) are Heinridbi Bulen,
Wilhelm Pocock, William Paterson, and James Schmitten.
The only one of
these who is mentioned in the act of Parliament of Jime 26,
1695, incorpo-
rating the Darien Company, is Paterson.
For James Smith see p. 189 above.
1^0
TBE DANISH WEST INDIES
negroes, and maintain good
relations with the neighboring
governments*
He must see to it that the Company’s planta-
tions and magazine pay a surplus above their expenses, and
particularly that homeward-bound ships of the Company have
a good cargo that will enable the shareholders to secure dividends
on their investment.
That even as capable a man as John
Lorentz should be successful in all these respects was quite im-
possible, but that he should be able to hold his position until
his death, and retain possession of the island against the threats
of Spaniards and English, is something for which he deserves no
little credit.
Lorentz was always alive to what he considered the Com-
pany’s best
interests.
His prompt
report of John Mathew
Leers’ attempt to lease the island in 1695 helped to nip that
proposal in the bud, for he wrote that the rumor had “caused
considerable grumbling among the inhabitants, who had
all
sworn to leave the land if itwere leased out again.”
His letters
concerning the lucrativeness of the slave trade led the share-
holders of the Company to undertake with Jacob Lerke the
sending of a ship to Guinea for a cargo of slaves, and eventually
brought the Company into the business on its own account.®^
On June 10, 1702, Governor John Lorentz died in office, the
first governor save one to obtain that distinction.^^
Of the six-
teen years that had elapsed since he first arrived in St. Thomas
as an humble “assistant,” he had served the Company eleven
years
as
its governor.
Under his clear-headed and vigorous
guidance, the Company had been brought from bankruptcy to
solvency, and its colony had become firmly established in the
Caribbean.
Loreatz to Directors (May 8, 1695), C. B., 1690-1713, The Leers’ project
was supported by the Brandenburgers, who expected to be able to agree with
Leers better thaa with the Danish company.
Schiick (1, 248, 249) discusses the
matter, but is unable from the Brandenburg documents to explain why it was
dropped.
Ibid (November 80, 1696), Gov. C, B., 169Jrl700.
^ Christopher Heins.
See above, p. 80.
CHAPTER VI
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES (1688-1733)
Ip the importance of the history of the Danish islands in the
West Indies is to be judged by the extent of the interests in-
volved, or is to be measured by the actual influence of the is-
lands upon the history of the Caribbean or on the state of Den-
mark-Norway, the propriety of devoting an entire volume to
them might well be questioned.
But if a rather detailed study
will disclose the rise of a fairly typical plantation society, if it
will show on a small scale the sort of thing that took place in
West Indian lands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
on a large scale, such as the rise of the sugar industry and the
slave trade, the effort need require no apology.
Por the islands
reflected very distinctly the economic solidarity of the West In-
dian community at a time when it was looked upon as one of
the main sources of the world’s wealth.
St. Thomas can scarcely be said to have assumed its place as
a regular plantation colony until 1688, when the Company’s
accounts first b^an to be kept in money instead of sugar.
In
that year the first census was taken, and although not a scien-
tific affair,
its results are not without interest.^
This report
showed that there were 30 plantations surveyed, and a total
white planting population to record of just 148.
These were
distributed among deven nationalities as follows: 66 Dutch, 31
English, 17 Danes and Norwegians, 17 French, 4 Irish, 4 Flem-
ish, 3 Germans, 3 Swedes, and one each of Scotch, Brazilians,
and Portuguese.
Of the 76 adults listed, 56 are entered as plant-
ers, 5 as carpenters, £ as planters and m^chants, and one each
as
minister
(Lutheran), schoolmaster,
fisher, captain on the
^ LandListerfpr St. Thomas, 1688. The figures given in HSst, op. cit,, S&9, vary
slightly from those given here.
The report was signed by Franz Marta[is, who
was a member of the council and a tavOTi keeper, Andreas Brock, who acted
as secretary, and Sigmont LUck.
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Company's bark, tavern keeper, overseer, turner, planter and
tailor, and
planter and
miller.
In the
village
of
Charlotte
Amalia,^ 37 persons were enumerated, of whom 21 were adults
(12 men and 9 women), 11 were children, one was an indentured
servant, and 4 were negroes.
Of the adidts, 8 were Dutch, 4
were Danish, 3 were English; there was one each of French,
Spanish, and “high German” inhabitants, while the nationality
of the remaining three was not recorded.
The trades repre-
sented in the village and the number in each were:
tailor, 2;
innkeeper, 1; seamstress, 1; shoemaker,
1; carpenter, 2; black-
smith, 1; and cotton ginner, 1.
Among the 21 adults were 10
Calvinists (Reformed), 7 Lutherans
(distributed among high
Germans, Danes, and Dutch), and 2 Catholics.
The number of
white men, women, and children in the island totalled 317, and
the negroes 422, which latter figure includes one Carib Indian,
three squaws, and three mulatto women.
In the census taken
three years later
(1691), just when Thormohlen’s proprietor-
ship began, the information seems to have been gathered with
greater
precision,
especially with regard
to
the plantations.
The increase from 317 whites in 1688 to 399 in 1691 was no
doubt partly due to the publication of the edict concerning the
eight
years’ exemption from
taxes
offered
to new
settlers,
coupled with the outbreak of hostilities in Europe.
The num-
ber of negroes had risen at a rather more rapid rate, they num-
bering 555, of whom 361 were put down as ‘‘capable,” which
meant full-grown negroes capable of performing their full quota
of work.^
It must be borne in mind that despite the voluminous na-
ture of the census records, they are not such as to permit the
investigator to claim absolute accuracy for the figures drawn
from them.
They
will, on the whole, give a reasonably ac-
curate idea of the actual state of affairs in many respects; but
with regard to the number of slaves, especially in the second
decade of the next century and after, when St. Thomas has be-
* Cliarlotte Amalia, tlie name wMch the port of St. Thomas still bears, was
named in honor of the queen of Christian V, in whose time the town was founded.
For present-day view of town, see photo facing p. 257.
^ One Indian squaw and four children are included in the list of negroes.
MAP
OF
ST.
THOMAS
(T715-1733)
(MS.
Map,
undated,
Royal
Library,
Copenhagen)
[Facing
-page
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
12S
come the home
of a class of capitalist planters, the figures
quoted will invariably be lower than they should be.
Governor
Bredal, writing to the directors in 1718, complained that the
plantation owners did not fill out their records concerning the
poll and land taxes they were supposed to pay, “ but the planters
let their negroes hide themselves for the time being in the forest,
and only a few of them are to be seen.^
By
1691, the number of plantations had increased to one
hundred and one.
Only twenty-eight of these had been under
cultivation for eight years or more, while the average length of
time that each of the plantations had been cultivated amounted
to just four years, eleven months.
The newness of the colony
is further seen by the fact that as yet only five plantations were
devoted to sugar cane even in part, while on 87 cotton was the
chief
product.
Provisions
(‘‘Cosf*
or
which
in-
cluded cassava, millet and maize, were raised on nine-tenths of
the plantations.
Eventually, the negroes were allotted plots
of ground on which they raised their own food supply.
Indigo
culture had been begun.
In 1699 l^eter Smith was the only
person who planted mdigo, though others had tried
it before
him.^
In their instructions issued to Adolph Esmit in 1687
before
his
departure
for
St. Thomas,
the
directors named
cotton,
indigo, tobacco, pockwood, and
other
valuable dye
woods as the chief products of the island.
^
The failure of the inhabitants to plant much sugar was as-
cribed to their having taken up the ‘‘fattest” land from the
start, whereas the “poorer” and stonier land was really better
suited to the sugar cane.
The northern and more fertile slopes
were naturally taken up later than the southern and more ac-
cessible side.
The hope of the directors that rice and vine cul-
ture be given a trial seems not to have been justified by ex-
perience.®
In 1689 the governor and council proposed that a
* E. Bredal to Directors (March, 1718), B, & D., 1717-1720.
® The Company had indigo “works*’ as early as 1688.
Cf. A. E. Esmit’s
Journal (June 19, 1688); Lorentz to Directors (February 20, 1699), C. B., 169k-
1700.
® Millet (“Milien,” or “Millie,”) was used quite commonly for food for the
slaves; “tobi” and cacao were also mentioned by the directors as worthy of
attention.
Directors* instructions to Esmit (November 9, 1687).
Hems re-
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
sugar Tuill should be put up on Milan’s former plantation, and
ventured the opinion that if sugar cane should prove successful
on the Company’s plantations, it would prove more profitable
than cotton or tobaccoJ
The main reason for the Company’s
having hitherto received so scant returns from its investment
was explained by the fact that the older islands yielded more
sugar than the newly settled.^
As the area devoted to sugar
increased, the culture of tobacco decreased.
There was always
a good market for the latter in Denmark, however, and to-
bacco from Porto E-ico, Virginia, and other regions frequently
found a place in the Company’s homeward-bound cargoes.
Sugar and cotton remained the leading products during the
period under discussion.
The sugar cane was cut by the ne-
groes with a sort of hatchet called kapmesser^ and carried by
them to the mill or
sugar works” with which the greater part
of the plantations after 1700 were usually provided.®
In 1696
Governor Lorentz reported seven sugar mills to be at work pro-
ducing brown sugar, which was to be sent to Denmark by a
ship expected from Copenhagen.^®
By
1715, the number of
sugar plantations provided with
nrills had reached thirty-two
out of a total of forty plantations devoted solely to sugar.
The
motive power was furnished mainly by wmdmfils, though these
came gradually to be supplemented by treadmills turned by
mule-power.
Compared with modern methods the waste was
of course tremendous.
At least ten negroes were required to
keep one such mill running; two, who were called
“rollers,”
feeding the cane stalks between the upright wooden cylinders,
ported a successful trial in growing ginger.
Heins to Directors (January 2,
1689), J5. A
1683-89,
^Resolutions of governor and council (February
19, 1689).
The members
of the council were Henry Irgens, Joachim Delicaet, John de Windt, and John
Lorentz.
® Heins to Directors (August 20, 1689).
B, & D, 1683-89,
* See Appendix H„ p. 318.
“ Lorentz to Directors (November 30, 1696), C. B., 1690-1714,
Land Listerfor St, Thomas^ 1716.
For description of an eighte^th century
sugar mill, see Ozhohn, De danshe vestindiske oers TUstand
.
.
pp. 44
et seq.,
and J. C. Schmidt, Blandede Arnnoerkninger samlede paa og over Ejlandet Si.
Kroix
.
.
. (Samleren, 1788, 2 B},
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
125
others carrying in the fresh stalks and removing the crushed
ones.
An ax always lay near at hand, with which to amputate
the arm of the careless negro whose hand might get caught by
the revolving cylinders; for when help was scarce, even three-
quarters of a negro was better than none.
The juice of the cane required expert handling, and negroes
who were adept at boiling sugar brought fancy prices.
As the
juice was transferred from one copper kettle to another and
larger one, xmtil it had run the gamut of a
battery ’’ of three or
four kettles, the foam was removed and used for the distilla-
tion of rum.
The crystallized sugar was finally “cured” in the
coolers in the curing house, and emptied from these into molds.
The molasses which was drained off went to the distillery to
help make rum.
With great, husky blacks cutting cane in the
fields, with negro boys leading the loaded mules or asses to the
mill, with stin others to carry in the stalks and to tend to the
crushing,
boiling, and
distilling, the scene presented during
harvest must have been a busy and noisy one indeed.
The cotton plantations were smaller and more numerous than
those devoted to sugar.
They, too, were usually provided with
“works” where the cotton was ginned.
The proportion of the
number of plantations devoted to the raising of cotton as com-
pared with the entire number fell from eighty per cent, in 1601
to forty-four per cent, in 1715, and rose again to fifty per cent,
by 1733.
Of the total number of plantations, the part devoted
to sugar rose from five per cent, in 1691 to thirty-five per cent,
in 1720, falling back to twenty-four per cent, in 1733.
The de-
cline shown by the figures for 1733
is due to a series of mis-
fortunes, of which drought, storms, and disasters at sea formed
a part.^^
The cotton production was worth perhaps a third to a fourth
as much as the sugar.
It is impossible to determine the exact
ratio or the exact amount, for the planters frequently refused to
seU their produce to the Company, and the /oc^ura or invoices of
the cargoes often include items from neighboring islands.
The “boom” period in early St. Thomas history was the first
decade and a haK of the eighteenth century, substantially the
See Appendix H., p. 318.
1^6
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
period of the War of the Spanish Succession.
This was due to a
variety of causes, both local and general.
John Lorentz, with
Juel and Moth, had done much to put the Brandenburg African
Company out of the running.
Quarrels within that company’s
management had done the rest.
The revival of the Danish company’s slave trade had bene-
fited both it and the planters.
The liberties allowed the latter
in disposing of their plantation produce had helped to make
them capitalists.
This prosperity is indicated by the increase
in the niunber of plantations laid out just after the opening of
the new century.
In the years 1692 to 1700 only fourteen new
plantations were assigned to planters.^^
These plantations had a
total working force of seventy-nine slaves.
By 1705 an addi-
tional thirty-seven new plantations had been laid out, with a
working force in that year of two hundred and eighty slaves.
From 1691 to 1715, the total number of plantations had, risen
from one hundred and one to ohe hundred and sixty.
It is the
increase of negroes, both relatively and absolutely, that gives
the most striking proof of the rapid development of St. Thomas
as a plantation colony during these years.
While the number of
white men, women, and children increased only from three
hundred and eight-nine to five hundred and forty-seven (1 :1.4),
thenumber of negro slaves increased from five hundred andfifty-
five to three thousand and forty-two (1 : 5.5), during the same in-
terval (1691-1715).
In other words, the number of slaves had
risen nearly four times as fast as the number of whites.
John Lorentz had laid the foundations of a fiscal system by
which the inhabitants of the colony bore a proper share of the
expenses of the civil government.
These expenses were largely
defrayed by a poll and a land or
ground” tax.
The poll tax,
which appears first to have been collected in the year 1692-1693,
amounted to 2J^ rdl, for each planter and for each ‘‘capable”
slave, and to IJ^ rdl, for the planter’s wife and for each of his
adult children.
For “manquerons,” or those unable to do a full
Land Listerfor St. Thomas. The names of the planters as they appear in the
records are: David Liron, Reynier Claever, Jean Cramy, Zent van Wundergem,
Jan Amout, Samson Burin, Mintje de Tooy, Jiirgen Hansen, Mathias Terling,
Jiirgen Carstensen, Joris van Overschelde, Pieter de Windt.
:MAP
of
ST.
JOHK
(1780)
(Prepared
and
published
by
P,
L.
Oxholm,
Copenhagen,
1800)
[Facing
page
127]
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
127
day’s work, and for minor wHte children, the planters were not
required to pay any poll tax.
The land tax on St. Thomas (and
St. John after its occupation and the expiration of the eight
years of exemption) was assessed according to the width of the
plantation, the length being in most instances jSxed at three
hundred feet,^^ For each one hundred feet in width, the planter
paid 10 styver, or 20 shilling.
Inasmuch as the width of the sugar plantations on St. Thomas
in 1783 averaged one thousand five hundred and forty feet,,and
the average number of negroes employed on each one was a
trifle over twenty-six, the amount due from each planter in poll
and groimd taxes amounted to about 3 rdl.,
1 mart, for the
latter, and nearly 70 rdL for the former tax.
Similarly, the
owner of a sugar plantation on St. John, of average width and
average slave equipment (thirteen negroes), would have to pay
nearly 2 rdl. in land tax and 85 rdl, in poll tax.
So long as the returns were properly made out by the planters,
the burden would seem to have fallen upon the persons taxed
very nearly in proportion to their ability to pay.
Indigent
persons were indeed, as a rule, entirely exempted from the pay-
ment of the poll tax.^^ The indirect taxes that the planters were
forced to pay through being obliged in certain cases to sell their
produce to the company, or to ship them on the company’s
vessels, and to buy goods needed from the Company’s magazine,
wiU be discussed in another coimection.
St. John had been claimed by the Danes as early as the first
administration of Adolph Esmit.
In a letter written early in
1684, the latter mentions having made an attempt through two
moneyed merchants from Barbados to set up ‘‘works” (forts?)
on St. John; but the English governor, Stapleton,
sent two
sloops over to the island, thus driving away forty men sent
over by the Barbados merchants.
“This
is the third time,”
wrote the Danish governor, “that he has driven our people
[from
St. John?]”.^®
On
his return
to
St. Thomas
in 1688,
Esmit was instructed to attempt the settlement of St. John by
The Danish foot is sKghtly longer than the English.
L.
SL Tk.t passim.
16 Esmit to Directors (January 26, 1684), A. E., 1S82-89.
1^
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
placing from four to six men there and encouraging them to
begin planting,^^ but it was not until 1717 that the project was
actually
carried
out.
In November,
1716,
Governor
Erik
Bredal wrote the directors that many of the St. Thomas in-
habitants were inclined to go to settle St. John, but that they
were held back solely by fear of the English, who were unwilling
to let any nation go there to cut down the timber.^^ On the
twenty-fifth of the following March, the governor had a vessel
loaded with guns and ammunition, and with provisions from a
ship that had recently brought in a cargo of flour, meat, etc.,
to take him to St. John with twenty planters, sixteen negroes,
and five soldiers.
have planted there the flag of our most gracious king, and
fired a salute,’" wrote the governor, ‘‘and then we feasted, and
drank the health, first of our sovereign, and then of the Com-
pany.
Later, I selected a place on which to build a fort, a con-
venient location which commands the inlet to the harbor as well
as the harbor itself, and a level space beneath
it on which a
village can stand. The harbor is quite secure, and when a person
is within it ... he sees land all about him.
I have permitted
the planters to indicate which pieces of land they preferred, and
have
selected a place for the Company’s plantation just a
cannon-shot distant from the fort (which is to be built there).
Later the planters have returned because of their fear of the
English and are simply waiting cautiously to see what the latter
will attempt.
.
.
.”
Directors’ instructions to Esmit (November 9, 1687).
A. E., 1682-89.
Bredal and Coundl to Directors (November
1716), B. & D., 1717-20. In
a letter dated July 23, 1715, Governor Crone and council iaformed the directors
that John Henry Sieben had recently proposed, on bdialf of himself and fifteen
other planters from St. Thomas, to begin tiie occupation and cultivation of St.
John.
B.
P., 171^-17.
^ Bredal to Directors (May 8, 1718), B. & P., 1717^0.
“ Thi defrygterfar de
EngeUke og sidder ikkun og hirer ^paa^ kvad de tiUe tentere^
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
1£9
Meantime Bredal proceeded to have the ground cleared for
the fort, and a road cut through the brush for bringing up the
nine four-pounders
that were
to guard the
fort.
The
five
soldiers under a Danish officer, named Axel Dahl, and the sixteen
negroes, took charge
of
this preparatory work.
When the
English Leeward Islands’ governor. General W. Hamilton, saw
that the Danish efforts were serious, he sent John Marshall, the
"‘Capt. Commendant” of Hamilton’s regiment, with the man-
of-war Scarborough, one of the two English ships then in West
Indian waters, to St. Thomas to forbid the Danes to occupy
St. John, hinting that they had no good right to St. Thomas
itself.^
Bredal replied firmly that whatever he was doing was
being done on the authority of his sovereign, and he was not
aware of having transgressed his rights.
‘‘If they [the directors]
would only assist me with a hundred men,” the governor pleaded
in his letter to the directors, ‘T weU believe that when the
English come with their two ships ... they will not perform
any great miracles.”
Despite the report of English threats that they would dis-
lodge the
infant settlement, the work went on.
After long
searching fresh water was found on the island.
This not only
made it unnecessary to bring water by boat from St. Thomas,
but made it possible to begin work promptly on the fort, which
required fresh water for the lime and the cistem.^^
Maize and
sweet potatoes
(Patatter) were planted in the cleared space to
furnish provisions for the negroes.^^
According to the ordinance issued by the St. Thomas govern-
ment on March 24, 1718, the St. John planters were required to
have one white man on each plantation within three months
from the time it was taken up; exemption from taxes was granted
for the first eight years as omSt. Thomas; sugar mills were to be
erected within five years on pain of confiscation; and planters
were to be permitted to take as much lime and wood as they
Hamilton to Bredal (November
19,
1717), B, &
1717-20; see
also
Jolm
Mars[c]liall*s
** ExpUcaMm,’'^
(undated),
ibid.
Both Hamilton’s
letter
and Marshall’s “E^lication” are copies.
Bredal to Directors (May 8, 1718).
Ibid.
** Bredal to Directors (July 8, 1718).
Ibid.
130
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
needed.^ By 17^0-17^1, tbirty-nine planters had received deeds
to plantations on St. John.^^
The early inhabitants came entirely from
St. Thomas and
were equally varied in their nationality.
Nine of these were
Danes, five were French Huguenot refugees or of refugee stock,
and nearly all the rest were Dutch.
Their coming was prompted
by a variety of motives.
Some had sunk hopelessly into debt on
St. Thomas, others had had badly located plantations there,
while many of them naturally expected to improve their previous
state.
Their plantations were nearly fifty per cent, larger than
those on St. Thomas, their average width being one thousand
five hundred and fifty-six feet.
The number of negroes held at
this early period cannot be ascertained, but within a decade of
the actual settlement,—^namely in 17^8—^there were one hun-
dred and twenty-three whites to six hundred and seventy-seven
blacks (1: 5.5), while in 1733, the year of the first serious slave
insurrection, the whites numbered two hundred and eight, and
the slaves one thousand and eighty-seven, a
slightly higher
ratio of white inhabitants
(1: 5.2).^^
Although the number of
plantations was increased only twenty-five per cent, in those
five years, the number of negroes on them increased sixty per
cent.
Nevertheless in 1733 St. John had but ten negroes on the
average to each plantation, to St. Thomas’s twenty-five.
The Company went into the plantation business on its own
account early in its career.
The encouragement that it was ex-
pected to give to plantation life on St. Thomas undoubtedly
accounts in large part for the willingness of the Company’s di-
rectors to permit the Brandenburgers to establish a factory
Conditioner iUstaaed St. Jans Indvaanere (March 24, 1718).
Ibid,
See Appendix H., p. 407.
^ Governor Frederick Moth wrote to the Directors early in 1726: ‘*St. John is
now entirely settled, [so] that there is no more land left to give away except at
the Fort, and the Company's plantation, which is still lying idle, as it is not
yet surveyed.
.
.
.
Next year the greater number of the St. John inhabitants
are to begin paying the poll and land tax.
There are already about 20 sugar
works built, and others in process of building, so that I calculate that St. John
will produce 600,000 to 800,000 pounds of sugar, besides [some] cotton, on [all of]
whidi customs duties must be paid.
.
.
Moth to Directors (March 6, 1726),
B. & D., mk-iS7.
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
131
there.
The failure of the latter to found a plantation was the
chief basis for the complaints made by Danish diplomats con-
cerning the failure of the Brandenburg African Company to
fulfil
its treaty
obligations.
The
first plantation, the Com-
pany's
Sugar Plantation,” appears to have been established
in the Old Quarter on the southeast shore of the Great Northside
Bay.
The second of the Company’s plantations was probably
the ‘^New Quarter Plantation,” built on or near the present
''Ny Eermhuf^ midway between Long and Jerse Bays.
The
third and smallest plantation was located at Mosquito Bay,
from which the plantation took its name.
The Company also
secured a plantation on Krum Bay
(or Crum Bay) which
seems to have been of little value, and was sold at auction in
1726, at which time the Mosquito Bay Plantation was disposed
of.^
Lorentz’s proposal to have the Company start a plantation
at Crab-Pan Bay on the southwest side seems not to have been
followed up.
The size of the Company’s plantations has been impossible
to ascertain because of the confused and complicated system
of bookkeeping that prevailed and the omission of reference
to them in the census reports (Land Lister).
The latter fact
is explained by the circumstance that the purpose of the annual
census was to ascertain the amount of taxes due from each
inhabitant.
Na,turally the Company did not propose to tax
itself. A fairly accurate idea of its planting activities may be
gained from an examination of the number of negroes credited
to the Company’s account year by year.
The greater part of
these must have been employed on the plantations, though
the number, no doubt, includes those used at the Company’s
forts and magazines.
In 1698, when the Company was begin-
ning to take over the Guinea trade, it owned 178 slaves, whose
mventory value was placed at 9,043 rdZ., or about 50 rdl. each.
In the same year the ‘‘Sugar Plantation” was valued at 3,654,
the “New Quarter Plantation” at 3,763, and the “Mosquito
Bay Plantation ” at 536 rdl.
The effect of the War of the Span-
ish Succession on St. Thomas plantation life is indicated by the
* The purchaser was Governor Predaick Moth.
See Negate Journal for St.
Th. (August 29. 1726).
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
figures for 1705.
At this time, when the island was prepared
to reap the advantages of Danish neutrality, the number of
negroes had jumped to 251, their inventory value to
13,441
rdL
(53.7 rdL each), while the three plantations were entered
on the books at 6,289, 3,14 1, and 905 rdL respectively.
Although
the second had fallen eight per cent, in value, the first had in-
creased seventy-two and one-half per cent, and the third sixty-
nine per cent, over
its inventory value in 1698.
After 1715
the value of the plantation as recorded in the books remains
stationary, while the number of the negroes gradually decreases
from two hundred thirty-eight in 1716 to one hundred ninety-
six in 1726.27
The following table, while based upon a careful examination
of the Company’s books, is not presented as giving an absolutely
dependable picture of the plantations as dividend-paying propo-
sitions.
It is never quite certain that accounts have not been
** doctored”
for
emergencies,
or that
the
intricacies
of
the
elaborate bookkeeping of two centuries ago have been con-
pletely solved;
In fact the officials themselves were at times
hopelessly tangled in the meshes of their own system.
THE COMPANY’S PLANTATIONS ON ST. THOMAS
Abbreviations: S- PL, CompaDy’s “Sugar Plantation”; N. Q., “ New Quarter Plantation”
;
M. B., “Mosquito Bay Plantation.”
Year
1690
1691
1693
1698
1700
1701
1702
1703“ 1704
Total negroes,.
122..
158..
191..
178..
180..
176..
177..
[6912®
Value
of
ne-
groes
10,957. .14,038. .16,144.
.
9,043.
.
9,504.
.
9,380.
.
9,500.
.
4,019.
.
Value of S. PI.
.
4,572..
4,743..
7,122..
3,651..
3,654..
3,638..
4,155..
5,415. .6,374
Value of N.Q..
2,318..
3,300..
6,371..
3,414..
3,763..
3,763..
3,679..
2,981. .3,206
ValueofM.B.
457..
457..
1,112..
536..
536..
536..
536..
380..
905
Total
invest-
ment
18,424. .22,538. .30,74930 16,644. .17,457. .17,317. .17,870. .12,795.
.
Proceeds from
S. PI
1,137..
2,026..
2,514..
2,941..
2,422..
807..
2,260..
2,219. .2,849
Proceeds from
Proceeds from
M.B
248..
645..
268..
..
135..
134..
155
.
. [-472]
.
.
464
Total
1,795..
6,157..
5,133..
4,382..
3,794..
1,661..
3,351..
2,116. .4,976
Per
cent,
profit
oninvestment
9,7..
27.2..
16.7..
26.381
21.6..
9.6..
19.1..
17..26(?)
Cf. Appendix H., p. 318.
L. L,, St Tk.
2® The figures given for 1703 cover the period from June 9, 1702, to Decem-
ber. 31, 1703.
All money values are given in rdl.
This includes only the sound or “capable” slaves.
The high values for 1693 apparently have some connection with Thor-
mbhlen’s contract which was discontinued in 1694[.
” This percentage covers IJi years (August 8, 1698, to February 8, 1700).
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
133
It would add to the value of the above figures if it could be
determined exactly on what basis the profits were calculated,
—^whether, for example, the sugar and cotton are credited to
the plantations at the same rates as those paid to the private
planters.
Likewise, the exact amount of sugar, cotton,
etc.,
produced on each plantation would be useful in the study of
plantation economy, but unfortunately the accoimts were not
kept separately, and it is practically impossible to extract the
individual items in a way that will give a dependable result.
A few of the available figures wiU give an idea of the productive-
ness of the Company’s plantations.
John Lorentz, in writing
to the directors in April, 170£, informed them that sixty-seven
hhd. of sugar had been cooked on the Sugar Plantation and
that
as much
more was
expected; that
the New
Quarter
Plantation, despite the* recent drought and the attack of worms
upon the cane,^^ had yielded during the past year and the cur-
rent one one hundred and seventy casks (Tonder).
Governor
Gardelin, in reporting the state of the Company’s plantations
to the directors in June, 1733, which was like 1701 a dry year,
stated that the Company’s sugar plantation had thus far yielded
eighty-eight hhd. of sugar, and 433
rdl, worth of cotton; the
New Quarter Plantation, one hundred and three hhd. of sugar;
and the Company’s plantation on St. John,^^ sixty-two hhd. in
place of the expected one hundred and fifty hhd.
The severe
drought had crushed the hopes for a good crop, and the governor
proposed the sale of the last-named property, “since it is worth
nothing,
but
does
more
damage
to
the
Company
[than
good].”
The sugar, cotton, etc., raised on St. Thomas and on St. John
after its occupation, were usually bought in whole or in part by
the Company’s St. Thomas factor at a price fixed by the gover-
nor and council alone, or by agreement with the planters.
They
32 Lorentz to Directors (April U, 1702), C. B., 1690-1718.
The effect of these
calamities is seen in the percentage of profits that the plantation yielded, as
shown in the table above.
33 See above, p. ISO (n. 9t>5).
34 Gardelin and Council to
Directors
(June
18,
17SS),
B.
Sc
D.,
17SB-
134
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
were stored in the Company’s warehouses until one of its ships
arrived from Copenhagen or the Guinea coast.
If the directors
were not certain of a cargo they would leave it to the Guinea
slave-ship captain to take whatever cargo was on hand back
with him to Denmark.
As long as the company had only St.
Thomas and St. John, it was rarely necessary to employ more
than two ships a year to empty the St. Thomas magazine, and
frequently a single vessel was ample.
The difficulties that the
local factor often met when he tried to force the planters to
sell their produce to the Company at a fixed price, will be dealt
with in a later chapter.
Europe-bound ships usually took dye
woods (pockwood, fustic, Campeachy wood, etc.) on board for
ballast.
Sometimes a schooner was sent over to Porto Rico for
hides or tobacco
if interloping trade at St. Thomas had been
dull.
A few illustrations
will serve to show the character of the
trade, and give some indication as to its extent.
The Frederick
the
Fourthy under
Captain
Peter Andersen Wseroe,
left
St.
Thomas on April 6, 1700, with the following cargo, secured at
the prices indicated,^^ quoted in rixdoUars, ‘‘Mark’’ and “Skill-
ing.”
Rdl.
M.
Sk.
9,112 lbs. Campeachy wood at 2 rdl. per 100
182
1
6
7,507 “
stock fish (dried cod) at 2 rdl, per 100
150
-
12
4,484
fustic
67
3
—
33,867 “
Brazil wood
529
3
—
360,005
‘‘
[brown] sugar at
rdl. per 100
12,600
1
—
11,672
“
white sugar at [price not given]
620
1
—
29,137
“
cotton at 12 sk. per Ib.
3,642
-
12
6,739
“
cacao
914
2
—
1,242 “
tobacco
44
5
10
129
“
indigo at 1 rdl. per lb.
129
-
—
89
‘‘
caret (sea turtle)
69
3
14
staves for barrels and casks
180
2
4
32
—
provisions beyond those needed
167
3
—
19,329
In the following year, Peter Smith, the wealthy Dutch mer-
« N. J, far SU TL, 1705-08 (April 6, 1703).
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES
135
chant, paid the required duty ^ on the following goods which
he sent to New York on an English bark
:
htd.
(2,674 lbs.) white sugar
10 sacks (1,012 lbs,) cacao
12 hbd.
(5,500 “
) brown sugar
4 bales (1,000 “
) cotton
27 bales (5,838
“
) cotton
4 sacks
(
340 “
) cacao.
It will be noticed that sugar and cotton were by far the most
valuable items in the Copenhagen as well as in the New York
cargo.
Whether a ship was able to secure a good cargo or not
depended on the funds that the St. Thomas factor had at his
command, and upon the prices he was willing to pay.
The
amount of the funds depended in turn upon the sale of the
Company's cargoes.
The one sort of cargo the arrival of which
was most frequently hailed with joy, not only by the St. Thomas
planters, but by their various neighbors, was ‘‘black ivory,
—^African slaves.
When times were good, slaves meant cash
in the St. Thomas treasury, cash meant good cargoes for the
return voyage, and bulging
ships meant good dividends for
the European stockholders.
The distribution of these cargoes after their arrival in Copen-
hagen remains to be considered.
First, as much as possible
of the cargo was sold at auction.
The sugar refiners came to
buy the brown sugar, the cloth manufacturers bid for the cotton,
the dyers for the dyewoods and so on.
The dyewoods had to
be ground or pulverized by hand before they could be used,
and as the work was exceedingly injurious to the health, the
state kept up an institution called “ Rdsphmet
where it set
those criminals to work whose long continued existence was least
desirable.^
Export trade was especially to be encouraged, as
it brought ready money into the couniry^ The duly on exports
to foreign places was only one per cent., while on goods shipped
from Copenhagen to places within the kingdom of Demnark-
Norway, a duty of two and one-half per cent, had to be paid.
Six per cent, on some goods and four per cent, on others.
” N, J.far St, Th^ 1705-08 (October 18, 1707).
The white sugar in these and the preceding cargoes probably came from
the French islands, where there were refinCTies.
Motion of **Ra8pku8et” is made in O. Nielsen, Kjobenhcam paa Hotbergi
Tid, p. 360.
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
The foreign ports to which the West Indian cargoes were re-
shipped were mainly in the Baltic region, and included Liibeck,
Danzig, Stettin, Konigsberg, on the South Baltic, Stockhohn
and Gotenborg in Sweden, and (beginning with 1750) St. Peters-
burg in Russia, and Amstetdam in Holland. Among local towns
to which West Indian products were distributed were Kiel,
Flensborg, and Aabenraa
in the
duchies;
Elsinore, Nyborg,
Slagelse, Odense, and Aalborg in Denmark proper; and Bergen,
Christiania, Trondhjem and Fredrikshald in Norway.^®
According
to
the
list
of
shipments from Copenhagen
to
foreign and domestic points which is contained m the Company’s
‘^Udshibnings
og
Passeer
Sedlers
Copie-Bog, 1709-175^,^^ no
sugar and little cotton were shipped out of Copenhagen from
1712 to 1720, inclusive.
From 1721 to 1733, when St. Croix
was purchased, the shipments to foreign ports were more than
twenty times those to domestic ports.
During the period from
1729 to 1749, sugar was exported but a single year
to a foreign
port.
It was in September, 1729, that the Company began re-
fining its own sugar,^^ and this fact, combined with the king’s
edict of July 4, 1733, requirmg privately owned refineries to use
only the sugar that came from the West Indian colonies as long
as the supply held out, will explain the falling
off in exports.
The purchase by the Company in 1737 of the two principal
refineries, those owned by the Pelt and Weyse families, gave the
Company a monopoly of the refining
business,"^^ and made
it
possible for It to absorb most of its own sugar.^^
^ UdsMbnings og Passeer Sedlers-Copie-Bog, 1709-175J/,, passim.
" In 1741, 11,443 lbs. of sugar were sent to Stockholm.
Ibid.
*2 Mariager MS.^ 130.
The Company had been granted the privilege of put-
ting up a refinery, by the king on April 17, 1721.
Vest. Reg., 1699-17^6.
** Manager MS., 149.
** See table showing exports to domestic and foreign places in Appendix L,
pp. 328-331.
MAPLOF
NORTHERJSr
EP^ROPE:
BALTIC
AND
NORTH
SEA
LANDS
CHAPTER VII
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
The rise of a class of capitalist planters in the Danish as well
as in the other West India islands, was made possible through
the labors
of the African
slave.
Indentured white servants
too frequently succumbed to the climate or proved quite in-
tractable as laborers; while the attempt to use deported crim-
inals from the home coimtry proved generally abortive, in the
West Indies as elsewhere.
The sudden change in habits and
environment practically prohibited strenuous effort on the part
of the whites whose lot was cast in tropical America.
If the
agricultural resources of those regions were to be appreciably
developed, it must come about through the white man's efforts
to earn his bread by the sweat of the negro's brow.
It was
“the blacks bought by way of trade" who by reason of their
ready adaptability to field labor early became “the most useful
appurtenances of a plantation, and perpetual servants." ^
This trade, so loathsome to the modem mind, had been be-
gun by the Portuguese before the discovery of America.
But
the few hundred negroes that they had bought from the Moors
had been brought into Europe itself.^
After the occupation of
America
had
begun,
Portuguese
traders
not
only
supplied
their own colony of Brazil but made contracts or “asientos"
to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves.
Interloping expe-
ditions from the Guinea coast of Africa to the West Indies like
those of Sir John Hawkins are conspicuous in the sixteenth cen-
tury because they were rare.
During the period of union be-
tween Spain and Portugal (1580-1640) the Dutch wrested from
the Portuguese their monopoly of the Guinea trade, and jeal-
ously guarded the trade thus won against encroachments by
other nations.
The rise of the English plantation
colonies,
1 C<d, CoU im-68. No. 791 (1664?).
* Lucas, in, 77, 78.
[187]
138
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
particularly Barbados, in the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and Jamaica in the second half, led the English to begin
exporting slaves to their own American possessions.
It is worth
noticing that the English slave trade began in earnest about
1640, just when a Dutchman is said to have introduced the art
of sugar making to the English colony of Barbados.^
The es-
tablishment in 1672 of the Royal African Company of England
has been previously noted.
This company was enjoying
its
greatest prosperity during those years when the Danish West
India and Guinea Company was attempting in the face of tre-
mendous obstacles to secure a permanent foothold for its col-
ony at St. Thomas.^
A trade that had had the sanctity of century-long custom was
little
disturbed by
the
conscientious
scruples
of
reformers.
There was no one to plead the rights of the negro as Las Casas
had championed those of the Indian.
The few timid voices
that had dared to raise themselves on the negroes’ behalf be-
fore 1700 were scarcely heard in the din of the struggles for
commercial
supremacy
and
exploitation.^
Once
the
sugar
planting had been well begim, the demand for suitable labor
would become insistent.
To the seventeenth-centmy planter
there was^but one course to pursue.
Over on the Guinea coast,
in a latitude but slightly lower, was an unlimited supply of la-
borers, many of them already accustomed to servitude, who
readily adapted themselves to the conditions of plantation life.
The problem of the day, so far as the planters and the adminis-
trators interested in plantations were concerned, was simply
one of method,—^how best to bring these laborers where they
were needed.
The attempt of individuals to solve this problem
led to interloping, an art in which the Dutch were preSmment;
while the attempt of merchant-statesmen led to the formation
of companies under state or royal patronage.
* Lucas, ni, 80, 81.
^ ILe average annual dividend declared between 1676 and 1688 amounted
roughly to eight per cent, annually, reaching as high as twenty-two per cent,
during the first two years.
See Beer, The Old Colonial System, 1660-1688,
I, S43.
® Beer (I, 322) cites an anonymous pamphlet published in 1684 and a protest
against the slave trade by the Pennsylvania Quakers in 1688.
CHRISTIANSBORG
CASTLE,
ON
THE
GUINEA
COAST
OF
AFRICA
Legend;
“The
Royal
Danish
IMain
Castle
Christiansborg
at
Accra
on
the
coast
of
Guinea
as
seen
towards
the
S.
W.”
Engraved
by
M.
Rosier,
Co.
enhagen.
1761.
[Facing
page
139]
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
139
The early efforts of Denmark to establish factories on the
Gold Coast have already been referred to. The conditions un-
der which the trade was carried on need to be considered some-
what in detail.
A popular misconception with regard to the
slave trade is that white men filled their ships with kidnapped
slaves.
If such had been the rule it would have been a practical
impossibility to have brought the enormous numbers that in
the course of time were exported to the New World.
In the
years from 1680 to 1786, for example, one writer estimates that
2,130,000 slaves were imported
into the British West India
islands alone.®
Though cases of kidnapping doubtless occurred
now and then, the simpler and safer plan, and the one usually
followed, was for the European state to negotiate a treaty with
a local chief or “king” through
its representative who was
frequently the captain of the ship.
The arrangement usually
provided for the lease or cession of a bit of coast territory,
preferably near a river that furnished good anchorage and
communication
with
the
“hinterland.”
Here was
built
a
“castle” or fort with negro huts and an enclosure for the slaves
bought.
The governor or factor acted merely as the middle-
man, buying the slaves from the chief with whom he had con-
tracted.
The chief made his captures from among the tribes
with which he was at war or bn unfriendly terms.
If hard
pressed himself, he could receive protection at the fort.
Cap-
tured negroes from inland could be floated down the river to the
fort, where the factor bought those that were fit and kept them
under guard until the Company’s ship came along from Eiuope
with its cargo, or if there was no prospect of that, rmtil Dutch,
English or other
interlopers came and
offered a reasonable
price.
The cost price at the Guinea factory varied according
to conditions along the coast.
When the demand was strong
in the West Indies, ships of interlopers and companies swarmed
along the coast of Africa from Senegal to Angola, and the price
rose accordingly.^
® Bryan Edwards, History
of the
. West Indies (it v., London, 1794),
n, 65; Humboldt,
Travels, Vll, 147.
^ In a lettCT to the directors dated March 28, 1737, the St. Thomas officials
suggest that slaves be secured from the region between Caylahos and Cape
140
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
A single illustration will serve to indicate the nature of the
slave market at the Guinea factory from the solely commercial
point of view.
To those who were in the trade, it was purely a
business matter.
The Hope Galley under Captain Lawrence
Span arrived at Christiansborg castle on December 15, 1726,
with a cargo, not counting the brandy, of 16,135 rdL
A fort-
night later when the New Year's stocktaking took place, the
Company was credited on its Guinea books with fifty men slaves
valued at 84 rdLy twenty-five women at 48 rdL, three boys at 50
rdL, and four girls at 36 rdL each.
This appears to have been
the Company’s wholesale purchase
price.
The actual cargo
taken on board on March 6 included 238 souls, indicating a
brisk business in the opening months of the year.
The invoice
of the departing ship shows the following cargo and values:
one himdred and forty-seven men at 88, seventy women at 56,
eleven boys at 56, and ten girls at 40 rdL, making a total value
of 17,872 rdl?
If the discrepancy in the prices of adult male
and female slaves as shown in the above invoice was general,
it might appear that the mortality among the women in the
cargo was higher than among the men, for in the St. Thomas
market women sold for nearly or just as high a price as the men,
but there is no direct evidence to show that such was the case.
The horrors of the “middle passage” have been frequently
painted in most lurid colors.
Indeed, at its worst it would be
diflScult to exaggerate the picture of misery presented by a re-
turning slaver.
Naturally,
it was to the captain’s as well as
the Company’s interest to bring as large a part of his cargo
safely to the other side as possible.
But where the captain’s
reward depended on the number brought over, or where the
oflScers could bring over slaves on their own account, the temp-
tation to overcrowd the vessel was very
great.
In case
of
stormy weather, when the hatches had to be closed down, the
air in ihe crowded hold became so stifling as to suffocate many.
Good water was often diflScult to obtain, and bad water, as well
Tliree Points, and between Ziode WoUa (river Volta?) and Hardra, as these
were usually better than the Loanga or Angola slaves.
Martfeldt MSS,, VI;
Secret^Raadeta Breve, 173S-S9.
* iV. J. far Guinea; N* J. for St, Tk, (1727).
See Appendix
pp. 320-326.
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
141
as unwholesome food, brought on violent forms of dysentery
and other internal diseases, with which the physicians who ac-
companied the ships foimd themselves unable to cope.
Some-
times the negroes would become unruly, and
if successfully
subdued would have to be loaded down with chains. An anony-
mous author, writing in 1684, gives a graphic and characteris-
tic description.
‘^For no sooner are they [the blacks] arrived at the Sea-side,
but they are sold like Beasts to the Merchant, who glad of the
booty puts us aboard the Ships, claps us under Deck, and binds
us in Chains and Fetters, and thrusts us into the dark noisom
Hold, so many and so close together, that we hardly breathe,
there are we in the hottest of Summer, and under that scorch-
ing Climate without any of the sweet influences of the Air, or
briezing Gale to refresh
us, suffocated, stewed, and parboyled
altogether in a Crowd, till we almost rot each other and our-
selves,” ®
P. F.
Isert,
himself a physician on
a Danish
slave-ship,
writing in 1788, when the agitation against the slave trade was
at its height, tells of the indignities to which the negro women
were subjected at the hands of the ship^s oflScers, and of the ar-
tifices used by the factors to sell miserable wretches who were
nigh unto death before the buyers could learn the serious na-
ture of their ailments.
Before the negroes were bought on the Guinea coast they had
to undergo a careful inspection and sorting under the super-
vision of the Company's surgeon who accompanied them on the
voyage to the West Indies.
The usual mode of calculation on
the Guinea coast in the seventeenth century was to rate the
full-grown negro man or woman as the unit, or ^^Pies de Indies/*
the others being classified as
boys,”
girls,”
boys,”
and so on.
The fraction indicated what part of the price of a
full-grown slave the younger ones should sell for.
It must not
be supposed that the authorities who permitted this trade were
entirely unmindful of the fact that the negroes had souls that
might be worth saving.
In their contract with Arff, by which
® PhiloleHius Physiologus, Friendly Advice
to the Gendemm FUmters in
ihi
East and West Indies (1684), Part H, pp. 82, 83 (quoted in Beer, op. cti., 1, 345).
142
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
he took over the Guinea trade in 1689, the directors required
the lessee to keep a minister on board the slave ships and at the
Guinea factory.^®
It is nevertheless to be feared that the zeal
of the trader met with greater rewards from the authorities
than that of the priest.
There is good reason to suppose that the extent of the slave
trade must have standardized its processes, so that there was
little difference in the treatment of negroes along the various
parts of the Guinea coast.
The Dutch probably got their car-
goes across the ocean with the least loss of
life.
The Branden-
burg oflSicials at the Gross-Friedrichsberg factory were largely
Dutch, and what happened there may be considered typical for
the coast. A surgeon of the African Company gives in his
journal a vivid description of what he saw up to the time that
the slave-ship was ready to sail.
The surgeon, who began his
service there in December, 1692, wrote as follows:
‘‘As soon as a suiBBicient number of these unhappy victims
were collected, they were examined by me, the healthy and
strong ones were bought, while those who lacked as much as a
finger or a nail or were in any way defective—called Magrones
—^were returned.
“The slaves that were taken were made to kneel, twenty or
thirty at a time; the right shoulder was greased with palm-oil,
and it was branded in the middle with an iron that bore the
initials C.—^AB—C.
(chuTfurstlich afuMnisi^-brandenbuTgische
Com'pagnie); then they were strictly guarded in the lodgings
provided for them.
Where a band of fifty or sixty slaves had
been secured, they were coupled together in twos or
threes
and driven to the coast under escort.
It was my duty to watch
over the transport, for which pmpose I was carried in the rear
m a hammock, so that I could see the entire column.
Once the
coast was reached, a prearranged signal brought the ship’s boats
ashore to bring their black cargo on board.
Some of these un-
fortunates followed their leaders weakly and unresistingly, even
Vest. Reg., 1671-99, foL 166, 1[16 (July 27, 1689).
Surgeon Johaxm Peter Oettinger^s Journal (quoted in Sdiiick, I, 3S1 ei seq.).
Probably a corruption of **nianquerons,” a term applied in the West Indies
to negroes who were bdow standard.
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
143
when they were forced to hasten by the lash of a whip; others,
however, howled and danced; and there were still others, es-
pecially women, who so
filled the air with their heartrending
shrieks, that drums and other noisy instruments were scarcely
able to drown out the sound, and it often cut me to the quick.
Yet it did not lie in my power to alter the fate of these unhappy
beings.
.
.
.
*‘On April 4 the ship was finally filled with seven hundred
and thirty-eight slaves of both sexes, so that we were able to
take leave of the king
(i.
e., the chief) and return to the ship.
After being carried in palanquins
{Sanften) to the beach, we
treated
our
carriers and attendants with brandy and then
climbed into the boats.
In the evening we arrived on board the
ship, wet, sunbiuned and stung by mosquitoes and other pests,
and we thanked God that we had at last emerged safely out of
this heathenish land.
Yet what a horror overcame me, when I
visited the decks in which the unhappy victims were confined,
and breathed the frightful atmosphere in which they were com-
pelled to live.
Chained together by the feet in pairs they lay
or sat in rows next to each other, and my heart well nigh stood
still at the thought that I must see such beings, to all appear-
ances like men, treated like chattels.^’
No doubt the slaves on board ship were as well cared for
as the crowded conditions permitted, for captain and owners
were interested in bringing as large cargoes as possible safely
across the ocean.
When the weather was favorable they were
brought on deck a few at a time to limber up their stiffened
muscles by dancing and exercise. The women were frequently
placed, unchained, in a room by themselves.^^
The monotony
of the daily fare of pork, beans, and barl^ grad was relieved
by weekly allowances of millet, and by brandy and tobacco on
alternate days.
Palm-oil was used to flavor the grud.^^
The
success of a voyage was largdy dependent upon the kind of
P. F. Isert (Reise nach Guinea, pp. 305 et eeqJ), gives an interestmg account
of Ms experiences on tlie Guinea coast and (m a slave-sMp.
Directors’
order,
(August 8, 1725), Amer. & Afr, C. R., 1716-S6,
The
weekly allowance for each ^ve consisted of ^ lb. pork, 2 qts. beans, 2 qts.
bailey, ^ qt millet, i pint brandy, 2 oz. tobacco, 1 pipe,
pint palm ML
14A
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
negroes secured.
Certain parts of the coast had a bad reputa-
tion as sources of slave supply, for their negroes were liable to
grow violently mutinous when threatened with bondage.
Such,
for example, were the El Mina negroes from the Dutch part of
the coast.
The percentage
of
loss on the Guinea-West Indian slave-
ships varied from ten to about fifty-five per cent, of those taken
on, so far as the limited number of available statistics shows.^®
The scenes that ensued when the prospective buyers boarded
an incoming slave-ship were frequently well-nigh riotous and
frightened the poor blacks, who had little or no idea of what
awaited them, almost to death.
The white men would make
a wild dash for the negroes that they intended to buy, and sep-
arate them from the main group by way of securing first right
to purchase.
Sometimes the cargo would be taken on shore,
kept imder guard, and sold in small lots until entirely disposed
of.
The eagerness with which the directors of the Company took
up the slave trade as a means of increasing the shareholders’
profits, and the tenacity with which they clung to their monop-
oly of the trade once they had begun it, emphasize the impor-
tance ascribed to this traffic by the moneyed interests of the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
It was not until
the governorship of John Lorentz, when St. Thomas begins to
be administered as a normal, weU-ordered
colony, that the
directors were able to carry out any plan for direct participation
in the slave trade with ships owned by the Company; and it was
not untU 17B3, after the Company had suffered a number of
severe losses at sea, and about the time it began negotiations
for the purchase of St. Croix from France, that it was ready to
let the slave trade fall back into private hands.
This experience
of over a third of a century, during which the Danish West
India and Guinea Company attempted to supply slaves to its
own colony, and also to make St. Thomas a depot for the supply
of slaves to the neighboring lands, needs to be explained in some
detail.
These percentages are drawn from the figures of ships sailing in 1698, 1699,
1700, 1707, 1714, and 1733,
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
145
It was the profits made by the Brandenburg African Company
in some of its early Guinea voyages that brought home to the
observant governor Lorentz the possibilities of the slave trade
as a source of revenue for the Danish company. Two Branden-
burg slave-ships^® that arrived in St. Thomas inNovember, lfi06,
before the peace at Ryswick had been concluded, and hence
while Louis XIV was still at war against the league of opposing
states, brought to St. Thomas more than one thousand one
hundred pieces of human
freight.
One
of the Brandenburg
captains whose cargo contained four hundred and eighty slaves
remarked to the governor that
if he had had more room on
board he could have made as fine a bargain in slaves as he could
ever desire.^^
The other captain confided to the governor the
opinion that the Danish forts on the Guinea coast afforded
excellent prospects for the slave trade.
These successful ven-
tures and the information he received from the captains led
the Danish governor to express to the directors the hoi>e that
the Company would take up the Guinea trade,
since all other
trade
is as nothing compared with this slave trade/*
If the
directors would only make a beginning with a few hundred
Guinea slaves, urged Lorentz, they would not find it a bad ven-
ture, but “the first experience would give them such joy, that
the slave trade would hold its place before all other sorts of
commerce, and the Company would feel itself impelled to con-
tinue it.**
The governor’s enthusiasm was not lost on the di-
rectors, who had great faith in their representative at St. Thomas
and were especially anxious to get the Company to the point
where it could pay dividends and thus regain the confidence of
the investing public.
Nicholas Arff, the Guinea lessee, had, as we have seen, per-
“ Frederick III under Capt. Jacob Lambrecht with six hundred and thirty,
and the Electoral Princess under Capt. Wouter Ypes with four hundred and
ei^ty slaves.
Lorentz to Directors (November 30, 1096), G. R., 1690-171$,
^ Ibid.
The French were also becoming increasin^y active in the Gninea
trade during the interval preceding the outbreak of the War of the Spanish
Succession.
On July 9,
1701, Louis XIV issued an arret granting to a new
Guinea company certain rights that had been held by a former one.
Scelle,
La traite negriere, H, 687.
146
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
mitted his lease to expire because of serious and unforeseen
losses brought about by the European war.
Just at the time
that the Ryswick negotiations were being concluded, the Danish
West India and Guiaea Company was being reorganized under
a new charter which bore the date of September £8, 1697. New
conditions demanded a corresponding readjustment.
Baron
Jens Juel and Mathias Moth, who had so faithfully backed the
governor
in
his endeavor to
stifle the Brandenburg African
Company’s activities at St. Thomas, were retained as directors.^^
The Company’s total capital, including a ten per cent, assess-
ment made in 1695 m order to secure capital to send a ship to
St. Thomas for a cargo,^ was just 84,883 rdh, 2 marJcs. On this
investment the shareholders had received no other returns than
the three or four per cent, yielded by the Thormohlen lease.
It was not until late m 1697 or early in 1698 that the directors
decided to send a ship and cargo to Guinea and the West Indies.
Finding themselves unable to secure a large enough sum from
the stockholders, the directors turned to a wealthy merchant,
one Jacob Lerke, who contributed half of the fimds necessary
for the new venture.
The result was the voyage of the Copen-
hagen Bourse to the Guinea coast under joint auspices.
But
this initial venture fell below expectations, for out of the five
hxmdred and sk slaves taken on at Christiansborg and along the
Guinea coast, only two hundred and fifty-nine were delivered at
St. Thomas in September, 1698, and thirty-seven of these died
shortly after landing. A mutiny had broken out on board, in the
course of which many had been killed or had jumped overboard.
To cap this misfortune scurvy had helped to reduce the numbers
to scarcely more than half of the original cargo.^^ The surviving
slaves were sold at 85 rdh each> which appears to have been three
times their cost price in Guinea.^^ The excellent state of the
West Indian market as compared with the low prices prevailing
^ Manager
lOS.
^ The Company had resumed its administration after the ThormUhlen fiasco
late in 1694. On March 7, 1702, Matthias Moth made a dear and fairly detailed
resume of the Company’s activities in Guinea and the West Indies since 1695.
See Comp. Prot, 1697-173^,
Lorentz to Directors (October 12, 1698), Gov. C. B., 169^-1700^
** See Appendix J, jpp. 320-326.
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH V^ST INDIES
147
on the Guinea coast made the disappointment of the owners all
the keener.^®
Before the news
of
this partial
failure reached them, the
directors had arranged for the purchase in Holland of another
vessel, for which a cargo valued at 30,000 rdL was planned.
Ten thousand rixdoUars were to be invested in slaves, the re-
mainder in other Guinea products, presumably
ivory,
gold,
palm oil, and the like.^^ The new ship, called Christian F, had
to be fitted out by the wealthier shareholders on their personal
credit, for the others were in no mood for paying further assess-
ments.
This second ship left for Guinea in August, 1698.
It
fared rather better than the first, for Captain Grabner succeeded
in July, 1699, in bringing into St. Thomas harbor three hundred
and fifty"three slaves, almost two-thirds of the number taken
on in Africa.^^
About this time the Company managed to take
over Lerke’s share in the Copenhagen Bourse^ paying 7,800 rdL
for it.^®
The Danes were not alone in this attempt to supply a market
that had been starved during a general European war.
The
Dutch at Ciuagao immediately prepared to resume the business
with the Spanish Main which had been seriously interrupted
by the war.
Peace had scarcely been proclaimed before the
Dutch magazines there were filled with Spanish-American goods
that had been paid for largely in African slaves.
The English
parliament passed a bill modifying the monoiK)ly of the slave
trade in favor of private traders for not less than thirteen years
beginning with Jime 24, 1698.^
In the investigation institute by the St, Thomas governor and his council,
the captain. Lanes Petersen, seems to have been absolved from re^nsibility.
The same captain lost in his next voyage three hundred of a total of five hundred
and thirty-eight slaves.
Landsprot, for St.
Th.^ 1694r-1711 (October 6, 1698).
See Appendix J.
^ Comp. Prot., 1697-173^ (April 29, 1698).
See Appendix ,J.
26 Comp. ProU 1697-173^ (June 9, 1699).
^ The Royal African Company was merely to keep up the forts and castles
and was to recdive a ten per cent, duty on aU goods imported to Guinea and five
and ten per cent, on certain goods exported.
Gold, silver, and negroes went out
duty-free.
But the market was so large and the possibilities for profitable
agriculture so vast that the demand was not easily satisfied.
After the suppres-
148
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
When the report spread through the islands that the Danish
governor was expecting a slave-ship to arrive, a Jamaica trader
sent word to St. Thomas that he would like to invest 30,000
rdl. in slaves if the governor would guarantee their delivery at
a certain time.^
This the latter was unable to do, so that when
the expected slave cargo did arrive he had to employ a local
merchant to take the surplus slaves to Hispaniola and the sur-
rounding islands.^
A very considerable share of the negroes sold at St. Thomas
were brought in by interlopers.^
Unless its treasury happened
to be empty, the Company rarely permitted planters to buy
directly from the slave captain, and never allowed slaves to
be landed without charging an import duty,—^usually four per
cent.
This duty or “recognition” was as a rule paid in naturae
which in a cargo of men, women, and children of assorted sizes
often required some ingenious calculations.
The selling price
varied from twenty-five to one hundred per cent, above the
cost or wholesale price, according to market conditions.
In one
of the agreements with the Brandenburgers
it was stipulated
that either party might share with the other in the purchase
of interlopers" cargoes.
After the coronation of Frederick I
as king in Prussia in 1701 the Brandenburg African Company
was left to its own fate, and practically its sole activity until
its discontinuance in the reign of Frederick William I consisted
of such occasional purchases as those referred to, and of pro-
testing
if
its
rights appeared
to have been transgressed
or
ignored.
The distribution of slaves to other islands was usually done
by traders from those islands.
The keen trader, hearing of the
approaching arrival of a cargo from Guinea would hasten to
St. Thomas, if business conditions would warrant
it, and wait
there for weeks
in order to get the
first chance at buying a
sion of the buccaneers, Jamaica in particular progressed rapidly in its plantation
life.
Lorentz to Directors (January 22, 1698), C. B, 169^1700; W. R. Scott,
Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (3 v., Cambridge, 1910-1912), II, 23.
^ Lorentz to Directors (January 22, 1698), C. B., 169Jrl700.
^ In this way Peter Smith took a batch of forty-four negroes off on his bark, on
condition of receiving half the profits.
Appendix J,
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
149
slave cargo.
The local St, Thomas traders frequently bought
considerable numbers of negroes for customers in other islands.
Some good-sized fortunes were built up at St. Thomas during
the War of the Spanish Succession in just this way.
The following summaiy taken from the Company’s journals
kept at the St, Thomas factory indicates how the Company
disposed of one entire cargo.
On July 8, 1710, a Zieeland inter-
loper, Captain David Diniesen, sold the following slaves to the
Danish company:
134 men
= 134 Pies de Indies
23 women
=
11 “2/3 boys” =
71/3
20 “1/2 boys” =
10
2 “2/3 girls” =
11/8
3 “1/2 girls” =
21/2
2 “1/3 boys” =
2/3
200 head
= 181 5/6 Pies de Indies
at 65 rdl, » 11,819 rdl., 1 mark
RECEIPTS (in the order of purchase)
Date
July 10
Rdl.
Rdl.\
Rdl.
Rdl.
Number
Price each Total]
Date
Number
Price each
Total
2 “1/2 boys’*
50
100 July
12
3 men
100
300
1 “1/2 boy”
50
2 “2/3 boys”
^
85
170
1 “1/2 girl”
50
9 men
100
900
1 “1/2 boy”
60
1 man
100
1 “1/2 boy”
65
1“ 1/2 girl”
55
1 “1/2 boy”
60
1 “2/3 girl”
85
1 “1/2 boy”
60
3 men
100
300
8 “1/^ boys”
60
480
2 women
100
200
l“l/2boy”
40
24 men
100
2400
1 “1/2 boy”
60
3 women
100
300
1 “1/2 girl”
60
1 “1/3 boy”
331/3
2 “2/3 boys”
90
180
l“l/2 boy”
45
1 “2/3 boy”
100
5 men
100
500
1 “2/3^1”
90 July
14
1 man
100
2 “1/2 boys”
60
120 July 26
8 men
100
800
1 “1/2 girl”
60
2 women
100
200
4 “2/3 boys”
75
300
37 men
100
3700
1 “1/2 boy”
60
4 women
100
400«
1 “1/2 boy”
60 Aug. 14
20 men
100
2000
4 men
100
400
9 men
100
000
1 woman
100
8 women
100
800
4 men
100
400 Sept. 19
1 “2/3 boy”
80
Totals
.187 head
14,443
]
Expenditvree:
Provisions from July 10 to August 31
140 rdl., 1 tnorife.
Losses:
From July 10 to November 8, 7 n^o men died and were debited on the books at 65 rdl.
each.
Summino up:
No. of n^roea sold by September 19
187
**
“
“
dying before sale
7
“
unaccounted for
6
Total bought
200
150
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Total receipts from negro sales
14,443 1/3 rdl.
Total cost of negroes
'-i i
* oi o
^
^
Pood
1*^0 1/6
11,959 1/6
Net profit
*
2,484 1/6 rdl.
3,48476
11.95976 = 20Vio. the percentage of net profit on
the cargo, according to the books,
exclusive
of
current ex-
penses.
It will be noticed that the cargo was sold mainly in small
lots, that the Pies de Indies had no definite relation to the price
except in the case of the full-grown negroes, and that the cargo
was practically disposed of within five weeks.
The larger lots
were sold mainly to government officials who knew the intrica-
cies of the business and were often able to take advantage of
the situation to their own profit.^^
The prices of slaves, wholesale and retail, during the War of
the Spanish Succession afford a good trade barometer for St.
Thomas.
Denmark was neutral, and in a better position than
in the previous war to reap the advantages of neutrality. From
45 and 80 rdl, in 1702, the wholesale and retail prices respectively
rose by 1704 to 60 and 100 rdL and three years later to 80 and
100 rdl.
The highest
point seems to have been reached in
1714, when slaves sold at St. Thomas for 120 rdl, each.
This
price is excelled in 1722 by a cargo that brought 125 rdL per
head.
Business conditions at
St. Thomas, which were evidently
stimulated by Demnark-Norway’s neutral position during the
Spanish Succession War, suffered a slump after its close.
Not
until the end of the Northern War (the treaty of Nystadt was
concluded between Sweden and Russia in 1721) when Sweden
had been reduced to a second-rate power, do commercial condi-
tions in the Danish islands, as evidenced by the state of the
slave trade, begin to show improvement.
During the years
preceding the conclusion of peace with Denmark (1720) the St.
Thomas government prepared itself more than once to resist
a rumored Swedish attack.^^
The depredations of pirates, re-
See below, p. 191.
** VStog ai Searet-Raada Prot.^ 1710-S0 (AugiMt
5. 1715; June 22, 1716).
MaHfddt MSS.,\fA.VL
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
151
viving difficulties with the Spanish neighbors of St. Thomas,
complications with the English in the Leeward Islands because
of Danish occupation of St. John, and the peculations of its
local
officials, combined to make the position of the Danish
company and its colonists extremely uncertain.
Besides, this
was a period of hard times when the St. Thomas government
supplied the lack of coin by issues of paper money.
In attempt-
ing to account for the business depression the St. Thomas au-
thorities were inclined to place the emphasis upon the ruin of the
formerly lucrative trade with Spanish America.®^ The planters
on the other hand were convinced that the Company’s officials
at St. Thomas and those directing the Company’s policy were
responsible for the changed conditions.^^
Certain it is that the
loss of the principal foreign market and the disappearance of
hard cash were bound to affect all forms of business and partic-
ularly the slave trade, which was very
difficult to carry on
except on a cash basis, and which required considerable sums
for its successful prosecution.
To be forced to wait until crops
matured and then to find themselves face to face with a variety
of petty local restrictions, was the prospect that awaited the
traders who attempted to carry on business at St. Thomas on
a barter basis.
The Danish West India and Guinea Company seems rarely if
ever to have had more than two ships at a time on the Copen-
hagen-Guinea-West India
run.
Dutch
interlopers furnished
far greater numbers of slaves for the St- Thomas market than the
Danish Company.^®
In view of the expertness and dmng of
the ubiquitous Dutch trader
it was not necessary to invest
much of the Company’s capital in slave-ships except when the
Dutch slavers failed to appear.
As a rule the St. Thomas au-
thorities had only to await the arrival of a cargo which they
could accept or refuse as they saw fit according to the condition
of the slaves and the state of the market.
During the years from 1697 to 1733,—that is, from the time
Governor and Council to Directors (August 10, 1714), 5. & D., 171^17.
^ The commission sent over by St. Tbomas planters in 1715 in nrd^ to bring
about certain changes in policy is dealt vdth in Chapter IX.
** See Appendix /.
152
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the Company began the Guinea-West India trade on its own
account until the directors voted for its discontinuance,—^the
Comi)any lost not fewer than eight ships.
The greater number
of these were employed in the Guinea as weU as in the West
India carrying trade.
The total number owned by the Company
at one time or another in this period amounted only to twenty.^®
The following resume of the losses will show their approximate
extent:
The
GtddenleWy intended
for the Copenhagen-St. Thomas
run, was lost at Lessee, off the Norwegian coast, on Novem-
ber 20, 1702.
The Cronprincen (the Crown Prince) was lost at Isle de Prince
in the Guinea gulf on May 31, 1706, through the explosion of its
powder magazine while en route from Guinea to St. Thomas.
Only five on board were saved of whom three eventually reached
Denmark.
The Christian V and Frederick IV left Guinea on May 29,
1709, with a rich cargo of gold and slaves.
Both of them missed
St. Thomas and were wrecked
in the Bay
of Honduras on
March 7, 1710.
The Spaniards confiscated their cargoes and
brought them to Porto Bello.
The
Christiansfort, while on
its way to Copenhagen from
Bergen where
it had been forced to winter, was lost with its
West Indian cargo at Hoje Wserde March 2-8, 1713.
The Jomfru Alette was captured on October 31, 1717, by a
Swedish privateer, while on its way from Norway to Copenhagen
with a West India cargo.
The
Salvator Mundi was
wrecked, August
15,
1729, on
Anegada reef near Virgin Gorda wMe en route from St. Thomas
to Coi)enhagen with a return cargo.
The Christiamhorg was wrecked in the Cattegat on its return
from St. Thomas on September 17, 1730.
During the decade preceding the purchase of St. Croix (1733)
the poKcy to be pursued with regard to the slave trade was an
all absorbing question at the meetings
of the
stockholders.
In their instructions’ of November 16, 1723, the directors had
specifically sought to encourage private traders to
sell their
Vest. Reg,, 1699-17^6; Manager MS., 110 et seg.
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
15S
slaves at the St. Thomas factory
Four years later Frederick
Holmsted who had been employed as bookkeeper in the Com-
pany’s Copenhagen office for about twenty years advised the
directors
against the Company’s
active participation in the
slave trade, but his advice was not heeded*
From 17£8 to 17SS,
inclusive, the Company made a vigorous attempt to revive its
Guinea-West Indian commerce.
At least three new ships were
put into active commission, and about 200,000 rdl, according
to Holmsted’s accoimt were sunk in the venture, but with no
prospect of the Company’s being able to pay interest on more
than hah of that sum.
When the directors and chief stock-
holders met in February, 1734, there ensued a heated debate
as to whether or not the Company should continue the trade.
In
this
discussion there seems
to have been no mention
of
humanitarian or religious arguments, the sole question being
one of dividends.
The news of the arrival of the Laarburg
Galley at St. Thomas with only two hundred forty-two of her
original cargo
of four hundred forty-three slaves ^ was used
with telling effect by those who opposed the continued partici-
pation of the Company in the slave trade.
These opposition
leaders included three directors ^ and three “chief sharehold-
ers” ^ {Hoved'partid'panter).
In the written argument drawn up
by these men is included the following estimate of moneys ex-
pended and received in connection with the Laarburg Galley,
which statement they assert to be a “proper and true rda-
tion” of how matters really stood.^^
The ship Laarburg Galley has cost.
7,683 rdl,
4 sk.
Repairs and equipmept
15^881
“ 3 m. 15
“
Cargo
.
.
. and insurance on slaves
31,066
“
5
13
Interest on ship and equ^ment from date ci sailing to
return, and of cargo ... at only 6 pa^ cent. ....
3,022
“ 3 “
Total cost of expedition
65,554 rdl, 1 m.
^ EoLmste^s ^'Deduction’' (February 4,. 1734), Co, Prob., 1607-1731,
CJ, also
Host 64 et eeq,
w B,
dc D., 1732-3^ (May 8, 1733).
Blome, Holmsted, Elauman.
C. A. von Plessen, Dose^ Kreyer.
« Deduction og Voto (February 26, 1734), Comp, ProL, 1697-175^,
154
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
On the other hand, there should be deducted for deteriora-
tion of ship
5,000 rd/.
Profit on gold and other goods.
. .3,157 rdl. 4 m. 10 sh.
Prei^t -which
ship
should
earn
from St. Thomas hither
4,110
“ 2“
6“
7,268
Iw.
12,268 rdl, 1 m.
Delivered to
Fort
Christians-
borg surplus of various goods
from the
ship,
which mth
usual 10 per cent, advance for
frei^t amounts to
14,281 rdl. 4 m. 14 sh
On the other hand, the ship has
taken slaves, etc., at the fort
for
3,976
“
Leaving
10,305 rdl. 4 m. 14 sh
An order (Assignation) for which is to be redeemed at
Cape Coast
1,608
“ 3 “
Slaves on St. Thomas have been sold for goods, in part
for 50 per cent, above the cash price
26,658
“
3 “
6
To balance accoimt
16
8 “
Total.
50,SS7 rdl. 8 sh
The advocates of Company participation in the slave trade
had used figures based on the Laarhurg Galley's last voyage as an
argument in support of their views.
According to the figures we have quoted,” ran in effect the
arguments of the opponents of slave-trade under the Company,
‘‘there is a loss, up to the time of the ship's return, of but (sic)
4,fi97 rdZ., 4 sk. on this voyage, which with one exception is the
most fortunate of twenty voyages which have been undertaken.
It must at best be called a bad business, when so considerable
a capital as over 50,000 rdl. must be furnished and is expected
to yidd interest while it is being risked in the waters of three
contineiits> and, after all that, is still unable to make a better
diowing to the stockholders.”
The^ victory of the opposition was
decisive.
In the
final
vote eighty-five out of a possible one hundred and thirty-four
votes were regist^ed against the Company’s continuing in the
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES
155
slave trade, and only twenty-two in favor of it.
Twenty-seven
refrained from voting.
The votes of the royal family wereamong
the majority.
The slave trade was formally thrown open to sub-
jects in the Danish West Indies who might wish to participate
by a royal mandate issued April
1734.
The directors fixed
a duty of eight rixdoUars on slaves brought to St. Thomas and
half that sum on those brought to St. Croix.^^
Since this con-
cession to freedom in trade failed to bring about the hoped-for
increase, the trade was thrown open to
all Danish subjects,
whether they lived in home lands or in the colonies.
The re-
sults were just encouraging enough to make it worth while for
the Company to enter into an agreement with private merchants
and shipowners on December 3, 1745, with a view to preventing
needless
competition and
duplication
of
effort.
Finally,
in
1747, a plan was formulated and put into operation which re-
sulted in the Company’s virtually absorbmg the private inter-
ests.
The reorganization of the Danish West India and Guinea
Company mder the
Convention of 1747” marks the
last
stage of the slave trade as a field of investment for that Com-
pany.
An attempt was made
to
correct some
of the more
common abuses connected with the Guiuea trade.
Captains
and officers were forbidden under severe penalty to take slaves
on board on their own account, and by way of encouragement to
large cargoes a progressive bounty was provided, beginning
with 7 rdL and rising to ^0 rdl, for each slave above three hun-
dred.^
But the years that elapsed before the king took over the
Company’s holdings in 1754 were too few to permit of any ex-
tensive development.
It became clearer and clearer after 1750
that the days of the Company were numbered; consequently
it was more important for the latter to conis^e
its resources
than to divert them into imcertain channels.
So long as men’s ideas of human rights suffered no substantial
change, and so long as the demand for sugar and cotton made
it profitable to raise those products, just so long would there be
a demand for slave labor an the West Indian plantations.
The
«* Manager M8^ 174.
** Trykte Octroyer
.
.
. /or 1760 (Mandate ci October 14, 1747).
156
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
labor problem as it appeared to the merchants and statesmen
who were called upon to solve it was merely one of method; for
African slaves remained in the eighteenth, as they had been in
the
seventeenth, century
“the
strength and
sinews
of
this
western world.”
They were indeed the chief agency that fur-
nished the wealth, for the control of which European nations
were willing to throw down the gage of conflict and usher in
titanic wars.
In fact, no small part of those resources which
were dissolved in the smoke of eighteenth-century European
battlefields was extracted from fertile West Indian plantations
of cotton and cane by the sweat of the negro’s brow.
CHAPTER Vni
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
Few indeed are the negroes in America who are able to tell
from what part of Africa their ancestors came or to what tribe
they belonged.
Though they have every
“prosi>ect of pos-
terity” the sources by which they might develop a ‘‘pride of
ancestry” are shrouded in impenetrable mystery.
Which of
his forbears came from Calabar or Loango, from the El Mina
tribe or from Madagascar, it would be next to impossible for
any negro to tell, and the problem would certainly tax the in-
genuity of the most skilful genealogist.
Yet the black popula-
tion was as varied in its way as the white.
Besides the brand
of the importing company and the owner there might be formd
on the imported negroes ^ in any plantation colony the tattoo
marks and slashings that were peculiar to tribes of many diflEer-
ent characters, scattered along the African coast from Senegal
to Loango.
These imported negroes were drawn from all sta-
tions of
life in their native land.
Their numbers embraced
rich and poor, haughty chiefs and humble retainers.
Not in-
frequently had a chief been forced to sell some of his own numer-
ous wives that he might keep his contract with a punctilious
trader.^ A negro who had been accustomed to rule in his na-
tive land was not unlikely to prefer death to bondage.
If he
was landed alive he might be expected to make trouble for his
owner by running away or by stirring up rebellion among his
fellows.
Freshly imported slaves were distributed among the
older and the native-bom slaves in order that the problem of
adjustment to the new condition of servitude might be ren-
dered less acute.
But the period of “apprenticeship,” during
which the raw laborer had to be broken in to the routine of his
task, must always have been trying both for slave and owner.
^
^ Called Bosal negroes by the Danes and Dutch.
* Oldendorp, Udtog
,
.
. (Kjdbenhavn, 1784), Part 1, p. 179.
[157]
158
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
The status of the negro was not fixed by any single ‘‘black
code/" but was determined by a series of laws passed by the
colonial
authorities from
time
to
time.
These
regulative
mandates began to appear before 1700 and became more severe
as the ratio
of negro to white population increased.
When
there were three adult whites for each five adult slaves, as was
the case in 1691, there was obviously little difficulty; but when
there came to be not fewer than eight full-grown slaves for each
adult white person, as was the ratio indicated by the census re-
ports made in 1720 and 1725, the situation became vastly more
complicated.
With the
increasing
size
of
the plantations ^
absentee landlordism became more general, a larger number of
planters was forced to resort to white managers, and in many
instances the supervision of the slaves was left to negro drivers.'*
The local government often found it difficult to impress upon
the planters the urgent need of keeping close watch upon their
slaves.
Upon an owner"s taking possession of a plantation, his first
care was to have his negroes clear a plot of ground and plant
such things as maize, yams, sweet potatoes, beans and cassava
upon it.
The negroes were expected to raise all their own food,
except for such low-grade fish or defective Irish beef as might be
allotted to them when the food supply ran short/ A very few
plantations were devoted mainly to “provisions,” particularly
on St. Thomas, but never to exceed four per cent, of the total
number.®
In course of time each negro or negro family was
allotted a plot of ground, and not ^requenUy the negroes
were permitted to sell the surplus for themselves.
In the busy season the negroes" working day was long and
hard, though no harder than the lot of many a white farm hand
of to-^y in the Mississippi valley
during the harvest and
threriiing season.
At about four o’clock in the morning the
» Tke size ctf the av^»ge plantation on St. Thomas in 1725 was nearly twice
that m 1591.
* XJsaaUy refecred to as Bomba negroes.
«Bredal to Diredx>rs
(July 8,
1718),
A D., 1717-^,
Provisions
are
generally referred to as Kaast or Cost in the documents,
^
In 1725, out of a total of on^ hundred and seventh-seven plantations on St.
Thomas, sev^ were used for product provisions.
C/. Appendix H, p. 818.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
159
negro
driver, or bomba, would rouse the
sleeping
slaves by
riuging a bell or blowing a tuttue, or conch shell.
The working
day began at daybreak, and at eight or nine o^clock they were
allowed half an hour in the field for a breakfast consisting of
corn bread and salt meat with perhaps a little sugar-cane juice
if rations were short.
The noon intermission from twelve to
half past one gave them a chance to prepare their meal and to
rest during the fierce midday heat.
The day’s work usually
ended at sundown, though in harvest season they often con-
tinued until nine or ten in the evening feeding live-stock, carry-
ing wood to cook-house and water to cisterns and distilleries.
Saturday afternoons and Sundays they had to themselves.
The
constant
influx
of
fresh
hosal negroes from
Guinea
helped to keep alive the negroes’ native customs and super-
stitions.
Witches were especially dreaded.
The glance of a
witch into the eyes of a new-born babe was believed to be likely
to take away its breath and to cause it to die.
A hungry witch
might even devour an mfant that was not protected from
its
gaze.
The chief influence that helped to eradicate these be-
liefs was the presence of the Moravian missionaries.
Despite
bitter opposition from local oJEcials as well as from planters,
they kept up their beneficent labors from the time of their fibrst
landing in 1733 imtil they became a permanent factor in the
life of the islands.
They labored incessantly, whether in the
fields or in the meeting houses, to teach the simple, ignorant
slaves the
precepts
of
Christ.’^
After over two decades
of
Moravian missionary efforts the Danish Lutheran church finally
established a regular mission on the islands in 1755.
Respect for the property of others was not a virtue to which
the West Indian slave could truthfully lay claim; hence the
various
repressive measures by which the
local
authorities
attempted to check the v^ding of goods by negroes except
when written permission had been granted by their owners.^
The dassic account of early Moravian missionary efforts in the West Indies
is that of Oldendorp
{q.
u.) whidi forms the basis for the earlier pages of H,
Lawaetz’s Brodremenighedens Mission i Doms:h-Vestindim (Kobenhavn, 1902).
* The first of these appears to have be^ issued March 29^ 168S, by Adcdph
Esmit.
Qf. Gonemors" Orders, Bancroft Collection; Martjeldt MSS., VoL
I.
160
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Such goods were too frequently found to have been stolen from
the slaveys owner or from some neighboring planter.
The planters’ most constant
difficulty was with runaways.
Although St. Thomas was but a small island,
it did not reach
its maYirmim
cultivation
until towards the end
of the
first
quarter of the eighteenth century.
The result was that with the
increasing severity that accompanied the development of the St,
Thomas plantations, slaves were constantly disappearing into
the “bush” or wild forest.
In order to cope with this problem
the planters were early organized into a sort of militia whose
members were assigned to do duty, either on horseback or on
foot,
in the various parts of the island.
This planter-police
was especially useful during the War of the Spanish Succession
in guarding against raids on St. Thomas plantations by lawless
elements from among the belligerents.®
Not infrequently hunts
for runaways
{maron-negers) were organized in which slaves
who could be trusted were employed to do the rough work.
The chief means of communication between the more remote
and inaccessible plantations and the harbor on the south side
was by canoe.
The mountainous character of the island and
the torrential downpour^ to which it was subject rendered the
making and repairing of roads a costly matter; but the numer-
ous “bays” with
their
convenient
beaches
lent
themselves
to the keeping of canoes and small sailboats.
The latter were
frequently used by white men who with a few negroes would
sail
off to Crab
Island,
for instance, the best
turtle-fishing
ground near St. Thomas.
When the slave-hunt in the bush
became too successful, it is not strange that the hunted negroes,
who were often proficient in handling the canoes, should take
to the boats and pull for Porto Rico.
There, just beyond Crab
Island, was a promised land from which rarely indeed was a
slave returned.
The government at St. Thomas labored in-
Plaeater for St. Thomas. The preteeding paragraphs on negro life on the planta-
tkms are drawn mainly from an article by J. C. Schmidt, an employee on the
Princess plantation owned by Governor-General SrLhiTnTnelTna.Tt ,
It appeared
in Samlerm for 1788
B.) und^ the title Blandede Anmosrhninger, samlede
paa Off ooer Ejlcmdet St. Kroix i Amerika.
® I*^ Kopihog for St. Thomas, 170S—1S (July
StSt, 1704) is a list of the various
planters, etc., with th^ d.iities and places to which they were assigned.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
161
cessantly to prevent an exodus of slaves from the island.
From
the days of John Lorentz to the end of the Company's career,
numerous ordinances, mandates, and the like were issued cau-
tioning planters to keep their canoes chained up, and threaten-
ing them with fines and worse if they failed to obey.^
The question of the return of fugitive slaves formed during
the greater part of the history of the Comi>any the principal
theme of the relations between St. Thomas and Porto Bico.
The instances where slaves fled from Porto Rico to St. Thomas
were so exceedingly few that it is impossible to escape the con-
clusion that lie St. Thomas plmiters, with their more intensive
cultivation and their desire to gain a competence in a short
time, treated their slaves far more harshly than the Spanish
planters.^^
The Spanish argument for refusing the return of
fugitive slaves was rather ingenuous in that they hdd that the
slaves came over to be baptized.
In a claim against the Spanish
nation made out in the Company’s
office in Copenhagen in
1745 and evidently intended for use by the Danish envoy at
Madrid, the number of slaves that had escaped from both St.
Thomas and St. Croix to Porto Rico was fixed at three hundred.
These were of course ‘‘the best and most valuable of the Com-
pany’s and the inhabitants’ slaves.”
The arrival of each new
Spanish governor became the s^nal for sending over a deputa-
tion from
St. Thomas
to congratulate him and to inquire
whether or not he brought with him orders from his king ci0m-
ceming the
fugitive
slaves.
Althou^ the Danish
goveilEK>r
usually sent over presents in the form of t^le delicacies and
was offered others in return,^® he received no runaway negroes
nor any equiv^nt for them.
These claims for fugitive slaves
appear never to have hem
satisfied during the Compai^’s
existence, and were indeed not adjusted until 1706.
“ Extracts for 1703-09 (October 2, 1706), M(srifddt MSS., VoL VI.
Nrancr-
0119
ord^ weri9 ksued at It^ier teres.
^ In the census list for 1715-16 occurs the item ^twenty-^our fugitive daves,**
whidb seem, however, to have be^ shives esci^ed from
Eustates.
^ This did not include slaves stolen in 1702, nor two di^loads that slirailded
on the Honduras coast in 1710.
Dir. K. R., 17SS^^ (May 11, 1745).
See, for instance, Govecnor Eramnsco Dania’s letter to Crovetncr
(February 10, 1700) in €. B., 1709-W.
€1. Affiertt Skwdtcmdddn^ Sid&rie, 238.
16^
THK DANISH WEST INDIES
The matter of doling out punishment to unruly negroes had
its serious difficulties.
It early became apparent that with the
establishment of sugar planting as a fixed industry, the punish-
ment of slaves would have to be done under the supervision
of the Company’s
officials.
In theory the “Danish law” of
Christian V was supposed to apply, but the local officials were
given considerable leeway in its administration, with the result
that punishments were
inflicted
pretty much
according
to
custom and necessity.
The planter would recommend what he
wished done, and the privy council with the governor would
issue the final order.
One planter’s request, made in 1704, that
a slave be punished for running away by having his foot chopped
off, was Considered too severe, so the poor wretch was only
“hamstrung.”
Sixteen years later another negro belonging
to the same planter was punished with the amputation of a foot,
and his owner was reimbursed with an indemnity of 1£0 rdl}^
From
17£0 onwards,
indemnification
of planters
for
legally
lolled or injured negroes appears to have been regularly re-
sorted to, a special tax being levied on the planters for that
purpose.^^
Occasionally a case for which no law could be found
to apply was appealed to the directors in Copenhagen, and
judgment
requested.
This
occurred once when a
planter’s
daughter had had
illicit relations with a negro belonging to
another
planter.
The West
Indian
officials recommended
corporal punishment and
life imprisonment for the woman,
and burning [alive?] “according to the custom of the English
and the Dutch” for the man.
The negro appears to have
escaped, though the king’s sentence seems to have been solemnly
pronounced from the pulpit, both in the West Indies and in
Guinea.
The woman’s fate is not revealed.
The privy council of St. Thomas, itself a body of planters,
was naturally inclined to give the planter the benefit of the
doubt when his relations with his slaves were called into ques-
(April
1704).
^ N. JJtyr irm (May 18).
^ In 1743, a planter who thus lost a slave reedved 170 xdL,
Roy. Libr.,
TUdaXL
No, SOfol, (October 21, 1743).
^ P. Mariager’s note to Directors (May 26, 1732).
B, & D., 1732-Sk,
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
16S
tion.
When in 1735 a prominent planter had shot one of his
slaves so that he died shortly after, his explanation that he acted
in seK-defense was accepted without serious question, though
not without an elaborate argument based on the Mosaic code
and the king’s law.^^
The many slaves who must have been well cared for and
humanely treated have left but few traces behind them in the
records; with them the arm of the law had little or nothing to do.
As in
all plantation societies the hardest work and harshest
treatment fell upon the field slave.
In 1733, the very year in
which the slave insurrection on St. John broke out, the Com-
pany’s officials on St. Thomas complained that it was nearly
impossible to get any work out of former Governor Suhm’s
house negroes, whom the Company had taken over, ‘‘unless we
permit them to seek a master themselves.” ^
They reported at
the same time the safe arrival at St. Thomas of a negress be-
longing to the Company, but insisted that she had come back
from Denmark so lazy that they doubted if they could ever get
her to work on a plantation again.
“So we will have to see,”
they wrote, rather resignedly, “how the Company can secure
any interest on that capital, for to sell her out of her family would
bring with it bad consequences.”
This is a small gleam, in-
deed, yet it throws its faint light upon the more humane side of
the slave-owner’s nature.
The rum shop laid its blighting influence on the land almost
from the beginning.
Tavern brawls were frequent, and the
murders and assaults for which the taverns furnished the scene
gave an unpleasant variety to the judicial labors of the local
authorities.
In a land where soldiers received their regular
allowances of “kill-devil” ^ and where many of the slaves were
allotted their weekly portion, it is not strange that ordinances
should have been issued strictly forbidding tavern keepers or
Kop, & Extr. S.
St. TK 1735-52 (October U, 17S5).
Henry Suhm was governor of St Thomas and St John from
ITSW' to
1733,
See Appendix A, p. 286.
^ Governor, etc., to Directors (April 16, 1733), B. & D., 1732-3J^.
Garddm papers^ pamm,, Bancroft Collection.
164
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
other inhabitants from
selling intoxicants to negroes.^^
The
idea that alcoholic drinks helped to acclimatize the new arrival
had a firm hold on the popular mind.
Negro feasts and dances
were considered a constant menace.
It is easy to imderstand
why the whites should especially fear a negro mob crazed by
drink.
The legislative device of prohibition by law was not to
be seriously applied to the negro until after slavery had ceased
to exist, and then in the present chief home of the American
negro, the southern United States.
Insurrection among its slaves has always been considered the
most
terrible
experience
that a
slave-holding
society could
suffer.
Whether in Rome with its slave risings, in Sicily or on
the Italian peninsula, in Virginia with Nat Turner, or in a sugar
colony in the West Indies, the prospect of a general servile
uprising has equally alarmed the ruling class.
It was during
the first governorship of John Lorentz in 1691, a year after the
first
serious
insurrection reported
in the
English
colony
of
Jamaica,
that clearly defined rumors of a negro plot against
the whites are first heard.^^
During those early years, when the
greater number of the slaves on St. Thomas were native Africans,
it is not strange that threats should have been breathed against
the govemor^s
life and that planters and Company
officials
alike were constantly on the lookout for conspiracies among
the slaves.
Cruelty on the part of an individual planter was
likely to be rewarded by his slaves running away.
Planters ^
and
officials must have realized the economic advantages of
good treatment of so valuable a part of their plantation invest-
ment as their slaves.
It was likely to require something more
than individual cases of cruelty to bring about actual insurrec-
tion.
The most persistent motive that led to general unrest among
the slaves was lack of food.
When months of drought ruined
tihe crops of maize, sweet potatoes, and other foods which the
a P., im9-17U {Mardi 19, 1706);
(jf. Ma^eldt MSS., Vol. II (Mandate
of GovOTor Moth's bound with Martfeldt’s iiotes; dated Deceiiiber 11, 1741).
Southey, Chpondop^ Mistory of the British West InHes (2 vols., London,
1826), H, 158.
Lorents^s Journal (Pdinmairy 28, 1691).
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTOR
165
negroes were expected to raise for their own sustenance, the
planters were obliged to buy provisions from outside sources if
they were to save their negroes’ lives and prevent them from
rising against their masters.
In 1725-1726 the drought was
unusually severe and protracted.
A number of the planters
let their slaves starve to death; others gave them extra hol-
idays, with the natural result that the blacks stole right and
left and became exceedingly dlSScult to manage.^
Since open
resistance to the whites was the worst of crimes, it is not sur-
prising to find recorded in the Company’s books for 1726 that
seventeen slaves distributed among thirteen planters had been
executed and were debited to the community at a price of about
120 rdL each.^ The planters secured the equivalent for their
losses in fresh slaves from the next incoming Guinea cargo.^
In the time that elapsed between the War of the Spanish
Succession and 1738, when the first serious rebellion began in
the Danish islands, the Northern War had brought the activi-
ties of the Company almost to a standstill.
Besides this the
money stringency in the commercial world following the collapse
of John Law’s Mississippi Company made the revival of trade
in the West Indies very slow.
The Company had managed
nevertheless to assist a group of planters in occupying the small,
mountainous, but
fertile
island
of
St.
John.^
St. Thomas
reached its maximiun slave population and its maximum num-
ber of plantations during
its government by the Company,
about
1725.
St.
John’s
plantations had
risen from
thirty-
nine
in
1726-1721
to
eighty-seven plantations containing a
slave population of 677
in
1728.
By 1738 there were one
hundred and nine plantations with one thousand and eighty-
seven slaves on St. John.
In other words, there had been an
increase
of
sixty
per
cent,
in
the number
of
slaves
dur-
& D., m4r^ (November 22. 1725); S. P.. St. Th. (May 26, 1725);
P. B. O., 1683-1729 (December 18, 1725).
N. J. for 1726 (Jtuie 29). Hus may represent tke daves executed since
1723, as tbe planters were requested in 1725 to send in lists of slaves wbo had
been condemned to death or severe punishment since that date.
Cf. MaHfdit
MSS., Vol. I, ^^BlmOerfw St Thomas^^ (1684-1744).
28 Mandate of April n, 1725,
Martfddt MSS., I.
See abov^
127-130.
166
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ing those five years, but of only twenty-five per cent, in the
number of plantations.
Clearly St. John was rapidly
forg-
ing ahead
as
a
sugar
island.
St.
Thomas,
on
the
other
hand, had
begun
to
decline as a plantation
colony; much
of
its ground had been under cultivation for half a century.
Many of its planters, as the census lists show, secured planta-
tions on St. John which they managed by means of hired over-
seers, they themselves remaining on St. Thomas.®® The diflSculty
so often experienced by planters in securing honest and capable
managers
{Mesterknegte)
intensified the
dangers
of absentee
landlordism.
It was not always possible for aU the plantation
owners to keep their plantations supplied with white overseers
despite the Company’s threats of fines and confiscation.
The uprising of the slaves on St. John began late in Novem-
ber, 1733.
During the spring and summer preceding there had
been a long period of drought, followed in July by a destructive
hurricane which had
inflicted considerable damage upon the
already suffering crops as well as upon buildings and shipping.®^
A plague of insects had destroyed many of the products of the
islands, and the negroes were threatened with famine.
Another
storm in the early winter was especially severe on the maize
crop on which the negroes
largely depended
for their food.
In order to check the disorders among slaves which such a suc-
cession
of
disasters
naturally
encouraged,
Philip
Gardelin,
Land Listefor St Jan^ 1733; ibid, St Thomas, 1733.
The gavemor and coundl reported two ships, thirteen barks, t^o schooners,
and two two-masted boats, many canoes, sloops, and ships’ boats to have been
wadxed ashore and practically destroyed.
Majrtfddt MSS., Vol. VI, 227 et seq.
(July 28, 1783).
In the report (Genercdbrev) sent by the St. Thomas govern-
ment to the Directors on June 18, 1733, it is stated that because'of the drought,
the Company’s plantation on St. John yielded only sixty-two hhd. of sugar,
where one hundred and fifty hhd. had been expected.
B. & D., 173^-34-.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
167
who had risen from the posts of bookkeeper and merchant for
the Company at St. Thomas to the position of governor, issued
on September 5, 1733, a mandate whose terrible severity reflects
the prevailing tension between master and slave.^^
Governor Gardelin’s mandate provided that leaders of run-
aways should be pinched thrice with red-hot irons and then
hanged. A negro found guilty of conspiracy was to lose a leg,
unless
the owner
requested
lightening
the
sentence
to
one
hundred fifty lashes and the loss of the negro’s ears.
Slaves
fading to report a plot of which they had knowledge were to be
branded in the forehead and to
receive one hundred lashes
besides.
Informers of negro plots could secure cash premiums
and have their names kept secret.
Runaways caught within
a week were to be punished with one hundred fifty
lashes;
those of three months’ standing were to lose a leg;
if they re-
mained away for six months,
it would cost them their lives.
Thievery, and assistance of thieves and runaways, were to be
punished by whipping and branding. A negro raising his hand
against a white man must be pinched three times with a hot
iron; whether he should be hanged or merely lose a hand was
left to the discretion of his accuser. The testimony of a reputa-
ble white man against a negro ordinarily sufficed; in case of
doubt the negro might be submitted to torture. A negro meet-
ing a white man on the road was to stand aside tmtil the latter
had passed him.
The carrying of sticks or knives^ witchcraft
among negroes, attempts to poison, dances, feasts and music,
loitering
in
the
village
after drumbeat,—^all were provided
against.
Free negroes implicated in runaway plots or found to
have encomaged thievery were to be deprived of liberty and
property, and after receiving a flogging, to be banished from
the land.
This mandate with its nineteen paragraphs was to
be proclaimed to the beat of drum three times each year.®^
HSst, Efterretmnger, 85 et aeq.
J. P. Ejiox (Historical account qf 8t Thomas, New York, 185JJ), pp. 69 et
seq^ gives a crude, inaccurate translation of this mandate, dating it January 31,
1733.
B, V. Petersen
(Historisk Beretmng, Xj<d>enhavn, 1855) pp. 49
et seq.
follows HSst’s summary word for word, but uses Knox’s date.
Cf, Qarddin
Order-book (S^tember 9, 1733), Bancroft CoUecdon.
168
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Thus did the authorities attempt to strike terror into the hearts
of the restless, half-famished negro population.
On Monday afternoon, November
23,
1733, a very badly
frii^tened soldier and some panic-stricken refugees from
St.
John appeared in the fort at St. Thomas harbor and poured
into the ears of the astonished governor and his council a most
fearful
tale.
Early that morning twelve or fourteen of the
Company's negroes had come up the path on the mountain-
side to the fort overlooking Coral Bay on St. John, each of them
with an armful of wood.
When the sentinel shouted, ‘^Who is
there?” he received the answer, ‘‘Negroes with wood,” and
opened the door.
Bushing inside, the negroes pulled sugar-
cane knives (Kapmesser) out from the wood and murdered the
soldier on the spot.
Meantime other negroes had assembled
and together they rushed in upon the sleeping corporal and his
six soldiers, killing all but one (John Gabriel) who in the early
twili^t managed to save himself by crawling under a bed, and
later escaped through the bush and down to a canoe by the
seashore.
With the garrison out of the way the negroes pro-
ceeded to raise the flag and fire three shots from the cannon
at the fort.
This was the signal for a general slaughter on all
the plantations on the island.
The ranking magistrate on St. John, John Reimert Soedt-
mann,^^ and
his stepdaughter were among the
first
victims
<A that fateful day.
A band of negroes,
including some of
Soedtmann’s own, routed them both out and put them to death
in the early morning.
Soedtmann’s wife was saved by the cir-
cumstance of her beiag on a visit to St. Thomas.
Roaming
about from plantation to plantation in that dim tropic dawn
th^ slaughtered such whites as they could find, planters and
overseers^ women and children.
As the bloody work proceeded,
the band increased thdir numbers.
The Company’s and Soedt-
mann’s negroes were joined by others;
and by the middle of
the afternoon a body of eighty desperate blacks, half of them
»*Ha8t (p. 91)i!€fei»1»haanustakenly as
Ainong the others were tfee n^proes of fonaer Govenior
of tQwn^
jiidge Loreata Hwiricirsea and
Kete? KjSyer.
Oardelin
(Nov^-
ber iS, 173S);
Mar^ddt
HEt
J^elUonm paa
John”
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
169
with flintlocks or pistols, the rest with cane-knives and other
murderous weapons, were ready to attack those whites that re-
mained.
Though murder was rife, its course did not run ab-
solutely without control.
One Cornelius Bodger, the surgeon
on
St. John, and
his two young step-sons were saved,—^the
former because of his medical skill, the latter because the rebels
hoped to make these boys their servants.
Someone’s interces-
sion at the last moment saved the life of a former overseer of
the Company who accepted with alacrity the invitation of the
rebels to leave the island.^®
The surviving planters, with such negroes as remained faith-
ful, had in the meantime collected at Peter Deurloo’s plantation
on the northwest comer of the island.
The approach to “Deur-
loo’s Bay” was easily guarded, and the fugitive planters were
within fairly easy reach of St. Thomas.
While the St. Thomas
officials and planters were making such preparations for their
relief as they could, a small band of whites^ under the leadership
of Captain of Militia John von Beverhoudt ^ and Lieutenant
John Charles, together with a score or more of their best negroes,
were hastening with feverish activity to prepare for the rebel
onslaught.
The women and children were quickly transported
to nearby islets. A number of the planters on the south side
and on the west end of the island were warned by friendly slaves
in time to permit them to join the men at Deurloo^s or to seek
safety in their canoes.
The negroes had met some resistance from a planter in “ Can-
eel” Bay.^ They finally drove him off and stopped to plunder
This was D^onis (or Dines) Silvan. He fled to Tortola, the English ialaiul
lying within sight of St. John.
P. J. Fann&t in his BdaMon dated December 4 (Werlauff M8S.^ No. 22,
Royal Libr., Copenhagen) gives the nmnb^ at Deurloo’s as about sevente^
whites and twenty negroes, while the Company’s officials in their letter to the
Directors of January 5, 1784 {Mo/rtfetdi MSS^ HI), give forty whites and about
twenty-five negroes as the nurnib^ of those cm. the defensive against the rebels.
Also ^)elled Bewerfaondt, Beverhout, Beveihondt. Among the other white
inhabitants at Denrloo’s plantation were John Runnels, Timothy Tum^
{Tk^mer), Wiffiam Zytzesna, and Peter Soraisen.
Qardelin MSS,
(Novem-
ber 23, 1733.)
^ John Jansen lived with Ms wife cm a cotton plantation bdcm^b^ to his
170
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
his plantation, consequently they did not descend the mountain
path toward Deurloo's plantation imtil S o'clock in the after-
noon.
When they came they found themselves confronted by
the few cannon with which the plantation was furnished.
Fear-
ing to face the cannon with their charges of ball, they betook
themselves to the bush, from which they emerged at intervals
to fixe blindly and clumsily at their ertswhile masters.
Had
they rushed
their opponents at the
start the negroes might
at the expense of a few lives have mastered the plantation and
captured its defenders.
Instead they kept up their desultory
firing during the greater part of the night and resumed it the
following mommg with scarcely any loss to the whites.
The
arrival of the news at St. Thomas had paralyzed aU.
Wives
trembled for their husbands, mothers for their children.
Gov-
ernor Gardelin shared the general consternation.
It was not
until former Governor Moth appealed to Gardelin not to aban-
don the children of his government to the barbarity of their
heathen slaves that a boat with sixteen or eighteen soldiers,
led by a sergeant and a corporal, was provisioned with food and
ammunition and sent to the relief of the St. John planters.
Several creole slaves with guns accompanied the party.
The arrival of the reinforcements which were commanded by
William Barens, a well-to-do Dutch planter of St. Thomas,^
put new heart
into
the besieged
party.
Further
reinforce-
ments, consisting largely of negroes belonging to the Company
and to planters on St. Thomas,^^ enabled the planters to retake
the fort and disperse the negroes to the woods.
Urged on by
the Company’s officials, the soldiers and planters on St. John
began a war of extermination.
For a time the negroes managed
to use the Suhm plantation as their rendezvous,^^ but before the
Christmas
season they had been pretty effectually scattered
mother which was 3000 x 1500 feet in size.
Three ‘‘capable” slaves and four
children constituted his labor outfit in 1733.
i. Z., St
173S.
^ He was credited in the census of 1733 with more than forty slaves.
Gardelin reported sending twenty-one of the former and twdive of the
latter.
Gardelin to Sergeant Thomas Magens (November 25, 1733).
Gardelin
MSS,, Banax»ft Collection.
Pannet’s Relation.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
171
over the island.
Attempts by various stratagems to capture
any considerable number of them failed.
A white planter, one
William Vessup, who had murdered a neighbor some months
before and whom the authorities had failed to apprehend, was
given to understand that his assistance in the slave-hunt would
be welcomed by the govemment.^^
The negroes proved too
wary to permit themselves to fall into the trap he prepared for
them.
Their shortage of ammunition had even led them to
offer Vessup ten negroes if he would get them as many barrels
of powder.
Enough negroes were killed or captured, however,
to cause Grovemor Gardelin to express the fear that the decay-
ing bodies of the dead rebels might bring a seventh misfortune
—^the plague—^upon the stricken colony.'^
The planter Peter
Pannet states
in his account of December 4 that thirty-two
rebels had actually been executed, and that others were being
tried.^
The fear that the rebellion might spread to St. Thomas and
Tortola not only roused the St. Thomas planters to contribute
some of their slaves to the hxmt on the sister island, but led
their English neighbors to lend a helping hand.
With many of
their plantations ravaged, their crops neglected or destroyed,
their cattle running wild or furnishing food for rebel slaves, it is
small wonder that the St. John planters asked the Company to
bear a substantial share of the burden of putting down the
trouble and even requested that they should be exempted from
taxes for a term of years.^^
After nearly ten weeks of vain
effort a
certain Captain Tallard^ of an English man-of-war
visiting Tortola sent sixty men to St. John to join in the pursuit;
but an ambush in the night resulted in the wounding of four
English sailors and the consequent withdrawal of the English
^ Gardelin MSS,, William Vessup, ’wiio had owned a large plantation (4700 x
4040 feet) on St. John, had killed one Carl Henry Kuhlmann.
The murderer’s
family remained for some time on the Dani^ islands but in yery poor circum-
stances.
^ Pannet’s Relation,
Gardelin, etc., to Directors (January 5, 1734).
Mar^ddi MSS,, VoL HI.
^ Pannet’s Relation,
Account of St. John rebellion (July 9tS, 1734) in Mar^ddt MSS,, VoL IH.
^Or ToUer,
172
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
forces.^
On February 17, that
is, not long after this disap-
pointment, the St. John planters again appealed for assistance
from the English.
On Sunday, March 7, another English cap-
tain, John Maddox, came from St. Eatts and landed on the
island with about jBfty volimteers,^® though his entire party was
reported to Governor Gardelin as consisting of seventy men.^^
A carefully worded contract was drawn up specifying with pre-
cision the duties of both parties and enumerating the rewards
to be given for slaves captured.
The attorney for the govern-
ment,
‘‘fiscal’' Ditlof Nicholas Friis, was sent to St. John to
see that the contract was adhered
to.
Such elaborate pre-
cautions proved quite unnecessary.
After a vain and wearying
search Captain Maddox suddenly came upon the rebels on the
eleventh day (March 18), but he was taken by surprise, for the
n^roes killed three of his men and wounded five others without
any loss to them, so far as could be ascertained.^^
Maddox’s
men stood not upon the order of their going; they fled at once
and left the island on the following day.
Stratagems, attempts at poisoning, and the armed forces of
Danes and English had failed alike to dislodge or exterminate
the desperate slaves.
In the extremity of their despair the
Danish
colonists
turned
to the French on
Martinique. A
French boat was lying in the harbor, and three or four days
after Maddox’s departure, the French skipper set sail for Mar-
tinique with the Company’s bookkeeper, John Horn, on board.
Horn’s instructions permitted him to offer the French four-fifths
of the remaining rebels—(their numbers were estimated at a
hundred men and women)—^if they could catch them.
Twenty
of the worst ones were to be handed over to the Company,
evi(toitiy for exemplary punishment.
The
St. Thomas gov-
ernment pledged itself to furnish provisions for anywhere from
^ S.P^8t Th, 17^3S5, The first appeal to the Tortola authorities was made
by Garddin in a letter to Markox at Spanishtown, dated November 29, 1733,
See Gardditt MSS, under that date.
Om RsbdlMfnen
.
.
. March 16, 1734.
MaHjeldt MSS,, III.
The arrange-
ment seems to have been made on February 18.
Cf. Oa/rdeUn MSS. (Febru-
ary 18, 1734).
« Gardelin to Bewerhoudt CMawh 9, 17^^^^
G^irddin MSS,
^^OmRebdlionen
.
.
. May 4, 1734.
MartfddtMSS,, IH.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
17S
one to two hundred men.^^
Its envoy was provided with a fund
of 600 rdl. to be expended as Horn saw fit.
When two French barks anchored in St. Thomas harbor on
the morning of April 23 with the bookkeeper John Horn and
two hundred and twenty creoles and experienced
oflScers on
board, the oft-disappointed colonists began to see their hopes re-
vive.
With renewed energy and resolution the governor and the
inhabitants set to work to insure the success of this final effort.
With a splendid enthusiasm the French had offered, wrote Grt>v-
emor Gardelin to John Beverhoudt on St. John, to send as many
as six hundred men to the assistance of the Danes. The planters
contributed seventy-four West Indian negroes to assist in the
chase, though
the governor had asked
for a hundred and
fifteen.^^
Why the French should respmnd so joyfully
it would be
rather diflScult to explain were it not for certain European con-
ditions.
France was preparing to take up the cause of Stanis-
las
Leszczynski,
father-in-law of Louis XV, in
his attempt
to secure the Polish throne.
France, which had scarcely re-
covered from the collapse of the Mississippi Bubble, was in
serious need of money.
She was also anxious for Denmark’s
neutrality in the coming War of the Polish Succession.
In
this
extremity
a
shrewd
director
of
the Danish company
turned the trick by offering the French envoy 750,006
livres
for the island of St. Croix, with Denmark’s neutraKly thrown
in.
But the news of the transfer and of Denmark’s friend-
ship reached the French islands through their home govern-
ment
considerably before
the
directors
at Copenhagen got
ready to send a ship to St. Thomas.
Nor do the French from
Martinique appear to have divulged to the Danish authorities
at
St. Thomas the main^rings
of
their zeal.^ To the dis-
Horn’s instructioiis induded varioas alternative proposals.
He was em-
powered to hire a vessd, engage a hundred men and to buy provisions for them
on the Company’s account.
Cy. Garden MSS, (March 91, 1784) Iot these
instructions*
^ Oc^ddm MSS, (April 28 and
8, 17S4) ^ves a hst d tbe skty-dj^t
planters.
•^Eor a
detaied
account
oi
the
acquisitioii
of
St.
Crcux,
see Chap-
ter X
174
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
tressed planters and Company
it was the fact of
assistance
and not its motives that mattered.
On the day following their arrival the French xmder
their
commander Longueville were promptly dispatched to St. John.
The Danish governor lost no time in sending on planks for the
soldiers’ barracks and fresh meat for food.^
Crown attorney
Friis was ordered to St. John to take charge of the negroes as
they were captured.
He was to try and judge half of those
caught and the others were to be sent to St. Thomas for trial.
The French commandant was to preside over the drumhead
court-martial when it should be called, but a Danish represen-
tative was to be present.®^ A force of twenty-five or thirty
Danes under Lieutenant Froling was got together and sent
over to work in conjunction with the French.^®
Within three or four days of their arrival the French forces
were encamped and ready for their grim
labors.
Only
five
days before the arrival of the French on St. John, a party of
about forty rebels had made a fierce attack, lasting an hour and
a half, upon the burghers who were encamped on Deurloo’s
plantation.
They managed to set the supply magazine on
fire, but suffered a loss of three killed and six badly wounded.®^
From April £9 when they met their first party of rebels to May
£7 when they returned to St. Thomas, the French force climg
tenaciously to the heels of their quarry until they were unable
to find the trace of a single live rebel.
During the first three
weeks they had to march up hill and down dale, through bush
and bramble in an almost continual downpour
of
rain.
By
working in shifts they completely wore out the energies of the
rebels, some of whom in lack of gims had armed themselves
wdth bows and arrows.®® On May 9 they learned that the ne-
groes were assembled on a certain point or small peninsula of
land.
The band
escaped, but a wounded boy showed
the
®®GardeIin to “Commandeur Sergiant”
Ottingen
(April
588,
1784).
Gar^
ddin MSS,
Garddin to Friis (April 24. 1734).
Garddin MSS.
Garddin to FrSling (April 24, 1784).
Ihid.
w Om RMlionen
.
.
. (May 4, 1784).
Martfddt MSS,, IH.
^ Domme afsagt om Negere (May 21, 1734), B. & D., 1782-Sl,
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
175
French where eleven rebels lay in the bush, dead by their own
act. A week later eight rebels gave themselves up in the hope
of averting the captured rebeFs fate.
Two more were killed
with a single shot, and two were found murdered.
Of the rest
there was no trace until May £4, when a report came in that
twenty-four dead rebels had been found on an outjutting point
of land in an unsuspected place, with their muskets broken.®^
They were reported as having lain there for perhaps a fort-
night.
The Danish
oflS.cials in their reports to the directors could
not praise highly enough the courage of the French on the field
and their uniform courtesy everywhere.
“The fatigues that
the French have imdergone,’^ wrote the governor in his report
to his masters, “from the first day that they came to St. John
cannot be adequately described.
.
.
. The obligations that we
are under to the French
oflSicers merits a far greater reward
than we are able to give them.
The commandant
himself
marched with his men for four days through forests and valleys,
up steep mountain-sides, and in a continuous slush and rain,
with no roof above him but the sky.
Next to God, they [the
oflSicers], because of their tireless effort, deserve the credit for
the present
peace.
Their bravery and
persistence and the
cheerfulness with which they encouraged their men, who began
very early to tire from their strenuous efforts, will we trust be
properly rewarded in high places.
.
.
On their arrival at St. Thomas on May 27 Commandant
Longueville and his officers and men were shown every attention
and courtesy. An offer of 5,000 “French guldens ” was i)olitdy
refused by the French
officer.
After five days of celebration
the French, accompanied by John Horn, embarked for Martin-
ique.
There, in turn, the Danes were treated by the French
officials with marked cordiality and deference.®^
This happy outcome, happy so far as the whites were con-
cerned, was marred by a bitter quarrel between the local govem-
This may be the group that tradition, as recorded by Hbst and those follow-
ing his account, has magnified to three hundred.
See Host, op, cU,, p. 96.
Om, Rebdlionen
.
.
. (July 26, 17S4).
Martfddt MSS,, VoL m.
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ment and the planters, each side trying to blame the other for
the uprising with a view to being relieved of part of the expense.
But the end of the rebellion was not quite at hand; for early in
August—two months
after the French had left—the report
came in that a party of fourteen negroes and negresses, led by
one Prince
was
still at large, though without firearms.
To
avoid an expensive
maroon hunt” Theodore Ottingen, an
officer who had taken part in the suppression of the rebellion
since its beginning, managed on promise of pardon to lure the
fifteen remaining rebels to their former owners’ plantations.®^
On the pretext that they would have to be appraised, every
one of them was seized at a given signal on the morning of
August £5 and brought to St. Thomas.
Prince was not among
them, for he had—fortunately for himself—^been beheaded, and
his head was a trophy in Ottingen’s baggage.
Of these fifteen
rebels four “died” in prison before they could be brought to
trial, four were condemned to be worked to death on the St.
Croix fortifications, and the rest were done to death in various
ways “such as they deserved because of their gruesome deeds, ”
as the official letter has it.®®
With this piece of treachery, as it would be called in this age,
a success for which the responsible officer received high praise
from his sui>eriors and a lieutenancy on St. Croix, the insurrec-
tion of 1738-1734 on St. John came to an end.
Besides those
killed in conflict and those belonging to the Company, twenty-
seven negroes were estimated to have been tried and executed.®’^
A
list made out in February, 1734, just before Maddox’s
ill-
fated attempt, showed one hundred forty-six negro men and
women implicated in rebellion at that time.
It is clear that the
story of the three hundred negroes found dead in a circle on a
mountain near “Brims Bay” is pure fancy.
It was first told
by Hdst®® whose account of the rebdhon is based pmrtly on
A negro bekai|^s^ to Madame Elizabeth Runnela.
^ See OarddinV kustmcticma and letters to Otting^ in Garddm MSS,
(Au-
gust 9, 16, and 21, 17S4.)
^OmRei>emmm
.
,
. December 28, 1734.
Mm^ddtMSS,, VoL TO.
^Uhid.
“ Host, Efterreimnger, 96. A recent repetition erf this story is to b^ found in
Keller, CoUmissaHcm, p. 606.
THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER
177
documents and partly on hearsay and has been repeated numer-
ous times since.
When the time for stock-taking came,
it was found that
planters were entitled to remuneration for thirty slaves that had
been condemned to death or to work in irons,®® and for six olliers
—^two belonging to St. John and four to St. Thomas planters.
These six had been killed while fighting for their owners.^
Of
ninety-two plantations listed by Theodore Ottingen probably
late in 1734 or in 1735, forty-ei^t were recorded as having
suffered damage, forty-four as having escaped it.
Of the forty-
eight, thirty were being cultivated when the report was made; of
the forty-four not damaged, thirty-two were being cultivated.
On forty-one plantations, valuable buildings had been partly
or wholly burned down by the rebels. The money loss was
estimated, according to Host, at 7,905
rdl, a considerable sum
for so small an island.^^
As to loss of life by the white popula-
tion, probably not a fourth of the whites were killed by the
negroes.
But this human hurricane had been far more devastat-
ing than any sent out from Nature^s workshop, for it had not
only destroyed men and their labor of years, but hardened their
hearts and greatly delayed the prospect for more normal and
human relations between master and slave in the Danish islands.
It was perhaps fortunate
that
the
acquisition of the fertile
island of St. Croix occurred so shortly after this event, for this
gave a welcome opportunity for the recuperation of the de-
moralized planters and turned the attention of men to new
problems.
With the development of St. Croix the economic
center of gravity was gradually to be shifted to the new island,
and the awful experiences of 1733 and 1734 were destined soon
to become receding memories.
The government and colonists had learned a lesson in vigilance
which it would be hard to forget.
As reflection took the^place
of passion, perhaps they saw still more dearly the ^cacy of
PlaatCTs received 120 rH. each for all fidl-grown slaves legally condemned
to death.
S. P., 8t Tk
(October 22, 17S0).
**SpeciJicaH(m paa de Plantagier ...”
(17S4?).
B,
173£~^J^
H6st, 07, 08.
178
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
humaneness. At any rate, it was a quarter of a century before
the Danish
colonists were again seriously threatened with a
slave insurrection, and then it was on the new and rapidly de-
veloping island of St. Croix.
The story of the attempted re-
bellion of 1759 belongs to the post-Company history of that
island.
CHAPTER IX
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
The powers of government which Christian V placed in the
hands of the directors of the Danish West India and Guinea
Company were almost as absolute within their West Indian
sphere as were the powers of the Danish king within his Euro-
pean dominions.
This was necessarily so, for the venture was
primarily commercial.
Its purpose was to furnish a profitable
field of investment for men with capital; hence the need of
concentrating the management of the Company’s resources in
few hands.
The absolutism which Christian V inherited from
his father was based upon the theory of Divine Right.
The
directors of the Company, on the other hand, received their
powers from a very worldly body of shareholders to whom they
rendered account and by whom they might be removed.
The directorates of the Danish East and West India com-
panies at the beginning were in a sense committees delegated
to the work from the recently established Board
of Trade.
The kiug, as the most powerful shareholder in the Company,
appointed the three origmal directors himself, but entirely from
among the members of the Board of Trade.
Acting with these
directors in an advisory capacity and representing in a fairly
direct manner the interests of the bulk of the shareholders, was
a body of men known as ‘‘chief shareholders.”
From 1671 to
173S the membership of the board of directors rose from three
to seven; that of the chief shareholders, from two to five.
The
part played by two able directors, Juel and Moth, in guiding
the Company through a maze of commercial misfortunes and
diplomatic
diflBlculties, has been brought out in a preceding
chapter.^
In the inunediate supervision of affairs on St. Thomas,
these men were given practically a free field.
^ See Ch{U)ter in, above.
For lists of offidals see Appendix B.
11701
180
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Wlxen matters which especially affected the stockholders in
general came up, such as the need of securing additional funds
to enlarge the Company's activities, the situation was presented
to the General Assembly of the Company, where each holder
of a full share of stock had one vote.^
Serious problems con-
nected with the Company were sometimes referred by the king to
a special commission appointed (as was the case during the first
two decades of Christian V’s reign) from the membership of
the Board of Trade, or they were turned over (as was the case
from 1690 to 1705) to special bodies known from their place of
meeting as ‘^Commissions in the Council Chamber of the Royal
Castle.”
The majority of the members of such commissions
were usually officials of the Company.
In 1704, early in Frederick IV’s reign, the Board of Trade was
revived, and four years later it was combined with the Police
Board of Copenhagen into the Board of Police and Trade which
continued down to 1731. On at least two occasions, in 1715 and
in 17^, this body submitted to the king reports on petitions
from St. Thomas planters.^
The dimensions of Denmark’s commercial and colonial enter-
prises were never such as to permit the Board of Trade to
develop into a body which could be compared in its specialized
advisory functions to the Board of Trade and Plantations in
England.
When
William IH foimded
the
latter
board
in
1696, the greater number of the English colonies had already
passed out of the control of chartered companies.
The active
control of the business of the Danish West India and Guinea
Company rested, as has been indicated, almost solely upon the
directors.
They selected the governors and chief officials both
in Guinea and in St. Thomas, subject only to confirmation by
the king; they found captains for their trading vessels and pro-
vided m inisters to care for the souls of employees, planters, and
slaves.
The directors through their factor in Copenhagen were
expected to find a market either at home or abroad for African
ivory and West Indian sugar, cotton, and indigo.^
They were
® See above, p, 34.
* See below, pp. 190-191.
See also Ajtpmdix F, pp. 306-314.
^ Parts of the cargoes Tvere uauaEy offered at auction to local buyers.
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
181
obliged to keep in close touch with the Dutch money market
and to buy insurance for both ships and cargoes from Dutch
insurance firms.
In disputes between planters and Company
oflScials in the West Indies, they were expected to act as arbiters
unless the appeal was made directly to the king; in any case
they were consulted before judgment was rendered.
They were
supi>osed to maintain the authority and dignity of the king
among the colonists and with their various foreign nei^bors.
Although the directors were given practicafiy full power in
the general management of the Company, they were forced in
turn to give considerable latitude of action to their West Indian
officials. The “Governor and Council of St. Thomas’^ were to
be sure provided with most elaborate sets of instructions in-
tended to cover every emergency, but the remoteness of the
island from Denmark and the difficulty of keeping in close touch
with it by post led the island officials to take more and more
liberties with their orders and sometimes to use their positions
for peculation and graft.
For instance, as a result of his opera-
tions during the later years of the War of the Spanish Succession,
Governor Crone was accused of collusion with the governor of
Porto Eico and of gross fraud in the conduct of the Company's
affairs.
He died before the suit against him came to an end,
but one
of the members
of his
council,
Christian Seeberg,
treasurer at St. Thomas, was finally convicted of fraud and
forced to pay a large fine.
Governors Bredal and Gardelin owed
their advancement to their reputation for hon^y and to their
abiKty to expose corruption in the management of the Com-
pany's affairs.
The diief
official besides the governor consisted in the be-
ginning of the merchant or factor, the bookkeeper, and the
secretary.
After John Iiormtz*s death
in
170^, the
factor
Joachim voaa Hdten who had failed to secure the governorship ^
cd interim was made “chief factor” (Opper-KjGbrrmnd) by way
of solace.
In 1708 the office of treasurer (Casserer) began to
appear in the list of officials.^
This continued to be the com-
* Claus Hansen was elected as governor ad interim by the council (Interims^
Vice^ommmdant) February, VTOi.
« Mar^ddt MSS„ VoL VI, p. ji07 (June 10, 1703),
18^
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
position of the council, or privy council
(Secrete-Raad), as
it
came early to be called, until the reorganization of the Company
after the purchase of St. Croix.
With the governorship of John
Lorentz the Company began the policy of procuring its adminis-
trators from officials who had had experience in actual service
in the Company’s government at St. Thomas.
Lorentz himself
had begun as an assistant and was secretary and ex officio mem-
ber of the council when Heins’ death called him to the governor-
ship.
His successor Claus Hansen had been lieutenant at the
fort and a council member.
In fact, of the eight governors who
held office in St. Thomas from 170£, when Lorentz died, to 1738,
when GardeUn became governor, only two had not had their
preliminary training
in
St. Thomas.
One of these, Otto
J.
Thambsen, had been a commander
{SchouibynacM)
in
the
Danish navy; and the other, Henry Suhm, had been in charge
of Fort Christiansborg on the Guinea coast.^
Neither of these
men found his work congenial or was able to get on well with
the inhabitants of the colony.
The success of the Company as a commercial venture de-
pended very largely upon the ability and integrity of its West
Indian representatives.
In order to procme those full return
cargoes on the advantageous sale of which the Company relied
mainly for its dividends, the West Indian government needed to
keep on good terms with the planters.
Whenever a planter re-
ceived better offers from Dutch or other skippers than from the
Company, it became a difficult and delicate matter to force him
to part with his produce.
Although in theory the Company’s
officials held all administrative, legislative, and judicial powers
in their own hands, they were obliged m practice to pay very
real heed to the desires of the islanders.
The relations between government and planters were affected
by a variety of circumstances.
Too high duties or other annoy-
ing trade restrictions led the planters to attempts at evasion.
In this they were aided by the numerous indentations or “bays ”
which made smuggling easy.
Threats of shortage in provisions
through drought, hurricanes or other causes sometimes forced
the local government to take prompt measures for the relief of
^ Cf. Appendix A^ p. 5^.
THE PLANTEK A2TO THE COMPANY
18S
the inhabitants.
During the severe drought in St. Thomas
in 17^-1726, when negroes were dying for lack of food/ the
St. Thomas government admitted free of duty
all incoming
provisions
except
liquors.
The
request
of a
delegation
of
planters that outgoing goods likewise be freed from duly was
not granted,^
At that time St. Thomas was mainly dependent
upon New York for its lumber and provisions.
The duly had
previously been five per cent, on incoming and six per cent, on
outgoing goods, according to the St. Thomas market price; and
as recently as May 18, 17£4, Governor Thambsen had issued an
order granting to New York skippers the special privilege of
importing provisions at five per cent, duty, calculated on the
cost price in New York, and receiving payment in sugar and
cotton on which no export duty was required/'^
The home authorities were rather slow to admit the necessity
of consulting the inclinations of the colonists in the selection of
their West Indian governors.
Governor Lorentz was the choice
of the planters, and the directors gladly confirmed his election
by the council; but Thormohlen’s governor, Delavigne, suc-
ceeded so poorly in winning the good will of the planters that the
colony might have gone to min except for Lorentz’s timely
return. On the latter’s death the council appointed eight of the
leading planters to act with it in selecting a successor.
The
council nevertheless proceeded to elect the merchant Joachim
von Holten to the governorship, regardless
of the planters’
desires. The result was a mass meeting of all the planters on the
day following, called, as the records of the privy coxmcil rather
euphemistically report, ^*at the order of the honorable council,”
On the insistence of eighty planters, of whom twenty-one signed
a vigorously worded petition with their marks, the ^‘honorable
coxmcil” reconsidered the election and chose the planters’ candi-
date, Lieutenant Claus Hansen.
The directors confirmed the
election, but they took particular pains to remind the planters
that the election of a governor was none of their concem.^^
* See above, p. 165.
« S. P.for St. Th. (October 3, 21, 28, 1725).
w P. B. 0.. im-m9 (May 18, 1724).
“ Kop. og Extr.. 8. P.for St. Th, 1699-1714, “ Libra S” (June 12. 13, 1702);
Matr^ddl MSS, voL TI, p. 207 et teq.
184
im DANISH WEST INDIES
On the death of Governor Hansen^s successor, Joachim von
Holten in 1708 the privy council actually called in twelve in-
habitants to assist them in electing a governor.^^
The War of
the Spanish Succession, with the West Indies as the scene of
much of
its sea-fighting, furnished a golden opporttmity for
venturesome neutrals; and especially on St. Thomas had the
planters and traders become wealthy and influential through
dealing in captured ships and cargoes brought in by the priva-
teers of the warring nations.
The fact that the governor rarely succeeded in outliving his
term of
office had resulted in giving the
local
officials and
planters their opportunity to take a hand in naming their chief
executive, at
least until the
directors
could be heard from.
Governor Erik Bredal who succeded Michael Crone in 1716 in-
sisted so strongly on being relieved of his
office that in Sep-
tember, 1723, the directors found themselves for the first time in
many years nominating and
electing a governor.^®
The re-
client of this signal honor was Otto Jacob Thambsen, Com-
mander in the Royal Navy.
He was awarded the imusually
large salary of 1200
rdl. per annum.
On his arrival late in
April, 1724, he found the books in great confusion, the secre-
tary quite useless, customs duties uncollected for years back,
the council refractory, and the planters unwilling to do the
directom^ bidding.^^
After ten weeks at St. Thomas he wrote
to his masters; “You must not suppose that because I do not
complain, I jSnd it enjoyable here ... I pray that the gentle-
men wiU not take it amiss if I remark that St, Thomas and my
office appear to me like the lion^s cave, where all the footprints
pointed in and from which none pointed out.”^^ The directoi^
who <rften exhibited a painful obtuseness could hardly miSs the
ppint, but before they could take any action, the sickness of the
ineunffipent appears to have compelled the privy and the com-
mon councils to elect a successor whom they found in Captain
Mwifddt MSS^ VoL VI. 1708-1709 (December 31, 1708).
See list
governors in Appendix A,
Thambsen to Directors
10, 1724), B. & D.,
S. P. far St Tk.
(May 25. Aogasi W, im).
“ Ibid,, (July 14, 1724), B, & D., mi-U-
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
185
Frederick Moth who in the position of chief factor had com-
mended himself to the directors.^^
The common or burgher council mentioned in connection
with the election of Governor Moth, appears to have originated
in 1708.
It was certainly in existence at that date, for in their
instructions of March 27, 1708, the directors requested that in
case the governor was unable to
settle disputes between the
inhabitants, he should refer the case to the common coimcil
{dM ordinaire Road) over which the secretary
was to preside
and which should consist of six reputable planters.
From this
council or court the case might be appealed to the privy council
of St. Thomas sitting as a superior court (Opper-Ret),^
Cases
involving "‘life, honor, or blood,” or money sums of more than
£(M) rdl. might be appealed to the directors.^®
The capitalist planters that arose on St. Thomas as a result
of the conditions brought about by the War of the Spanish
Succession showed themselves
willing to go
to
considerable
lengths
to make
theilr wants and grievances known
to
the
authorities.
Two memorable instances
illustrate the increas-
ing economic independence
of the planters and the growing
consciousness of their impOTtance.
One of these occurred in
1706-1707,
just before the
St. Thomas “boom” readied
its
height, and the other in 1715-1716, when the reaction whidh
frequently follows a gmieral war had brought with it a period
of economic depression at St, Thomas.
It was early in 1706, about the time that Joachim von Holten
was elected governor,^ that the planters began to make d^nite
plans to send over del^ates to present Iheir demands in per-
son.
They had previously sent two communications to the
directors, but had received no reply.
Fina% a Utlfe while be-
fore the scheduled departure of the Company's ship, which oc-
» Mar^ddi
Vol. VI, 1728-1731, pp. 9m et seq. (Nov^ber 21, 1724);
ibid., Secrd^^ Roads RtsohManer
.
.
. fra 172^-17S9 (August 18, 1724).
Cliristiaii Seeb^g or SiSebierg, later convicted of fraud.
® In 1703 tills sapeoiiot coiUrt ectosfetedof iloVemor Hanseji, diief factw J. von
b<>oldfce^^ Diedik^
tteasui:^ R, Henuingsai, and secretary
C. Sedberg.
Mar^ddt MBS., Vd. VI, 1703-1700 (June 12, 1708).
^Ihid.
*0 von
was dected m February, l706.
186
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
curred during the first week in April, the planters held a meet-
ing, appointed two of their number, Andrew Zinck and Amthony
Zytsema, to act as commissioners, and prepared for them an
elaborate set of instructions with the demands enumerated in
an imposing list of sixteen paragraphs.
The instructions were
signed by sixty-nine planters of whom eight signed with their
marks.
The
signers
included
practically
all
the
influential
planters.^^
A resume of these demands will serve to show the sort of con-
ditions and regulations by which the planters of St. Thomas
felt themselves aggrieved.
They began by urging an appeal
to the Danish government to bestir itseh to secure the
St.
Thomas vessels that had been seized by the French, English,
and Spanish during the war. A number of the planters owned
vessels with which they had carried on various kinds of trade,
both permitted and forbidden.
The St. Thomas inhabitants
rightly felt that something might be gained if the home govern-
ment could secure exemption from seizure of vessels not carry-
ing contraband.
But in such a titanic struggle, nothing but a
generous display of force could make the powers involved accede
to any request that Denmark might make, especially when it
touched upon their own interests.
They desired, as St. Thomas
planters continued to desire for the next forty years, the return
of slaves that had escaped to Porto Rico.
This presupposed
their expressed hope that Denmark might again come
into
peaceful relations with Spain, something that was not likely to
be speedily brought about, since Denmark had not even had
an envoy at Madrid after the beginning of the Spanish Succes-
sion war.^^
With respect to matters of local taxation they asked for the
revocation of the charges known as ‘‘skth” and "‘tenth” taxes,
amounting to twenty-five per cent., which were laid upon the
property of persons leaving the island.
These were especially
B.
<Sr D., 1706-'10,
Tte instructions are in Dutch and undated.
The copy
in the Danish State Aithives was apparently secured by the governor aud sent
with his comment to the directors by the ship on which the commission's
sailed.
“iSarfr. afOen. Brwfra St. Th., Fimkt U (April 3, 1706), C. B., 1690-171$.
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
187
burdensome to those Dutch planters who had come from St.
Eustatius and other islands during the War of the Augsburg
League.^^ They proposed instead a four per cent, tax on slaves
taken out from the colony, as was common on the Erench and
English islands.
Not only did they ask that the governor and
privy cotmcil should act with six reputable planters in the de-
cision of local matters, but they suggested that no taxes should
be laid for local purposes except such as were found necessary
by the governor, privy
council and the “common council/’
They were,
in
short, demanding representative government,
and with
it that most precious prerogative of freedom-loving
societies, the power of self-taxation.
In concluding their
list
of demands and grievances the planters intimated that too
heavy
taxes might
nearly
denude
the
island
of
its
white
people, who because of the great heat could not work more
than three or four hours a day.^^
It is probable that the planters, in presenting through their
envoys such a formidable list of demands, deliberately requested
much in the hope of getting a little.
The things asked for con-
formed neither to the interests of the shareholders as they saw
them nor to the theories of government then prevailing in the
absolutist state of Denmark-Norway.
It is small wonder that
the two deputies returned with nothing but a few vague prom-
ises to show for their trouble.
The St. Thomas planters were
not backward in disclosing their disappointment.
In fact, they
assumed
so
threatening an attitude that the two
delegates,
Zytsema and Zinck, were obliged to write to the directors ask-
ing the latter to extend them their protection.^
The mission
was apparently by no means barren of result, for in their letter
of November 3, 1706, the directors granted to St. Thomas in-
habitants the right to sail with West Indian goods to any place
in Europe except the Danish dominions.^
In return for this
See above, pp. 6a, 84, 109.
2*5. 4? D., iroe-10 .
26 Ibid. (April 4, 1707); C, 5., 1690-1713 (April 6, 1707).
26 Cop. og Extr., S. P. for St. Th., 1699-1714 (April 2, 1708); Maiifddt MSS.,
Vol. VI, 170S-1709 (April 2, 1708).
Pending further instnictioiis tom the di-
rectors, Hamburg was sdso excepted tom freedom of trade.
188
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
privilege the directors
tried to induce the planters to
assist
the Cllompany’ in securing full return cargoes.
But the Com-
pany’s policy of forbidding exports while any of its ships were
in the harbor was never popular among the planters.
The
credit for achieving this wished for result was claimed by Direc-
tor Jacob Lerke in the letter in which he congratulated Governor
von Holten on his accession to office.^^ From this letter it ap-
pears that the “sixth” tax above mentioned was abolished by
the directors, likewise through Lerke’s efforts.^
The taxes on
imi>orts and exports fixed by the governor and privy council as
a result of the directors’ orders were as follows: on goods leav-
ing St. Thomas, six per
cent.; on incoming European goods,
four per cent.; on incoming West Indian goods, two per cent.;
on all provisions from New England, four per cent.^
The results of the planters’ mission of 1706 were on the whole
meager enough, yet in 1714-1715, when the planters felt their
situation agaiu becoming desperate, they proceeded as before
to smd a delegation to Copenhagen.
The pressure of hard
times was already being
felt in the West
Indies; the home
country was
fully occupied with the Northern War
against
Sweden under Charles XII; in St. Thomas prizes and confis-
cated cargoes ceased being
brought
into the harbor.
The
Spaniards on Porto Eico and the larger islands upon whom the
planters depended for cash were suffering severely, for it had
been more than two years since the Spanish fleet had visited
them.®® What cash the planters were able to get hold of went
for provisions; they were concerned with keeping alive the
slaves they had, rather than with buying new ones.
When under these conditions the Company insisted on re-
taming the hated twenty-five per cent, tax on the property of
persons leaving the island, feeling among the planters tan high.
In numerous secret meetings the Company and its St. Thomas
1717-^0, copy (November 5, 1707).
Ihe letter menticmed
gepretendeerde 6% penrdng^het mlcke vuyt de hru^
han genm warden,
opgehoven,’^ which, if the copy be acOuracte, may possibly
refer to the mxth
penning'* tax.
But the tax seems to have r^miained im force
nevertheless,
^ Cop, og mor^ 8. F./of 8t. TK
(April
S8. 170^
“ F.
ife D„ 171^17 (Atgoflt 10, 17l§).
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
180
representatives came in for most severe denunciation.
In May
and July, 1714, leading citizens made a strong plea to the gover-
nor and council requesting the return of various former priv-
ileges which they had enjoyed in Governor Lorentz’s time and
before, and they threatened in case of refusal to send their dep-
uties to Denmark to lay the matter directly before the king.^^
This threat was finally carried out when, early in 1715, a com-
mission of three influential planters, George Carstensen, Jacob
Magens and John Johnson de Windt, set out for Copenhagen
to represent the planters at the Danish court.^^ Theindependent
spirit shown by the West Indian planters had alarmed the local
oflScials, who were quick to scent a conspiracy against the gov-
ernment.
In their report to the directors, the governor and
council charged one James Smith, son of the erstwhile Branden-
burg factor Peter Smith,^^ with beiag the main author of the
disturbance, the inheritance of a portion of his father’s fortune
having affected
his
interests.
In
their desire to expose the
character of the ringleaders, the local ojfficials alleged that James
Smith had been treasurer of the Scotch Darien Company,
and that when its trade had been ruined by the English, he had
escaped with the treasury’s money.®®
The delegates from St. Thomas arrived in Copenhagen in
the summer of 1715, determined to secure some definite con-
cessions and not to permit any such failme as had occurred in
1706.
Besides the remission of the twenty-five per cent., and
the substitution for it of the usual six per cent, tax on all goods
exported, they petitioned to be permitted to ship out their
products to whatever port they pleased. They asked, as in 1706,
that representatives of the planters be consulted by the governor
& D., 171^17 (July
11, 1714).
Those signing the COTnmmiicatioii of
July 11 were: L. Beverhoudt, Johauuea Sots, Jan Jansen de \?mdt, Damd
Jansen, David Bourdeaiqc, Johannes Cramieuw, Hans E^yer, Tobias van
Wondergem Mid Ja[me]s Snidt (&nith).
Vest, Beg., 1699-17^ (April 14, 1716).
George Cfurstensen became the
founder of a distinguMied line of Danish nobility, the Castaiskjolds. He was a
n^hew of Governor Lozentz.
See above, pp. IIS, 115.
See abov^ p. 119.
R. &
mirVr (Ai^t 10, 1714).
190
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
and council on matters pertaining to the land and its inhabitants.
They requested permission, on behalf of the members of the
Reformed or Calvinist faith, for the latter to elect their own
minister.
They asked as had the delegates of 1706 that the
government take measures to secure
satisfaction from Spain
for slaves escaped to Porto Rico and for ships seized by the
Spanish, French, and English during the War of the Spanish
Succession.
They requested more efficient assistance from the
Company in the prevention of rimaways and a remission of
the mterest on slaves bought in 1707.^®
These various desires and grievances were presented in the
form of memorials or petitions to the directors and to the king.
The memorial
to the former was dated September
1715,
and to this the directors made reply on October 28 following.®^
King Frederick IV referred the matter for further investiga-
tion to royal commissions, including the Board of Police and
Trade.
The
St. Thomas delegates remained in Copenhagen
through the winter
of
1715-1716 and
succeeded in gettmg
definite statements from both the Company and the crown on
aU the points in dispute. A commission was appointed by the
king on April 14, 1716, consisting of privy councilors Christian
Sehested and Frederick Christian Adder, supreme court judge
and coimcilor in chancery Christian Berregaard, and Jens Kuur,
a member of the Copenhagen city council.^^
This body really
acted as arbiter in the dispute between the planters and the
Company.
The king’s resolution on each of the disputed points
was handed down on August 16, 1716.
The mission of 1715-1716 was certainly productive of result.
The tax on the property of persons leaving St. Thomas was
reduced from twenty-five to ten per cent.
Trade was thrown
open to St. Thomas inhabitants on payment of six per cent,
for outgomg, and five per cent, for incoming goods.
On these
terms the inhabitants of St. Thomas were to be permitted to
trade with all places except the Danish European lands and
“ It is not dear just why this was asked for.
Manager MS., 119,
^ Comp. Pfot, 1697-178^ (October 28, 1715).
^ Vest, Reg., 1699~’17^6 (April 14, 1716). Assessor and CanceUie^Baad were
the Danish n^es for Berregaard’s offices.
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
191
Hamburg and Bremen, but were expected to assist the Company
in securing full cargoes, though at market rates, instead of the
discount of one-sixth which the directors had held out for.
The
planters^ attempt to secure a legal standing as a legislative body
for their common court failed, although the king ordered that
their decisions were to be appealed to the directors, thus depriv-
ing the governor and council of their judicial functions.
The
kingapproved the directors’ proposal to issue a letter of presenta-
tion (Kaldsbrev) to any suitable Reformed Church minister nomi-
nated by the St. Thomas congregation.
With regard to slave
refugees in Porto Rico, to runaways on St. Thomas, and to seiz-
mes made by various nations durhig the late war, the authori-
ties joined in promising assistance.
The interest on the debt
due for slaves purchased in 1707 was not remitted, but reduced
from eight to six per cent.
Speedier handling of probate cases
was promised.^®
This outcome, on the whole favorable to the planters, was
partly due to the vigorous championship of their interests by a
committee of the Board of Police and Trade, which the king
had deputed to report upon the case.^
The whole-hearted
sympathy which this body showed towards the planters indi-
cates an intelligent grasp of commercial matters considerably
in advance
of that generally held
in Danish administrative
circles of the early eighteenth century.
The planters’ victory
was gained
in the face
of
bitter opposition from Governor
Michael Crone, who had counsdled banishment and fines for
the leaders if actual revolution was to be averted and the Com-
pany was to be saved from ruin.^^
In view of Crone’s question-
able dealings with privateers and the care with which he looked
after his own fortunes, while he neglected the interests of the
^ For the king’s resolution on each of the matters in dispute, see Martfeldt
MSS,, VoL VI., “ JJdtog of en Kongdig Re^oliiMon
.
.
(August 24, 1716).
Of, Manager MS., pp. 120 et seq.
^ The monbers w^e: Niels Slange, Johan Bertram Ernst, Andreas Franck,
Christian Braem, Morten Munck, Markus Johansen, and Abraham Klocker.
PoUH og Commerce CoUegiete Memoricd Bog, vol. 21 (1716-1720), in City Hall
archives, Copenhagen.
See Ajypertdix F, pp. 306-314, for translation of this
report.
Crone to Directors (February 19, 1715), B.
<fe D., 171^17.
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Campany, it is possible to comprehend why the king's commis-
sioners disregarded the governor’s advice.
In fact, two of the
St- Thomas delegates, George Carstensen and Jacob Magens,
were appointed by the
directors to examine
into Governor
Crone’s official stewardship.^^
Crone, happily for himself, died
before the investigation could be instituted.
Troubles between planters and those governing them were
not confined to St. Thomas during the years after the War of the
Spanish Succession.
The class of planter-capitalists which in
WaJpole^s time largely dominated English colonial policy seems
during these years first to have become conscious of its power in
various West Indian
islands.
Grovemor Erik Bredal of
St.
Thomas, in a
letter to the directors dated March
13,
1718,
Imported that the Portuguese had exiled their governor to St.
Thomas, possibly the Portuguese island by that name off the
Guinea coast
of Africa, that the French on Martinique had
driven off their ‘‘general, ” and that a similar fate had met the
Dutch “general” on
St. Eustatius.
The times were indeed
“quite fatal” for West Indian governors.
. Bredal wrote from
first-hand knowledge, for he himself had had to imprison a
planter who had proposed sending him to Porto Rico.^^
The increased freedom
in trade r^ulted
in a
short-lived
“boom ” in St. Thomas.
Despite the attempts made by French,
English and Spanish to restrict tra^e to theirown nationalities,^
and despite numerous seizures by Porto Rico authorities,^® St.
Thomas traders were willing to assume risks which the Com-
pany could not.
New England shipyards furnished vessels by
means of which St. Thomas planters ran the gauntlet of pirates
and men-of-war, and not infrequently evaded successfully the
vigilance of the West Indian authorities whose business it was
to guard the
interests of their European masters.^
On the
^Comp. Prot, 1697-1734' (October 25, 1715).
Crone had cojmived with
Governor Rivera of Porto Rico in carrying on forbidden trade.
Cf- Bredal,
etc., to Directors (November U, 1716), R. & D„ 1717-m.
** B.
1717-20 (March 18^ 1718). The pkmt^’a nai^e waa Pieter
** Ibid. (June 11, 1718).
^ Ibid, (February 12, 1719).
^Ibid, (March
IS, 1718).
Among others, Lucas Beverhondt had a vessel
built in Boston for trade betwe^ the West Indies mid Holland.
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
193
Danish West Indian as on the Dutch and other islands, smug-
gling early became a fine art, one of the approved ways to wealth
and affluence and even to titles of nobility.
The results of this more liberal policy were soon reflected in
increase of trade, especially with the Dutch and with the English
colonists on the mainland, who were adepts at wriggling through
the meshes of eighteenth-century commercial regulations.
The
visiting Dutch traders, always willing to
sell their wm^es on
credit, were eminently successful among the St. Thomas plant-
ers. An era of extravagance ensued, which the Company tried
in vain to combat.
Plantation magnates sent their children
to the northern English colonies or to Europe for their schooling,
and when they had acquired independent fortunes the plant-
ers
themselves
retired
to
Holland
or Denm^k
to
enjoy
them.
The
conditions under which
these
distant
colonies
were
settled and developed give their fiscal history peculiar interest,
and likewise complicate
it not a little.
Besides the duties on
imports and exports already referred to, the planters had to
pay certain direct, and a considerable number of indirect, taxes.
In order to encourage planters to come to St. Thomas and St.
John,
it had been necessary to promise them eight years of
exemption from poll and land taxes.^^ No one was free from
militia duty, however, though a number sent
proxies.
Tke
planters preferred serving in the militia to supporting a con-
siderable body of Danish troops.^
Of the latter alternative,
there was little danger, for the Company had difficulty in keep-
ing a full compl^ent of men at the fort, and those employed
were too frequently the riflEraff of Copenhagen, who were often
such inveterate imbibers of kill-devil that they became worse
than useless.
‘‘They are indeed so wretched,” wrote Governor
Bredal in 1716, “ that they cannot be trusted any longer at their
posts; they get so drunk that they fall off the walls where they
stand on duty, some falling to their death, some so injuring
themselves that they are unable for a long time to do their work.
Others desert their posts in the hope of getting a chance to leave
^ See above, p. 69, for reference to Governor Adolph Esndt’s order.
See above, p. 101, for Thoimdhlei’s expenence with the planters.
194
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
the place.
.
.
^ Few soldiers ever lived to return to Denmark,
and very few became landowners, though a number became
naanagers of plantations.
So long as the planters were compelled to ship their products
to Europe in the Company’s vessels, an excessive freight rate
became itseK a species of tax.
A form of taxation most heartily
detested by the colonists, however, was the sort that was levied
through underpaying the planters for their products.
It was
to evade such taxes that the latter fought
persistently for
greater freedom of trade than was being allowed them, and for
a place in the local law-making body.
The one tax that gave
the planter
least reason for just complaint because
of any
measurable inequality in
its incidence, was the poll and land
tax.^
The slaves represented the planters’ chief investment,
and the ability of the owners to pay could generally be cal-
culated with reasonable accuracy by the number of slaves in
their possession.
The colonists were naturally concerned chiefly in securing
the best price possible for their sugar, cotton, indigo, tobacco,
and other products.
The highest prices were generally to be
obtained from Dutch or English interlopers; hence in order
to insure cargoes for the Company’s ships, the privy comcil
would sometimes proceed to raise to the necessary level the
duties on goods exported.
Planters who were in the Company’s
debt were usually obliged to offer their produce to the Company
before trying to
sell
it to any outside buyer, but well-to-do
planters did not fear at times to refuse to sell the Company any
siigar whatever,®^
Under such circumstances, the local
offic-
ials were occasionally forced to borrow from a visiting skipper
the sugar required to make up a cargo.®^
The directors had
insisted from the first on the prior right to buy all plantation
products,^ but they were forced as time went on to relax that
end of th^ monopoly little by little.
Finally in 17^ tibe Com-
• JB.
D., mir-17 (April 29, 1716).
“ See above, p. 196,
“ fl. P./or St 1%. (Inly 9, 1714).
B, S
171^17 (August 10, 17l4).
*» Mar^ddt
Vol. VI, 1703-1709 (April 2. 1708),
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
195
pany gave up its monopoly of all trade at St. Thomas except
that in slaves, permitting the ships of
all nations to buy and
sell there on payment of the six per cent, export and five per
cent, import tax fixed in the royal edict of August
1716.^^
This appears to mark the beginning of St. Thomas as a free port.
After the acquisition of St. Croix^ the question of how the
sugar and cotton prices should be fixed became one of prime
political importance in the Danish island?.
Before 1735 the
planters tried to secure current prices for their products by un-
official means, since they had no recognized legislative powers.
As a source of income the Company’s magazine at St. Thomas
played some part.
It was impossible to retain the monopoly
of the retail trade so long as Danish ships could not furnish
the island with all its needed supplies and provisions.
Planta-
tion implements came in large part from English and French
sources, and provisions
chiefly from New England and New
York.
During
the Spanish Succession war, when numerous
prizes and prize cargoes were brought to St. Thomas for sale,
the Company lost a good deal of its retail trade to those local
planter-merchants who were willing to undertake war
risks.
By 17^
it had given up almost
all of this trade except its
traffic in slaves.
It was the duty of the local factor to keep the
officials in
Copenhagen informed concerning the goods likely to be in de-
mand in the West Indies.
A list of articles found enumerated
in the Company’s books for 1717 wUl give an idea of the con-
tents of
its magazine.
Among the provisions on hand were
salt beef, pork, maize, sweet potatoes, p^m oil, cassava, i)epper,
spices, cacao, tea, bread, flour, butter, sweetmeats, wine, vine-
gar, beer
(LyhsJc 01)
kill-devil, and
spirits {aquanta).
There
were also to be found pitch, rope, sailcloth, and thread for the
use of ships in the harbor; shinies, lumber, brick, tile-stones
and nails for building houses, and tallow for lighting them.
For
the planter’s wife and daughter the factor had in stock laces,
linens and cotton prints.
To the planter himself, who rode
on his daily inspection tour, the maga^e offered a saddle.^^
^ See above, p. H®.
Ibid,, 17^mi (October 21, VT9A).
/. for Si. Tk. £ot 1917,
1^6
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Closely associated with the Company’s fiscal policy, but less
firmly under its control, was the matter of money.
Part of the
metal dug out of Spanish mines in America was diverted by
Dutch and other interlopers into the channels of West Indian
and European trade.
Spanish merchants gladly parted with
hard Spanish
pieces-of-eight for negroes or provisions;
their
own skippers could not keep pace with the supply, and Span-
ish planters were willing to pay good prices
for those com-
modities.
The greater number of the coins that were in cir-
culation in the West Indies in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries bore on their face the
titles of the king of Spain.
Spanish milled dollars circulated freely in the trade of Boston,
New York and Philadelphia with the West Indies long after
the English colonies had gained their independence.
Within each of the different groups of colonies, the money of
the home state was supposed to circulate.
Hence various kinds
of coin crept into general use, to the confusion of commerce
and the joy of the professional money-changer.
St. Thomas
suffered
its most severe
financial disturbance
during the years of universal money stringency following the
Peace of Utrecht.
As early as 1715, the planters on St. Thomas
were unable to pay their export and import dues in coin.^ Two
years
later, shortly after the Company’s treasurer, Christian
Seeberg, had been accused of wholesale peculations by Governor
Bredal, the latter reported that there was no money left on St.
Thomas.
‘^There
is no trade with the Spaniards,” he wrote,
“and the English have secured the little money that is left, so
that the land is poorer than it has ever been.
People who are
rated as capitalists do not have enough money for the daily ex-
penses of their households.
In order to pay our militia and
others of our servants, our only resource lies in doing as is being
done in Carolina and Canada: namely, to make use of paper
bills with the Company’s seal in place of money. ...”
The only other alternative, as the governor intimated in the
same letter, would have been barter in sugar and cotton, hardly
convenient substitutes for small change.
To make legal seiz-
ures for debts owed by planters, would merely have brought the
“ B. ^ Z>., mJhl7 (My 23, 1716).
THE PLANTER AND THE COMPANY
197
Company slaves and furniture, whicli could not have been used
in paying the Company’s employees.^^
The crisis was thus tided over by paper money issues, but
not without inconvenience and loss.
In 1722 Grovemor Bredal
issued an order requiring possessors of “false paper bills” to
present them for signing within fourteen days, on pain of con-
fiscation.^
In 1724, in the seventh year of their use. Governor
Frederick Moth and his coimcil took measures for the with-
drawal and confiscation of the old notes, which were scarcely
recognizable any longer, and proceeded to the issue of new ones
that were
less easily raised.^®
The governor and council de-
cided to issue 2,000 bills of each of the following denominations:
one, two, four, and eight reals.®®
Counting eight reals to each
piece-of-eight brings the sum thus issued to 3,750
pieces-of-
eight, which was equivalent to the same number of rixdoUars.
Two years later a new issue worth 1,000 rdl. more replaced
the above,®^ but the planters began to demand twenty-five per
cent, higher prices for their produce when paid in papier money.
This caused the local officials to take measures for the redemp-
tion of the bills by accepting them at their face value in pay-
ment of debts to the Company.
On March 21, 1727, PhiHp
Gardelin, the factor at St. Thomas, requested the retirement
and destruction of the paper money.
His suggestion was ac-
cepted, and after a decade of experience the Company went
back to a hard money footing.®^ The financial stringency that
had prompted the experiment had disappeared.
The Company
had avoided the disaster that befell the French and English
companies of this period by refraining from issuing more paper
money than it was able to absorb in the course of its business.
Far more permanent as a medium of exchange were the so-
^ Bredal to Directors (September 27, 1717).
B,
D., 1717-W.
58 Martfddi MSS., Vol. I, 1684-1744 (July 27, 1722).
58 S. P. for SL
Th. (May 11, October 12, 1724); Marifeldt MSS., Vol. VI,
1723-1739 (October 12, 1724).
88 S. P.for St Th. (October 12, 1724).
8^ Ihid. (July 30, 1726).
82 Ihid. (March 21, 1727).
The half-tone engravings of Danish and colonial
coins planned for this volume have had to be omitted, as the Danish museum
coin collections have been stored away until the close of the war.
198
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
called "‘Seeberg dollars.”
The silver ware and plate of the de-
faulting
treasurer had been
cut
into
convenient
sizes and
stamped, and some of the money thus created continued
in
circulation after the Danish West India and Guinea Company
had passed out of existence.
In spite of wars and panics, the Company had during the
first third of the new century not only held St. Thomas, but had
acquired and settled St. John.
It had seen the rise of a class of
capitalist planters, and had at the same time been able to pay
its shareholders a twelve per cent, dividend in 1714 and salaries
to the directors and chief participants for their service from
1696 onP
In 1721 it had been able to pay an eight per cent,
dividend, but no ^'Solarium froportionaliterJ'
No further div-
idends were declared
until
1734, when the purchase
of
St.
Croix made other arrangements necessary.
With two little islands in its possession but both gradually
decreasing in fertility, with a restless planter population which
insisted most strenuously upon its rights, and with a trade that
could scarcely supply more than one or two ships a year with
cargoes, it became evident to live Danish business men that a
fresh start of some sort would soon have to be made to prevent
utter stagnation.
The opportunity came when French interest
in the affair of the Polish Succession suggested to French states-
men that Danish neutrality and Danish money might be se-
cured by offering to Denmark-Norway the all but abandoned
island of St. Croix.
The acquisition of this fertile island marks
the beginning of a new era in Danish West Indian history, whic^i
it will be the purpose of the succeeding chapters to describe.
Manager MS., 117.
CHAPTER X
a?HE ACQUISITION OF ST. CBOIX
The acquisition by Denmark of the island of St, Croix in
1733 may properly be viewed in the nature of a windfall.
This
small but precious tropical fruit fell into Denmark’s lap during
one
of those
capricious diplomatic storms which shook the
chanceries of Europe from 17£3 to 1733.
During this decade
an intriguing and ambitious Italian woman, Elizabeth Famese,
seated on the throne of Spain as the consort of the incompetent
Philip V, ‘‘was the pivot upon which the diplomacy of Europe
turned.”
Failing in her
efforts to bring about a marriage
alliance between France and
Spain,
Elizabeth
through her
minister, the Dutch adventurer, Ripperd^, managed to effect
an alliance with Austria in 17^ by which among other things
Spain was to secure the restoration of Gibraltar and Minorca,
and Austria was to receive Spanish support for her Ostend
East India Company.
This reversal of alliance, which brought
together two of the chief opponents of the Spanish Succession
war, threatened the revival of the empire of Charles the fifth.
By way of restoring the “balance of power” and averting the
dangerous consequences of such a combination, the rq)resent-
atives of France, England, and Prussia met at Herrmhausen
where later in the same year they formed what became known
as the League of Hanover.
They were subsequently joined by
Sweden, Denmark, and the United Provinces.
It was the marriage of the young and weakly Louis XV to
Marian Leszczynska, the daughter
of
Staoislas
Leszczynski,
ex-king of Poland, that had definitdy terminated Elizabeth’s
schemes for a French-Spanish alliance. The inopportune death
of Augustusn of Poland on February 1, 1733, left France as the
chief champion of the rights of Stanislas to the Polish throne.
The question of the aged, i)eace-loving Cardinal Fleury, “Must
we ruin the king to aid his fathm’-in-law?” was ignored.
France
[1991
SCO
TEE DANISH WEST INDIES
consequently found herself in the difficult position of guarantor
of a royal candidate who was opposed by the arms of Russia
and Saxony, both of which states were actively backing the
Saxon candidate, Augustus.
Since Austria supported Russia and Saxony, Cardinal Fleury
expected Sweden to attack her inveterate enemy, Russia, while
he looked for Denmark, which controlled the entrance to the
Baltic, at least to remain neutral.
This would permit the French
fleet to enter the Baltic and thus come to the aid of Stanislas.
The negotiations of France with Denmark were carried on by
Count Plelo,^ who had been sent to Copenhagen in 1728, where
he had become very popular because of his knowledge of Danish
history and his acquaintance with northern literary and scien-
tific men.^
Plelo’s task was not an easy one, for only eight
months before the death of the Polish king Denmark had con-
cluded a treaty
of friendship and
alliance with Russia and
Austria at Copenhagen, with a view towards securing a favor-
able settlement of the vexing questions concerning Denmark’s
relations with the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
Under these conditions, the Danish court was obliged to move
with circumspection.
Austria must not be offended, for Holstein
was within the Empire; Prance must not be turned away en-
tirely, for there was no telling when French support might be-
come very desirable for Denmark.
The Danish king, Chris-
tian VI, managed to draw out the negotiations until March 27,
1734, when he definitely refused the French offer of alliance; ^
but meantime the island of St. Croix had been purchased from
Prance for the Danish West India and Guinea Company.
This
enabled France to secure needed fxmds for carrying on her war
in Poland, and the Danish company to gain a new and fertile
island.
The ten or twelve years following the collapse of the Missis-
sippi and South Sea companies were years when money went
^ Louis Kobert Hypolite de Brehan, Comte de P14lo.
® It was during P141o*s stay in Copenhagen that Ludwig
{Louis)
Holberg,
Denmark-Norway’s great dramatist and historian, was laying the foundations
of a national drama in the Danish capital.
* For conditions preceding the purchase of St. Croix, see L. Koch, Christian
den Sjeftes Hisilorie (Kjdbenhavn, 1886), pp. St57 et seq.
THE ACQUISITION OP ST. CROIX
201
into hiding and was exceedingly difficult to coax out. A time
when it was common to resort to paper money to carry on the
minimum of necessary trade was not favorable to the prosperity
of commercial companies.
Under the successors of Governor
Bredal,^ the Danish West India and Guinea Company, unable
to pursue an
aggressive commercial
policy,
gradually
relin-
quished its monopoly in favor of private traders and proceeded
to collect as many as possible of its outstanding debts.
Even
in the slave trade, its one remaining source of profit, headway
was very difficult. A number of poor crops, due to drought and
other causes,
left the planters with
little surplus to invest in
slaves.
The East India Company too was practically at a standstill.
Its low estate was ascribed mainly to the Northern War and
to the plague in Copenhagen in 1711.
In the course of an in-
vestigation Frederick IV sent a letter under date of November
1726, to the investigating commission asking them to report
upon the advisability of uniting the two India companies.®
The commission was dissolved in 1728 without having achieved
any tangible result.®
When Christian VI came to the throne in 1780, the prospects
for the India companies began to improve.
As crown prince,
Christian had already shown a live interest in these ventures.
In the East India Company he had held the presidency and on
April 12, 1782, within two years after his accession, that com-
pany was reorganized as “The Royal Chartered East Indian
or Asiatic Company.” ^
The West India Company's opportu-
nity for rehabilitation came when the directors saw the chance
to buy the island of St. Croix from Prance.
In 1782, at the time that Plelo^s negotiations with the Danish
* Commander Otto
J. Thambsen was governor for a few months in 17S&4;
Captain Frederick Moth, until 1727; and Henry Suhm, until 1733, when PhiHp
Gardelin became governor (February 21).
® The committee consisted
erf August Friderieh von John and Daniel Ben-
jamin Weyse, with Andreas HSyer as secretaiy.
Htst. Sami, og Shdier
.
.
.
H. Rordam, ed. (Kjobenhavn, 1878), 4 B. HI, pp, 144 et seq,
® E. Holm, Danmarh-Norges Historie i Fred&ridc TWa aidate ti B^gervngaaaf,
pp. 439 et aeq,
^ Kay Larsen, De danah-oatinddahe Kdomera Hiatorie, I, 73.
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
court were under way, the directorate of the West India Com-
pany consisted
of Ferdinand Anthon (Count
of Laurwigen),
councilors
of
state Severin Junge and Christian Berregaard,
Hans J. Soelberg, and Gregorius Elauman.
The chief partic-
ipants were Frederick Seckman and the mayor of Copenhagen,
iVederick Hohnsted.^
When the president, Laurwigen, pre-
sented his resignation to the shareholders on September
12,
1732,
the
latter immediately began the search
for another
“high minister” and instructed councilor of justice Frederick
L.
i)ose
to
soimd
‘^his High
Excellency,” privy
councilor
Charles Adolph von Plessen in the matter.®
From September
until the following April
(1733), von Plessen
kept
his own
counsel, but he set to work informing himself on the state of
the Company and the possibilities for its improvement.
Von Plessen had conferred with Holmsted during the interval
and had found that the Company was
scarcely able to pay
interest on its debts, and the stockholders still less able to secure
returns on the capital invested.
He had ‘^studied such pro-
posals, ways, and means as could be suggested, not only to
assist,
rescue, and support the Company, but
also
[such as
would help] to place it on a sounder basis.”
Commerce to and from the West Indies, ‘‘especially in these
times of general peace” was indeed according to Hohnsted’s
admission entirely demoralized; St. Thomas bought its goods
direct from other lands, while the Company was forced to pay
the planters
rdl. per hundred pounds for their sugar, and
from eleven to thirteen shillings a pound for their cotton, higher
prices than the planters themselves could secure in Europe,
especially for the sugar.
These
observations, which von
Plessen and the
directors
communicated to the shareholders at their meeting on May 8,
1733, led his High Excellency to the conclusion “that the lands
of the Company are too small and its inhabitants too few and
that the colonial administration is on too limited a scale and has
not from the beginning been established upon a
sufficiently
* Manager 3f3., pp. 138 et seq.
® Comp, Prci,, 1697-17$^ (September 18, 1738).
loZ&id., (May8,1734).
MAP
OF
ST.
CROIX
(MS.
Map,
1734
[?].
Royal
Library,
Copenhagsn)
[Facing
page
202]
THE ACQUISITION OF ST. CROIX
203
well-ordered footing or upon a plan properly suited to carry on
commerce successfully with these lands/’
The only way out
that appeared to von Plessen lay in the possibility of the Com-
pany’s securing the neighboring island of St. Croix, which was
at the time in the possession of France.
The suggestion thus skillfully presented by a man so distin-
guished in rank and prestige must have taken the assembled
stockholders by surprise, for they had received no dividends
since 1721, and many of them had in fact advanced to the Com-
pany in 1723 loans amounting to thirty per cent, of their stock,
and received in return the Company’s notes yielding six per
cent, interest.^^
The sort of confidence instilled into the minds
of the Company’s
“general court”
as they
listened
to the
courageous proposals of a high official who was willing to stake
his reputation upon the success of his scheme, must have been
comparable to that produced in a meeting of the board of di-
rectors of a run-down railway in these days when a Hill or a
Morgan offers to puU them out of the slough.
When von Plessen appeared before the stockholders in May,
1733, the entire plan as he presented it was known only to the
king, who had given it his approval, to Holmsted and himself
and to “a couple of confidential friends whom Mr. Holmsted
had employed,” and of course to Coimt Plelo.
Although se-
crecy was still enjoined, he was able to announce that Holmsted
had brought the negotiations
to the point where the island
could be secured for 164,000 “French crowns”
(ecus?).
This
included the advantage of an “alliance or treaty” with France,
providing for “mutual obligation and neutrality in aQ cases,
perpetual friendship in America regardless of the situation in
Europe, and mutual defense and succor if need be against all
who might attempt to disturb the American establishments,
colonies, and commerce of these nations.
.
.
Whether or
not a treaty of alliance actually was contemplated
in these
preliminary negotiations is not mitirely dear from the minutes
of the Company.
It was assmned by those who had begun the negotiations
that the island was well worth buying.
Von Plessai estimated
Comv, Prot^ 1697-173^ (May 8, 1784) HO.
204
TBOE DANISH WEST INDIES
that the island when surveyed would be found to contain not
fewer than 800 large plantations besides many smaller ones;
that it would yield cacao, indigo, and
coflPee, as well as sugar
and cotton; and that the land was of such a high quality that the
plantations would be worth from 500 to 1,000 rdL from the
beginning.
He expressed the belief that there would be no lack
of purchasers, and that the 164,000 rdL needed would come
back within a few years.
Granted that the shareholders were willing to concede the
value of the island, the questions of next greatest importance
were those which dealt with the readjustment of the Company’s
internal affairs on the basis of the new conditions. How were
the shares
iu the new investment to be distributed?
What
special privileges should purchasers of the new shares enjoy?
How should the Company provide for the payment of the pur-
chase price?
To what extent should trade be free and on what
branches of commerce should the Company hold the monopoly?
At what price should the old shares be estimated and how shoidd
holders of shares in the recently established refineiy be treated?
All of these questions were suggested by von Plessen at the
general assembly held on May 8, and he sketched out tentative
answers, but the shareholders were not ready as yet to express
their opinions on every one of them.
They did however vote
in favor of the purchase, and made arrangements for securing
voluntary subscriptions to stock, the preference to be given to
holders of the old shares.
On May 18 the various groups met once more in general as-
sembly,
During the five-day interval, a committee of share-
holders
had discussed the mooted points with the directors
and the chief participants,^^ and the following resolutions were
presented, and received the approval of the assembly when
it
met on May 15.
(1) The Company’s old shares, about eighty-
four in number, with a par value of 1,000 rdL each, were to be
i2“Coimcaars of Conference” Lars Benzon and Christian Berregaard, and
Coim^ors of State Phillip Julius Bomemann and Thomas Bartholin.
Councilor of Conference Severin Junge, Hans Jorgen Soelberg, and Grego-
rius Elauman.
?
“Chancery director” Frederidr Sechman and Frederick TTnlTtnrf.,1
THE ACQUISITION OF ST. CROEX
^
reduced to 500 rdZ. a share, by way of encouraging the buyers
of shares in the Company and the refinery; (^) the value of the
shares in the sugar refinery was to be raised from 600 to 1,000
rdt each, and persons investing for the first time were to have
the right to buy them; (8) after June 11 the above shares were
to be combined into single shares on the basis already resolved
upon, and the profits from Company and refinery put into the
common treasury;
(4) the possessor of each old share was to
advance 2,000 rdL towards the purchase of the island, and to
receive in return two plantations on
St. Croix, each of them
8.000 feet long and 2,000 feet wide;
(5) the 2,000 rdl, was to
constitute part of each full share and be combined with the
1.000 rdL in refinery, and 500 rdZ. in Company, shares;
(6)
it
was agreed that the stockholders should have the opportunity
if they desired
it of selling the plantations assigned to them
before the Company began disposing of
its
plantations;
(7)
those failing to fall in line were given the chance to dispose of
their refinery and Company shares within eight days on pain
of confiscation; (8) the outstanding debts were not to be inter-
fered with; (9) the dividends on the sugar refinery and the old
shares were fixed at seven per cent, beginning with June 11,
1788, but from the 2,000 rdl. investment, each was to receive
such returns as the tide of fortune might bring him; and finally
(10) after the shares should all have been paid up, the Company
pledged itself not to force any shareholder ^to advance money
to the Company against his will.^®
Thus was the Danish West India and Guinea Company once
more reorganized to meet the demands of a new time.
Many
things had happened since Governor Lorentz urged the directors
to take up the activities laid down by Thonnohlen and Arff,
and counseled them to push with vigor the promising Guinea
trade.
While the reorganization of 1697 was made chiefly with
a view towards the slave-trade, that of 1788-1784 looked rather
in the direction of plantation development and of the monopoly
in the business of refining and distributing sugar in Denmark-
Norway.
Ccmp, Prat., 1$97-173^ (May IS, 1738).
Mariaa&r MS, (pp. 140 et
seq.)
fc^ows the minutes of the Company almost literally here.
206
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
The treaty with France, which was concluded at Copenhagen
by Plelo and Holmsted June
15, 1733, and ratified by Louis
XV just thirteen days later, provided for the purchase of St.
Croix from the French by the Company but said nothing of any
alliance with France.^®
It arranged for the payment of 750,000
livres
in French coin, half to be paid in cash on the exchange
of ratifications and the remainder in eighteen months.
In their general assembly of August 8, the shareholders were
oflBcially notified by the directors of the consummation of the
treaty, and they accepted the directors’ plans for raising the
money.
The time that was to be allowed to the holders of the
old shares to participate in the new plan was extended, so that
those within the city were allowed another fortnight, and those
in the provinces, six weeks, to pay up the required sum.
Holders
of old shares were to be given six months’ time before they were
to be required to give a final answer to the notification of the
directors.
Meantime the king, through privy coimcilor and
director
of finances
Christian Louis von Plessen
(brother
of
Charles Adolph), had offered to loan the Company such sums
as might be necessary to complete the payments to France.^®
The plans of the directors for taking over St. Croix from the
French
general ” at Martinique, for having the island surveyed
and laid out into “quarters” and plantations, and for giving
four instead of two plantations to those investing 2,000
rdi.,
were presented to the assembled shareholders, and accepted by
them in their meeting of September 26, 1733.^®
By way of assuring the reorganized Company a market for
its West Indian cargoes, the king had issued an order on July 4,
1733, providing that private refineries should be required there-
after to buy their raw sugar from the Danish islands as long as
that source of supply held out.^
This move in the Company’s
For full text of treaty and pleinpoufxnrSt see Host, 98 et seq.
^ Tins amounted in Danish coin to 141,926 rd/., 52
el., according to Comp,
Prot., im-m4 (September 26, 1733).
“ C<mp. Prot„ 1697-mi (August 8, 1733).
^ Ibid. (September 26, 1733); Manager MS., p. 145.
No (me refinery was to be allowed to lower the price of sugar without con-
sulting the others.
This was evidently intended to protect the Company’s
refinery established in 1728*
THE ACQUISITION OF ST. CROIX
207
favor was followed on December
11 by royal permission
to
arrange for the purchase of either or both of the two privately
owned refineries
in Copenhagen,^^ and for their incorporation
into the Company.
Within four years the Company’s monopoly
of the refining business was practically complete, subject only
to restrictions imposed by the king in the public interest.
The
quality of the sugar was to be maintained at as high a standard
as hitherto, its price was to remain at a reasonable ratio with
the current price of raw sugar, and the Company was to be al-
lowed to put up a brandy and liquor distillery in which syrup
and sugar, and not grain, were to be used.^^
When the Company was ready to take actual possession of
St. Croix, the capital it had at its disposal was as follows:
73H old (reduced) shares @
500 rdl
36,750 rdZ.
117K sugax refinery shares @1,000
**
117,500 “
147
St. Croix shares
@
500 “
78,500
»
The available capital, which amoimted to a total of 227,750
rdZ., represented nearly three times the amount invested in the
Company before its reorganization was b^un.
The enthusiasm
and practiced business sense of Frederick Holmsted and Charles
Adolph von Plessen had overcome the apathy of a considerable
part of the investing public.
They had seen to
it that the
Company’s
interests
in Denmark were proi)erly safeguarded
and coordinated with its interests in the West Indies.
It is proper at this time to turn to the West Indies and to the
circumstances connected with the occupation of St. Croix itself.
While these weighty matters were being considered in Copen-
hagen, St. John, which had been settled only about fifteen years
before,
was about to become the scene of the terrible slave in-
surrectipn, the course of whidh has already been painted out.^
For six awful months, while the directors were laboring to in-
duce shy investors to place thdr funds in West India Company
These were owned by the W^jrse and Pelt families.
^ Mdrioffer M8^ pp. 147 et seq,
»»JWa„150.
^ Sec above, p. 123.
** Chapter VllL
208
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
stock, the planters of St. Thomas and St. John were struggling
for their very existence.
The part played by the French from
Martinique, who learned of the sale of St. Croix before the
Danes on St. Thomas received the information, and how they
helped to put down the rebellion, have likewise been discussed
in the preceding pages.
St- Croix had already had an eventful history.
According to
Bryan Edwards,
the English
historian
of the West
Indies,
Dutch and English settlers occupied it in 1625.^®
They appear
to have been joined there by some French refugees from St.
Christopher
(St. Kitts). A civil war between the factions re-
sulted in the expulsion of the Dutch and the French shortly
before 1650.
In August of that year, a Spanish expedition from
Porto Rico drove off the English.^
The Spaniards had hardly
established themselves there before de Poincy, the lieutenant-
general of all the French islands in America, sent a force of
about one hundred and sixly-six men from St. Christopher's
to oust the Spaniards.
The effort succeeded, and the settlement
of St. Croix by the French was begun by a group of three hun-
dred colonists who were sent thither the following year.^
From 1651 to 1664, when the French West India Company
was established under the initiative of Colbert, St. Croix was
under the proprietorship of the Knights of Malta, who, how-
ever, ruled it in the name of Louis XIV.
In 1695, while Louis
was defending himself against the English and the Dutch and
their
allies
of the Augsburg League, the
entire colony was
moved to San Domingo.^ From that date until the Danish pur-
chase, it is referred to in maps and texts as an abandoned island.
The Company’s servants on St. Thomas had for some time
cast longing glances towards St.
Croix, whose deserted
hill-
sides they could see faintly on the horizon from the slopes that
rose to the northward from St. Thomas bay.
In 1725, Governor
Moth, in a letter to the directors, mentioned having heard a
Historp of ihe Brituk West Inddes, 1, 184.
^ Dll Tertie, Histoire des AntUles^ I, 448 (quoted in J. Knox, op. dt., 27).
Du Tertre, 1, 409-418, 11, 32, 33, 37 (quoted in Mims, Col^erfs West India
Polioy, 44).
^ K^er, Cdonizatwn, 498; J. Knox, op. cit,, 39.
TBDE ACQUISITION OF ST. CROIX
^9
report that the English intended shortly to occupy the island.^
In the following year, Moth wrote that '^Ste. Cruds [St. Croix]
still lies uninhabited.
If said island belonged to the Danes, or
could be secured by them, the Company would in time become
powerful, and I assure [you] that there would be no dearth of
inhabitants as soon as permission for its settlement should be
granted.
“I have heard that some distinguished gentlemen in Denmark
have offered 100,000 rdL for it, which sum it is easily worth, but
I take the liberty to explain to the gentlemen [the directors]
that in case Ste. Criids fell into the hands of private persons
and was granted freedom [of trade] by the king, then St. Thomas
and St. John would be ruined within three years; but on the
other hand,
if the Company could receive
it, both lands
[St.
Thomas
and St. Croix] would be the gainers.’’
This zealous servant of the Company lived to see his hopes
realized,—^he became,
in
fact, the
first
chief instrument for
their realization, when the directors in their instructions dated
November 16, 1733, named Frederick Moth as the first governor
of St. Croix.
The Company’s ship Unity which bore these in-
structions and other orders, did not arrive at St. Thomas until
June
11, 1734, almost an entire year after the conclusion of
the treaty.
She had been obliged to put in for repairs at a Nor-
way port on her outward journey, which she had begun on
December 3, 1733.^
,No sooner had Captmn Moth received his commission than he
»o R. &
mJH^ (July 7, 1725).
^ St. HicHnas aad St. Jolm w^e always considered as a unit for administra-
tive puiposes.
« 25®d, (March 6, me).
** Manager M8^ pp. 156 ei eeq.
210
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
commenced preparations for taking over St. Croix.
The negro
rebellion on St. John had recently been brought under control
through the cheerfully rendered assistance of the French; and
to many planters who had suffered in consequence of the in-
surrection,
this new island offered the prospect of recouping
their lost fortunes. A bark was presently sent off to Martinique
to deliver to the general and intendant there a copy of the
orders of Louis
Because of the danger from hurricanes
during the summer months, the French authorities suggested
postponing the formal transfer until winter, but expressed their
willingness to let the Danes begin actual occupation at once.
On August 31 the Lutheran and Befonned ministers held
services
in
their
respective churches
for
the
benefit
of the
pioneer band that was to leave on the following day.
On the
two barks and two smaller craft which sailed to St. Croix on
this responsible mission, there were, besides Captain Moth and
his party (which included several negroes loaned by St. Thomas
planters), a number of men sent out on the Unity by Charles
Adolph von Plessen to begin immediately the cultivation of the
plantations allotted to that influential statesman.
Thus did
his High Excellency show his faith in the Company’s future by
his own good works.
On September 5, the little band had finished clearing a place
near the Basin on the northern side of the island for the fort,
which was to be called
‘‘ Christianswsem,”
and on the following
day, when the cannon had been placed there, the minister who
had accompanied the party preached a sermon, the royal flag
was planted, and the king’s commission to the new governor was
solemnly read as the cannon fired a salute,^®
Four months later, after the French officials from Martinique
had arrived, occurred the formal transfer from France to Den-
mark.
Captain Bonnoust^ and his party arrived in the harbor
^
^Manager M8., 157; Garddin MSS, (June 23,
1734).
The bark, which
sailed abaut June 23 was in charge of skipper Patrick Laughlin, and the busi-
ness in the hands of a “Mr. Vass,” perhaps Emanud Vass, a Jew, the only
person of that name given in the St. Thomas census for 1733.
defense.
Manager MS,, 158.
^
Pierre Etaude Frangois Anthoine Preinley, Eerre af Bovmouet*'
Host, 125.
THE ACQUISITION OF ST. CROIX
£11
of the Basin of St. Croix on the morning of January 8.
They
saluted the Danish flag, which had been planted on the point
of land near the fort, with nine guns, which the Danes answered
shot for shot.
On the tenth, after Bonnoust had come ashore
with a lieutenant of marine ^ and a notary public, the oflScial
ceremonies took place. A French inhabitant of St. Thomas, one
Pierre Joseph Paimet,^^ acted as interpreter.
About forty St.
Croix inhabitants were designated by Moth to append their
signatures
to
the
acts of
possession
that were drawn
up.^
After exchange of full powers and the declaration of Governor
Moth that no French inhabitants were settled upon the island.
Captain Bonnoust, by virtue of the authority vested in him by
the Marquis de Champigny
governor and lieutenant-general of
the French Windward Islands, placed Frederick Moth, as the
legally designated governor, in full possession of the island in
accordance with the terms of the treaty concluded at Copen-
hagen on June 15, 1733.
By way of symbolizing the authority thus officially conferred
upon him, Governor Moth had his soldiers march to the fort
under arms, and fire nine cannon shots as the Danish flag waved
overhead.
He then extinguished a lighted
candle,
fire was
again lighted, plants and herbs were pulled out of the ground,
branches were broken from the trees, the water in the brook was
tasted, stones were thrown,—^all the acts were performed which
were needed to indicate that free, full, and perpetual possession
of the island had been taken in the name of the Danish West
India and Guinea Company under the authority of the Danish
king.^^
Von Plessen and Holmsted had reason to feel proud of their
^ Marie Barth^lemy Benard.
Host, 15^6.
Or Panel; the author of the BdaMon of the St John insurrection of 17SS.
See above, p. 169,
(n. 37).
^ Among the persons acting with Moth in various
official capacities were
Diderich von Otting^
lieut^iant on St
Croix,
secretary Lorentz
surgeon Cornelius Bodger, and militia captain William Chalville.
Manager
MS., 159.
**E[erre Jacques Charles Broehard, Bidder, Herre HI Champignee, Naiware,
Poiney, Marqms de Ste. Maries
Host 124.
Mariager MS., 158; H5st 124 ci seq.
;
£12
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
work.
Louis XV expended all that St. Croix had brought him,
and more, in a futile attempt to aid his father-in-law.
Den-
mark, on the other hand, thanks to the devoted labors of the
above two men, received the title to a fertile island, which has
remained in her possession almost without interruption to the
present day.
CHAPTER XI
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
With the acquisition of St. Croix, the Danish West India and
Guinea Company looked forward to a revival in
its business
aiffairs.
The prestige and enthusiasm of von Plessen and Holm-
sted did much to raise the hopes of the shareholders, but several
years were likely to elapse before the new colony could be ex-
pected to yield an appreciable return.
Not only was the ex-
pense of the St. John slave uprising to be met, but measures had
to be taken to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe.
St. Croix had to be surveyed and a supply of new settlers se-
cured.
The purchase of the new island, and the privileges giving the
Company the right to establish a sugar refinery and distillery,
prompted Christian VI to grant the reorganized company a new
charter on February 5, 1734, to take the place of the provisional
charter of two years before.^
Besides retaining the three West
Indian islands, the Company was given all rights to “Crab and
other American and African islands.” ^
If it so desired, it was
to continue in possession of Christiansborg in Guinea, on pay-
ment of the usual dues “to the king of Aquambu and the
Cahusiers of Orsa.”
The private sugar refiners of Copenhagen
were forbidden to buy foreign sugars, and w^re dther to agree
with the Company as to the price or pay the current rate
brought by St. Thomas sugar in the Amsterdam market, plus
the cost of forwarding it to Denmark.
Only in case of a shortage
were the refineries to be permitted to import sugar, and then
they were to pay 10 sh, duty for each hundred pounds.®
Under the terms of the new charter, the Company was given
1 Tlie ** intmiii ” diarter ot odroi was Issued on February
1782.
^ See H5st, Eft^ndmnigeT om Oen Sand Thomas, pp. 115 ei seq., io^ an abstract
of die entire octroi.
12131
S14
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
a monopoly of trade with its islands, and exemption from the
Sound and other duties,^ though it was to pay two and one-half
per cent, duty on goods imported into Copenhagen and only
one per cent, on those exported from Copenhagen to foreign
ports.^
This was evidently intended to encourage foreign trade
and thereby to bring more money into the state.
The ships,
moneys, or effects of the Company were not to be subject to
seizure during war or peace.®
The Company was authorized to try all cases arising within
its jurisdiction, in a court consisting of three of its own share-
holders.
Appeals to the supreme court could be made only in
cases involving life or honor.
Judgments in disputes between
the Company and the inhabitants of the islands might come
up for review before a body composed of three shareholders,
other than the above, and four judges of the supreme court.^
Wherever the charter failed to cover the situation, the Danish
laws were to be considered applicable.®
The appointments of
Reformed and Lutheran ministers of the gospel were, like those
of governors, to be confirmed by the king.®
Toleration of be-
lief continued to be granted, but only the two faiths above-
mentioned were permitted to hold public worship.^®
With respect to fiscal matters, some curious provisions were
made.
Interest was to be fixed at such rates as might be agreed
upon between the Company and its creditors,
and ‘‘tenths”
and “sixths” might be assessed or not as the Company desired.^^
Evidently the Company did not propose that the claims made
by the planters in 1715 should be revived.
The executive authority in the colonies was to rest with the
* “ Compagniets Varer akulle i KjSbenluum og Gresund were frie for Tdd Con-
mmMon, Aeciie og andre Patdoeg, og derea Skibe voire frie for Last- og Havne-
Penge, ebs."
Host, 117 (f 9).
s^lO.
•If 12.
• ? 18.
•^ 28.
• f’s 18 and ix.
“ f 18.
“ ^ 17.
“^ 38.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
215
governor and his council, but in place of the former burgher
council or court, there was authorized a lower or town court,
and a higher court consisting of the governor and four members
of the lower court.^^
The directors in their ‘"orders and pro-
visions’^ of November 16, 1734, issued a list of privileges to
planters, in which the rights of the burgher coimcil were speci-
fied in detail.
The first members were to be appointed by the
governor, and thereafter one was to be retired every three years.
Whenever a vacancy occurred, the place was to be filled by the
governor from a list of three planters submitted to him by the
remaining members of the council.
The burgher council was given the right of conferring with
the governor and his council whenever it had any matters to
propose concerning the common welfare.
These matters were
to be presented in writing, and might be forwarded to the di-
rectors by the first ship, whether the governor in council offered
any reply or not.
Although
it might thus make
its
desires
known to the authorities in the islands and in Copenhagen, the
burgher council had no power of initiative except at the written
order of the privy council or the directors.^^ The directors were
to find that once they had granted the right to advise, it would
be exceedingly difficult to prevent the planters from becoming
virtual legislators.
The problem of securing planters for the three hundred planta-
tions which it was proposed to lay out at St. Croix was one of
first Importance to the Company.
The early attempts of the
king and the leading stockholders to begin actual work on the
pieces of ground allotted to them was an encouraging sign.
A
few English settlers^® who had moved to St. Croix before the
Danes secured it, signified their willingness to pay for their land,
and others from Barbados and the “upper islands” indicated
their readiness to come
if the conditions laid down were not
TJdiog af den Ordre og AnstdU.
.
.
(November 16, 17S4),
1[16.
Mart^
feldi M88,, VoL HL
^ A number of the English were reported to have removed to Tortola and
^tanMitown, after Moth’s arrival at St. Croix.
Grard^in,
etc., to Directma
(Dec^nber 28, 117S4).
Mca^ddt M8S^ VoL VL
The DANISH WEST INDIES
m
too severe.
They were quite opposed to paying the 40 rdl. an-
nual land tax asked for by the directors, though the tax was not
to be paid until the close of the seven year exemption period.^®
Occasionally poor men who had only from three to half a dozen
slaves applied for a chance to buy small tracts, but they were
delayed by the instructions of the directors, who wished first
to dispose of the two himdred and fifteen sugar plantations be-
longing to the shareholders.^^
The penniless man, were he ever so hard-working, could hope
for little in the West Indies, which deserved then perhaps more
than at present the appellation of ‘'a rich man’s heaven and a
poor man’s hell.”
A number of families sent from Germany to
St. Croix cost the Company more than they were worth.
Ex-
cept for three families that deserved to be called industrious,
the men proved to be drunkards, and the women, dirty, lazy,
and immoral.
“We therefore do not wish to risk,” wrote the
governor and council, “recommending the sending out of any
additional families of that sort.”
The proposal to encourage
refugee debtors to come to St. Croix was not favorably enter-
tained by the local authorities, who, eager to secure sober, in-
dustrious folk, suggested that they should not exceed twenty-
four years of age, and that not fewer than one hundred be sent
with each ship “if it is to do any good, inasmuch as half of them
will no doubt die off.”^^
As the surveying of sugar and cotton plantations neared its
completion in the summer
of 1735,^ work on the forts was
pushed forward on all three islands.
On St. John, where the
Company had been taken severely to task by the planters for
the inadequacy of the fort during the recent insurrection, a
fort one hundred feet in length, furnished with bastions the
guns of which could command Coral Bay, was in process of
“ Udtog af den Ordre og Ansiodi
.
.
. (November 16, 1734.)
Martfddt MSS,
VoL ni; Gardelin, etc., to Directors, August 8, 1734, B. dc D., 17S2-3^.
Garddixi, etc., to Directors (August 8, 1734).
Martfeldt MSS,, VoL VI.
18 Moth, etc., to Directors (July Zl, 1737).
Martjddt MSS,, VoL VI.
18 lUd. (July 23, 1735).
^ Thomas “Hams” (Howes?), an Englishman from OBie of the nei^boriiig
islands, toc^ charge of the work, being aided by a force of n^froes from St,
Thomas.
“SKETCH
OF
ST.
CROIX’S
TOWN”
fChristiansted]
(Watercolor
drawing,
1740?,
State
Archive’,
Copenhagen)
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
217
construction.
In 1736 it represented an investment, according
to the Company’s books, of 2,700 rdL
It was the St. Thomas
fort, however, in which the governor and council took especial
pride.
The increasingly strained relations between the English
and the Spaniards, neither of whom looked with favor on Den-
mark’s purchase of St. Croix, made stronger fortifications at St.
Thomas seem imperative.
“The fort is now ready, God be
praised,” was the joyful announcement sent on to the directors
in March, 1735, “and in such condition that the English them-
selves who come here must confess that there is not a fort like
it in all the upper islands.^^
It can now be defended by a stnall
force of 30 to 40 men.”
Christianswaem on St. Croix, located
near the Basin on the north side of the island, was not finished
until about 1740.
It was a fairly pretentious structure, 200
feet square.^^
The plantations as surveyed were usually three thousand feet
long by two thousand feet wide.
To prevent a depression in the
real estate market, stockholders wereforbidden to sell the ground
allotted to them at less than 1,000 rdl. for a sugar plantation, and
half that sum for a cotton plantation.^
But the terms of sale
seemed too high for many of the intending settlers.
In March,
1736, the government reported that
in conformity with the
demands of the intending English settlers, it had reduced the
price of sugar plantations from 1,000 to 500-600 r£H.,one-sixth
to be paid each year, with interest at six per cent, on the unpaid
balance.
The cost of cotton plantations was similarly reduced,
the price being fixed at 20 to 40 rdl, for each million square feet,
according to the suitability of the soil.
Such slaves as were
brought in by new planters were to be admitted free of duty.
The years of exemption were reduced from seven to three for
settlers who cared to take advantage of these teims.^
The directors, moved by the plaints of their representatives
Ober-EUande appears to have refered to the Leeward Tslaneds.
** Moth, etc., to Directcas (Septemb^ 1, 1737).
Mmifddi MSS^-, VoL VI.
^ JJdtog af den ordre og AtietaU
,
.
. {Noveoiber 16, 1734), paragraphs 12
and 13, Martfddt M88., VoL IH.
^^Kop. A Extr., k P. /or St TK 1735-52 (Mardi 26, 1736).
Of the two
hiQ adzed and ^teea- plantations allotted
shareholders, ^ghty-j^ven. had be^
assigned whea the above resohitic^'Vere zaade.
218
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
in St. Thomas, who bewailed the decreasing ratio of whites,
provided for a poll tax of one rixdollar for each full-grown slave,
omitting the former tax on the white inhabitants.
The attempt
to secure a land tax of 40 rdL for each plantation of 6,000,000
square feet was given up, and the authorities contented them-
selves with 12 rdL^^
After
its relinquishment of the
slave-trade, the Company
hoped to augment
its revenues by means of its plantations,
especially those that were being begun on St- Croix.
During
the nine years from 1726 to 1734,
inclusive, the Company’s
Sugar Plantation on
St. Thomas had yielded a measurable
profit for only five seasons, so that the average annual gain was
just
1,335
rdl.
During
the same
period, the New Quarter
Plantation went through four
profitless
seasons,
in three
of
which it incurred an actual loss; yet its average gain was 1,011
This profit was the estimated net result of an investment
which was set down in the census for 1735 at a total of 14,121
rdL for the former plantation and 14,530 rdl for the latter.^
The showing was admittedly meager, in view of the nearly two
hundred negroes in the Company’s possession on St. Thomas,
but these negroes were used for a variety of purposes besides
planting.
Thirty or forty were usually at work on the repara-
tion of the fort; half a score made up the warehouse force, which
was doubled when the ships came in; ten more were required
by each of the Company’s ships when it lay in the harbor ready
for
its
cargo; there were
six carpenters,
eight masons, four
smiths, a water carrier, a tambour, and a provost; a skilled
sugar boiler attended to the juice as
it came from the mill; a
Udtog aj den Ordre og AnslaU
.
.
. (November 16, 1734). Mar^ddt M8S.t
Vol. ni; Land lAste for St Croix, 1742.
^ Negotie-Joumalerfor Si. Thomas.
^ The 14,121 rdl. of the Sugar Plantatiou’s capital was distributed as foflows:
slaves (25 men, 89 women, 46 children), 7,755 rdl.; beasts (2 horses, 4 mules,
2 a^es, 11 cattle), 366 rdl.; the plantation, with boiling house, warehouse, and
manager’s dwelling, 6,000 rdl.
See above, pp. 130-133, for 1690-1704.
Hie New Quarter plantation, valued at 14,530 rdl. included slaves (41 men,
55 women, and 24 diildrea), worth 9,305 rdl.; beasts (2 horses, 5 mules,
1
ass,
5 cattle);
and
plantation
with
outfit,
4,800
rdl.
Negoiw^Jmmal for
St.
Thomas, 1735.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
219
cooper made pipes and hogsheads from Carolina and New Eng-
land hoops and staves; two trusted slaves ran the Company’s
bark; a few old domestic negresses who refused to do any planta-
tion work added their numbers to the Company’s quota; and a
force of twenty or thirty negroes furnished wood both for fuel
and for ballast in the Company’s shlps.^
It was clear enough
that,
after deducting for women,
children and incapacitated
slaves, the Company’s plantations were not likely to command
the labor required to bring a maximum return.
Despite the fact that the income from the Sugar Plantation
feU, during the years from 17S5 to 1745, to less than half of
what it had been during the preceding decade, the Company
hung grimly to
it through
its
entire corporate existence,
al-
though in the last six years (1749 to 1754, inclusive) the planta-
tion showed an annual deficit.^
With the New Quarter planta-
tion
the Company was more fortunate, for during the
last
eleven years—that is, up to the date of its sale in 1746—it yielded
an average annual return of 1,1S6 rdl.
It required no especial perspicacity to see that Company
ownership and operation of plantations were not likely to fulfill
the expectations of the shareholders.
Since the slave trade had
been left to private initiative on the reorganization of the Com-
pany in 1734,
it became increasingly clear that the directors
would have to look to the control of the Danish-Norwegian mar-
ket for its profits.
The first essential step in the direction of
monopoly was taken when the Company in 17S7 acquired con-
trol of
ilie two competing
refineries owned by the Pelt and
Weyse families.^
But other forms of competition had to be met before appreci-
able profits could be diverted into the Company’s treasury.
As
early as 1735, the king had trebled the duties on refined sugars,
candies, loaf sugar and sirups.^^ At about the sametime : namely,
Garddia,
to Directors (August 8, 1734), B, & D., 17SB-S^
^ The average net return from the Sugar Plantation during the years 1735-
1745, inclusive, was 480.9 rdl,; for the entire period
1735-175^ it was only
189.6 rdl.
^ See above, pp. 208, 207.
The duties were rawed from 5 to 15 sk. for each pound oi sugar, and hrom
5 to 15 m. for each 100 pounds drup.
Manager MB,, p. 169.
2^0
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
on April 25, 1735, the king published a mandate allowing Danish
subjects the right freely to trade with the Danish possessions
in Guinea and in the West Indies, and the privilege of taking
the colonial produce to foreign ports and to all Danish-Norwe-
gian ports except Copenhagen.^^
Although the king’s magis-
trates in Norway and in the Danish provinces had been particu-
larly instructed to encourage trade in the sugar refined by the
Company, they found it impossible to prevent the smuggling
of foreign refined sugars, especially in Norway, where the fiords
invited
illicit trade.
The Norwegian magistrates advised the
abolition of the sugar duties,^^ which were actually reduced to
their former level.
The Company, which seemed quite able
to meet the domestic demand, found
its Norwegian consign-
ments of sugar perceptibly rising.^^
The royal mandate of 1735 had not had the desired effect
in stimulating trade; so in a mandate issued on June 18, 1743,^®
private traders were allowed to sell their West Indian cargoes
in Copenhagen as well as elsewhere.
With those taking up this
trade or signifying their intention of doing so, the Company
entered into an arrangement on December
3,
1745, with the
idea of preventing needless competition.
The outsiders were
to be allowed to send various East Indian and Chinese wares,
and linens, as well as provisions and some “heavy goods”; and
these might be sent from Amsterdam and other places besides
Copenhagen.^®
But trade was by no means free, even to Danish subjects,
who were to pay the usual five per cent, duty on incoming, and
six per cent, on outgoing cargoes.
They were allowed to com-
plete a cargo in a foreign island, to be sure, but if they brought
it into the harbor of a Danish colony, they would still be required
to pay the six per cent, export duty.
On goods sold by the
Company in the West Indies for the private adventurers, a
Manager MS^ p. 168, The owners of ships taking part in this trade were
to pay i rdl. for eadi ton (Laed), apparently whenever they received the passes
and privileges necessary for each voyage.
Their communications were dated April 26, 1740, and Jane 28, 1741.
Mofiager MS., pp. 172 et seq.
«/6*d.,lf/3..p. 191.
Ibid,9 MS., pp. 176 et seq.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
commission of eight per cent, was charged, of which four went
to the Company, and four to the West Indian ojQBcials.^^ Traders
who thus disposed of their cargoes were required to secure their
return cargoes from the Company's West Indian warehouse;
only if that was impossible were they allowed to supply their
wants in the open market.
Slaves brought from the Guinea
coast by non-Company
skippers were to be sold at auction without delay, and return
cargoes
to be secured
in the mode above-mentioned.
The
ships of the Company and of private traders were to have prefer-
ence over those of foreigners in the getting of cargoes.^^
Not yet satisfied with their terms, some of the merchants,
on April
4, 1746, proposed further modifications; they asked
among other things for complete exclusion of foreigners from
the trade.
The aggressiveness of the private adventurers finally
prompted the directors to propose a plan of cooperation which
would virtually bring the energetic traders into the Company.
The king, or at any rate that Board of Trade and Agriculture^^
which acted for him, had lent so sympathetic a hearing to the
demands of the merchants that the directors, in a communica-
tion dated October
3, 1746, actually suggested that the king
follow the example of the monarchs of France and England,
and take over the colonies himself.
It was curious enough that
the first proposal for the discontinuance of the Company should
come from
its own
directorate.
The
alternative suggestion
made by the directors in the same communication was the one
actually followed.
The ‘^Plan and Convention of Union,” which provided for
pooling the interests of shareholders in the Company with those
of private traders, was published February 6, 1747.
So far as
Demnark was concerned, the plan succeeded
brilliantly.
In
the general assembly of the Company, held on March 4, the
^ Manager MS^ p. 178. The governor and bookkeeper were each to recdve
one, and the merchant or factor, two per cent.
“ Manager MS., pp. 180 ^ seq.
^ Genercd-LandeU--dk(momi’<>g~KommercekoU€giet
(1735-1768) continued the
commercial functions of the Board of Police and Trade (Politi-og-Kommeree-
hMegiet, 1708-1731) and commanded the
services of some of the most dis-
tinguiahed men of the state.
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
directors were able to announce that the number of shares in
the Company’s
"‘circulating fund,” as the new capital stock
was called, had been increased from three hundred and sixty-
eight to one thousand, and those in the sugar refinery from
one hundred and seventeen to two hundred and
fifty, —all
within the space of a few days.
On March £7 an edict was
published abrogating all private trade with the colonies and on
April 12, 1747, the old and new shareholders of the Company
met to set the new scheme in operation.
This reorganization
had increased the resources of the Company by 816,000
rdZ.,
and
those
of
the refineiy by 66,500
rdZ., or more than one
hundred fifty per cent.^^
Results so highly pleasing to the stockholders of the corpora-
tion were likely to be viewed in a different light by colonists
who felt that this was simply another scheme to promote the
interests of the Company at their expense.
The center of co-
lonial opposition was
naturally to be found
in the
recently
acquired and nearly virgia island of St. Crok, where plantation
industry had made rapid progress and where in 1741 were to
be found about three hundred Englishmen
who were none too
amenable to Danish law or Company regulations.
A brief survey of the rise of the planting industry on St. Croix
will reveal those evidences of economic strength that made the
enlargement of the Company’s capital appear feasible in 1746-
1747.
The first census on St. Croix was taken in 1742, on the
expiration of the seven year exemption period.
In that year
two hundred sixty-four plantations were recorded on the books
with the names of the owners, and at least two hundred forty
of these were surveyed.
Although the normal size of a planta-
tion on St. Croix was two thousand feet in width and three thou-
sand feet in length, making 6,000,000 square feet, the average
size
of
St.
Croix
plantations in 1742 was
slightly
less
than
5,000,000 square feet.^^
Only one hundred twenty of the entire
number were listed as “sugar plantations,” while one hundred
« Com'p, ProU 17U-6^ (April 12, 1747).
H. J. 0. Stoud, letter to C.A. von Plessen, January II, 1741 (Kirkchist
Sami,, 4 It 2 B., p. 56).
^ The average area was 4,913,100 square feet.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
twenty-two were set down as
cotton plantations.”
Over one
thousand nine hundred slaves/^ large and small, were credited to
the island.
What the nature of Danish West Indian society was during
these years of struggle between England and Spain for domina-
tion in the Caribbean Sea,
is disclosed but meagerly
in the
Company’s records.
This paucity of information
is
in part
atoned for by two letters; one written in 1738 by Soren Som-
mer, who appears to have been sent out from Denmark to serve
as a manager on one of von Plessen’s plantations; the other by
a Lutheran minister, H. J. O. Stoud, who came to the islands
late in 1740.
Sommer was a man of mediocre attainments, but apparently
an honest
observer.
In
a
letter
written
at
St. Thomas
shortly
after
his
arrival he comments upon the high prices
of cattle, poultry, provisions, and especially of linens.^® The
prices on St. Croix are higher than on St. Thomas, he explains,
because goods must all come
St. Thomas. He finds decent
people rather scarce, and seems surprised that ‘‘white women
are not expected to do anything here except drink tea and
coffee, eat, make
calls, play cards, and at times sew a little.’’
Nearly
all the women would consider
it quite beneath their
dignity to go into the kitchen even to supervise it.
The men
are as leisurely as the women, but take their comfort in the bil-
liard houses, and, he might have added,
in the taverns,
in
which enormous quantities of intoxicants were consumed, and
which the governors found to be constant sources of disorder.
^ One thousand, five hundred fiifty-nine “ capable
slaves, thirty-one defect-
ives or “ manquerons,” and three hundred sixteen children.
^ Sfiren Sommer’s letter to parents, d. St. Thomas, April 29, 1738.
Ny, KgL
Sand, 764.
^ Among the prices quoted by Sommer are the following: a bull, 60 to 70 rdl,;
a cow, 30 rdl.; a sheep or goat, 4 rdl.; a goose, 1 rdl.; a turkey gobbler, 1
rdl.,
3 m.; flour i)er bbl., 6-8 rdl.; salt meat, 9-12; beer, 8-10; Bourdeaux red wine,
per hhd., 30 rdl.; Provencal wine, 20 rdl.; Madeira wine, per pipe, 60-100 rdl.;
3 marks was the charge for a very ordinary meal, while 1
rdl. was the usual
charge per day.
Linen selling in Denmark at 3 m. could bring 1-2 sldl. in St.
Thomas.
It must be remembered that prices were affected by England’s being
at war with Spain at this time.
224
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Pew if any of the Lutheran ministers who took up the arduous
duties of caring for the spiritual needs of this motley and tur-
bulent population left a deeper impression upon the communi-
ties which they served than Hans Jacob Ottesen Stoud.^ During
his nine years of service (1740-1749) he managed to buy three
cotton plantations/^ with which he was able to augment a very
slender salary
What was equally out of the ordinary for a
minister was his election to a place on the privy council (of St.
Croix.?*)
where he was
particularly
concerned
with
matters
appertaining to religion and education.
Stoud's interest in his surroundings began with his arrival.
In a letter to Charles Adolph von Plessen early in 1741, he ex-
presses himself with great freedom on local conditions^ especially
in St. Croix. He divided his time between his congregations
on St. Croix and St. Thomas, spending four weeks alternately
at each place.^ He pays his compliments to the population,
which, he finds, has little respect for the laws of God or man.
Concerning the three hundred or so of Englishmen on St. Croix,
he says that ''they must rather be looked upon as traitors and*
rebels than subjects and inhabitants of this country; for they
have during my stay caused such tumult by threatening to
leave the land in order to fight for their king against the Span-
iards,^ that we should not have dared to remain here without
securing help from St. Thomas.
They dare, indeed, to threaten
the lives of us Danes if they cannot get what they want, for
they know that we are but a handful, sixty persons in aU, as
compared to their great power. ...”
Like Sommer, he notes the high prices of provisions, and sug-
gests encouraging Norwegian ships to sail to the Danish islands,
^ For a brief sketch of his life, see H. F. Rordam,
** Kirkelige Forholde paa
St. Croix 1741 ” {Kirhehist. Sami., 4 R. 2 B., pp. 67 et seq.).
^ They contained 6, 3, and 234 million sq.
ft., respectively.
In the census
for 1743, he is taxed for 13 working slaves, and is credited with three who are
under age.
^BKs
salary
at
first
was
220
rdl.
RSrdam,
“Klrkdige
Forholde/’
p.
61 .
® Dining his stay at St. Thomas, he usually gave one Sunday of each month
to St. John.
50 The “War of Jenkins' Ear” began in 1739.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
225
for they could bring lumber as well as provisions.^^ He finds sick
people sleeping in the same room with well people, and dying
from want of proper food.
You high lords!’’ he exclaims in indignation, ‘‘I heard much
whining and complaining while at home because of the small
profit which this land yields, but may God have mercy upon
you and save this country and us aU from curse and disaster
because of the many souls who have so innocently lost their
lives in such a fashion.”
As a result of Stoud’s vigorous representations of local needs,
ground for a hospital was actually bought on St. Thomas in
1743.
The present hospital on that island, which stands on the
site then
selected, thus owes its
origin
to
Stoud’s
energetic
measures.
In his busy life and despite the lack of text-books,
Stoud even found time to instruct a half hundred blacks in the
art of reading and in the rudiments of religion.
The Moravians
had indeed begun their self-sacrificing labors nearly a decade
before, but this appears to have been the first instance where a
Danish Lutheran minister has done missionary work among the
negroes on a measurable
scale.
Systematic missionary work
with the blacks was not begun until the close of the Company’s
career.
While Stoud was no doubt largely right in looking on St.
Croix in these early years as ‘‘very
poor,” especially
from the
viewpoint of the men who had to work on a meager wage,
people with
capital
could,
if they were enterprising and
if
fortune smiled on them, rise very rapidly.
During the interval
from 1742 to 1745 the number of plantations on St. Croix re-
mained practically stationary, for little idle land was left, but
the number of slaves
increased from nineteen hundred and
six to twenty-eight htmdred and seventy-eight, a gain of fifty-
one per cent, in three years.
The outbreak of war between
“ In these thnes candles cost 2 marks the pound; butter, 24 sk; 1 hen, 24 sk,
at least; 1 pot of beer, 24 sls^ 1 pot of wine, 2 to 3 m.; 1 bbl. salt meat, 10 rdl.
and poor at that; 1 lamb, 2 to 3 rdl,; an egg, 2 sk; a cow, 40 to 50 rdl.; a horse
100 to 150 rdl.
I am not mentioning furniture and clothes and other things
equally necessary which are al fearfully ^cpensive, in fact are not procurable
most of the time.’*
KirkehiUL Sarnl,^ 4 R. 2 B., p. 58.
226
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
France and
England had
led
Governor
Schweder and
his
council to remit the duties on slaves imported into
St. Croix,
and thus encourage
planters
to move thither from the
dis-
turbed area.^^
For
St. Thomas, on the other hand, the en-
tire period from about
1725 up to the Company’s reorgani-
zation in 1747 was one of decline, if the slave population be a
reliable index.
Among the early settlers of St. Croix was a Dutchman from
St. Eustatius by the name of Peter Heiliger,^^
The possessions
of this man and those of others of the same name, as recorded in
the census lists, may be taken fairly to represent the condition of
the prosperous planter during the last decade and a half of the
Company’s
life.
In 1742 four members of the Heiliger tribe
held five cotton and four sugar plantations totalling fifty million
square feet in area, and commanding the labors of ninety-five
slaves.
Three years later the family plantations had increased
by nearly sixteen million square feet, and the family store of
slaves by forty-four.®®
Peter Heiliger had boasted to the gov-
ernor that he did not expect to retire from planting until he and
his brothers had amassed four hundred slaves.®®
Although this
increase suggests a
fairly healthy state of
affairs among an
arbitrarily selected group of planters,
it was scarcely as large
as the rate of increase for the entire island.
The prices of sugar and cotton were naturally facts of the most
vital concern to the life of the West Indian planter, to whom it
must often have appeared that the chief business of the Com-
pany was to see how far below the current West Indian price it
could force the planter to sell his goods.
During the depression
following the Peace of Utrecht the price of sugar at St. Thomas
had gradually declined from 5
rdl, per hundred pounds until
finally it reached its lowest point in 1789, when it brought but
« SecretrRaadett Breve
,
.
. 17S9--J^7 (Martfddi MSS., Vol. VI).
^ Or HeyUger. He had been governor of St. Eustatius, and had apparently
moved to St. Thmnas with his slaves on the outbreak of the war b^ween France
and Engknd.
See letter of Governor and Council to Directors, January 31,
1744 (Mar^ddi MSS., VoL VI).
Land Lister for St
Croix.
These
census
lists are the
sources for the
statistical information in this chapter except where otherwise specified.
** Martfeldt MS8,, vol. VI, pp. ISiS et seq.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
3 to 3
rdl. The cotton market was slightly better, for whereas
cotton brought 13 to 14 sh per pound in 1716, it commanded a
price of 14 to 143^ sh in 1739.^^
In 1741, not long after John
Heiliger and his brother had come over from St. Eustatius, the
price of sugar had risen to 4-4J4
per hundred poimds.
To
what extent,
if any, this increase was due to the outbreak of a
war in Europe which involved both England and France, it is
difficult to say.
The increased prices secured by planters for their sugar were
no doubt a chief cause in bringing about the increase in the slave
population already noted.
Other influences were at work which tended
to draw the
attention of Danish statesmen to the necessity of providing a
new set of navigation laws for West Indian trade, or, indeed, of
entirely reorganizing the Company.
By waging war against
Spain over the matter of "‘Jenkins^ Ear,"^ England had lost her
chance of carrying on legally that trade with Spain which had
been secured to the South Sea Company by the Asiento of 1713,
With the opening of the War of the Austrian Succession, when
it appeared inevitable that England would be drawn into the
war against France, Danish statesmen began to incline toward
the latter state. By a treaty made in 1739, England had secured
from Denmark the promise of six thousand Danish troops to be
provided under certain contingencies, but when it appeared that
these troops were desired rather to help England hold Hanover
than to assist Maria Theresa of Austria in her struggle with
Frederick II of Prussia, the Danish ministers,^ who were anxious
to keep
out
of the complications,
decided to
cultivate
the
friendship of his most Christian Majesty-
On March 16, 1742,
the very day following the expiration of the treaty with Eng-
land, a treaty of friendship was concluded with France.®^
These events in Europe had their significance for the Danish
Udtog af S^hrete-Raads ProtohoUer^ 1710-20; Udtog af
.
.
, Breve til Direo-
Uonen, 1739-^.7,
MartfeLdt MSS., Vol. VI.
See also Appendix E.
Berckentin and Sohulin.
E. Holm, Den dansh-norshe Sfais Stilling under Krigene i Europa 177t(hJt3l
{Kjohenham, 1891),
p. 55.
This treaty marks the beginning of a policy of
friendship with France which continued for twenty-three years, and was sup-
ported first by Schulin and later by J. H. E. Bemstorff.
lUd., p. 60.
228
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
West India and Guinea Company and its islands.
The mandate
of June 18, 1743, gave to private traders an opportunity to carry
on with the Spanish islands an illicit trade which would be quite
beneath the Company’s dignity to enjoy.
On July 25, 1742,
there went out from San Ildefonso a royal order signed by the
Spanish king’s
minister, Campillo, requesting that the Porto
Rico government should cease disturbing the Danes in their
possession of St. Croix and St. Thomas, and should permit them
to buy—^for cash—^such Porto Rico wares as they might desire.®®
But the matter of the restitution of the slaves escaped to Porto
Rico from St. Thomas was not clearly provided for and it re-
mained the chief stumbling block in the relations between the
Danes and
the
Spaniards.®^ A similar order was
issued on
May 12, 1745, with equally meager results.
When in 1746 a
canoe containing eight slaves belonging to Governor Colomo’s
secretary, Manuel de Pando, landed on the west end
of St.
Thomas, the Danish authorities acted with alacrity to prevent
the slaves from returning.
Could the tide of fugitive slaves have
been induced to turn towards St. Thomas rather than from it,
Spain might have made a more serious effort to effect a settle-
ment through diplomacy.®®
But the Spanish authorities prob-
ably knew that the Danes gained more from forbidden trade
than they lost from escaped negroes.
In concluding the treaty with Louis XV in 1742, Christian VI
had had his eye on conditions in northern Europe rather than
on those in the distant tropics.
Governor Schweder and his
council, in one of their first letters to the directors®^ after the
80 Vest, Dir. K. B,f 17S3-5^.
This communication, which is of course only a
copy, and is uncertified, was addressed to Matthias Abadia, then governor of
Porto Rico.
Mariager MS., p. 198.
02 Juan Joseph Colomo succeeded Abadia as governor about 1745.
o*The accumulated claims of the Company against “the Spanish Nation in
America” were estimated in 1745 at SS5,911 rdl.
This included 104,443 rdt.
for two ships lost in Honduras Bay in 1710; 81,467 rdl. for negroes stolen in
1702; 150,000 rdl. for three hundred negroes escaped from St. Thomas and St.
Croix, not to mention inhabitants’ ^ps that had been seized and confiscated.
Vest. Dir. K. B.. mS-5Ji, (May 11, 1745).
Udtog af
.
.
. Breve
til Dvrectionen, ^.739-^7
(July
3,
1744).
Mar^eldt
M8S., Vol. VI.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
229
resignation of Governor Frederick Moth, called attention to the
absence of any Danish-English treaties among the documents
recently received from home, for ‘‘these are the ones of which
we can make the best use, inasmuch as
it is the English alone
who have molested us of late.
.
.
Later in the same year
(1744)
an
English
privateer, one
“Dromgool,’^
entered
St.
Thomas harbor one night and seized and made ofif with a French
sloop or small bark.®^ A Spaniard “ who had secured Danish
passports and had become a naturalized Danish
citizen, was
seized by an English privateer and brought to Antigua, although
the Danish authorities at
St. Thomas
insisted that he was
carrying non-contraband goods.
The Antigua admiralty court
actually made plans for sending a commission to St. Thomas in
order to investigate the Spaniard’s status.
Against such an
infringement
of
its
sovereignty the
St. Thomas government
naturally protested.®^
These examples will serve to illustrate the unstable conditions
again obtaining in the West Indies as the result of a European
war.
If the Company wished to be in a position to share some
of those advantages which
enterprising skippers had shown
themselves able to
secure,
it clearly needed to augment and
revitalize its resources.®^
Von Plessen, who had assumed the presidency of the Com-
pany in 1735, remained in its service until 1749, and in March,
1750, his place was taken by Adam Gottlob Moltke.
During
these years von Plessen had upheld the interests of the Com-
pany against many kinds of opposition, from that of the enter-
prising ship-owner Bjorn to that advanced by as experienced a
skipper as J. N. Holst, who in a communication to the king not
only delivered a scathing arraignment of the Company’s admin-
istration but volunteered his opinions on matters of justice and
religion as well as commerce and colonial administration.®®
Mwrtfddt MSS., Vol. VI, September 25, 1744.
“Don Francisco Hinestroca Martinez.’^
See ibid. (April 28, 1745).
^ TJdtog a/
.
.
. Breve til DirecHonen, 1139-17 (April 28, 1745).
One of tbe constant
difficulties "was with soldiers and marines, who were
likely rither to fall victims to the fever or to desert to a foreign ship for the sake
of ike higher wages offered.
See iiM. (July 3, 1744). Mar^Mt MSS., Vol. VI.
** “It is a well-known fact that all monopolies are injurious to a country in
230
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Administrative difficulties in the islands added to the cares of
the directors.
Christian Schweder, a lieutenant of artillery in
Copenhagen, was selected in 1743 to take the place of Moth,
whose stewardship was not giving satisfaction.*^^
Besides these
disorders within, the Company had suffered serious losses in
ships.
During twelve years (1735-1746, inclusive)
five of its
ships, two of them with full West Indian cargoes and their entire
crews, were completely lost.^^
With the adoption of the plan of union between the Company
and its active commercial rivals, the opposition in Denmark was
for the time being
silenced.
The
position
of
distinguished
leaders like von Plessen was strengthened by the fact that sev-
eral of them had become actively engaged in the planting busi-
ness on St. Croix; they had retained and developed plantations
secured as a bonus with each share of a specified size.
So the
situation was hot so very different from that in the English
sugar colonies where it was said in 1760 that ‘‘Many Gentlemen
of the West Indies have seats in the British House of Com-
mons.”
The Danish West India planters did not lack ad-
vocates in Danish government
circles,^^ although they were
certainly not “represented” there in any modern sense.
The royal edict clinching the reorganized Company’s monop-
oly of the trade with the West Indies was issued in March, 1747,
and the news reached the West Indies during the summer.
When the inhabitants learned that the king had forbidden that
the highest degree, likewise all monopolistic companies except the Asiatic com-
panies. ...”
On what basis Holst arrived at this interesting conclusion
is
not dear; apparently he was expressing a generally accepted current opinion.
ThoUske SamL,, No. 515 (September 11,
1746).
Roy. Libr.
For Bjdm, see
E. Holm, Danmark og Norges Historie, III B., p. 236.
Comp,
Prof., im-5k
(April
8,
1744).
Schweder’s health broke down
bdore he had been in office many months, and he was succeeded by Christian
Suhm.
Mariager MS., pp. 205 et seq.
For earlier losses, see above, p. 152.
Remarks on the Letter Addressed to Two Great Men (London, 1760), quoted
in Beer, British Colonial Policy, 176^-66, p. 136.
” Among the Danish owners of St. Croix plantations in 1745 were the king
(four cultivated plantations), C. A. von Plessen (six plantations), and “Com-
mandeur” Captain Lovenom (six). The other original grantees had apparently
sold their West Indian holdings.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
2S1
trade by private ship-owners which had been permitted by the
edict of April 25, 1735 and subsequent mandates, they became
well-nigh desperate. A third of a century had passed since the
last delegation had been sent by Danish West Indian planters
to present their case before the high and mighty lords of trade
in Copenhagen.
The projected restriction of their freedom to
trade and to dispose of their produce seemed to strike at the
very roots of their hard-earned prosperity.
Schweder’s
successor,
Governor
Christian Suhm, and
his
coimcil were alarmed at the opposition raised by the king’s
edict, and expressed their fears for the ruin of the islands and
the Company’s trade.^^
All sorts of threats of reprisals against
the Company were in the air,—^flight, boycott, hoarding of the
sugar on hand and in prospect, to prevent the Company’s ships
from securing cargoes,—“for they insist absolutely on being
masters over their own property,” wrote Suhm, “and on enjoy-
ing the same sort of liberties as the French and English subj‘ects
have.
.
.
.”
The report that the Danish planters were known
in neighboring
islands
as “the Company’s negroes” would,
they feared, frighten ofiE planters who might desire to move to
the Danish islands.^®
The thing most feared by the planters as a result of the new
navigation laws was that the ships from New York and New
England would cease entirely to come to the Danish islands.
Not only did the vessels from New York, Providence and Boston
bring provisions (floim, dried codfish, etc.), but such plantation
requisites as hoops, barrel staves and bottoms, planks, shingles,
^Suhm and
council to
Directors
(February
3,
1748).
Mar^eldt MSS.,
Vol. VI, pp, 76 et seq.
To the Company’s complaint that the price of cotton and sugar had been
set at too high a figure, Gk>yemor Suhm replied that formeriy, when sugar
brou^t <Mily 4?^ rdl, per 100 lbs. and brought a net revenue of only
rdl,
per 100 lbs. in Holland, the planters were able to secure a good slave for 100-150
rdl., while now they must pay 200-SOO rdl. at auction.
During the same period,
the cost of mules had risen from 80-50 to 80-100 rdl, or more; a good horse
from 80-50 to 200-300 rdl.; staves, from 12-16 to 35-50 rdl. per 1,000; English
hhd. hoops, from 14-18 to 40-60 rdl. per 1,000; planks, from 16-20 to 35-40
per 1,000 feet; dungleS, from 3 rdl, to 6-7 rdl. and from 18-20 to 30 rdl., accord-
ing to size.
All of these “ are things belonging to a plantation.’’
Marifeldt MSS.,
Vol. VI, pp. 76 et seq.
m
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
and horses/® for many of the mills which crushed out the cane-
juice were run by horse or mule power.
These North American
skippers naturally insisted on being allowed to secure sugar and
molasses cargoes in return for their lumber and provisions, and
were prepared to pay good prices for them.
The prospect of
having so important a competitor legislated out of the West
Indian field alarmed the planters deeply.
The chief instrument by which the planters made known
their grievances was the burgher council
which usually con-
sisted of four to seven members who met with the governor and
privy coxmcil to consider matters of general interest.
They kept
a copy of the records of these joint meetings, and not infre-
quently did they meet by themselves to consider ways and
means.
The directors, who had scarcely realized what a disturbance
their distant colonists could raise, made haste to stem the tide
of disaffection.
The planters promptly sent two of the leading
members of the burgher council to Copenhagen.
One of them
was a planter
of unusual shrewdness named John William
Schopen.'^'® The directors responded to the planters^ grievances
with reasonable promptness.
They made some concessions on
July 24 , 1748, but these proved inadequate, so on August 27,
1749, they met once more in their general assembly to consider
some mode of solution.
They insisted on the Company's prior
right to buy the products of the islands at such price as the local
market and that of the French and English islands justified.
This price was to be fixed at least once a year, or as often as the
Company's ships came for cargoes, by “the Government" and
the burgher council, meeting jointly
Although the burgher
Eop. & Extr,, 8. P.for St Th., 1735-52 (November 12, 1748).
See above, p. 185.
In 1748 the following planters held seats in the burgher
Council: P. J. Pannet, A. Lerke, Jean Malleville, H. Specht, Pieter de Windt,
Johannes von Bewerhoudt Glaudison, and Johannes de Windt.
Cf. Kop, &
Extr., 8, P. for St.
Th., 1785-52 (November 12, 1748).
The records of their
proceedings, being nonoffidal, are not to be found among the Company’s ar-
chives in Copenhagen, at any rate not at the State Archives.
Manager MS., p. 196; Hiist, Efterretninger om 6en Sanct Thomas, p. 189.
ProU mi-5h
** GmeraL-Forsamling'^
of August
27,
1749.
Cf.
Mariager MS., p. 196.
THE COMMNY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
SSS
council was usually the larger body, and the majority vote was
to decide the market price, a sufficient number of the burgher
council members usually withdrew in order to make the number
in each council even when they convened to fix the prices.
As a further concession the Company permitted the purchase
of ‘‘provisions and other things necessary for plantation cul-
tivation from New York and other places in New England
’’ for
plantation products, but
specified that
all other trade with
foreign lands must be carried on through Copenhagen alone.
To this the privy and bmgher councils meeting in joint session
objected that the desired quality of certain necessaries, such
as Irish beef, butter, candles, sugar kettles for the plantations,
sugar-mill
repairs,
hoes,
sugar-hatchets, and
axes,
could be
secured at a reasonable price in England alone.
Since 1743, a number of planters had taken advantage of the
trading privileges then granted by the crown.
But their ship-
ping had been so seriously hampered by the Convention Plan
of 1747, that the Company attempted in 1749 to conciliate these
disaffected interests.
The Danish colonists were to be allowed
to import such products as cacao, coffee, tobacco, indigo and
other dyes, hides and skins, Campeachy and similar valuable
woods, free of duty, and on exporting them were to pay but
half of the usual “outgoing recognition,”—^namely, three per
cent,
oil St. Thomas, and two and one-half per cent, on St.
Croix.®°
But they must export such goods in their own ships
and take them to Copenhagen, whence they might be exported
to foreign ports.
These restrictions did not please the planters, who wished to
be able to ship their purchases from outside—^to say nothing of
their own produce—^in any craft lying in the harbor with which
agreement as to freight rates could be made; they hoped espe-
cially to establish trade with “the Spanish places” in America.
The Company’s attempt to limit the privileges to those colonists
who had resided on the islands for three years, also met with a
vigorous protest from the burgher council, which insisted that
such a measure would deter intending
settlers from coming.
Goods actually consumed on the islands were to be subject to an import
duty of five per cent.
284
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
and drive o£E a number who were already there.
They likewise
insisted that they should not be limited in their purchase of
ships to those made in Danish-Norwegian lands; there were too
numerous opportunities in the West Indies for bargains in ships
of many sorts for such a rule to appear just.®^
The arrangement whereby the burgher council was permitted
to share with the privy council in the fixing of prices on planta-
tion produce certainly did not make any less apparent the evi-
dences of friction between those governing and those governed.
It proved rather an entering wedge which brought in its train
so much
of
trouble
for the Company
as
to be one
of the
chief causes
for
its dissolution.
In the burgher council the
planters had a
legally sanctioned
instrument which became
more effective by use and by which they were able to bring
to the Company’s attention
all manner of alleged abuses and
grievances.
During the years following the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
the prices for sugar in Europe tended to decline.
The demand
in New York and New England, on the other hand, remained
so persistent that with a fairly free market the prices in the
West Indies continued at about the same level as at the close
of the war.
The dependence of the Danish colonies upon the
New York traders
in lumber and provisions made the West
Indian
government’s
position
peculiarly
trying.
Nor
had
those West Indian planters who had shown so active an interest
in buying ships and developing a trade of their own, made any
appreciable effort at exploiting the Guinea slave trade.
In the hope of making up for the low European prices and
ostensibly of inducing a revival of the slave trade under the
Danish
flag, the Danish West Indian government attempted
to enforce two new ordinances: the first raising the import tax
on slaves imported to the islands in foreign vessels, or bought
by the inhabitants in other islands; the second increasing the
export tax on sugars sold to New York skippers in exchange
The views of the two colonial councils on the resolutions of 1749 are to be
found in Kop.
Extr,, S. P. for St Th., 1736-52 (February
17, 1750).
The
directors were willing to permit the inhabitants to purchase American vessels
only during war time.
C<mp, Prot, 17U-5^ (February 24, 1751).
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
235
for their lumber and
provisions.^^
The planters saw clearly
that the foreign merchants would shift the burden by the simple
expedient of raising the prices on th^ir wares.
The directors
heeded the protest of the burgher council and promptly dis-
avowed the actions of their West Indian representatives.^
The trouble that the Company had experienced with smug-
gling during the recent war did not cease with its close.
With
the establishment of the town of Fredericksted on the west end
of St. Croix came the necessity of providing proper means for
the
collection of customs
duties.
It was soon foimd that a
customs house was not sufficient, but that cannon must be pro-
vided, and so placed as to command the roads where the ships
lay anchored.
In lack of such a ‘‘water battery,” ships were
accustomed to
slip away in the night-time without securing
papers or paying their dues.^^
The bribing of Danish officials
seems not to have been an impossible feat.^^
The increasing ability of the planters to make the Company
hear and heed
their grievances must not be taken as a sign
of economic distress for either party.
By 1754 the number of
negroes recorded in the census
lists had grown to seven thou-
sand five hundred and sixty-six, an increase of one hxmdred and
sixty-two per cent, over the figures for 1745.
In the town of
Christiansted were
eighty-three
white
inhabitants,
each
of
whom owned from a single slave to sixty-six of them.
Of in-
dividual holdings those of the Heiliger fanoily may be taken as
a fair index.
From one hundred and thirty-nine
slaves
in
1745, they increased to five hundred and seventy-eight in 1751,
fell
to four hundred and
thirty in the year
following, and
JEarfr. UdsJcT. of S, P. for St
(7., 17^r-52 (January 12, 1751).
The tax on
exported sugar was raised from five to seven and one-half per cent., that on
slaves at 4 ntt. for each one imported, and a “ premium ” of four per cent, on
such slaves as were sold at public auction.
^ The local government had tried to permit the Company’s debtors to sell
at a higher price than the other planters, but this position they were unable
to maintain.
GeneraJ^Forsamlingen (February 24, 1751).
Comp. Prot, 1741~5^.
There was considerable stir over customs frauds in 1743-1744. The table
of customs dues {Appendixes M and N) gives an idea of the vicissitudes of this
branch of the Company’s income.
236
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
reached the respectable total of six hundred and seventy in
1753.^
Considered as a whole, these figures do not betoken
anything more serious than a fairly rapid growth.
The ability of the planters to incur debts increased so rapidly
during this period that one is forced to conclude that something
approaching a boom must have been on.
In 1747 the Company
was credited on its books with 136,000 rdL owed to
it by the
planters.
By 1753, the debts of the planters to the Company
had risen to the considerable sum of 562,000 rdl, an increase
of more than four hundred per cent, in six years.
This state of
affairs is only partly accounted for by the increase in the planter
population, whose numbers rose from two hundred and seven
in 1747 to three hundred and fifty-four in 1753, or at the rate
of seventy-one per cent.
The rapid growth of St. Croix finally brought about the sep-
aration of
its government from that of
St. Thomas and
St.
John.^
In 1751 the latter islands received a small measure of
tardy justice when their poll and land taxes were lowered to the
same level as those of St. Croix.®^
To trace the Company’s business through the mazes of ‘Ttal-
ian” bookkeeping in records that are scattered through scores
of books and over thousands of pages, and to achieve thereby
dependable results, are things which the investigators may de-
sire—^and even feel he deserves—^but scarcely a goal which he
may attain.
It is, however, worth noting that the ^‘Princess,”
a St. Croix plantation owned by the Company, was recorded as
being three times as valuable in 1753 as it was when the census
of 1745 was taken.
While the Company’s income from poll
In 1754^ the last year of the Company, the Heiligers were credited with
six hundred and forty slaves, a falling off of thirty.
® Host, p. 1S6.
Jens Hansen, who was in immediate charge at St. Croix,
refused to submit to the orders of Governor Christian Suhm, even when the
latter was at St. Croix.
The dispute was appealed to the directors with the
splitting of jurisdiction as a result.
Hansen remmned as governor of St. Crojx
imtil relieved by Peter Clausen in 1751.
Proponenda
.
.
. (September 14, 1751), Comp. Trot, 17J^l-6Jf.
The taxes,
whidi had amounted to 2)^ rdL, for each working slave, 8
rdl, for each slave
imported, six per cent, on imports and esports, and 2 rdL, 8 sh, for each million
square feet, were reduced to 1 rdL,, 4 rdL,^ five per ceiit, and 2 rdL., respectively.
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
2S7
and land taxes naturally kept even pace with the increase in
the planting popidation,^ its receipts from customs duties re-
mained at less than twenty-six dollars for each planter up to
1747, when the receipts suddenly doubled.
From that year to
the end of the Company’s existence, they remained at about
forty-six dollars per capita.^
The unprecedented enforcement of customs regulations which
made possible so favorable a showing over so long a period was
without doubt largely due to the zeal with which Peter Clausen,
who assumed the duties of assistant factor and treasurer in
1748, performed the functions of his office.®^
After a little more
than three years Clausen succeeded Jens Hansen as governor
of St. Croix,
and he continued to fill this oiBce with pomp and
distinction long after the dissolution of the Company.
Another evidence of the extent to which the Company at-
tempted to revive and enlarge its business tmder the Plan of
1747 is to be found in the number of ships sent out by the Com-
pany.
Whereas previously to 1747
it rarely had more than
three or four ships on the run to Guinea and the West Indies,
in 1750-1751 it already had not fewer than thirteen ships in its
possession, seven of them intended for the West Indian trade,
and four for Guinea.^^
In order to protect the privileged refineries in Copenhagen,
of which those of the Company were the chief, an edict was
issued by the king on March 31, 1750, absolutely forbidding
the importation of refined sugars and sirups into Danish domin-
^ In 1742, eighty-four planters paid 2,807 rdl. in taxes, and the Company
took in
1,267
rdl. in duties; ten years later, there were three hundred and
thirty-two planters, 8,801 rdl. taxes, and 13,358 rdl. of customs duties.
^ The figures for 1751 appear to have been omitted from the books.
Ekstr. & TJdskr. af S. P.far St. Cr., 17^^-52 (October 17, 1748).
Ibid. (December 22, 1761).
Among these ships with their captains wctc the brigantine PosHUion (Cap-
tain Hans Rieman Thoersen): the frigates Vesuvius (Jacob GrCnberg); Prin^
cess WUkdfrdna Carolina (Nicolaj HOyer); Jcegershorg (Ole Erichsen); Neptune
(Captain
?); Prince Christian (Captain Pheiff); The Crown Princds Desire
(Ole Reinholt);
Christiansted (Ci^tain Tofte); The Three Princesses (Rfinne);
Princess Sophia Magdalene
(Jens
Ehie);
Sorgenfrep
(Peder Kro^ Collin);
Christian Frederick
(Joh. Fr^. Knutzen).
Comp.
Prat.,
17Jfd-5J^
(^pfil 22*
1750; Fdbruary 24, 1761).
238
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ions, and requiring the recognized refineries to have on hand a
sufficient supply ready for disposal at a reasonable price.®^
This
measinre, taken in the very month in which Adam Gottlob von
Moltke assumed the presidency of the Company, was no doubt
put forward by that statesman.®^
But the problem of distribution was
difficult, especially in
Norway, where the many fiords made it almost impossible to
prevent smuggling.
By contract with the Company, refineries
were permitted in Bergen, Aggershus, Christiansand and Trond-
hiem in Norway, and in Odense, Banders, Aalborg and Viborg
in Denmark, all for periods of thirty years.®®
It appears that
within each diocese or district a certain refinery had special
privileges,
although
the Copenhagen
refineries
retained
the
right to enter into competition with them.®’'
But the end of the Company’s monopoly was
clearly ap-
proaching.
The idea of the king’s taking over the shares held
by his subjects had indeed been broached in a general assembly
of shareholders held in 1746.®^ The Plan of 1747 had merely de-
layed the inevitable.
In 1750, when the Company had eight
ships on its various routes, the directors proposed to the stock-
holders that the Company avail itself of freight ships, rather
than attempt, for the time, to buy other vessels.
An over-
supply of unsold raw sugar was given as the reason for this
proposal.
Although they later added
several new vessels to
the Company’s fleet, the loss of three ships in the years 1751-
1752 must have had a depressing effect.®®
Manager MS,, pp. 199 et seq.
This is the view held by the Danidi historian, Edvard Holm (Danmark og
Norges Eistorie mO-18U, III B., p. 2S6).
Mariager MS,, pp. 202 et seq.
The incorporators whose names were given for
the various cities were as follows,—Bergen: burgomaster Garboe; Aggershus and
Christiansand: Carsten Tankj Trondhiem: councilor of state Hans Ulrich Moll-
man; Odense: Johan Christopher von Westen; Banders: Soren Simonsen; and
Aalborg and Viborg: Henrich Ladiges.
Within a few years after the dissolution
of the Company, not fewer than eighteen licenses were granted permitting the
establishment of refineries in Copenhagen.
It was evidently a profitable busi-
ness.
Cf. E. Holm, Danmark og Norges
Historie, 1720-1814, IH B., p. 164.
^ E. Holm, ibid., p. 164.
Comp. Prot, 1741-54.
^^The ship Christian Frederick (Captain Johan Friderich Ehudsen)was burned
THE COMPANY UNDER THE NEW CHARTER
239
These losses were followed in 1753 by the news of the misfor-
tune suffered by the Patientia, one of the Guinea ships.
While
sailing along the Guinea coast between El Mina and Cape
Coast Castle with a cargo
of two hundred and seventy-five
slaves, three of the negroes started a mutiny and drove off the
crew, after wounding the captain and killing three of the men.
The captain and crew were taken aboard an English slaver, the
Triton, at Annaboe.
With the assistance of the English, they
managed
after some trouble and great expense to get back
their ship and some remnants of their cargo.
Captain Erichsen
finally arrived at St. Thomas on February 28, 1754,^®® with one
hxmdred and forty-six slaves.^^^^
Before the news of the above disaster had reached Copen-
hagen, the St. Croix burgher council, through its capable repre-
sentative, John William Schopen, presented
to Frederick V
an urgent petition that the West Indian colonists on St. Croix
be permitted to come under the immediate sovereignty of the
king.
Such an act would be considered by them as an “inesti-
mable act of grace and benefaction,’’ from which they would
expect great and permanent results.^^
These various hindrances to the continued prosperity of the
Company were all set forth by the directors and chief share-
holders
in their Proponenda
of July
24,
1754.
This docu-
on tke Norway coast on September 14, 17S1, while homeward bound with a
full cargo. The frigate Sorgenfrey (Captain Peder Krog Collin), which had come
from Guinea and had been sent out from St. Thomas on September 2, 1751, was
never heard of again.
The frigate Princess WUhdrrdne Caroline (Captain Nicolai
Hoyer) while homeward bound from Guinea and St. Thomas was lost on the
west coast of Jutland, November 5, 1752.
Manager MS,, p. 206.
He had taken on his cargo on September 30, 1753.
B,
ife D, indk.fra Guinea (September 15, 1753); B, & D., St Th, (Febru-
ary 28, 1754); Proponenda of July 24, 1754, Comp. Prot, 17Jhl-5^.
The cargo,
when it arrived at St. Thomas, included sixty-seven men, thirty women, thirty-
eight boys and eleven girls.
Among the other losses were 1,005 rdZ. worth of
gold, fourteen ivory tusks, and thirty-seven “ Creceler.^*
The total loss was
estimated at about 20,000 rdl,
Proponenda of July 24, 1754, Comp. Prot,
This and Professor
Holm’s admirable account (Danmark og Norges
Historie, 17S0-181Jh IH B.,
pp. 164 et seq,) form the basis of the following account of the dissolution of the
Company.
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
^40
ment was intended to lay the state of the Company’s affairs
and their recommendation of ways and means to bring about its
dissolution before the stockholders of the Company.
Schopen’s petition to the king had been referred to that Board
.
of Trade
which a few years earlier had pronounced against
the absorption of the Company by the king.
But the personnel
of the Board, as well as the character of the times, had changed.
Early in 1752, J. H. E. BemstorflP had become a member, and he
is credited by the historian Host, who was a contemporary of
BernstoriBf, with being the chief ministerial champion of the
St. Croix colonists.^®^ At any rate, the Board of Trade reported
on May 9, 1754, in favor of the plan and suggested how it might
be carried out.
The debts due the Company in Guinea and the West Indies
were estimated at 1,000,000 rdL;
its
liabilities
(not including
the refinery) at 800,000 rdZ.
But the assets were likely to shrink
to something like 600,000 rdl, before they actually could reach
Denmark, for prices were high in the West Indies and low in
Denmark.
Under these circumstances, the directors and chief
shareholders
recommended,
and
the Company,
in
meeting
assembled, accepted the offer of the king.
So Frederick V took over at their par value the one thousand
two hundred and fifty shares of the Danish West India and
Guinea Company, which included its refinery stock, and pledged
himself to assume its obligations.
To cover the expenses of the
purchase, the state issued notes to the extent of 2,239,446 rdL,
of which 1,250,000 rdl, were set aside for the payment of the
Company’s shareholders.
The Danish government had no intention of going into busi-
ness in the Company’s stead, but to the great joy of its West
Indian colonists it threw open all of the trade formerly enjoyed
by the Company to all its subjects, whether they lived in Den-
mark, Norway, the duchies, or in the West Indies.
This in-
The General-Landets^Jconomir og KommerceJcoUegiet was organized in 1785
and contimied until 1768, when it was combined with the ‘*VesUndish^Gmnei3k&
Renter samt Generdlioildkaminer’* to form the
QeneraUoldJca^
og Kommerce^
kdUegtuTn”
Host, Efterretmnger, p, 189.
THE COMPANY IH^DER THE NEW CHARTER
U1
eluded the right to take slaves from the Guinea coast and to
ship Danish-Norwegian as well as East India Company wares
freely to the West Indies.
Goods produced in royal lands were
not to be imported from other places, and goods loaded on
Danish subjects^ ships in the West Indies were to go to Den-
mark alone.
This was all in strict accord with the prevailing
mercantilist theory, which insisted on the one hand, that the
colonies must supply raw material to be manufactured or pre-
pared for consumption in the mother country, and on the other
the more recent idea, suggested by the growth of the colonies
in wealth and population, that they must furnish a market for
the surplus produce and manufactures of the home lands. How
the new colonial policy of the Danish state was to work out
upon the basis of this new commercial freedom cannot be re-
lated here.
The story of how that policy adjusted
itself to
the rapidly changing conditions that resulted from those gigantic
wars in which France lost her New World empire and England
her mainland colonies, has not yet been completely told.
The West India, like the East India Company had served not
only as a
field
of commercial investment, but as a training
ground for those statesmen upon whom an absolute monarch
had to depend in the government of his dominions.
The coun-
cil board of the Company gave frequent opportunity for the
display of those talents which were likely to prove of use in other
and perhaps wider fields of endeavor.
The Company had added
two fertile islands to its original New World territory, and had
managed to retain continuous control of them through numerous
European wars
in which the possession
of
additional West
Indian colonies was more than once an important consideration
for the larger, trade-hungry nations.
With its gaze fixed upon
material rather than human interests, the Company had too
often pursued a selfish policy, but it had piloted its turbulent
and heterogeneously composed colonies through a period
of
eighty-four years, and handed over to the king a domain the
vigor of whose population had been attested time and again by
their ability to protest effectively against alleged violations of
their rights.
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
When King Frederick V assumed direct control of the islands
in 1754, Europe was on the verge of a general war.
This con-
flict, in which Prussia and Austria were the principals on land,
and England and the Bourbon powers of France and Spain were
the chief contestants on sea, developed into a world-wide con-
test for colonial and naval supremacy.
The control of India,
Canada, and the West Indies became the avowed object of the
contending nations.
During the struggle,—^the Seven Years’
War,—^Denmark-Norway managed to maintain
its neutrality
and undisturbed possession of its islands in the West Indies.
The enforcement of the Rule of 1756, proclaimed by Great
Britain in the beginning of the war, worked severe hardships
on Danish-Norwegian commerce, for France had thrown her
colonial ports open to neutral shipping, a course that gave the
neutrals an advantage in tune of war that they had not enjoyed
in time of peace.
The Danish foreign minister J. H. E. Bem-
storff became particularly bitter in his denunciation of England’s
comse when
English
privateers began
seizing Danish and
Norwegian ships and cargoes from the West Indies on the pre-
text that they contained French owned goods.
The English, Bemstorff felt, were permitting undue liberties
to
privateers
under
cloak
of
fighting
for
the
‘^freedom
of
Europe.”
By
1759, an agreement was
reached by which a
skipper was allowed to proceed on giving surety for that part of
the cargo which was charged with being French and paying the
costs incurred in the case.
This vindication of neutral rights was
secured in part through the efforts of an expert on international
law, Dr. Martin Hiibner, sent to London by Bemstorff to repre-
sent Danish interests.
As a further safeguard the government
provided a convoy for vessels returning to Copenhagen from
the West Indies.
Among the most persistent matters demanding attention on
the islands, was the collection of the huge debt owed by the
[24S]
244
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
planters, a debt which the king had taken over from the Com-
pany.
This task was so zealously performed by the St. Croix
factor, Peter Clausen, that the latter was made governor-general
in 1766 on the strength of it.
The influential English element
of the planter population of St. Croix particularly resented the
methods employed by Clausen and the government to hasten
the liquidation of these debts.
Unable to secure an outlet for
their grievances in the St. Croix weekly newspaper which had
begun to appear
in
1770, they found that the
local English
colonial newspapers had no hesitancy in giving them space to
voice their
plaints.
In a copy of the Caribbean and General
GazettCy of February 5, 1774, published on one of the English
islands, this appears: ^
“The following little piece, whose greatest merit
is that it flows from the
Heart, Spuming at dispotic Insolence of Power, was sent by a Correspondent
in St. Croix to a Gentleman here. We publish it as a Tribute due to Natural
liberty, and to shew our own Countrymen the Happiness they enjoy under the
mild Dispensations of the British Laws.
When Heaven, indulgent, bless’d this land
With peace and plenty crowned
Like heavenly dew von Prock’s ^ hand
Dispensed his kindness round
But base ingratitude soon took place
In these pointed times
Heaven sent a Scourge to all our race
To expiate our Crimes
In pity to our deplored State
Heaven changed the mighty woe
All seeing what was wrapt in Fate
Must prove oxji overthrow
But what repentance have We shewn
To Heaven's indulgent care
Tho’ Storms and Hurricanes We have known
When Roepstorff * governed here
^ MS. bound with The Royal Banish Ainerican Gazette (Feb. 5, 1774), Royal
Library.
^ Note accompanying poem:
* These Gentlemen, whoi they governed
St.
Croix made the Happiness of the People, the rule of their concjuct but—
’
MAP OF ST. THOMAS
(1767)
(Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission, Barby, 1777)
MAP OF ST. CROIX
1767)
(Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission, Barby, 1777)
[Facing page ^5\
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
£45
O! be that Name forever dear
While age to age shall roll
When Storms and Plagues and Famines near
Think on his generous Soul
In Vain We weep in Vain We Sigh
,
His Loss lament in vain
No friendly aid no help is nigh
Nought but despair and pain
For now behold an impious hand ®
To curse our wretched race
Has dealt destruction round the land
And made the Stamps take place
May heaven appeased reverse our fate
While Horrors haunt his bed
And Sleepless vengeance ever wait
To blast his guilty head Amen.
After Baron von Frock Lad turned the governor-generalship
over to Clausen, he returned to Denmark.
In the course of
defending himself against
the charge
of too
great
leniency
towards the planters, von Frock presented some
interesting
statistics.
The yield of sugar on St. Croix, which amounted to
8,457 hhds. in 1758, fell to 1910 hhds. in 1754.
When his term
began, in 1755, there were 8,897 slaves; when it ended, in 1766,
there were not less than 16,956 slaves; the miimber had nearly
doubled in eleven years.
The increase in sugar sent to Europe
was even more remarkable.
While the governors under the
Company had brought the exports from St. Croix from nothing
to three and one-half ship loads during the interval from 1788
to 1755, von Fr5ck boasted that he had increased the number
of annual cargoes to thirty-eight in 1766, an increase of eleven
to one.
During a single year of his term, forty-five ships had
been sent to Europe from the colonies.
Where there had been
eight windmflls
for grinding sugar cane in
1754,
there were
*
* The present Governor has levied a Tax by Way of Stamp on the Inhabi-
tants of that Island, which greatly distresses them, especially those who wctc
bom in the British dominions, who forget they live in an arbitrary Government.’
^46
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
sixty-three such mills twelve years
later.^
Where the Com-
pany's governors had tried in vain for half a century to come
to an agreement with Porto Rico, he had by 1766 succeeded
in establishing a “slave cartel’’ with the governor of the island.
It was of course not the retiring governor’s business to explain
the part played by European conditions in bringing on
this
prosperous state of affairs.
The memory of the St. John insurrection lingered long in the
minds of men.
Various preventive measures were attempted
by the authorities.
Negroes were not permitted to gather in
groups beyond a
certain number and
after certain
specified
hours.
Owners were required to keep white managers con-
stantly on the plantations.
The negro rebellion that threatened
St. Croix in 1746 was put down by a free negro, Mingo Tamarin,^
who hunted down the troublesome runaways or Marons, brought
them into submission and prevented an outbreak.
The next
serious trouble occurred under the royal regime in December,
1759, after a second interval of thirteen years.
Although no
overt act had been committed, the alleged conspirators were
punished in exemplary fashion.
Some of them “confessed,”
implicating
themselves
and
others.
Gibbet,
stake,
wheel,
noose, glowing tong,—all were employed to impress upon the
community the sinfulness of rebellion.
Of the fourteen con-
demned to lose their lives, one managed to escape by suicide,
but
his dead body was dragged up and down the
streets,
thereafter suspended by one leg from the gallows, and finally
taken down and burnt at the stake.
The remainder suffered
from one and one-half minutes to ninety-one hours of torture.
Ten others were condemned to be sold out of the island, fifty-
eight were acquitted, and six were reported as being
still at
^ The map reproduced on page 248 may have been submitted by von PrSck
as part of the evidence in his defence.
It gives the number of windmills by
“quarters” as follows: West End Quarter, 5; the Prince’s Q., 12; King’s Q., 14;
Queen’s Q., 19; Company’s Q., 12; North Side Q., “B,” 1.
6 Mango had first been made a “captain” of the free n^o “corps” by Gov-
ernor Bredal in 1721; he had in 1733 been placed by Governor Gardelin at the
head of a band of 300 faithful slaves and free negroes to assist in hunting down
the St. John rebeb and in holding the fort there against them.
In 1758, he was
again honored with the captaincy.
Martfeldt MSS., HI.
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
large—“free as birds.”
For each of those captured alive, the
reward was 50 rdl,^ for each one killed, ^ rcZZ.®
The change in
administration had evidently not affected the
status of the
negro.
Yet within a third of a century the first important step
to ameliorate the condition of the African race in America was
taken in these selfsame islands.
In all fairness it must be said
that the treatment of the slave was probably no worse in the
Danish than in the English, French and Dutch islands.
Denmark was the first state to attempt by law to prohibit
its subjects from taking part in the AJrican slave trade.
This
took place in the edict issued by King Christian VIE on March
16,
1792.
The constitutional provision by which this trafldc
was prohibited to citizens of the United States did not become
effective until sixteen years after the issuance of the Danish
edict.
Curiously enough, a humane owner of large plantations
in St.
Croix, Ernest Schimmelmann, himself a
director
in a
slave trading
enterprise
in
1782, was
chiefly responsible for
putting through this reform inaugurated by the A. P. Bemstorff
ministry.
The planters who transferred their allegiance from the Com-
pany and king to the king alone were a curiously cosmopolitan
lot.
On St. Thomas and St. John the most persistent element
in the population in 1765, when Martfeldt visited the islands,
was the Dutch, of which about four-fifths was of Zeeland and
Holland origin.
The Danes came next in point of numbers,
with probably less than half the strength of the Dutch.
The
remaining less numerous nationalities, given about in the order
of their strength, were the French, Germans, English (from the
islands), and Irish.
The names of two families, one of Holland
and one
of French
extraction, were
listed by
Martfeldt as
“scorched” to indicate mixture with the black population.^
® Species Faeli over den paa EUandet St. Croix i Aaret, 1759, inienderede Neeger
Rehellion.
Werlauff MSS., No. 22, Royal library.
^ Martfddt MSS., Yol. m. Twenty of the names listed are marked St. Croix,
though the table is headed “Ori^en af Familieme paa St. Thonaas og St.
Jans.”
In a separate list of sixty-eight of St. John^s inhabitants, Martfeldt
has 21 as having come from St. Thomas, 16 from St. John, six each from “Sab-
bath” and Tortola, five from Denmark, four from St. Eustatius, three each
248
I'HE DANISH WEST INDIES
While the planters were being threatened and cajoled to free
theinselves from debts, now to Dutch creditors, now to the
royal treasury, they managed to jSnd entertainment in various
places, from theaters to taverns, and other nondescript “ houses
of diversion.”
No form of diversion was too venal to carry
advertising space in The Royal Danish American
Gazette,
At
Christiansted the planters and their families might for twelve
shillings per ticket secure seats in the Bass-End theater.
Here
at half past six in the evening could be seen the Leeward Islands
company
of comedians
in
their performance
of King
Lear,
Hamlet,
or Richard
III.
The evening
usually
closed with
some dramatic presentation in lighter vein, such as “The Mock
Doctor,” “Flora, or Hob in the Well,” or “The Virgin Unmaskt,
or the Old Man Taught Wisdom.” ^
Occasionally it was found
necessary to check undue curiosity on the part of the blacks by
the warning “No negro whatever in the house,” while those
white people who were privileged to enter the charmed semi-
circle were cautioned—^in the public press—against attempting
to get behind the scenes.
Fredericksted in the “West End”
also had its theater.
Although no utterances against the authorities were allowed
publication,
individuals not infrequently used
this means
of
venting their spleens against their neighbors.
“King Liar” is
publicly warned against writing “any more impertinent mes-
sages” and against practicing “the servile trade of tale-bearing.”
One J-c-h C-nt-r, apparently a Jew,
is charged with a striking
resemblance to Judas Iscariot, and with refusing an invitation
to dine “upon a pale looking piece of pork, much the color of
his phiz.” ®
At least thirteen taverns played their part in the
life of St. Croix.
Like Governor Clausen, when he labored in
the interest of the royal treasury, they too found it necessary
from Ireland and St. Martin, and one apiece from Germany, Curagao, Mont-
serrat and St. Kitts.
® Otter titles of popular farces and melodramas are: “The Beaux Stratagem,’^
“The Fair Penit^t,” “The King and MUIct qI Idansfield,” “The Cheats of
Scapin,” “Mias in h^ ’Teens,” “The School Master’s Ballet,”
Damon and
Phillida,” “The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage,” “The In<X)nstant, or the
Way to Win him,” “The Reprisal, or the Tars of Old England.”
^ILD,A. G., April 10, 1771.
MAP
OF
ST.
CROIX,
17G6
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
249
to try to get on a cash basis.
Clausen’s vigorous administration
soon revealed a regular system of smuggling, especially on the
south side of St. Croix, opposite to the port of Christiansted.^®
An Englishman was found on the island practicing the danger-
ous art of counterfeiting.
Law-abiding traits and the higher aspects of civilization are
not always reflected in the public records or the public press;
but
it seems clear that the population of the Danish islands
was as ingenious and versatile as it was cosmopolitan.
If the
evidences
of wickedness and extravagance
are numerous,
it
must not be forgotten that times were good, and the means of
indulgence plentiful.
The economic importance of the sugar producing regions was
immensely enhanced during the Seven Years’ War and the
period following. When in the early seventies Alexander Hamil-
ton was serving his apprenticeship as a counting-house clerk
for the firm of Nicholas Cruger on St. Croix, he was near the
economic center of gravity in the New World.
The important
position that sugar held in the minds of European statesmen is
indicated by the fact that in 1763, when England and France
were carrying on the negotiations that concluded the Seven
Years’ War, English statesmen considered
seriously whether
they should retain Canada or the French sugar island of Guada-
loupe, a bit of land but little larger than St. Croix!
Compared with the few cargoes that the Company’s officials
managed to send to Copenhagen each year, the commercial
activities that centered in St. Croix in the latter half of the
eighteenth century were indeed considerable.
Up to the out-
break
of
the War
of
Independence,
the mainland English
colonies were tremendously active in St. Croix as elsewhere in
the West
Indies.
As
the war proceeded, Danish
shipping
became more and more brisk.
These islands had learned to
look pn European wars as great sources of prosperity, and this
war
hp exception.
The following table, derived from the
files of The Royal Danish American Gazette of St. Croix, will
give a fair idea of the relative strength of the shipping of the
10 Amer. Joum., 1770-71 (July 29, 1770, Jan. 3, 1771).
250
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
English mainland colonies and
of Denmark-Norway entered
at St. Croix.^^
Colon.
Danish
Colon.
Danish
Total
Ships
Ships
Total
Ships
Ships
1770
14
7
7
1775
49
20
18
1771
21
5
13
1776
56
8
30
1772
16
10
4
1777
58
5
37
1773
49
35
7
1778
53
3
23
1774
65
34
23
1779
10
9
In April,
1764, the year following the
close of the Seven
Years’ War, the
trade
of
St. Thomas with other European
colonies in America, was thrown open to the ships of all nations;
trade to and from Europe was reserved for royal subjects, and
the products of the islands,
if sent to Europe at
all, could be
disposed of only in the harbors of Denmark, Norway, Schleswig,
and Holstein.^^
The European trade of the islands was opened
in 1767 to ships of other nations, though at higher rates.
This
freedom lasted but a decade when during the closing years of
the American War, the monopoly plan was again attempted,
only to be definitely given up in 1782.
Ships of Danish sub-
jects were allowed to take their cargoes to any European port.
In 1815, the trade of St. Thomas and St. John was freed from
all restrictions, so that European skippers were allowed equal
privileges with those of America.
These changes did not affect the trade of St. Crois, where the
royal ordinance of 1764 continued in force until 1823.
In that
year a royal resolution was published, allowing the importation
of provisions and plantation accessories from any foreign port
to St. Croix, and the exportation of an equal value of sugar to
any such port.
One result of this new ruling was the serious
decline of the Copenhagen trade with St. Croix.
It was not
until June 6, 1833, on the hundredth anniversary of Denmark’s
possession of the island, that all trade restrictions in favor of
Danish ports or Danish subjects were removed, and that St.
The figures for 1770 apply only to the period from August 15 to December SJ6,
those for 1771 to the first five months, those for 177£ to the second half year.
Only the first two months of 1779 are included.
H. U. Ramsing, “Handel og Skibsfart,” in Dansk Vestindim, pp. 85ifc~860.
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
£51
Croix came to share with
its island neighbors the distinction
of being truly a ‘"free haven/^
The Peace of Versailles was followed by a serious commercial
depression.
This affected the West Indian commercial enter-
prises no
less than
it did economic conditions
in the United
States, which were then being forced into constitution-making
by the logic of events that were largely economic in character.
This return of good times came very opportunely for those who
were interested in the success of the United States imder the
new constitution.
An indication of this general prosperity is
seen in the shipping situation in St. Croix in the first two years
of President Washington’s administration.
In 1789, not less
than 516 vessels entered at St. Croix.
These were of all sizes,
from schooners and sloops to brigs and ships.
Eighty-two of
these entered from ports in the United States, one hundred and
twenty-three from Porto Rico, and only sixteen from Danish
dominions in Europe.
The records for 1790, though incomplete
for December, show a similar result.
The number that entered
was 369,
of which ninety-two came from the United States,
forty-nine from Porto Rico, and twenty-one from Danish lands.
In a single week in April,
1790, twenty-three vessels were en-
tered at the St. Croix customs house.^^
In
the Napoleonic
wars,
Denmark-Norway became
prac-
tically an ally of the French state.
With British sea^power in
the ascendancy this meant that Denmark’s hold upon her West
Indian possessions would become very uncertain at best.
The
situation indicated by Nelson’s bombardment of Copenhagen
in 1801,
is reflected in the West Indies by the British seizure
of the Danish islands in April, 1801, and their retention until
February, 180£, when England and France were preparing to
come to terms at Amiens.
In 1807, when the Danish capital
was bombarded the second time, the English once more seized
the Danish
islands.
This time they retained them until the
final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, when the islands were handed
back to Denmark.
The frontispiece to this volume
is repro-
duced from a drawing made at this time to show the condition
of St. Croix after Danish sovereignty had been restored.
The Roycd Danish ATnerican Gazette, for 1789 and 1790.
2S2
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
As a shipping
center and
distributing point
for the West
Indies, St. Thomas held a fairly enviable position for the period
from about 1820 to 1850.
In the decade 1821—1830 the tonnage
of ships annually
visiting St. Thomas harbor was more than
double what it had been during the two decades preceding. An
average of not less than 2,809 ships of a combined tonnage of
177,444 called there each year.
During the decade 1831-1840,
the ships averaged 2,557 and the tonnage 161,408.
This was
rather
less than
before, but
after
1835
steamships begin to
affect the situation.
In the years 1841-1850 the number of
ships fell to 2,169 a year, but the tonnage rose to 208,281.
For
1850, ninety-one
steamships
are
reported.
- The number
of
Danish-owned ships increased from 232 vessels of an aggregate
tonnage of 17,448 in 1841 to 507 vessels of 35,507 tons displace-
ment in 1850.
This was an increase of more than one hundred
per cent., brought about after Danish shipping had been obliged
to compete with foreign shipping on even terms.
Commercially St. Thomas was a flourishing port in the forties.
Its
life centered about the harbor and the town of Charlotte
Amalia.
Of the 14,000 inhabitants of the island only 2,500, of
whom more than nine-tenths were slaves, gained their living
from the plantations.
In
1839, there were forty-one large im-
porting houses on the islands.
Of these, thirteen were English,
eleven
French,
six German,
four
Italian and
Spanish,
four
American, and only three Danish or Danish West Indian.
This
situation had not seriously changed by 1850.
The population
was nearly as cosmopolitan in St. Thomas at that date as in
the mining camps then opening in California.
After the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth cen-
tury the ratio of steam craft to sailing vessels steadily rose.
It
became
possible to an increasing extent
for the British and
Spanish islands to import their goods direct from the producers.
Islands
like Porto Rico, Barbados, and Santa Lucia availed
themselves less and less of St. Thomas as a staple port.
Only
as a coaling place does St. Thomas manage to attract attention
as the nineteenth century closes.
In the opening years of the
twentieth centiuy the increased use of the harbor by the Danish
East Asiatic Company and the Geiman Hamburg-American
SUPPLEMENTAKY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
25S
Line has greatly increased the importance of St. Thomas as a
coaling station.
The tonnage has been larger in recent years
than in the golden forties, but cargoes are no longer unloaded
on the wharves and in the warehouses, hence tonnage
is no
index of the commercial situation.
The following table shows
the situation in St. Thomas harbor for the three-year period
1908-1910.
1908
1909
1910
Ships entered [over 25 tons]
682
690
749
Boats entered [under 25 tons]
1,918
1,877
1,895
Coal imported [in tons]
77,555
103,505
The ships entered in 1910 included 38 war-ships, 446 mer-
chant steamers and 265 sailing ships.
Two events must be held mainly responsible for the decline
in the importance of sugar-cane plantations in the Lesser An-
tilles dining the nineteenth century.
The first is no doubt the
development
of the process discovered by the Berlin chemist
Achard of making sugar from beets.
The second disturbing
circumstance was the demoralization of the labor market by
the abolition, first of the slave trade, and later of slavery itself.
For a community that had learned to depend almost
solely
upon a single staple as a means of livelihood, the shock was all
but fatal.
The following statistics of population will serve as
an index to the economic condition of the islands.
St Croix
St Thomas
St John
Total
1773
21,809
4,371
2,402
28,582
1796
28,803
4,734
2,120
36,657
1835
26,681
14,022
2,475
43,178
1850
23,720
13,666
2,228
39,614
1860
23,194
13,463
1,574
38,231
1880
18,430
14,389
944
38,763
1890
19,783
12,019
984
32,786
1901
18,590
11,012
925
30,527
During the period of the Napoleonic wars, the rise in the price
of sugar led to the practical abandonment of cotton
culture
BergsOe, den danshe Stats Statistik (KjObenhavii, 1853), IV, 600; FolhetasU
lingen 'paa de dansk vestindiske Oer for 1860, etc.
254i
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
on the Danish islands.
St.
Croix’s maximum cotton export
was reached in 1792 with 157,000 lbs,; the average annual ex-
port for the decade was perhaps 60,000. An attempt at reviving
the cultivation of cotton was made in the era of high prices
just preceding the Civil War. A fresh attempt was made in the
course of that war, when the acreage was increased from sev-
enty in 186S to eight hundred in 1865.
In the year 1865-1866,
71,000 lbs. were exported from St. Croix.
Again cotton grow-
ing fell into disuse, not to be revived until the first decade of
the twentieth century.
Since the failure of the plan to sell the
islands to the United States in 1902, patriotic Danes have or-
ganized an association for developing the agricultural resources,
—
a
plantation society called ‘"The Danish West Indies.”
This
corporation has brought cotton culture to a higher point than
has been attained hitherto.^®
Sugar planting probably reached its maximum about 1796.^®
The acreage figures
for that year make an instructive com-
parison with those for 1847, the year before slavery was abol-
ished, and with 1851,
five years
after
abolition.^^
The sugar
acreage of St. Thomas and St. John had already dwindled to
insignificance by 1851.
St. Croix
St. Thomas
St. John
1'796
27,655 A.
2,496 A.
1,863 A.
1847
23,971
1,125
843
1851
19,736
The plow was rarely seen on a plantation in the eighteenth
century.
Emancipation brought the plow; here as elsewhere
free labor had to compete with machinery.
In 1796, Oxholm
reports
119 windmills and 211
treadmills on the
islands,
of
which 115 of the former and 144 of the latter were on St. Croix.
The first steam-power sugar mill was erected on the Hogens-
borg plantation on St. Croix in 1816, and the second in 1838.
Power machinery raised the percentage of extracted cane-juice
to seventy; wind or treadmills could yield only
fifty-six per
i^Capt. H. U. Ramsing, “Landbrug og Havebrug” m Dansh VesHndien,
pp. 790-810.
w P. L. Oxholm, De Danshe VesHndisJce Oers Tilstand, ‘‘Statistisk Tabelle.*’
H. U. Ramsing, in Bamsh Vestindim, 795.
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
255
cent.
By 1852 there were forty steam-propelled sugar mills on
St. Croix.
In 1908, there was but a single sugar mill upon each
of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John, and only the St. John
mill was in operation.
A period of drought in the early seventies led to the establish-
ment of an elaborate cooperative sugar factory at Christiansted
in 1877-1878.
It was hoped hy centralization to reduce the
expense of manufacture.
The new machinery could extract
eighty per cent, of the juice, and the idea spread to various of
the larger plantations.
The ‘‘Danish West Indies’’ corporation
has carried the idea of centralization in production and manu-
facture to a far higher point than has formerly been attempted.
In 1910 there were on St. Croix four large factories producing
crystallized sugar.
Six smaller establishments
still produced
“muscovado” sugar in the ancient way.
The annual sugar yield on the two older islands at specified
periods was as follows:
St. Thomas
8t. John
About 1796
1,300,000 lbs.
850,000 lbs.
1821-26
1,444,000 “
1,100,000
1838-40
1,164,000
“
993,000
As early as 1755, when the period of royal government began,
St.
Croix was
already producing one and
one-half
million
pounds of sugar.
This was more than St. Thomas produced at
any time in its history.
By 1770, the production on St. Croix
had increased to about 17,000,000 lbs., nearly twelve times; in
the early eighties it had risen to 25,000,000.
In the mid-eighties,
in that “critical period” preceding the adoption of the American
constitution, the yield
fell to 16,650,000 lbs.
In the opening
years of the nineteenth century the annual production rose to
about 32,460,000, the maximum apparently being reached in
1812, with 46,000,000
lbs.
Since the Napoleonic period the
yearly sugar production on St. Croix at various dates was ap-
proximately as follows:
1820
24,300,000 lbs.
1860-70
15,730,000 lbs.
1830
23,690,000 “
1872-77
9,300,000 “
1840
20,000,000 “
1874
4,577,000 “
1850-55
15,000,000 “
1880-90
19,000,000
‘‘
1855-60
18,400,000
“
1900-10
24,700,000 “
256
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
More advanced methods of cultivation and manufacture have
finally brought the production up ahnost to the point that
it
was ninety-six years ago, and that from a smaller area.
An
evidence of this greater efficiency is seen in the increase in the
annual yield per acre from 18,638 lbs. of cane in 1878-1883 to
26,020 lbs. in 1897-1902.
The increasing difficulties to which
the growing of sugar cane was subjected as the nineteenth cen-
tury ran its course, made the islands more and more dependent
upon the Danish treasury.
Whereas they had earlier in the
century been colonies commanding respect, they were like the
British islands rapidly lapsing into the position of dependencies
calling for state subsidies.
With no relief in sight except sub-
sidies, it only required a favorable opportunity to suggest the
feasibility of selling.
Such an opportunity presented itself as a
result of the situation growing out of the Civil War.
Before taking up the diplomacy that eventually led to the
sale of the islands to the United States, a brief consideration
of recent local conditions upon the islands should not be with-
out
interest,
especially to American
readers.
‘‘The Danish,
West Indies” plantation company above referred to was
or-
ganized
largely from
patriotic
motives.
The impulse came
after the collapse of the attempted negotiations for sale to the
United
States
in
1901-1902.
With a maximum
capital
of
1,316,316
kroner
($365,277), and despite the introduction of
steam plows, new breeds of live stock, new varieties of plants
including the spineless cactus from Burbank’s California gar-
dens, despite increased rotation of crops, such as banana and
alfalfa, despite the advice of British West Indian experts, this
plantation experiment has been a losing proposition as a business
enterprise.
The company’s books showed a net gain in only
four years of the eleven-year period from 1904-1914, inclusive.
The total net loss for the eleven-year period was not less than
618,638.77 kroner ($171,650).
The chief reasons advanced for
this unfortunate outcome were, a series of unusually dry sea-
sons, and a number of severe storms.
The company has also had considerable trouble with its labor
supply during
its
career.
The demand
for workers on the
Panama Canal drew many negroes off the Danish as it did off
ST.
THO:vrAS
HARBOR:
BOOKIHG
WESTWARD
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
257
the other West Indian islands.
Hence the price of labor rose
higher than local conditions would warrant.
As on previous
occasions, hard times
has brought unrest among the negro
population.
In 1915, the negroes decided among themselves
that their condition was so serious that it merited the immediate
attention of the Danish government and people.
They ap-
pointed one of their number, Mr. D. Hamilton Jackson, as their
special representative, and sent him to Copenhagen to present
their claims for amelioration of their condition.
For a time
the situation looked so threatening in St. Crok, the center of
the disturbance, that the Danish government decided to send a
warship to Christiansted.
Mr. Jackson’s visit received a great
deal of attention from the Danish public and press.
After his
return, in November, 1915, he started a newspaper. The Labor
Unioriy which is still being published.
Previous to the outbreak of the Civil War, the interest of the
United States in Caribbean lands had mainly been directed
towards Cuba by the slave-holding interests which looked there
for possible extension of slavery territory.
But during the war,
the lack of a naval base in the Caribbean Sea proved so costly
an experience to the United States
in
its
efforts to prevent
blockade-running that the Lincoln administration decided to
do what was possible to remedy this situation.
The program
of Secretary of State Seward included a larger number of proj-
ects than was practicable under the confused political condi-
tions following the
assassination
of Lincoln.
The expulsion
of the French from Mexico and the purchase of Alaska were
accomplished, but the purchase of a Canal strip and the Danish
West Indian islands was deferred
to a
later date andjthen
consummated at a far higher cost than would have been neces-
sary in Sefward’s time.^®
Seward broached the purchase project to General Eaasloff,
the Danish minister at Washington, in January, 1865, but with-
out securing any assurance that Denmark was willing to
sell.
In December, 1865, after Seward’s recovery from the wounds
See W. F. Johnson, “The Story of the Danish Islands,” in The North Amer^
iom Review for Sept., 1916, for a useful summary of recent efforts at purchase.
This comprehensive review forms the basis for much of what follows.
258
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
he had received at the same time that Lincoln was attacked,
the Secretary, with President Johnson’s approval, again brought
the matter forward.
Following the defeat of Denmark by the
combined Anstro-Prussian forces, and her loss of the duchies of
Schleswig and
Holstein,
the Danish Ministry that assumed
control of the government under these circumstances proved
willing to consider the matter formally and inquired what the
United States was willing to pay.
The negotiations were con-
ducted mainly
in Copenhagen where the United States was
represented by George H. Yeaman.
After making a personal
tour of investigation to the islands and listening to the report
of an army oflScer who had been sent to make an appraisal of
their worth, Seward concluded to offer the Danish government
five million dollars in gold.
By this time (1866), the situation
in Europe had undergone a change.
Prussia was now engaged
in a struggle with her former ally, Austria, for the hegemony
of the German Empire, and until that was settled, Denmark,
still smarting under the loss of the duchies was not in a position
to take a step that seemed likely to be resented by Prussia.
The English foreign office under Earl Russell had also shown
its distrust of the plan.
Another serious obstacle was France.
By the treaty nego-
tiated with France in 1733, for the purchase of St. Croix, Den-
mark had boimd herself not to
sell that island to any other
power without the consent of the French king.
The Mexican
situation was
seriously
straining the relations of the United
States with the Emperor Napoleon HI, who refused his con-
sent to the transaction.
Denmark, imwilling to risk the dis-
pleasure of France, made an
offer
in the
spring of
1867 for
the sale of St. Thomas and St. John to the United States gov-
ernment for the sum of five million dollars, and indicated her
willingness to sell St. Croix for a similar price, provided France
could be induced to give its consent.
Minister Yeaman finally
made a treaty with the Danish government in October, 1867,
providing
for the purchase
of the two northern
islands
for
$7,500,000.
The consent of the Danish Senate or Landsthing
was necessary, as was that of the United States Senate.
Seward
gave his unofficial consent to the holding of an election on Hie
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER; 1755-1917
259
islands to ascertain the will of the inhabitants. He did not wish
to hamper Congress in any action it might take to settle the
status of the islands.
It turned out that both houses of the
Danish diet gave their consent, and that the plebiscite on the
islands carried in favor of annexation by the nearly unanimous
vote of 1,244 to 22.
The sole remaining obstacle was the Senate
of the United States, and there the chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee was
Senator
Charles Sumner,
the im-
placable enemy
of President Johnson.
A considerable share
of the wrath that was piling up against the President had to
be borne by the head of his cabinet.
To have followed up the
purchase of Alaska by the purchase of the Danish islands might
have enhanced popularity of the administration, and this was
not
desired by Sumner and
the
anti-administration
forces.
The treaty was consequently pigeonholed.
Denmark granted
an extension of time for ratification, first to Seward, and then
to his successor, Hamilton Fish.
But the Grant administra-
tion was only less distasteful to Sumner than the one
it dis-
placed, so on April 14, 1870, the treaty was allowed to lapse,
and the government was placed in the position of refusing
its
assent to a treaty which it had initiated.
The United States was saved from an exceedingly embarrass-
ing position through the circumstance that Denmark made no
attempt to
sell the islands to any other power.
The Danish
government broached the matter again late in Harrison’s ad-
ministration, during the secretaryship of John W. Foster, but
the matter was not pressed because of fear that the incoming
Cleveland administration might repudiate the transaction be-
fore
it had been completed.
The third time that the matter
was called to the attention of the government of the United
States was in Cleveland’s administration, but the administra-
tion that refused to consider the annexation of Hawaii could
not be expected to purchase the Danish islands.
Denmark con-
tinued its considerate attitude by refraining from seeking other
purchasers.
When after the Spanish-American war the question of pur-
chase came up
for a fourth time, the chances for successful
negotiation seemed promising.
Secretary John Hay, the head
^60
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
of
President
Roosevelt’s
cabinet, and
the Danish
minister.
Count Constantine Brun, discussed the project late in 1901,
and a treaty was promptly formulated providing for the pur-
chase of the islands at the price
first offered by Seward, five
million
dollars.
The
French
government—^now
the
Third
Republic—^made no
objection to the
inclusion of
St.
Croix.
The treaty was negotiated in January, 1902.
On February 17,
the United States Senate atoned for
its previous dog-in-the-
manger position by prompt ratification.
This time the opposi-
tion came from another quarter.
The Folketking, the popular
house of the Danish Parliament,
readily gave
its assent but
in the Landsihing the treaty
failed of confirmation by a
tie
vote.
This adverse vote has been generally assumed
in the
United States to have been due to German influence.
Several
circumstances have lent color to this view.
During the Spanish-
American war, popular opinion in Germany was very strongly
opposed to the United States.
The attitude of Admiral Diet-
richs indicated an unexpected impatience on the part of the
German government towards American plans
in the
Orient.
Likewise in the Caribbean Sea that government found
itself
arousing the apprehension of the United States in its dealings
with Latin American states, much as England had done in the
Venezuela affair during Cleveland’s administration.
The rapid
development of the great German shipping lines, such as the
Hamburg-American,
gives the observer no reason
to doubt
that Germany would welcome the chance to acquire St. Thomas
or any other suitable port or coaling station in the neighbor-
hood
of the Panama Canal.
Whatever may have been the
actual facts, the treaty was not confirmed by the Danish upper
house, and apparently German commercial interests were not
displeased with having St. Thomas remain under Danish rule.
The reasons for the bungling that took place in 1911-1912 when
the scheme was again considered, have not yet fully come to
light.
Through the injudicious actions of certain private in-
dividuals, the diplomatists found themselves obliged to defer
formal action to a more opportune time.
It is significant of the
American position that when the Danish company, that had
been formed to deepen and improve St. Thomas harbor, con^
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: 1755-1917
261
sidered the securing of foreign, and especially German, capital
for assistance in carrying through Its original plans, the govern-
ment
of the United
States promptly
indicated
that such
a
measure would not meet with its approval.
The plans of the
company were modified and carried out on a smaller scale with
Danish capital.
The plan to
sell the islands, when finally
disclosed to the
Danish public by the Zahle ministry in 1916, met with vigorous
and determined opposition.
There
is no apparent reason for
suspecting German influence as a factor of importance in this
connection-
Several of the most influential anti-German news-
papers labored most valiantly to defer the sale, at least until
after
the
war.
University
professors,
economists, men
of
science,
well known
religious
leaders, men
of
business,—all
classes furnished ardent opponents to the sale of the islands at
this time; and these men were probably overwhelmingly anti-
German.
There appears to have been considerable quiet but
effective activity exerted in favor of the proposed sale by some
of the leading business men, especially those connected with the
Danish East Asiatic Company.
When the matter came before
the Danish people for their decision in December, 1916, the
vote in favor of the ministerial plan for sale stood 283,694 to
157,596.
And now, more than half a century after negotiations were
initiated, and in the progress of a mighty world war, the United
States has finally purchased the Danish West Indian islands.
The purchase price, $25,000,000, represents a greater sum than
has been paid for any of its acquisitions, not excepting Louisiana
and the Philippines.
The islands passed under the sovereignty
of the United States on January 17, 1917, when Secretary Lan-
sing and Minister Bnm exchanged ratifications of the treaty
of cession.
The United States flag was hoisted on the three
‘"Virgin Islands
of America” on March
thirty-first.
Bear-
admiral James H.
Oliver was named
as the
first American
governor.
It is nearly two himdred and fifty years since the oldest of
the islands first came into Danish possession.
As they have
long been economically American, they will henceforth be polit-
262
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
ically American.
Their future lies in the lap of Fate and of the
Congress of the United States.
In aimexing them the United
States has acquired a harbor that shares with Samana Bay,
San Domingo, the distinction of deserving—^to quote the words
of Admiral Mahan—“paramount
consideration
in a general
study of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
of Mexico.”
The
United States has taken another
distinct and important step
towards establishing American influence in the lands that lie to
the north of Panama in securing the Leeward gateway to the
American Mediterranean.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The chief repository of jfirst-hand material dealing with the
Danish West India and Guinea Company is the Danish State
Archives
(Rigsarkivet)
in
Copenhagen.
The
entire
olBScial
records of the Company, except such portions as are to be foimd
in the Landsarkiv, are piled high on the shelves of the topmost
story of the archives building, where their repose has rarely
been disturbed.
The materials in the Landsarkiv, or provincial
archives, consist chiefly of official documents dealing presum-
ably with the local history of the Danish islands.
It appears
that these records were brought to Denmark from the West
Indies only about twenty-five years ago, but have suffered so
from
climatic conditions and the ravages
of
tropical
insects
that they are not available for the use of scholars.
The Gardelin
and Schweder letter-books now in the Bancroft Collection at
Berkeley,
California, were presumably a part of these
local
archives.
The Company’s records kept at Copenhagen do not appear
to have been accessible imtil J. F. Krarup, who became assist-
ant in the state archives in 1870 and first secretary and registrar
in 1882, proceeded to arrange and label the materials.
The
Company’s archives are divided into three parts, correspond-
ing to the principal
scenes of
its
activity—Copenhagen, the
West Indies, and Guinea—and each department contains the
matter which noraially gravitated towards that place.
The
manuscript
materials
in
the Copenhagen
municipal
archives (Raddstuearkivet) and in the Royal Library which deal
with the Damsh West Indian possessions are few in number
but
of
real importance.
Their source
will be noted in the
bibliography.
The library
of the University of Copenhagen
apparently contains
little of vital importance that cannot be
found in one^ or the other of the above collections.
One repository remains to be considered, the Bancroft Col-
lection at Berkeley, California, referred to above.
The manu-
script material there to be found, necessarily fragmentary, but
by no means negligible, was collected about thirty years ago
by Alphonse Pinart, who made a
tour of investigation and
collection over Spanish, English, French, Dutch and Swedish,
as well as Danish islands.
The part secured at St. Thomas
consists not only of copies of official orders and correspondence,
[ 263 ]
S64
filBLlOGRAPHY
but of a number of originals.
These materials were later ac-
qmred by Mr. H* H. Bancroft and are now in the custody of the
University of California.
In the writing of Chapter I, the author has in the main fol-
lowed the work of J. Frederick Krarup, whose long service in
the archives gave him a unique opportunity to work out an
authoritative and indeed a microscopic account
of the
first
Danish governor. A careful checking up of Krarup’s work on
Governor Iversen soon revealed the
futility
of retracing
his
footsteps.
Kranip’s biography of Milan has also been followed
in Chapter HI in so far as it deals with the West Indian career
of that strange character.
In the chapter dealing with the
Brandenburg African Company’s experience in the West Indies,
Schiick’s exhaustive account
(q. v.) has been freely used, but
it has^ been checked up and supplemented with documentary
material from the Company’s archives which Dr. Schiick did
not examine.
In the remainder of the work the author has had
to rely chiefly upon impublished documentary material.
Although the major part of the materials are in Danish, a
few are in German, the language of the court, some in French,
and a considerable number in Dutch, which was the prevailing
tongue among the
St. Thomas and
St. John planters in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Manuscript Sources
Note: The abbreviations employed in the text are enclosed
in brackets
[].
A. The Danish State Archives (Rigsarkiv)
:
I. The Records of the Company:
Gouvemeuremes CopirBdger
(1686; 1694-1700; 1700-1703;
1703-1715).
Volumes
containing
correspondence
of
governors.
[Gouv. C. J?., 1686, etc,]
Gouvemeurens
Joumaler
(1688-1689;
1689-1691;
1696-
1702).
Official diaries of A. Esmit, Heins and Lorentz.
[Heins\ Lorentz^s, etc,, Journ,]
Diverse Dohumenter vedr, Interimsgouv, Adolph Esmit, hans
Emhedsfordse, FcengsUng, m,
m,
(1682-1689).
[A.
E,
168^-1689.]
Diverse Dohumenter vedh Gouvemeuren paa St, Thomas, de
la Vigne (1692-1695).
[Delavigne papers,]
Kopu-Bog for St. Thonzas (1703-1715).
Ropier og Ewtrahter
af
Sehret-Protokoller for
St. Thomas
(1699-1714; 1723-1735; 1735-17^2).
The privy councU
records of St. Thomas from 1715 to 1722, inclusive, are
missing.
BiBLiOGitAJPHY
265
SeJcret-Protokol for
St.
Thomas
(1694-1714;
1723-1727;
1729-1730).
[S. P.y St. Th.]
Lands-Proiokol for St. Thomas (1694-1711).
Kofier af Plakater, Breve^ og Ordrer udstedte 'paa St. Thomas
og SL Jan (1683-1729).
[P. B. 0., 1683-1729.]
Negotie Joumaler forte paa
St.
Thomas.
These account
books of the Company are practically complete.
Sales
of slaves were usually recorded in them.
Their ponder-
ous size and lack of indexes make them diflScult to use.
[N.J.forSt. Th.]
Negotie Journaler forte paa St. Croix.
These begin about
1736, and are not quite complete.
[iV. J. for St. C.]
Land Lister for St. Thomas.
The first census was taken in
1688.
After the expiration of Thormohlen’s proprietor-
ship, the tax list was made out annually, and the series
is ve^ nearly complete.
[L. L. for St. Th.]
Land Listerfor St. Jan. The first census seems to have been
taken in 1728.
The lists here are less complete than on
the other islands.
[L. L. for St. J.]
Land Lister for
St. Croix.
Begins with
1742.
[L. L. for
St. C.]
Breve
og
Dokumenter
indkomne
til
Vestindisk-Guineiske
Kompagnies Direction fra Vestindien (1683-1689; 1706-
1710;
1711-1713;
1714-1717;
1717-1720;
1721-1724;
1724-1727;
1732-1734).
The
correspondence
of
the
West Indian officials with the directors in Copenhagen
forms an invaluable first-hand
source of information.
[B. &D.]
Copie Bog holden ved Compagniets Contoir i Kiohenhavn fra
den 13 Feh. 1690, til A[nn]o 1713, over ‘^hvad der er pas-
seret ved det vestindiske Comp.^^
scerlig vedr.
St. Thomas.
[C. B., 1690-1713.]
Americanske og Africanske Copie Bog (1716-1726)*
Europceisk Copie Bog (1698-1702).
Dansk-Vestindisk-Guineiske
Compagnies
Breve-Copie-Bog
(1698-1702).
Vestindisk og Guineisk Compagniets Directions Resolutions
og
Forhandlings
Protocol
(1697-1734).
[Comp.
Prot.,
1697-1731^.]
Vestindisk
og
Ouineisk Cmipagniels
General Forsamlings
Protokol (1741-1754).
[Comp. Prot., 17^1-54.]
Vestindisk
Guineisk Comp.
Rets
og
Kommissions Doha-
memter (1709-1719).
Kopibog for Vestindisk og Guineisk Compagniets Direction
(1733-1754).
[Vest. Dir. K. B., 1738-5^.]
260
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Extract-Udshrifter af Secret-Protocoller for St, Croix (1744-
1752).
[S. P., St, C., 17U-1753-]
VestindisTce og Guineislce Kom'pagnies Kasseboger forte paa
St.
Croix
(1735-1754).
The volumes
for
1736,
1740,
and 1744 are missing.
The same for
St. Thomas
(1680-1754).
These volumes
give the detailed accounts of receipts and expenditures
of all sorts, e. g.^ customs duties, weighing fees, etc.
II. The State Archives proper:
Christian Martfeldt.
Samlinger
orti de Danske Vestin-
dishe Oer St. Groix^ St, Thomas, St, Jan,
These six for-
midable quarto volumes contain the materials collected
and the observations made by a distinguished Danish
economist
of the eighteenth century who paid an ex-
tended visit to the islands about 1765-1768.
“He who
would study thoroughly the history of the islands,’’ says
Bergsoe (Den danske Stats
Statistik, Kjobenhavn,
1853,
IV B., p. 559), “will find here amid considerable rubbish,
much that is of value for the period before 1765.”
Vol-
ume I contaios copies of orders issued by various West
Indian governments from 1733 to 1767, inclusive.
Vol-
ume n with its ^'Collegial Breve fra Kjobenhavn; Ordon-
nancer,
Instructioner,
Reglementer fra Gouvernementef*
deals with the period from
Sept.
3,
1756, to
Oct.
4,
1760, and includes a number of West Indian letters and
mandates for the period 1741-1745.
Volume III con-
sists of a large variety of documentary and
statistical
material concerning the history and government of the
islands, and the character
of
their population.
Vol-
ume IV begins with
statistics of
St. Thomas’s planta-
tions; the remainder being devoted to the story, in fif-
teen long chapters, of “the Danish Island St. Thomas
in the West
Indies,” an interesting though
prolix
ac-
count of all the islands from administrative and political
viewpoints.
The
remaining
nine
chapters
are to be
found in Vol. V.
The last volume (VI) contains copies
and extracts of West Indian archival material between
the dates 1688 and 1766.
[Martfeldt MSS.].
Sjoellandske
aabne
Breve
(1654-1655 and
1662).
These
contain references
to West Indian voyages of private
adventurers
before
the
establishment
of
the Com-
pany.
Registrant over vestindiske Sager (1671-1699).
[Vest, Reg.]
Registrant over vestindiske aabne Breve og Missiver (1699-
1771.)
The above two entries contain copies of pass-
BIBLIOGRAPHY]
267
ports to ship
captains and confirmations
of Lutheran
and Reformed ministers, issued by the King,
Vestindisk-Guinodske Koncepter og IndUeg (1671-1699).
Vestindiske Koncepter og Indlwg (1700-1771).
Protokol over Commissioncereme udi Raadstuen for
Slottety
Vols. Ill and ly (1695).
Kronologisk Samling af Offentlige Aktstykker vedk. de dansk-
vestindiske Oer og
scerlig negemes Forfatning
betrceffende
.
(1733-1788).
^
dresundstoldboger.
The records
of the Sound duties are
especially
valuable
in
locating and
identifying
ships
outward or homeward bound.
B. The Royal Library at Copenhagen:
Werlauff MSS. No. 22. (a) [Pierre Joseph] Pannet: Relation
de VEx^rable Conspiration^ mise en Oeuvre par les Negres
Minas en VIsle Danoise St. Jan en Amirique 173S; (b)
Specification
paa.
.
.
. Compagniets
Partidpanter
og
Actier ndi Compagniet og Raffinaderiet
indtil den Anno
1751.
Ny
Kgl.
Sami.
426
fob
Peder Manager: Een
saavidt
mueligt fuldstcmdig
Historisk
Efterretning
extraheret
af
Det
Vestindiske og Guineiske Compagnies Archiv, Roger
og
Protocoller, angaaende bemelte Compagnies Etablisse-
menter udi Vestindien og Guinea, fra
hegyndelsen.
.
.
.
(Dated at Company’s
oflSice, July 30, 1753.)
The 222
folio pages in tins volume constitute the ofl&cial account
of the Company’s
activities from
its establishment in
1671 up to within a year or so of its dissolution. Manager
had been employed
in the Company’s
office, most
of
the time as bookkeeper, for upwards of thirty years, and
was
intimately
acquainted
with
its
affairs.
On the
whole, it is written with remarkable accuracy, and it
is
unique in being an authoritative exposition written from
the
viewpoint
of
the
Company’s
Copenhagen
head-
quarters.
Compared with this manuscript history, the
published works of Host, and his successors and transla-
tors, are weak indeed.
[Mariager JfS.]
Uldallske Sami., No. 30
fol.
Adskillige Placater og An-
modninger samt Kongelige Rescripter Vestindien vedkom-
mende.
Thottske Sarrd., No. 515 fol. J. N. Holst, Om hvad der kunde
vaere EUcenderne
St. Jan,
St.
Croix, og
St.
Thomas
til
Opkomst (1746-1755). A series of proposals concerning
the West Indies by an experienced ship captain.
Thottske
Sarrd., No. 1298
(4°).
R. Haagensen, Beskrivelse
268
BIBLIOGRAPHY
over EUandet St Croix,
(Dated
1751.)
This account,
dedicated to the newly elected president of
the Com-
pany, Count Adam Gottlob von Moltke, was published in
1758, and constitutes the
first known printed account
of the island of St. Croix under Danish rule.
Thottske Saml.^ No. 764 b.
Soren Sommer, En Kort Besk-
rivelse om St Thomas og St Croix. ...
(Dated April 29,
1738.)
Kallske Samty No. 103 foL C. A. von Plessen, Resolution
ogBeskeed,
.
.
. (Dated
?)
This is an order relating
to the treatment of the Moravian Brethren.
C. The Municipal Archives at Copenhagen (Raadstuearkivet):
Politi- og Commerce-Collegiets Resolutions og Missive Proto-
coller, vol. 3 (1704-1709).
Politi-og Commerce-Collegiets Memorial Bog^ vols. 21 (1716-
1720) and 22 (1720-1723).
D. The Bancroft Collection at Berkeley:
Governors of St. Thomas.
Orders issued for observance
by inhabitants (1672-1726).
Copies of 80 orders pub-
lished during the governorships
of Iversen, Milan, A.
Esmit, Heins, Lorentz, Crone, Bredal, Thambsen, and
Moth.
Gardelin, Phillip.
Letter-book containing correspondence
with oflScials on St. John and St. Thomas (April 22, 1733-
August 21, 1734).
The letters and orders in this frail
and yellowed termite-burrowed volume throw interest-
ing sidelights on the St. John insurrection of 1733-1734.
St. John Planters.
Five letters written to Gardelin and
Horn (Dec.^ 7, 1733-April 19, 1734).
[Bancroft Coll]
^
Moth, Frederick.
Porto Rico letter-book containing copies
of correspondence with Spanish oflicials (1734-1743).
Schweder,
Christian.
Letter-book contaming
copies
of
correspondence with St. Croix oflScials (June 13, 1744-
Nov. 24, 1745.)
Printed Sources
Algreen-TJssing, T.
ed.
Kongelige
Rescri'pter,
Resolutioner og Reglementery
Instruxer
og
Fundatsery
samt
Kollegialbrevey
med
flere
Danmarks
'
Lovgivning vedkommende qffentlige Aktstykker,
Kj5benhavn,
1806-1850.
56 V.
[Danish West India and Gxjxc^ea Company.]
Kongelige Octroyerede Danshe Westindiske og Guineiske Com-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
269
pagnie,
Ordre
og
Instruction for
Assistenterne
paa
del
Kongelige
Octroyerede Danshe
West-Indishe
og
Guineishe
Skibe,
Kjobenhavn [1698].
4°.
[Danish West India and Guinea Company.]
Det Kongelige Danshe Westindishe og Guineishe Compagnies
Partidpanters
Convention,
Reglement
og
Foreening
ind-
gaaet
og
sluttet
d, 26
Sept,
1733.
Kjobenkavn,
1733.
20 p.
[Denmakk.]
Patent om
it Guineishe Compagnies Oprettelse i Kiobenhaffn.
Dec. 10, 1672.
[Kjobenhavn] 1672.
[Denmark.]
Verordnung wegen des West-Indischen und Guineischen Handels
Mar. 3, 1680.
[Kjobenhavn, 1680.]
4 p.
4°.
[Denmark.]
Skibsartikler
hvorefter Wi
Christian F.
.
.
.
[Kjobenhavn]
1698.
15 p.
4°.
This concerns West Indian and Guinea Company's
ships’
rules.
(Dated March 26.)
[Denmark.]
Octroy for det KgL
Danshe WesUindishe og Guineishe Com-
pagnie.
February 5.
Kjobenhavn, 1734.
28 p.
An abstract of this charter is given in Host, Efterretning
.
.
.
,
pp. 115 et seq.
[Denmark.]
Placat om
Foringen
ved
det
Kongelige
octroierede
Danshe
Westjndiske og Guineishe Compagnie.
October 14.
Kjoben-
havn] 1747.
‘‘Fol. pat.”
[Danish West India and Guinea Company.]
Plan og Convention hvorefter det Kongelige Octroyerede Danshe
Westindisk
og
Guineishe
Compagnies
Augmentation
have
svbscriberet, d, 6 Feb. 1747.
Kjobenhavn, 1748.
8 p.
Footman, Laxjritz.
Alphabetish Register over de Kongelige Rescripter, Resolutioner
og
Collegialbreve,
Aar
1660-1800.
Kjobenhavn,
1806.
17 V. 1-2 Part.
Footman, Latjritz.
[ed.]
Kongelige Rescripter, Resolvdioner, og Collegial Breve for Dan-
mark og Norge, 1660-1813.
Kjobenhavn, [date ?] v.
Great Britain: Master of the Rolls.
Calendar of state papers.
Colonial
series; America and the
West Indies.
(1669-1708.)
Vols. 1-18.
1669-70 -[1706-
08.]
London, 1885^1916.
[Cal. Col]
^
These volumes contain valuable materials on Anglo-Danish
relations in the West Indies.
270
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Host, Geobg.
Efterretning om Oen Sanct Thomas.
.
.
•
(See under Second*
ary Works.)
Maanedlige Relationer (periodical, Copenhagen) for April and
June, 1683.
Contemporary account of Governor Iversen’s death, and of
punishment of responsible mutineers.
Paludan, Capt.
C. F.
Blade af de dansk-vestindiske Oers Historie,” in Museum
(Kjobenhavn, 1894), 341-366.
An account of the St. John slave insurrection of 1733-1734
and
its
suppression,
illustrated by
unpublished
documents
from the St. Thomas archives, copied before their removal to
Copenhagen.
Robdam, Holgeb Fb. [ed]
Bidrag tilHistorieskriveren Anders Hojers Levned,” in His-
torishe
Samlinger
og
Studier mdr.
DanmarJcs
Forhold
og
Persordigheder iscer i det 17. Aarhundrede, III, 144
et seq.
Kjobenhavn, 1898.
4 v.
Of the commission appointed in 1726 to report on the affairs
of the Danish East India Company, some mention is made.
Robdam, Holgeb Fb.
Kirkelige Forhold paa St. Croix 1741 og danske Prsester paa
de vestindiske Oer i Midten af 1 8.
Aarhundre ” in Kirhehis-
torishe Samlinger, ser. 4, v. II.
(Kjobenhavn, 1891), 55-100.
This article includes an interesting letter from the Lutheran
minister H. J. 0. Stoud to President C. A. von Plessen of the
West India and Guinea Company, dated Jan.
11,
1741, and
biographical
sketches
of
the Danish Lutheran
ministers on
St. Croix, 1735-1769, and of the ministers on St. Thomas and
St. John, 1732-1765.
Rothe, Caspeb Peteb.
[ed.]
Kong Christian den Femtes sJcrevne Befalinger og Anordninger,
eller Rescripter for Norge, Island, Ferroerne og de Indishe
Besiddelser fra
.
.
. Ode
Fehruarii 1670
til ... ^5 Au-
gusti, 1699.
Kjobenhavn, 1777.
2 v.
(1153 p.)
Vol. II, 993 et seq., contains the text of the ordinances, etc.,
issued by Christian V during his reign, and which concerned
the West Indies and Guinea.
Schott, Jacob Henbic.
[ed.]
Chronologisk
Register
over
Kongelige
Forordninger.
.
.
.
Kjobeuhavn, 1777-1814.
ScHticK, Richabd.
Brandenburg-Preussens
Kolonial-Politih
.
.
.
(16^7-1721).
Leipsig, 1889. 2 v.
BIBLIOGEAPHY
^71
Volume II contains many documents bearing on Denmark's
and Brandenburg’s relations with respect to Guinea and West
India matters.
^
[Swedish Ambassadors.]
Reports in ‘‘ Danske Samlinger for Historic ” (periodical edited
by Chr. Bruun, O. Nielsen, and A. Peterson) .
Kjobenhavn,
1865-1875.
6 vols.
The letters of Swedish ambassadors at Copenhagen to their
royal masters
aflford glimpses of the early career of the Com-
pany.
Secondary Works
.
Special Works on the Danish Colonies:
Axbebti, C.
*‘Den danske Slavehandels Historic,” in Nyt historisk Tids-
skrift, S B. (Kjobenhavn, 1850, ^01-245).
A valuable account, based on printed primary and secondary
material.
The author was not permitted to inspect the state
archive materials.
Bobgeson,
F., and Uldall, F. P.
Vore vesiindiske Oer.
Kjobenhavn, 1900.
55 p.
Catteau-Calleville,
J. R. G.
Tableau des Mats danois,
considerSs sous
le rapport du m6-
canisme social.
Paris, 1802.
3 vol.
^‘De danske Atlanterhavsoer.”
‘‘Dansk Vestindien: Naturforhold, Befolkning, Hjselpekilder,
og Nseringsveje ” in ''De danske Atlanterhavsder"' Afsnit IV.
Kjobenhavn, 1908.
300 p.
Maps.
A
copiously
illustrated,
collaborative work, with
brief
r6-
sum6s
of early history, but with main emphasis on present
conditions.
Lists of authorities are appended to many of the
articles.
Dewitz, a. von.
In Ddnisch Westindien.
Anfange der Briidermission in
St.
Thomas y St. Croixy and St Jan^ von 1782-1760.
Hermhut,
1899.
322 p.
Dewitz, A. von.
In
Ddnisch
Westindien.
Hundert
und funfzig
Jahre
der
Brudermission in St Thomasy St Croix, und St Jan. ..
.
Niesky, 1884.
374 p.
Eggers, H. F. A. Baron.
St. Croix’s Flora ” in Videnskahelige Meddelelserfra Natwrhis-
torisk Forening i Kjobenhavn for Aaret 1876.
KjcJbenhavn,
1876.
pp. 33-158.
^72
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An admirable description of St. Croix, particularly from the
botanical and meteorological points of view, with an exposition
of historical changes in plant life there.
Gbitfin, Appleton Phentiss Clark.
A list of boohs on the Danish West Indies,
Washington, 1901.
^Op.
The only special bibliography on the subject, limited to books
in Library of Congress.
Haagensen, Richard.
Beskrivelse
over Eylandet St Croix
i America
i
Vestindien.
KjObenhavn, 1758,
7^ p.
Probably the earliest printed book describing St. Croix.
The
university and royal libraries in Copenhagen each have MS.
as well as printed copies.
Hoffmeyer, H.
Vor Kirke i Vestindien,
Kjobenhavn, 1905.
Host, Georg. Hersing.
Efterretninger om den
Sanct Thomas
og dens
Gouverneurer,
optegnede der paa Landetfra 1769 indtil 1776,
Kjbbenhavn,
1791.
208 p.
This
is the first attempt at a chronological history of the
Danish West Indies.
The author had access to the Company's
archives, and used some of the documents for his book.
From
1769 to 1776 he lived in the islands, first as
a member of the
privy council of St. Thomas and
St. John, and later, on the
death of his father-in-law, Governor Jens Kragh, as goyemor-ad
interim for a few months.
During 1760-1767 he had served as
an employee in the Danish factory
in Morocco, and on his
return he became a secretary in the department for foreign
affairs, under Guldberg. He died in 1794.
(Nyerup and Kraft,
ForfaUer-Lexicon, p. 280.)
ISE»T, P. E.
“ Reise nach Guinea und den Carabaischen Inseln," in Colum-
bien, in Briefen an seine Freunden beschreiben,
Kjobenhavn,
1788.
376 p.
Mthough inclmed to exaggeration, the author, who had been
chief physician in the Danish factory in Guinea and had served
on slave ships, presents a valuable picture of the dark side of the
slave trade.
letter 12 is headed
** Reise von Guinea nach Wes-
tindien,
Zustand eines Sklavenschijfes,
Rebellion der Sklaven,
Beschreibung von St Croix,**
Knox, Hugh.
A discourse delivered on the 6 of Sept 1772 in the Dutch Church
of St Croix,
On the occasion cf the hurricane which hap-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
27S
pened on the SI of Aug,
St. Croix, 1772.
The copy in the
Bancroft Collection is incomplete.
Knox, John P.
A historical account of St Thomas, W,
and incidental
notices of St Croix and St Johns, New York, 1852.
271 p.
This book has long been practically the only available book
in English.
The first part of it is really a faulty translation of
Host’s work (q. v.), the last, a loose compilation.
The author
was a minister in St. Thomas.
Koch, Hans Ludvig Schieldeetjp Paremus.
‘‘ Den danske mission i Vestindien,” in Kirhehistorishe Sam-
linger, ser. 5, vol. 3 (Kjobenhavn, 1905), 144-181.
An account of those missionary efforts begun by the govern-
ment in 1755.
Krarup, Janus Fredrik.
“ Jorgen
Iversen
(Dyppel), Vestindisk
Compagnies forste
Gouvemeur paa
St. Thomas,” in Personalhistorisk Tids-
shrift, II R. 6 B.
(Kjobenhavn, 1891), 23-45.
An exhaustive study of Governor Iversen’s career and the
planting of the St. Thomas colony, based on a minute examina-
tion of primary materials in the state archives at Copenhagen.
Krarup became an assistant in the state archives in 1870, and
chief secretary in 1882.
Krarup, Janus Fredrik.
Gabriel Milan og Somme af hans Samtid ” m Personalhis-
torish
Tidsshrift, 3 R. 2 B. (Kjobenhavn, 1893), 102-130,
and 3 R. 3 B. (1894), 1-51.
A detailed and accurate account
of the
life
of the fourth
governor of St. Thomas, based upon exhaustive researches in
the state archives at Copenhagen.
Lawaetz, H.
Brodremenighedens
Mission:
Dansh-Vestindien,
1769-18^.8,
Kjobenhavn, 1902.
256 p.
The main account is prefaced by a good summary of the early
Moravian missionary efforts in the Danish West Indies.
Lose, Emil Valdemar.
‘^Polkekirken paa St. Thomas” in Kalkars Theologish Tids-
shrift (Kobenhavn, 1878), 265-297.
Lose, Emil Valdemar.
The Lutheran Church in the West Indies.
St. Croix, 1887.
6 p.
Lose, Emil Valdemar.
“ Kort Udsigt over den danske lutherske Missions Historic
paa St. Croix, St. Thomas, og St. Jan,” in Nordish Missions
Tidsshrift, I (Kjobenhavn, 1890), 1-37.
This ^cQunt, according to Pastor L- Koch, is the most au-
274
BIBLIOGRAPHY
thoritative one dealing with the history of Danish missions in
the West Indies,
Oldendorp, Christian Georg Andreas.
GescMchte der Mission der evangelischen Briider auf der cara-
haischen Inseln S, ThomaSy S. Croix und S. Jan.
Barby,
1777.
2v.
Still the most accurate and comprehensive account of the
early history of the Moravian brethren in the Danish islands.
[Oldendorp, Christian Georg Andreas].
FuldstoBndigt XJdtog af C. G. A. Oldendorps Missions-Historie
am den evangeliske Brodres Mission paa de carahaishe Oer
St. ThomaSy
St. Crux og St. Jan.
.
.
. Kjobenhavn, 1784.
184 p.
A Danish abridged version of the German edition.
Oldendorp, Christian Georg Andreas.
HistorisTc
Beretning om de hedenshe Neger-Slavers Omvendelse
paa de danske Oer
i
Vestindien.
.
.
. Kjobenhavn,
1784,
184 p.
A translation from the German of part of the author’s larger
work {q. v.).
[Orsted, Andeb S., and others.]
De danske vestindiske Oer,” in Bergsoe, Den danske Stats
Statisfiky I^de Bd.
(Kj5benliavn, 1853), pp. 557-712.
A good summary of the history, geography, etc., of the islands,
based on available published material.
The notes give some
valuable bibliographical hints.
OxHOLM, Peter Z^tharicts.
De danske vestindiske oers Tilstand i Henseende til Populationy
Cultur og Finance-Forfatning
i Anledning
af nogle Breve
fra St Croix.
.
.
. Kjobenhavn, 1797.
84 p.
A careful study of the sugar industry on St. Croix based on
personal observation;
contains four plans and an appended
statistical table.
[Anonymous.
Answer to Oxholm.
(q.
i;.).]
Berigtigelsen ved Hr. Major Oxholms Skrift om de danske Oers
Tilstand.
Kjobenhavn, 1798.
30 p.
Oxholm, Peter Lotharius.
Urigtighedeme
i de saakaldte Berigtigelser ved Afhandlingen
om ds danske vestindiske Oers Tilstand.
Kjobenhavn, 1798.
23 p.
An answer to Berigtigelsen.
.
.
.
Petersen, Bernhardt von.
En historisk Beretning om de dansk-vestindiske Oer St. Croixy
St. Thomas og St. Jan.
Kjobenhavn, 1855.
Mainly a translation of Knox’s work, checked up by some
BIBLIOGRAPHY
275
reference to Host.
His name is not to be found among those of
the nobility.
Kohr, Julius Philip Benjamin von.
Anmerkungen
iiher den
Cattunhau,
MU
einer
Vorrede von
P. G. Hensler.
Altona und Leipzig, 1791-1798.
2 parts.
Part 1: ^^Zum Nutzen der Ddnischen Westindischen Colonien
auf Allerhdchsten Koniglichen Befehl qeschrieben.^^
Rothe, Dr. C.
Lidt om Vestindien,
Kjobenhavn, 1900.
55 pp.
A patriotic appeal against the sale of the islands; a brief but
fairly accurate historical summary is included.
Schmidt, J. C.
[Articles on St. Croix] in Samleren, v. II (Kjobenhavn, 1788),
198-206; 214-250; 259-263.
A series of articles by a visitor describing plantation life on
St. Croix.
Taylor, Charles Edward.
Leaflets from the Danish West Indies; descriptive of the social^
political, and commercial condition of these islands.
London,
1888.
228 p.
One of the few writers who has made use of archival material
for the early history of St. Thomas.
The author was a physician
and book-dealer in St. Thomas, and had access to the Company's
archives before their removal to Copenhagen.
Trier, C. A.
“ Det dansk-vestindiske Negerindeforselsforbud af 1792,’' in
Historisk Tidsskrift, ser.
7, v. 5 (Kjobenhavn, 1904-1905),
405-508.
A scholarly study of the edict abolishing the slave trade in
Danish dominions, and of the circumstances leading up to it.
United States.
Fifty’Seventh Congress, first session.
House document, vol. 47
(Washington, 1902), 2767-2847.
^
A geographical and historical description of the islands com-
piled by Oscar Phelps Austin and drawn mainly from Knox and
Host; summary of commercial conditions since 1884; extracts
from consular
reports,
histories,
etc., including Prof.
C. W.
Tooke’s
article
in
the .Amer.
Econ.
Assoc,
report
for 1900
(pp.,2782 et seq.), a concise summary of the administrative ar-
rangements.
The treaty of 1902 with Denmark is quoted and
the various
elBForts at purchase by the U.
S. traced out and
illustrated with documents (pp. 2788 et seq.).
Werfel, Johannes.
Efterretning om
de
danske-vestindishe
Oers
Si.
Croix’s,
St.
Thomas’s og St. Jan’s.
Kjobenhavn, 1801.
276
BIBLIOGRAPHY
West, Hans.
** Beretning om det danske Eiland St. Croix
i Vestindien, fra
Juniimaaned
1789
til
Juniimaaneds
Udgang
1790,’’
in
Maanedshriftet Iris (Kjobenbavn) Julii 1791^ pp. 1-88.
An
article on plantation economy
in the Danish
islands,
based on a brief stay there as rector of a school.
This article
was expanded into the book
. BesJcnvelse
over
St, Croix
.
.
(1793),
West, Haks.
Bidrag
til Beskrivelse over Ste, Croixy med en kort udsigt over
St ThomaSy St Jeariy Tortola, Spanishtown, og Craheneiland,
Kjobenhavn, 1793.
363 p.
An enlarged
edition appeared
in a German translation
in
1794.
General Works on Danish and West Indian History:
Allen, C. F.
Histoire de Danemark,
.
.
.
(E. Beauvois, tr.).
Copenhague,
1878.
2v.
This work has been superseded, especially in its treatment of
economic history, by the more recent work of Professor Edward
Holm (q, V,).
[Anonymous.]
The Importance of the British plantations in America
to
this
kingdom
.
.
.
considered,
London, 1731.
114 p.
“Santa Croce” (St. Croix) is mentioned as being abandoned,
and St. Thomas as remarkable only for its harbor, which
is a
free port, and for smuggling
(cf. Macpherson, Annals, III, 161).
[Anonymous].
The Present
state of the West Indies, containing an accurate
description of what parts are possessed by the several powers in
Europe
London, 1788.
95 p.
Pp. 72-74, Virgin Islands; pp. 93-94, Danish Islands.
Bonnassieux, Jean Louis Pierre Marie.
Les grandes compagnies de commerce.
Paris, 1892.
56? p.
A cursory review of the activities of the Danish West India
and Guinea Company (p. 441) and of the Danish African Com-
pany (pp. 442-443), based largely on Beausobre’s work (1791).
Burney, James.
History of the Buccaneers of America,
London, 1816.
326 p.
Mentions St. Thomas as a “Danish factory”
(p. 300) plun-
dered by “ Flibustiers ” from Hispaniola
in 1688
{cf, Labat).
Cheyney, Edward Potts.
European
background
of American
history:
1800-1600,
in
BIBLIOGRAPM
277
American Nation
ser. A. B. Hart
ed.
New York and
London, 1904.
343 p.
List of commercial companies, 1554-1698, pp. 137-139,
Davies, John,
The history of the Caribby-Istands,
viz. BarbadoSy
St.
Chris-
tojpherSy
St.
VincentSy
Martinicoy
etc.,
etc.y ...
in
all
XXVIII.
London, 1666.
2 v.
St. Croix under the French in I, 28.
Dessalles, Adrian.
Histoire generate des Antilles.
Paris, 1847.
3 v.
Brief mention of the Danish islands.
Douglass, William.
A summary y historical and politicaly of the first planting, pro-
gressive improvementsy and present state of the British settlements
in North America.
Boston, 1755.
3 v.
Pp. 140-141: St. Thomas and St. John.
Du Tertre, Le R. P. Jean-Baptiste.
Histoire generate des Antilles habiUes par les Francois.
Paris,
1667-1671.
4 vols. in three.
Contains a map of
St.
Croix under the French
(1671); a
valuable work for the history of the Danish islands previous to
Danish occupation.
Edwards, Bryan.
The history, civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the
West Indies.
London, 1793.
2 v.
Makes a bare mention of the Danish possessions.
St. John
‘‘is of importance as having the best harbour of any island to
the leeward of Antigua; ” while St. Croix is notable for its sugar
smuggling (I, 458-459).
Fiske, Amos Kidder,
The West Indies ... in Story
of the Nations
ser.
New
York, 1902.
414 p.
Pp. 293-301 : the Danish islands.
Fridericia,
J. a.
See Steenstrup.
Froude, James Anthony.
The English in the West Indies.
.
.
. New York, 1908.
550 p.
Gigas, Emil.
Grev Bernardino de Rebolledo, spansh Gesandt
i Kjohenhavn,
1648-1659.
Kjobenhavn, 1883.
413 p.
Haring, Clarence Henry.
The buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII century. New
York, 1910.
298 p.
The relatipns of early Danish governors in the West Indies
(the Esmits and Iversen) to the pirates there is discussed in a
278
BIBLIOGEAPHY
rather one-sided account based
solely upon the Calendar of
State Papers, Colonial, West Indies.
Holm, Edvaed.
Danmarlcs-Norges Indre Histone^ under Enevoldenfra 1660 til
1720,
Kjobenhavn, 1885.
2 v.
All of Professor Holm’s work is based on a careful study of
first-hand material.
His treatment of
economic problems
is
especially thorough.
Holm, Edvabd.
Den Dansk-Norske Stats Historie fra 1720 til 18H.
Kjoben-
havn.
Holm, Edvaed. See Steenstbxtp.
Jameson, John Franklin.
St. Eustatius in the American Revolution,” in The American
Historical Review, VIII (New York, 1903), pp. 683-708.
St. Croix is reported to be the first foreign port to salute the
American flag (p. 691).
Johnston, Sir Harry H.
The negro in the New World, New York, 1910.
499 p.
‘"Slavery under the Danes” (344-351)
is a brief, inaccurate
r6sum6 of the history of Danish slave trade and West Indian
colonization.
Keller, Albert Galloway.
Colonization, New York, 1908,
630 p.
Although mainly based on secondaiy works, this is the most
recent and reliable summary in English on the Danish islands
(497-508).
The book is provided with a bibliography.
Koch, Hans Ludvig Schieldeetjp Pareliijs.
Kong Christian den Siettes Historie, Kjobenhavn, 1886. 354 p.
Labat, Jean Baptiste.
Nouveau
voyage aux
isles de VAm&rique, ... A
la Haye,
1724.
2v.
4°.
The author was a cheerful, if not very accurate, Jesuit priest
who visited St, Croix after its abandonment by the French in
1695 or 1696, and St. Thomas in 1700.
He gives a lively de-
scription of the Danish and Brandenburg factories.
Ledru, Andb:ib Pierre.
Voyage aux isles de Tenerife, la TriniU, Saint-Thomas, Saint-
Croix
et
Porto-Rico,
execute par
ordre
du
gouvemement
Frangais dejmis le 30 Septembre, 1796 jusqu^au 7 juin, 1798,
contenant des
observations,
etc.
Paris, 1810,
2
v.
Folded
map.
Pp. 160-188 of the German translation of 1812 contains a
description of the Danish West Indies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
^79
Leroy-Beaulieu, Pierre Paul.
De
la
colonisation
chez
les peuples modemes.
Paris,
1902,
2 V,
A brief account of Danish West Indian colonization (Vol.
I,
pp. 182-186).
Macpherson, David.
Annals
of
commerce,
manufactures,
fisheries,
and
naviga-
tion,
.
.
. London, 1805.
4 v.
This compilation, gleaned from many sources, has a number
of
extracts,
including quotations from
treaties, dealing with
the Danish islands.
Martel, Henri.
Etude pratique sur
les
colonies andennes
et modemes
et sur
leurs
grandes
compagnies
commerciales,
Ghent,
1898.
355 p.
Pp. 332, 335: Danish West Indies.
Martin, Egbert Montgomery.
History of the West Indies, comprising Jamaica, Honduras,
Trinidad,
.
.
. and the Virgin Isles,
London, 1836.
2 v.
Vol.
1, pp. 288-312: Virgin Isles, especially Tortola.
Morris, Henry Crittenden.
The history of colonization from the earliest times to the present
day. New York, 1900.
2 v.
The few pages (284-286) devoted to the Danish West Indian
colonies are full of errors and misstatements.
The work bears
evidence of hasty compilation.
A revised edition has ’recently
appeared.
Nathanson, M. L.
Historisk-statistisk
Fremstilling
of
Danmarks
Nationdl-og
Stats-Huusholdning fra
Frederick den
Fjerdes
Tid
indtil
Nutiden.
Kjobenhavn, 1844.
2d ed. revised.
1062 p.
Numerous comments on the West Indian and Guinea trade,
with statistics drawn from Thaarup, and other sources; par-
ticularly valuable for period after 1765.
Nielsen, Olijf.
Kjdbenhavns Historie og Beskrivelse,
.
.
• Kjobenhavn, 1871-
1792.
6v.
A reliable history of Copenhagen, based on careful study of
first hand materials and giving due emphasis to the economic
development
of the
city.
The interest of Copenhagen mer-
chants in the India trade is brought out.
d’Orbigny, M. Alcide.
Voyage dans les deux Ameriques,
Paris, 1854.
615 p.
A paragraph mentioning St. Thomas’s position as a free port,
smuggling, trade, etc. (p. 31).
S80
BifiLlOGRAPHY
Payne, Edwabd John.
History of European colonies.
London, 1877.
408 p,
Pflug, Henbich Ovesen.
Den Danshe Pillegrim,
Kblin., 1707.
A discursive work, containing descriptions of many parts of
the world.
It gives an account of the ^spute concerning Crab
Island, in which Danes, Spaniards and English participated.
Quoted in Host, 16, 79.
PoNTOPPiDAN, Erik:.
Origines Hafniensis, etc.
Kjobenhavn, 1760.
Eaynal, Gtjillaijme-Thomas.
A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade
of the Europeans in the East and West Indies.
London, 1798.
6 v.
Vol. 4, 256-265, Danish settlements in St. Thomas, St. John
and Santa Cruz.
Translated from the French.
Rodwat, James.
The West Indies and the Spanish Main.
London and New
York, 1896.
371 p.
pp. 238-240; St. Thomas, brief historical sketch.
[Royal Society.]
Philosophical
Transactions and
Collections.
London, 1700-
1701.
An account of the Darien expedition which touched at St.
Thomas in 1698.
See also Host, pp. 39 et seq.
ScHLEGEL, Johan Frederik Wilhelm.
Statistisk Beskrivelse af defomemste europceiske Stater.
I Dei.
Kjobenhavn, 1793.
This
work
corresponds
closely
to
that
of
Thaarup
(g. ».).
ScHticK, Richard.
Brandenburg-Preussens
Kohnial-Politik.
.
.
. (1647-1721).
Leipsig, 1889.
2 v.
A minute exposition of the colonial policy of the Great Elector
and his immediate successors, based on an extensive study of
the^ archival materials in Berlin, Emden, and Aurich,
The
main defect in the work, so far as concerns the author’^ treat-
ment
of the Brandenburg African Company's experience at
St. Thomas,
is due to his failure to consult the Danish West
India and Guinea Company’s archives in Copenhagen.
Smith, Adam.
An inquiry into the nature and cause of the wealth of nations.
Oxford, 1880.
2 v.
(2nd ed., by J. E. T. Rogers.)
Pp. 149-150: the Danish West Indian colonies are cited to
show the evils of government by an exclusive company.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
281
Southey, Capt. Thomas.
Chronological history of the West Indies.
London, 1827.
3 v.
A compilation from many works of many sorts, quite regard-
less of their reliability.
The direct quotations from treaties and
other primary documents are of value.
Steensteup, Johannes, and others.
Danmarhs Riges
Historie.
Kjobenhavn
[1897-1907].
6
v.
and index.
This
cooperative
history
of Denmark
is an
authoritative
summary by modern Danish scholars, each of whom is a spe-
cialist in his particular field.
Vol. IV (1588-1699)
is by Prof.
J. A. IVidericia, and Vol. V by Prof. Edvard Holm.
The latter
has paid considerable attention to the East and West India
companies and has not hesitated to make use of their records
in his study.
Thaaeup, Febdeeick.
Veiledning
til det Danshe Monarhies Statistih
Kjobenhavn,
1794.
2ded.
767 p.
This work appeared in a number of new editions during the
next
quarter centu^.
It
presents
a
considerable body
of
bibliographical, statistical, and descriptive material
(pp. 420-
443).
WiNTERBOTHAM, W.
An historical, geographical, commercial and philosophical view
of the United States of America, and of the European settle-
ments in America and the West Indies.
New York, 1812.
(1st Am. ed.)
4 v.
Vol. rV, pp. 329-330: Danish West Indies.
Maps and Illustrations
(Unpublished)
“Carte
des
kdnigl.
Ddnischen
Westindische Eilandes SU
Thomas unter den
[
] Grad.
[
] MinuL nordlicher Breiie
belegen.'*
Size: 28 x 48 cm.
This undated manuscript map of St. Thomas appears on the
same sheet with the map of St. Croix listed below.
It was
probably made between 1715 and 1730.
It is the earliest toown
map showing St. Thomas under Danish possession, and is here
reproduced for the first time.
(Royal Library, Copenhagen.)
“Carte De LTsle De Sainte Croix Danoise situee sous le
18me m. de Lot. Septen.’^
Size: 28 x 48 cm.
This map, the names on which are written in the same hand
as in the preceding map, has in its upper left-hand comer the
following legend: “Maison de Monsieur du Bois dernier Vice
282
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gouverneur de Tisle pour sa Majes. tris Chretienne Tan 1734/’
From this, it would appear that the island was occupied when
the Danes came over to take it in full possession in January,
1735.
As there is no evidence indicating occupation, however,
it is possible that the map is misdated.
‘^Kort over Eylandet St, Crodc udi America Saaledes som
det ved en acurat udmaaling
er befunden med Qvarterernes
Navne og enhver Plantagies Nummer
.
.
.
tegnei af L M.
Bechr
Size: 47x72.5 cm.
This map was engraved
in 1754 and dedicated to Adam
Gotlob Moltke.
On a copy in the Royal Library, on which is
written '^Saaledes befimden i July Maaned 1766,” is to be found
filled in ink the names of
all the plantation owners and the
locations of the sugar mills.
The plans of the towns ‘^Chris-
tianstsed” and “Fredericksstsed” are inserted in the engraving.
(Royal Library.)
'"Af Teigning o/r. St Croussis Bye'^
This crude, undated representation of
'"St.
Croix’s town”
was apparently made shortly after the occupation of the island,
and intended to show the appearance of Christiansted.
(State
Archives.)
Forestilling af Wcerfet faa Oen St
Croix
i Westindien
.
.
.
forfcBrdiget af E, G, Beenfeldt 1815^
Although made long
after the Company’s
dissolution, the
lively scene on the
Christiansted waterfront at
St.
Croix
is
fairly typical of the eighteenth centmy on that island.
The
sailing ships riding at anchor in the harbor, the fort, the bat-
teries, and the provision houses, the red-coated soldiers and the
negroes with their burdens, the white aristocrats in their car-
riages or on horseback, the sugar casks piled up on the square,
even the ubiquitous goat and the humble mule,—^all are typical
of St. Croix in its palmy days.
Vessels flying the flag of the
United States may be seen in the harbor.
(State Archives.)
Early Printed Maps
(Eighteenth Century)
"Die Insel Sanct Thomas mit den mehresten Plantagen 1767.''
""Die Insel Sainte Croix mit den Namen der Plantagen die
hestcendig sind
.
.
. 1767,"
These two maps, engraved by Paul Kiifltner of Nuremberg,
are to be found in Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission
(listed
among the printed works above).
Both show locations of plan-
tations and mills.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
283
OxHOLM, Peter Lotharius.
Cfiarte
over den DansTce Oe St
Croix i America forfaerdiget i Aaret 179^ og udgivet i Aaret
1799,
,
,
,
Size: 67 x 174 cm.
Oxholm’s map
(engraved by G. N. Angelo, Copenhagen)
was reproduced by Laurie and Whittle of London in 1804.
The
legend on the English map
is misleading in that it states that
the map is made ‘‘From an actual survey made in 1794-1799.’'
Another
edition
of
the Oxholm map was published by the
Hydrographical office in London on March 1, 1831.
Oxholm, P. L.
Charte over den Danshe Oe St Jan i America
Optaget i Aaret 1780, og Udgivet i Aaret 1800,
,
.
.
Size: 60
X 98.5 cm.
Maps Printed Since 1800
Hornbeck, H. B.
St Thomas Dansk Americansk 0 optaget i
1835-39 ved Barometer og Vinkel Maaling
.
.
. tegnetil8J/S
af J, Chr, Petersen Tegner ved Sokaart Archivet
This map
is reproduced in J. P. Knox, Historical account of
St. Thomas.
“De danske Atlanterhavs(5er”
(pubL).
Kort
over Dansk
Vestindien,
Maps of all three islands are printed in Afsnit IV, Dansk
Vestindien (Kjdbenhavn, 1908).
Borgesen, F.
Map of the Danish West Indian Islands.
Reproduced in Botanisk Tidsskrift.
Bd. 29.
The reefs and
depths of surrounding waters are indicated.
Eggers, H. F. a. (Baron).
“ Vegetationskort over St. Croix,”
in Videnskahelige Meddelelser fra Naturhistorisk Forening i
Kjobenhavn for Aaret 1876,
A map showing the distribution of vegetation on St. Croix.
APPENDIXES
APPENDIX A
GOVEBNOBS IN THE WEST INDIES AND IN GUINEA
(1)
GOVERNORS
IN THE
WEST
INDIES
FROM
THE
BEGINNING,
IN THE
YEAR
1671 1
In the West Indies, the first governor who took possession
of the island of St. Thomas on May 25, 1672, was
JoEGEN IvERSEN, who was succeedcd by
Nicolai Esmit, who received his appointment on Septem-
ber 10, 1679, and was deposed by
Adolph Esmit, his brother, who was to have been relieved
by Jorgen Iversen, who again started out [for the West Indies]
in November, 1682, on the ship Hafmanden (Merman), where
he was killed by mutineers, whereupon the said Adolph Esmit
was supplanted by
Gabriel Milan, who was appointed in 1684; but because of
bad conduct, Gabriel Milan and Adolph Esmit were sent home
as prisoners by Commissioner Michel
Michelsen, and [they]
arrived here in October, 1686, and meantime
Christopher Heins was vice governor until March, 1688,
when
Adolph Esmit again arrived in St. Thomas and took com-
mand, having gone thither in the ship Maria [under the com-
mand
of] vice admiral Hoppe, but vice admiral Hoppe took
him home a prisoner and arrived here in October, 1688, so that
Christopher Heins again became vice governor until 1690
[when] he died and was succeeded by
Johan Lorensen.^
In
that
year
the
lesseeship
[of
St.
Thomas] began under Jorgen Thormohlen, who installed
Frans de la Vigne as governor of St. Thomas, but Johan
Lorentz
remained
in
the meanwhile
as
vice
governor and
looked out for the Company’s interests, also made a journey
home, during the period of the lease, and went out again [to
1 From P. Manager, Eistonalc Efterretning
.
.
. pp. 213 et seq.
The spell-
ing of proper names employed by Manager
is followed here.
This work is
dated 1753, hence was compile nearly two years before the Company’s dissolu-
tion.
The translation is avowedly literal.
^ Rendered as John Lorentz in text.
[ 285 ]
^86
APPENDIX A
St. Thomas], and remained as vice governor until February 19,
170S, when he died and was succeeded by
Claus Hansen, who was advanced on the spot [to governor]
ad interim, and was confirmed [by the directors remaining in
office] until his death, February 8, 1706, when
JocHinvr VON Holten succeeded him [and remained in office]
until December £1, 1708, when he died.
His place was taken by
the interim commandant
Diderich Mogensen, who was relieved in 1710 by
Michel Crone, who died August 8, 1716, and was succeeded
by
Erich Bredal, in whose time the island of St. John was
occupied. He was succeeded in April, 1724, by
Friderich Moth ^ who was succeeded late in May, 1727, by
Hendrich Suhm, “Commandeur Capitain” who came from
Fort Christiansborg in Guinea, and until February 21, 1733, he
remained on St. Thomas when he was relieved by
Phillip Gardelin in whose time, namely in the above year,
1733, the rebellion of negroes on St. John began.
Later, on
February 21, 1736, his place was taken by
Friderich Moth, who became governor of the island of St.
Croix on June 12, 1734, which island was occupied by him in
that same year, and [who] was, on February 21,
1736, made
governor general of aU the Company’s three islands, St. Thomas,
St. John and St. Croix, [remaining] until April 13, 1744, when
he was succeeded by
Christian Schweder, who was commissioned as command-
ant of the fort
(Castellet) and Christiansfort on
St. Thomas
and St. John, and head ^ of the privy council in matters affect-
ing all three islands; and he was relieved on April 25, 1747, by
Christian Suhm, who was installed as vice commandant and
governor over St. Thomas and St. John, and head of the privy
council of St. Croix, but later in the same year he was exempted
froni [his] St. Croix duties, since a governor and privy council
have been placed over St, Croix alone, so that he is
still vice
commandant and governor of the islands St. Thomas and St.
John in the West Indies.
On St. Croix, on the other hand, there have been since the
beginnmg of the year 1734:
Friderich Moth, and during his absence
Gregers Hog Nissen was named on February 24, 1736, as
* Otto Jacob Thambsen served as governor for a few months after Bredal.
See above, p. 184.
* **Fdrste Stemme”
APPENDIX A
287
chief ” ad interim^ oxid judge on the said [island of] St. Croix,
[where he continued] until April 16, 1744, when he was replaced
Paul Lindemark, who was likewise ‘‘chief” ad interim, and
treasurer on
St. Croix
in Commandant Schweder’s
absence.
He continued until May 15, 1747, when his place was taken by
Jens Hansen, who was commissioned
as governor of
St.
Croix in the same year,
[in which position he remained] imtil
December, 1751, when he was relieved by
Peder Clausen, who
is
still governor on the said island of
St. Croix.
(2) GOVERNORS IN GUINEA FROM THE YEAR 1650 ^
So far as is known from the account of H[artwig] Meyer ^ to
the Company, hereinbefore referred to,
Henning Abrecht appears in the year 1650 to have estab-
lished a “lodge” on the Gumea coast near Ac[c]ra, and to have
resided 18 [Danish?] miles from that place at the Danish cita-
del,^ Friderichsberg, which lodge was,
in
1659, made into a
small fort at which there was placed in charge
Christian Cornelisen as factor, and [who] had it changed
to a fortress, which is now Christiansborg, after which
Peter Valck is said to have been in command of the fort,
Fredericksberg, but, because of his bad conduct, held as a slave
by the black king; and
Peter Bolt the then factor, did in the year 1679 in traitorous
fashion
sell the fort Christiansborg to the Portuguese nation,
thereafter fleeing from the coast of Guinea.
Magnus Pranger arrived at Fort Friderichsberg in Guinea,
from Copenhagen,
in February,
1681, bringing with him his
majesty’s
orders
to the then
provisional commander,
Peter
Vitth and commissioner Johan Ulrich, as well as
[to] all those
who were in authority, to the effect that they were to seize the
forts Fridericksberg and Christiansborg together with the lodges
in Guinea, [and they] bestirred themselves to retake the said
fort, Christiansborg, from the Portuguese, but in vain; mean-
time Magnus Pranger died in that same year, 1681, and was
succeeded by
* As Interims Cheff Nissen was to officiate in Governor Moth’s place during
the latter’s absence.
® P. Manager, EistorisJc Efterrefning.
.
,
.
The peculiar form of these lists
has made a rather literal translation seem desirable.
^ Ibid. pp. 75 et seq.
Cf. above, p. 21.
® Hoved CasteU.
288
APPENDIX A
Conrad Busch, chief factor, who remained but 10 days at
the helm of the government of Fort Friderichsberg, when, be-
cause of his bad conduct, he was replaced by
Bb^s Lucre, lieutenant at said fort, Friderichsberg,
[and]
who, after the Portuguese had, in 1682, acting on royal orders,
abandoned
it, took possession of Fort Christiansborg in the
Company’s name, and placed in charge there
Peter Hoiman, factor, who had come out from Gluckstad
to Guinea; and Fort Friderichsberg was sold by the above Hans
Liicke and Peter Hofman to the English commandant at Cape
Cors, who took it into possession in the year 1685, whereupon
Liicke,
together with Hofman and
Lorens Lassen came
to
Christiansborg.
Thereafter Lyke (Liicke) died and Hofman
»
and Lassen returned to Denmark so that
Nicolai Fensiaan in the year 1688 became governor at the
fort of Christiansborg after which
JoRGEN Meyer, [who had been appointed] commander
[in]
1691, for and by Nicolai Jansen Arf[f], took possession of Fort
Christiansborg, and in 1692, Nicolai Fensman again came out
[to Guinea] in Nicolai Jansen Arf[f]’s service, but returned, and
thereafter
Harding Peterson was made governor.
In the same year,
1693, because of said Harding Petersen’s careless supervision,
the fort was taken by the blacks.
But when two of Nicolai
Jansen Arf[f]’s ships came out, the merchants who accompanied
them, Hartwig Meyer and Johan Trane, concluded a treaty by
whichFort Christiansborg was deliveredbackto them, whereupon
Thomas Jacobsen was
installed
as
governor; and when
Nicolai Jansen Arff abandoned the trade,
Erich Olsen Ltgaard was in the year 1698 placed as gov-
ernor of said Christiansborg in the name of the Company, as it
had taken up the Guinea trade; and he was relieved by
Johan Trane, who left here in August, 1698, and was suc-
ceeded by
Hartvtg Meyer, who
left here
in August, 1702 [and
re-
mained there] until April, 1704, when he died and was succeeded
ad interim by
Peder Sverdrup who likewise died, in May, 1705, when he
was succeeded by
PEder Pedersen.
Meantime, in order to release Hartvig
Meyer, there was sent out from here once niore
Erich Olsen Lygaard, who left Copenhagen in December,
1704, [and] who died, and was succeeded by
® D&reft&r dode Lyhe og Hofman og Lassen repatrierede saa at
*
*
*
APPENDIX A
289
Frans Bote, who in the year 1711 departed over Holland or
England to relieve the said Lygaard; and he was in turn re-
lieved in 1717 by
Knud Rost, who died and was succeeded by
Davh) Herrn, who left in the capacity of factor on Janu-
ary 22, 1723, [and] into whose place advanced, ad interim
Christian Stnderman, who was relieved in April, 1724, by
Hendrich Suhm, “Conunandeur Capitain,” who was sent
to St. Thomas and sailed thither March 4, 1727,
Frederich Pahl advancing into his place, and shortly there-
after dying.
The latter was followed ^ interim by
Andreas Wjlltjmsen, who was succeeded on December 24,
1728, by
Andreas Pedersen Waeroe, who was to have been relieved
by “Cammer Raad”
Andreas Jorgensen, who
left in June,
1733, but [who] died en route, so that he [Waeriie] remained
until August 12, 1735, when his place was taken by
Severin Schiellerop,
councilor
of chancery,“ who died
June 15, 1736, and was succeeded ad interim by
Enevold Nielsen Borris, who died June 20, 1740, and was
succeeded ad interim by
PETm Nicolai Jorgensen, who, on May 25, 1743, gave up
his position to
Christian Glob Dorph who was relieved by
JoRGEN Billsen on February 3, 1744, and when, on March
11, 1745, he died, he was succeeded ad interim by
Thomas Broek, who died on the 23rd [of March, and] on
whose place there stepped ad interim
Johan Wilder, who died April 23, 1745, and likewise was
succeeded ad interim by
August Frederich Hackenburg, whose place was taken in
June 21, 1746, by
JoosT Platpus, who was reheved on March 6, 1751, by
Magnus Christopher Lutzow, Major, who arrived at the
fort of Christiansborg on March 6, 1751, and passed away on
the 8th of the same month, when be was succeeded ad interim
by
Magnus Hachsen, who died July 21, 1752, and was followed
ad interim by
Carl Engman, who
is now governor ad interim
of Fort
Christiansborg in Guinea.
CanceUie Road,
APPENDIX B
DIRECTOBS AND BOAED OP SHAEEHOLDEBS IN COPENHAGEN
Name
DIRECTOBS OF THE COMPANY^
Appointed
Tern dosed
Jens Juel
Mar. 11, 1671
1681
Peder Pedersen Lerke.
«
«
Mar. (?) 1680
<C
((
tt
tt
Herman Meyer ®
Apr.
7,1680
July
1, 1681
Peder Bladt
«
«
tt
tt
Mauritz van der Thy ®
.
Snhn
((
U
tt
tt
ti
tt
tt
ft
Hennan(?) Meyer
July
1,1681
1682
Hans Nansen
«
(t
tt
Edvard Holst,
f<
€t
Jens Juel
1682
1700
AlViPtf. Oyldf*nf^nrrft ^
(t
1697 (?)
Jargen Ehlers ®
1688
1697 (?)
Iver Hoppe
((
1697 (?)
Jens Juel
1697
Mathias Moth
[before
1697]
Kristian Braem ®
1697
JochumF. Rohde
((
Johan Gotfried Becker.
tt
Jacob Lerke
tt
Kristian Schupp
May 28, 1700
Karl Ahlefeldt
May
7,1708
Laurens de Boysset
Sept. 12. 1712
Frederik Rostgaard
tt
ft
Kristen Berregaard.
.
.
,
Jan.
11,1723
Ferdinand Anthon
tt
tt
Severin Junge
Dec.
4,1727
^ Modem Danish tisage has been followed as far as possible in the spelling of
the proper names here listed.
Many of the names are of men prominent in
Danish-Norwegian history, whose biographies may be found in Dansh
Btoff*
rafish Lmkon, edited by C, F. Bricka.
® Meyer and his three colleagues were elected ad interim.
* Or Morita v. de Thee,
* Albert Schumacher, a brother of Griffenfeld.
*OtElers,
* Braem, Hohde, Becker and Lerke were merely “acting directors/*
[ 290 ]
APPENDIX B
£91
Name
Appointed
Term closed
Hans Jorgen Soelberg
Dec. 4, 1727
Abraham KlScker
‘‘
‘‘
Gregorius Klamnan
.June 16, 1730
Ferdinand Anthon (Laurwigen)
1732
Sept. 12, 1732
Severin [de] Junge ^
“
Kristen Berregaard
“
Hans J. Soelberg
“
Gregorius Klauman
“
Otto Blome, chairman
Sept. 26, 1733
Severin [de] Junge
“
“
Thomas Bartholin
“
“
Frederik Hohnsted
“
“
F[rederik] Seckman
“
H. J. Soelberg
“
“
Gregorius Klauman
“
“
Ernst Ulrick Dose
Apr.
14, 1735
Lorens Kreyer ^
“
“
Karl Adolf von Plessen
Sept. 10, 1735
Adolf Andreas von der Liihe
Nov. 17, 1736
Peter Lemvig
Dec.
28, 1737
Jacob Kling
“
Herman L. KlScker
May
9, 1741
Johan Frederik Wewer
Mar. 18, 1747
Joost von Hemert
“
“
Andreas Biom
“
“
[Gotthilf] Just Fabritius ®
“
“
Adam Gotlob Moltke
Mar.
3, 1750
Johannes Valeur
:
Sept. 14, 1751
DI3BIBCTORS OF THE SUGAR RBFINEBT
F. Seckman.
.
G. Klauman .
.
H. J. Soelberg
F. Holmsted .
.
G. Klauman .
.
^ Junge received his patent of nobility in 1781.
* Or Laurents Kreyer.
® Resigned very soon after his appointment.
Presses or chairman.
When Mariager wrote (1753), the directors were Moltke, Kldcker, Wewer,
Hemert, and Valeur.
The management of the refinery was taken over by all the directors of the
Company on March 9, 1750.
1729
1734
<(
«
«
«
1785
Dec. 28,1787
tt
«
«
APPENDIX B
Name
Appointed
Term closed
F. Holmsted
1737
Mar.
3, 1750
G. KIauman
“
“
P.Lemvig
“
BOARD OP SHAREHOLDERS OP THE COMPANY
{Hovedparticipanter)
Kort Adeler
Mar. 11, 1671
1679
Frederik Poggenberg
“
Niels duel
Sept,
Claus Sohn
(Mikkel] Wibe
July
Meyer
Gregorius Fleischer
Jens Tolder (Rosenheim)
Dec.
[J6rgen]Ehlers«
“
Abraham Wust
“
Wilhelm Mule
Paul Winding
Peder Lemvig
Paul Eggers
Laurens de Boyssett
Vincens Lerke
Kasper G. von Moltke
Apr.
29, 1698
June 26, 1703
May,
1704
Sept. 12, 1712
Elristen Berregaard
May
1,1713
Jan.
11, 1723
Severin Jimge
Olaus Judicher
«
((
Jan.
11,1723
Dec.
4, 1727
Hans J. Soelberg
it
ti
4, 1727
Abraham Klocker
it
if
it
a
Gregorius Klauman
[Frederik] Seckman
Urban Bruun
Frederik Holmsted
K. A. von Plessen
Mar. 13, 1728
<t
it
it
it
Apr.
7, 1728
Sept. 26, 1733
June 16, 1730
Ernst Ulrik Dose
it
ii
1735
Laurents Kreyer
a
it
4<
it
Peter Lemvig
it
it
-Dec.,
1737
Herman Lengerken Klocker
it
it 4
1741
Adolf Andreas v. d. Ltlhe
Apr.
14, 1736
1736
Or Elm.
^^OxMuUe,
The sugar refinery was united with the Company and managed by a com-
mittee of the directors.
Soelberg and Klauman were elected on October 7.
Reappointed in 1782.
«
«
1679
July
1, 1681
«
«
<4
1, 1681
«
tt
«
1697
it
it
it
APPENDIX B
m
Naim
Appointed
Tem closed
Jacob Kling
Apr. 14, 1735
Dec.,
1787
Hans Gram
Nov. 17, 1736
Johannes Valeur
Iver Jentofft
Dec.
28. 1737
Sept. 14, 1751
Frans Fseddesen
«
it
Kristian Lucas Klauman
Mar.
9,1741
[Kristian] Stockfleth
Mar.
3. 1750
Jesper Richardt
«
((
Oluf Blach
(c
a
Peter Boertman
Feb.
24, 1751
Adam Christian Oelgod
«
t<
Lyder Schilderop
Sept. 14, 1751
At the time that Manager wrote (1753) the board of shareholders consisted
of Blach, Boertman, Oelgod, and Schilderop.
APPENDIX C
THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE DANISH WEST INDIA COMPANY
i
On March 11, 1671, by a charter most graciously granted by
his royal Majesty, King Christian the Fifth, the Company was
established for the benefit of commerce and for the general wel-
fare which thereon depends. ...
In the
said
.
.
. charter the Company
is
graciously
per-
mitted to have, use, enjoy and retain in its possession the island
of St. Thomas in the Caribbees, and other islands in the vicin-
ity or on the mainland in America, with the following privileges,
namely
:
(1) To be permitted in the name of his Majesty to form
alliance with either governments in the West Indies;
To be allowed in case of violence or attack to employ means
adequate for defense and offense;
But
in
case European
lords,
potentates,
or
states
cause
trouble to the Company, it must first refer the matter to the
king, although if the others should begin the use of violence, the
Company must defend itseff.
If it shall be considered necessary, his Majesty will not alone
furnish the Company with the needed credentials but will also
send to all foreign potentates such communications as the Com-
pany’s interests may require.
{%) The Company may build such forts, lodges and offices
as they may deem necessary [upon St. Thomas], and also upon
such islands and lands as are uninhabited and belong to no
other power, and if such possession is effected by the Company,
the lands must belong to the Company.
His Majesty
will
appoint and
ordain commandants and
governors suitable for the Company’s service, after considering
the recommendation
of the Company, and
will,
moreover,
especially order them to labor for the Company’s best interests;
nor shall they be paid higher salaries than the condition of the
Company’s ffiiances will justify.
^ Translated from P. Manager, Historiske Efterretninger, pp. 2
et seq.
The
original, with which this has been compared,
is to be found in Registrant over
Vestindishe Sager, 1671-1699.
See also C. P. Rothe’s Rescripter for Norge,
Island
.
.
. ogde Indishe BesiddeUer ... 2 Bd.
Mariager’s paragraphing has
been retained.
[ 294 ]
APPENDIX C
m
(3) The commandants and others in the Company’s employ
must not do any trading except on the Company’s account.*
(4) During the iSrst three years, his Majesty will loan the
Company a ship, which will be fitted out with all necessities,
and for the use of which the Company will pay nothmg during
the first year, on condition that the Company shall give [to the
king] one-half of aU woods, pock-wood or other kmds, which
they carry, and likewise one-half of such quantity of
salt as
they may secure there.
But if they carry other goods, then they
must pay 30 rdl. in freight for each 4,000 lbs.®
But for the succeeding years, they are to give 40 rdL per
Lcest or 4000 lbs. although they are not to pay for woods and the
like which are used as ballast, nor to pay freight on more than
is delivered here on their return.
And in order that they may m the course of time the more
easily come to own their own ships, the Company shall be per-
mitted, as soon as their means will allow
it, to furnish theni-
selves a flute ship for securing salt from Spain, in which [trade]
they may enjoy the same privileges as the largest mounted
ships sailing to Spain, although such ships be not built especially
with a view to defence.
His Majesty will also loan the Company one of his small
yachts, which they may retain there in the islands for three
years, and it it cannot be sent hither then, the Company shall
not be held liable to pay.
Similarly, his Majesty will loan to the Company sailors to go
with the Company’s ships, on condition that the Company pay
the men as high wages as they have enjoyed in the king’s service,
and furnish them with the needed provisions and board so long
as they are on board ship.
And the Company’s ships may fly his Majesty’s flag, and are
also to be provided with ^e proper passports.
(5) Those ministers of the gospel who return from thence
and have comported themselves well will be appointed by his
Majesty to such places as may be vacant, and are to be sup-
ported during the interval by the funds of the marine department.
(6) His Majesty’s seamen who are placed in the service of
the Company are to be subject to the directors’ orders so loi^
as the journey lasts, and the latter are to include them in their
oath of allegiance.
* They were also forbidden to enter into any war or to take an offensive action
against either Europeans or Indians, except on the advice and with the consent
of the directors, and under no circumstances were they to wage war against a
European power without the royal consent.
Cf, C. P. Rothe, Reseripter,
* One IabH conttuned four thousand Danish pounds.
296
APPENDIX C
(7) So
long
as the Company
exists, none
other than
it,
neither his Majesty’s own subjects nor foreigners, shall receive
any passports or permission to trade with the West Indies in
any; fashion whatsoever, upon penalty of confiscation of ship
and goods; and such ships as the Company is able to seize, either
by its own ships or freight vessels,
it may retain, except the
tenth
part, which share
of
all prizes
goes
to
his Majesty’s
Admiral of the Realm. ^
(8) The Company’s ships or property, either in general or
in particular, is not to be subject to seizure or to any other use
whatever without the Company’s consent, nor shall any other
obstacle be placed in
its way whether in time of peace or in
time of war, but trade shall always be permitted to run
its
free and undisturbed course.
(9) Everything needed for the equipment, cargo and fitting
out of the Company’s ships shall be exempt from duty, but all
goods brought
in from the
[West]
Indies
shall be
carefully
listed,
.
.
. those exported to foreign lands, shall be subject to
a duty of one per cent, and those remaining within the realm,
to two and one-haK per cent., for which account must be ren-
dered at the close of each year.
(10) The Company is also permitted to have its own weights
and measures, and to use these in aU cases although they must
conform to those weights and measures which are in use here in
Copenhagen.
(11) And since the said Company
is an entirely new enter-
prise, and no one has yet been placed in charge of it, and since
it is highly necessary that persons be appointed at once to take
charge of the collecting of capital and of securing the necessary
goods
[for the venture] [at the proper time], these persons are
hereby chosen and authorized to act as directors: Jens Juul
®
chancery coimcilor and vice president of the Board of Trade,
Peter Pedersen Lerche, justice in the supreme court and a mem-
ber of the Board of Trade, and Hans Nansen,® likewise a mem-
ber of the Board of Trade.
To these three shall be added three
of the Company’s shareholders, by a majority vote, as soon as a
sufficient number of shareholders have joined the Company.
His Majesty has also
.
.
. granted the shareholders the right
to
fill vacancies on the board of directors, provided the places
are filled from among the stockholders who have invested not
^ Rigsadndral.
‘'Juel.
® Rendered incorrectly as Hansen in C. P. Rothes’s Rescripter,
APPENDIX C
297
less than 2,000 sUl. in the Company,—^all in accordance with
the proposals of the Reglement drawn up by the Board of Trade.
(12) The said Company is also to be allowed to have its own
court, so that the directors may try and render judgment in
all disputes and cases concerning themselves and their employees,
which arise out of the [West] Indian trade; from which forum
there shall be no appeal, except to the supreme court.
(13) And all artisans, laborers and seamen who come from
foreign places to enter the Company’s service, shall enjoy the
same treatment that his Majesty’s subjects enjoy, and they as
well as their surviving wives and children, shall be exempt from
the payment of sixths and tenths when they receive a furlough
from the Company and proceed out of the kingdom.
.
.
.
(14) And inasmuch as the Company has need of men to
build and defend the places and lodges which they need for
their security, as well as for the peopling of the colonies and the
cultivation and settling of the land, it is permitted to take two
enlisted men from each company from among the strong, in-
dustrious men who are married and know some trade, and also
as many as may be needed of those who have been condemned
to prison or put in irons, for use on plantations or elsewhere;
and of women, as many as may be desired from among those
whose unseemly lives have brought them into prison or a house
of correction.^
(15) The Company is also permitted, by royal favor, to have
as much space as they may need for meetings, the safe-keeping
of moneys, and for offices, in the upper part of the stock ex-
change, while for pack houses and magazine it is to have the
vaults and space formerly occupied by the salt company, which
places shall be assigned them by the Board of Trade.
(16)
It
is
permitted,
moreover,
that
if
the
Gluckstadt
African Company
is unable to give satisfactory assurances of
its ability to continue its career on the lines already planned,
the West India Company shall be allowed to take up said Com-
pany’s work with the same privileges and exemptions as the
Gluckstadt company now has, although in such a case they shall
pay said company for all
its entire stock of pieces, guns, and
ammunition, and also permit it to remove such goods as it may
have on hand, and to collect its outstanding debts there, unless
some
other
arrangement
is made
between
the two
com-
panies.
But inasmuch as the forts revert Exdirelicto to his Majesty,
^ Spindehusei eUer andetsteds.
298
APPENDIX C
he will hand them over to the Company’s possession and reten-
tion without any dues.
Finally, the privilege of using his Majesty’s seal in such cases
as the advancement of commerce seems to require is by especial
royal favor and grace granted to those servants of the Company
in the [West] Indies who have charge of its business.
Which
most
gracious
charter
is
dated
[at]
Copenhagen,
March 11, A[nn]o 1671.
APPENDIX D
CHARTER OF 1697 FOR THE WEST INDIA AND GUINEA COMPANY
^
C[hristian] 5 to whomsoever this may come, greeting:
Inas-
much as we have most graciously recommended the directors
of our West India Company to take up the Guinea trade, in
order the better to facilitate the said commerce, we have most
graciously furnished our West India and Guinea Company with
this our charter.
1
The Company is to continue in possession of the island of
St. Thomas in the West Indies, likewise Crab island, St. John,
item the fortress Christiansborg in Guinea, together with such
lands and forts as they might hereafter secure possession of, and
is alone to be permitted to trade therewith, and is, without pay-
ment of dues to us, to enjoy any and
all profit which might
therefrom ensue.
The Company may take and
retain in
full
possession
all
those islands which
it owns and which are
still uninhabited,
such as Crab Island, St. John, and the like, as well as all those
places on the mainland of Africa and America which are not
already taken possession of by other European nations, and
[it
may] permit forts and lodges to be built thereon; and any profit
that may
result from such occupation shall likewise be the
Company’s to enjoy and to retain, without any dues,
let or
hindrance.
The Company may enter into such contracts and alliances
with governments in Africa and America as seem best for the
furtherance of commerce, and when
it
is necessary, we
shall
assist it with our credentials and recommendations, but it must
not enter into negotiations with European potentates or states
without previous^ securing our consent; for, when the Com-
pany requests it, we shall gramously take it
[i.
e., sudh nego-
tiations] up, and labor for the welfare of the Company.
1 Translated from Registrant over VesUn^ishe Sager, 1671-1699 (Rigearkiv),
[£99 ]
soo
APPENDIX D
4
No one, whether he be a subject or a foreigner, excepting the
Company alone, may hereafter enjoy the use of our
.
,
. pass-
ports, ^ or be permitted to
sail to ^rica or America, and
still
less to trade with the Company’s lands, forts or lodges, but
if
some of our subjects should nevertheless venture to trade with
the places and lands indicated, without the Company’s per-
mission, they shall be liable, whenever they may be found, to
lose ship and cargo and whatever they may have with them,
which shall all fall to the Company, without any dues to us.
5
All goods of whatever kind, without exception, which the
Company may ship from our lands and dominions to Africa and
America, as well as all sorts of goods which the Company may
order and import from foreign places or from our own lands for
the furtherance of trade [or for] the fitting out and provisioning
of ships, shall be entirely free and exempt from customs duties,
food taxes, excise, and all other dues, by whatever name they
might be known, which shall include those which are already
forbidden, as well as those which may hereafter be forbidden.
So also all ships and vessels which the Company now owns or
hereafter may own shall be exempt from all harbor and tonnage
dues as weU as from
all other burdens aforementioned.
But
those goods which the Company ships from Africa or America
to Denmark (excepting gold, which shall be exempt from cus-
toms dues or any other Imid whatsoever) shall be subject to the
following tariffs: one per cent, on such goods as are shipped to
foreign states (?) [fremmede ster\ and two and one-half per cent,
on goods consumed in our realms and lands.
6
The Company’s ships and effects must not be liable to seiz-
ure, except in such cases where someone has advanced an appre-
ciable sum of money for the Company’s benefit in return for
the notes of the directors and in such cases, the person who has
in his possession the directors’ notes may, in case of default of
payment, have the
directors summoned before our supreme
court and may there secure judgment against them, after which
judgment, he may seize any of the Company’s effects, and se-
cure his payments out of those.
® Sde father.
APPENDIX D
SOI
7
And in order that the trade of the Company may the better
be con,tinued and directed, we have seen fit to permit and to
order
that the
shareholders may
select from among them-
selves, by a majority vote, six men, or a greater number if need
be, who are to serve as directors, of which six or more, one-third
shall be of our ministers or servants, and the other two-thirds
reputable merchants from this city, although no one may be
selected to act as director unless he has invested, at the very
least, 1,000 rixdollars
in the Company; which directors
shall
have full power and authority to dispose of all the Company’s
means and effects, in Europe as well as m Africa and America,
and to make all needful arrangements upon the Company’s be-
half; and when any of the directors die, others shall be sdected
in the aforesaid manner.
8
The said directors are herewith authorized to appoint and
to dismiss all employees of the Company who serve on land or
sea, whether in Europe, Africa, or America, and to issue such
instructions to them as they may deem needful for the Com-
pany’s interests; which employees shall be duly bound to carry
out the orders of the directors on pain of punishment according
to the gravity of the case.
But such as are chosen by the direc-
tors, acting for the Company, as governors and commandants
of the forts in Africa or in America, must be finmished with our
.
.
. confirmation of their olBBce, which shall in due course be
granted upon the application of the directors.
9
The Company is also to be permitted to have its own court,
so that the directors may eitW themselves try
all cases and
decide all difficulties concerning the Company’s employees (so
long as they are actually in the Company’s service and have not
rendered proper account of their stewardship), or [they may]
name two or more shareholders, who may do this work on the
Company’s behalf; and such judgrnents shall not be appealed
from, unless someone’s honor or
life
is involved; for in
silch
cases, and such only, shall it be permitted to the condemned to
come before the supreme court in a new trial.
10
Likewise the Company is also to be permitted to have its own
weights and measures, and to use these in all cases, although
S0£
APPENDIX D
they must conform to those weights and measures which we
have ordained shall be used throughout our realms and lands.
11
The Company’s own artisans, as well as the master here in
the city, are to be permitted without let or hindrance to carry
through all that the directors have asked them to do for the
furtherance of the Company’s trade, and to do this in such
manner as the directors may deem that the best interests of the
Company demand.
IS
The Company is permitted to use unstamped paper in all its
departments of business, which shall be accepted in all places
and in every court at just as high a [legal] value as though it
were stamped.
18
The directors are to be allowed to pay such a rate of interest
on moneys which they may have borrowed for the Company’s
use and for the promotion of its trade as they can agree upon
with those concerned, and those notes which the directors thus
issue on the Company’s behah are in all ways to be as valid as
though all the shareholders had signed them, and they are to be
accepted as letters of exchange.
14
The directors may themselves select God-fearing decent and
learned persons as ministers, who shall teach the pure Lutheran
doctrine on the islands and in the forts of the Company in
Africa and America as well as on its ships, and who shall serve
the people in matters affecting their souls’ welfare.
Whenever
they have been named and called by the directors, we shall con-
firm them in their olEce, and if they show themselves to be well
instructed and of proper behavior, we shall in due time, on the
application of the directors, give them preference to others in
the matter
of
securing positions
as
ministers
in
these,
our
realms and lands.
15
We do also herewith grant to those servants of the Company
who do business for it in the [West] Indies permission to use
our seal in cases involving the general welfare and the further-
ance of commerce.
Forbydendes^ eU>,
Copenhagen, Septmber 88, [IdJW.
APPENDIX E
LETTER OF CHARITE ESMIT TO ADOLPH ESMIT
^
My dearest!
We thank God for the good news regarding your safe arrival
in Barbados; though nine weeks old,
it was very welcome to
everybody.
I had heard from various sources about town that
letters had
arrived.
Madame Hoppe had kept hold
of her
letters three days before she had allowed me to see them.
I
hope all my letters have arrived, and that you will answer them
before the supreme court begins its session and calls upon me
for them.2
Last week Milan had the smith, Anna, Karen and
the negro Sent called up before the magistrate and had two
hundred questions put to them. We had no one there ; Munch is
out of town on orders from the king, T., our good friend, is on
Fiinen, Mickelsen and Captain Meyer have been there [at the
magistrate’s?].
Milan has managed it so that Sent has taken
the sacrament at the French ambassador’s.
Your brother 8 wiU
appeal;
he has
taken orders” from
Sidenborg, which has cost half a hundred rixdoUars, and is to
cost me an equal sum, but whence I shall get it I do not know.
I am in great hopes that you will send me some [money] but I
fear that you will not be able to.
May God bless you on your naission, otherwise your reputa-
tion here is gone.
People here are
all awaiting eventu«dities
eagerly; I cannot write all that they say.
Be sure that yoi^
1
og Dohumenter, 1683-1689 (Rigmrhiv).
This letter^ acoQtding to a
statement signed by C. Heins, H. Irgens, J. Delicaet, and I- Lorentz, amyed in
St. Thomas after Adolph Esmit’s enforced retvim in company with vice admiral
Hoppe.
It had come viA France and a Brandenhuxg bark had bronght it from
St. EnstatiuB.
The letter was written in English, Madame Esmit’s native
tongue, but only the Danish translation is to be found in the Con^pany’a ar-
chives.
The paragrt^hitig is that of the translator.
^ J$g fofhaaber at i aUe wine
har bekonmei, i viUe anart sm4e wig Svar
derpaa fdrand dmd E6yeaU Bait Kommer og hestiUe dem Ul ndg atm j^g Eder
heaver beedet.
• Nicholne Esmit.
See ohove, p,
4td, at aeq.
The Sidenborg referred to can-
not be Jacob Sidenborg, since the latter died Mardi
81,
1685, after having
been gecr^aiy to, and a member ot the Board of Trade.
[ 808 ]
304
APPENDIX E
don’t forget to write to Luxdorph,^ Harbo,s and Baron Juell;
^
you must also write to Motli,^ Mule ^ and to those whom you
wish to retain as your friends.
They are all expecting it.
Do
not forget the directors, for we are under their thumbs.
There are no news from the Red Cock and the schooner.^
I
have had the matter herewith enclosed with me for six days,
but I don’t think that it amounts to much.
He complains of
lack of money, and has told me that you were to send him five
to
six hundred
dollars on account.^®
I find that the account
appears to be quite large.
I hope that it will please God to
bless you to the end that we may get away from this people.
I
believe in my good God, who has never during my life left me
in need, and if he wills to spare my life, I shall not remain here
in this place after your case is closed.
With this post came letters from Guinea [stating] that all the
people were rebellious.
I believed that it was on St. Thomas.
Rosenheim
has been in England and has sold the Guinea fort
for 4,000 rdl.
I have inquired about your instructions but can
get no
reply.
For God’s
sake, be
careful that you are not
caught
in others’
snares.
You must write
in quite
friendly
fashion to the Old Man
so long as I am here.
^
Verily, I am quite melancholy, full of fear, grief and distress.
I have been [so] unwell
.
.
. that I have hardly been able to
draw my breath.
I have taken a purgative, and have had some
blood let.
Thank God, I am now somewhat better.
I am unable to get any money from Madame Westervyck;
she has none.
The president
here in Copenhagen is dead.
I do
* Bolle Luxdorph had held various positions in the chancery since 1669.
In
1680 he became a councilor and secretary to the chancery, in 1684, a councilor
of state (Etaisraad), and in 1688, first secretary.
® Perhaps the Jens Harboe who was first secretary in the war department
from 1691 to 1699, and a privy councilor.
® Jens Juel, the statesman.
^ Matthias Moth,
Cf. above, pp. 90-92.
* Probably Christian Mule, secretary in the chancery from 1685
to 1697.
® Kreyert,
Paa Tians RegensJcaha afJcortning,
Jens Tolder (Rosenheim) had become a councilor of conamerce (Kommerce-
road) in October, 1681, and in December had been
elected to the board of
shareholders in the Company.
For Guinea negotiations, cf. Mariager, Historisk
Efterretning, pp. 51 et seq.
“ Possibly Steen Andersen Bille, “vice commandant” of the city of Copen-
hagen.
This was Peder Resen, the predecessor of Elans Nansen, who became “Pres-
APPENDIX E
305
not know what sort of an account your cousin here in Vlissingen
has given you, for he hasn’t even troubled himself to answer my
letter since your departure.
I beg of you to have nothing to do
with him.
You must not ship the cotton to England; no price
can be got for it there.
Deldyn seems to be your most reliable
man; [he] is of the opinion that sugar and indigo are selling well
in England, and he is a good man there.
I haven’t much confidence in Johan Lorentz and all those who
are associated with you, except [Hendrick] Irgens alone.
The
good God will guide you.
I implore you most heartily, my
dearest, to say your prayers to God and to keep him as your
friend; then you need have no fear of anything men may do to
you.^ And remember always the former grace, and feel obliged at
all times to fear and serve him who has done such great filings
for you, and always will do.
For otherwise you are miserable,
poor, poor.
Hendriette greets you heartily.
When you write, remember
to write to Pauli;
he is my friend.
You probably know that
I have signed MarcoUi’s note, and at that time [when it is due],
he must have his money.
You must write to Claes Sohn,i« and
not forget Mr. Becker.
Mr. Fadderbye is the best friend I have
here.
He sends you his greetings.
Adieu, my dearest.
That
the good God may grant that we shall meet happily once more
is the constant prayer of
Your affectionate
last wife,
Charite Esmits.
My sincere greetings to the good admiral.
His entire family
is in good health; his wife
is to go to Holstein to her sister’s
wedding.
ident” of Copenhagen July 7, 1688.
Resen had been an active member of the
Council of State from 1673 to 1676, had become a councilor of justice in 1677,
and councilor of state in 1684.
He died June 1, 1688.
Flushing.
Oliger ovEolger Pauli, the first secretary of the Company in its Copenhagen
ofl&ce.
Claes or Clam Sohn was elected to the board of shareholders in 1679.
Mar-
iager, op. dt, 31.
APPENDIX F
BEPOBT OP BOABD OF POUCE AND XBADB TO KING FBEDEBICK IV
(1716)
Most mighty king.
Most gracious hereditary ruler:
In accordance with your Majesty’s most gracious order, we
humbly present herewith our sincere opinion concerning those
privileges and [other] matters [in dispute] which the delegates
sent ou^ from St. Thomas in America have asked the West In-
dian Company to adjudicate that their commerce and means
of
livelihood might be sustained,
[and] which the Company
considers that it can not grant them without serious invasion
of Ihe rights granted
it in the charter. Which points are as
follows:
Query
1, Whether the inhabitants of
St. Thomas may be
pennitted free trade with their goods, in America as well as in
Europe
(excepting Copenhagen and Hamburg)
without
the
West India Company’s charter being violated by said free trade?
The condition of the island ought to be observed in this con-
nection; since it is such that nothing grows there except sugar,
cotton-wool of which they make cotton, and millet, which is a
sort of plant smaller than rice, and is used mainly by the poorest
whites and by the slaves of the land.
The nature of the soil
and the climate is said to be such that nothing can grow there
except beans and other small truck which cannot be taken to
Europe;
for which
reason
the
inhabitants must
necessarily
procure from other places all things necessary for food as wdl
as clothing, such as flour, meat, pork, butter,
oil, cloths and
stuffs, muslin, linen, leather, tobacco,
all sorts of implements
for cultivating their land, all kinds of tools for trades, and all
their equipment of silver, tin, copper, iron and the like.
Either
the Company must bring these things to the planters in suflS-
cient quantity for their daily needs, and at as reasonable a price
as they can get them in that region from the English, French,
and Spaniard colonies in the vicinity, or they must be allowed
to seek them where they may.
^ Prom Poltti” og Commerce-^CoUegiets Memorial Bog^ Bd. 21 (1716-1720), in
Copenhagen Municipal Archives (Raadstuearhiv).
The paragraphing is largely
that of the translator.
See above, pp. 179-180.
[ 306 ]
APPENDIX F
307
Hitherto the Company has not demonstrated its ability to
provide them the planters with suflBcient of the above-mentioned
goods to satisfy their bare needs,—^to say nothing of providing a
plenty,—^and even had they been able to bring in such goods,
it would have been impossible, and will be stiU more so in the
future, for them to bring in provisions at as low a price as they
could have been
secured
in
the
neighboring
colonies.
For
example, how will it be possible to bring in a barrel of English
flour weighing 180-190 lbs. net for 6-7 rdl., a bbl. of meat weigh-
ing 200 lbs. net at the same price, a barrel of pork for 10-11
rdl, when the price here is very nearly as high?
Besides it will
also be dfficult for the Company to furnish enough provisions
to keep those lands properly supplied from one journey to an-
other, and
it that cannot be done, the inhabitants wfll surely
die of hunger and so the Company would be the loser in the
end.
For unfortunately, there has not been a year since the
first establishment of the Company, when it has been able to
fit out and send from here more than a single ship, or at most
two ships.
How often, indeed, has it not happened, especially
in times when these dominions or those of our neighbors have
been disturbed by war, that St. Thomas has seen but a single
ship every other year!^
Next must be considered the goods which must be carried
thither, and especially woolen and linen goods, which the Com-
pany must itself import from foreign places, and which it cannot,
therefore, bring thither at the price at which they can be se-
cured in the neighborhood; for either the Company must bring
them in at a great loss, or St. Thomas must suffer the mis-
fortune of being impoverished by paying exorbitant prices for
such good^, and higher prices than are paid on
all the sur-
rounding islands.
And
if that happens, the colony
will no
doubt decay of itself, and the colonists move to other places
where prices are more reasonable and there is greater freedom.
Besides, it must be taken into consideration that some of the
Company's ships on leaving here first sail to Guinea and the
African coasts to fetch slaves, which are the very best and most
profitable of commodities that can and must be brought to St.
Thomas to be sold for the cultivation of the land and the de-
velopment of the plantations.
Now they are obliged to bring
from here a double cargo, part of it to use for provisioning their
forts and lodges in Guinea, and for purchasing slaves, and part
for the West Indian colony; for which reason the ships that do
* Ja hvor Hi og hesyniedig i ufreds Tiider saavd her % Bigerne aom andeneteda er
det akeet at St Thmaa ikhin har 9eet eet Skib fra Compagniet kcer Andet Aar,
308
APPENDIX F
not sail directly to the colonies are en route so much longer.
Meantime the colony is likely to be subject to various dangers,
such as violent hurricanes which harry those regions yearly,
and often bring great disaster down upon them; sea-robbers,
who descend upon the land to rob
its inhabitants; sicknesses
and other plagues which are likely to
increase their misery.
All these things may come upon them without their being able
by post to advise the Company thereon, and when they do not
learn of the colonists’ needs and sufferings until the ships arrive
in the islands, they cannot bring with them the needed relief.
Would it not be un-Christian, then, to forbid them the chance
of making their living in the best way that they can, inasmuch
as the Company itself
is obliged almost every year to supply
its own fortress and plantation from New York and [from] the
surrounding
islands, and ships practically nothing from here
[Copenhagen] for their [St. Thomas’] provision?
Besides this, there are other goods in the islands, not includ-
ing sugar and cotton, which the Company either will not or can
not ship out, such as brandy, which they make from sugar cane,
beans, cassava, [sweet] potatoes, yams, etc., on which products
alone many families who have no plantations live, and which
are brought in from other places.®
It is indeed a sin that these
goods should be lost to commerce, and the families either be
forced to starve or to move out.
And who would suffer more
therefrom than the Company itseff which would lose its surest
and largest source of income,^ the poll tax.
[?]
The directors, to be sure, are continually harping upon their
privileges and charter, which provides that no one, whoever he
may be, excepting themselves alone, may trade with the col-
onies, but may not the colony seek its living and trade with
outsiders, when the Company itself suffers no hardship thereby,
and can secure enough return cargo for its ships [?]
It appears,
too, that the Company has lost nothing by the free trade which
the inhabitants have connived to enjoy during the past few
years,® inasmuch as
it has not only had full cargoes for the
homeward voyages, but while its ship has been lying in the
harbor [in St. Thomas], the Company has frequently disposed
of two or three cargoes to other places before its own ship was
loaded.
The
directors may
say that
this
occurred without
their knowledge or consent.
But it is scarcely believable that
® Alleeniste leve, og andensteda henfores,
* Intrade.
^Ved Ind Byggernes Frt Handel, som de nu i nogle Aar af deret Connivence have
nydt,
.
.
.
APPENDIX F
S09
their servant (the governor) should have been a party to such
peculation within sight of the Company’s own ship, which was
to take on all [the cargo] that there was and that it could secure
and take back to the home land, without special orders or per-
mission.
It also appears that the Company has not suffered through
the free trade thus connived at, since they permit their own
plantations, which are the largest and best, to lie uncultivated,
and to be used, according to report, only as grazing land for
their horses and mules; so that one is .inclined to ask how the
needed provisions could be obtained upon the island, except
through the inhabitants enjoying free trade, which enables them
to secure much white and brown sugar from the French colonies.
From all of which circumstances, we can by no means con-
cede that free trade with the surrounding islands should be for-
bidden to the inhabitants, because they should not be subjected
to privation as a result of the Company’s and colony’s pros-
perity and growth, because they ought not to be treated with
greater
severity than
the
other
neighboring
colonies
round
about, since thereby the island might become desolate and other
nations might avail themselves of an opportunity to seize it;
because they ought not to be treated as serfs and slaves of the
Company, since they are, indeed, a free people.
If the Com-
pany would confine its restrictions to one sort of goods or an-
other, which they were not to be allowed to ship out of the is-
land, and
if
it would, on the other hand, agree to take such
produce from them at a reasonable price, and also to furnish
them with aU necessaries, which it cannot possibly do, such as
the free use of money,® horses, mules,
etc.,
it wouldn’t have
been so bad, and then the Company and the colony might sub-
mit to certain rules, as is the case with Iceland and the Faeroe
islands, but now it is making such demands that we can by no
means lend it support.
It is not necessary to forbid free trade
with Europe, except with Hamburg, Bremen and Denmark.
Query 2, Whether the Company shall have the right of pre-
emption [with respect to colonial goods] in the colony and
[if
so] at what prices?
The Company should indisputably have the
right
of
pre-
emption, as the Company’s store-house must always^ have a
sufficient quantity on hand to furnish fuU cargoes for its ships
on their return voyages.
But it ought to be observed that such
right of priority should not be abused, either by the Company
or by its employees at the forts and lodges, as they have hitherto
® Ofalia Contanter.
310
APPENDIX F
done to their own profit and the loss and injury of the inhab-
itants,
For the way the Company's employees there have man-
aged and kept the inhabitants from making a living has been
improper and ought not to have been tolerated.
If the Company could inform the inhabitants how large a
cargo it planned to take out, it should certainly furnish its pack
houses with the needed quantity; but the Company should, on
the other hand, either be obliged to keep up its own plantations,
which are the best, or they should sell or rent them to others
on such terms as would be considered reasonable on the island.
For when these plantations He imcultivated the colony must
make up the difference, and thus they will lack produce to sell
to private traders in exchange for provisions.
The chief ques-
tion of dispute will be the price.
The directors maintain that they should secure the produce
at one-sixth less than the current market price.
The colonists
say, on the other hand, that this amounts to more than 16 per
cent.,^ and are imable to perceive why they should sell their
goods at a better rate than the market price, inasmuch as they
are now paying a
six per cent, duty on
all outgoing goods,
whereas previously they paid but four per cent., and where
they formerly paid no duties on incoming goods, they now pay
five per
cent.
Hence the Company,
after
it had permitted
free trade ® now receives seven per cent, more of the colonists’
goods than before, and
if it should now secure their goods at
one-sixth off, it would then secure twenty-three per cent., and
poll tax for persons over 16 and 20 years of age, whether they
are free or slave, besides; which runs up to a pretty considerable
total.
It is our firm conviction that the inhabitants [of St. Thomas]
have much reason on their side.
The prospect of their losing so
high a percentage of their produce is hard indeed, since ihey
must not only pay a high price for their plantations, and for
living on and ciiltivating the land, but also pay so large an im-
port and export tax, especially [large] in view of the necessity
of importing from abroad all their food and clothing.
What is most to be feared is that the most substantial of the
inhabitants will ptrt their heads together and dehberately raise
the price of the goods which should be deHvered to the Company.
But to that they have repUed that such was impossible, for
the Company’s employees being in business as well as themselves,
are as well informed concerning the state of the market, and
’ Crossed out in MS.: of aUe udgaaende Vahre, i sUedm de ichun Gave.
8 Siden de Conniverede udi Peres fit Bandel,
APPENDIX F
311
when they so desire, they can both raise and lower
(sic) the
price as they please.®
It is onr humble opinion that since the
Company has
already
raised their customs
duties, both
for
exports and imports, in which matter the colony will make no
protest if those taxes shall remain unchanged where they are at
present, it would be very severe, indeed, if the planters should
have to dispose of their produce at such a fearful loss; for the
Company has already a sufficient handicap, both through
its
prior right of purchase, and its customs duties.
Query S is whether or not planters who leave the island should
pay the sixths and tenths out of their resources which the di-
rectors claim, and which they have never known of nor paid
hitherto until the year 1702, when one was compelled to pay it.
Besides, when anyone at present comes to the island, they re-
ceive from the privy council there a promise of exemption from
that tax should they desire to move away.
.
.
. 1°
For one must distinguish between Europe where such Abzug
Gelder^ Nachsteuery Jus Detraciionisy and other [taxes], by what-
ever name they might be called, are everywhere in use, and the
regions of Africa and America, where they are not used.
Here
in Europe, it is Jus Gentiumy but it is by no means thus in those
lands, and if it is not practicable in one place, it is hardly ad-
visable to introduce it in another [near at hand] unless the object
is to instil a fear of such a place in men^s minds, and prevent
them from coming there to settle.
The directors should con-
sider that scarcely one tenth—^indeed hardly one twelfth—of the
colony consists of native Danes, but most of them are Dutch,
English and French, for there are reported to be not more than
ten or twelve Danish families who are in a position to own
slaves or plantations or to carry on trade.
The rest are for-
eigners.
.
.
.11
Query
5.^^
Whether
it
is advisable that a number
of the
leading inhabitants shall have seats in the council or the courts,
in matters concerning the internal affairs of the island?
The directors oppose this, _since they fear the inhabitants will
become too greedy for power and encroach by intrigue upon the
Company's sovereignty and commercial
privileges.^^*
But we
are of the opinion that if their rights are liimted to certain fields,
® Hvof^ter de meestfoar at rette Sig^
Vanoufi diaborate argumeiits against these taxes are here omitted.
Arguments favoring various definite immunities and guaraatees along the
lines above indicated conclude the repl7 to Query 3.
^ Query 4 does not appear in the MS.
Intriguere $%g vdi Deres Eyendoms Eett of D&res Frajereme vdi Negoem,
AtPENDIX P
such as disputes arising within the islands, De Meo
et Tuo and
other matters in which the Company is not interested, then a
number
of the most
intelligent and best
of the inhabitants
should have a place in the courts.
But that concerns the [de-
partment of] justice and not the Board of Trade.
Yet we shall
take the hberty of saying that in so far as we have been informed
by the
[St. Thomas]
delegates, the administration of justice
there should beyond doubt be recognized and placed upon a
different footing; which need is indicated by their complaints
concerning the probating of their estates.
The remaining grievances and Gravamina have to do with
fugitive slaves, the seizure of their vessels, and the like, in which
matters we have nothing more to suggest than either the seeking
for satisfactory adjustment through your majesty’s efforts, or
reprisals, it such are possible, or to ^ve blow for blow, for which
the Company is too weak.
But with respect to the calling or
securing of ministers, as well as freedom in the exercise of reli-
gion,
the directors have already promised a remedy.
.
.
.
Besides all this, some of us have, hit upon the idea that your
royal majesty might himself place a commandant at the fort
who might be supported from those imposts which the Company
draws from the island, such as customs duties and poll tax; and
the commandant could defend the inhabitants when any in-
justice was done them.
Besides, the inhabitants and
their
property would be more secure against unexpected attack, con-
cerning which rumors
of danger have gone out
this
spring,
inasmuch as the fort is described as being in so poor a condition
that it is to be feared that imless an improvement takes place
there will be danger of losing the island.
This is discussed in the
communication of the [St. Thomas] deputies, art. 2, of May 20,
1716, and further in the letter of the inhabitants dated F[eb-
ruary] 24, 1716, already referred to, wherein it appears that for
a long time the garrison has consisted of not more than twenty-
two soldiers largely incapacitated by lack of food and proper
care; for in five or six months they had received no wages, so
that they had become desperate [and] wished to be relieved.
Besides, for this small garrison, there was not more than one
month’s provisions, only ten usable pieces, two hundred good
balls; no small arms to put in the hands of the inhabitants; the
commandant is apparently not a man of military training, but
interested more in trade than in looking out for such matters
of necessity.
.
.
lAbero exercitio Religionis,
Here the members of the investigating Board failed to agree, J, B. Ernst, A.
APPENDIX F
313
Your
royal
majesty’s
most
humble,
dutiful and
faithful
servants
N[iels] Slange
J[ohan] B[ertram] Ernst
A[ndreas] Franck
C[hristian] Braem
M[orten] Munck
M[arkus] Johansen
A[braham] Klocker
Board of Police and Trade [Copenhagen] June [?], 1716.
To this statement was added the following: Information con-
cerning^ the cargo which the last ship sent by the Company
took with
it from the fatherland to
St. Thomas in the West
Indies.
A small quantity of copper
work,
such
as
sugar
kettles
and the like, of which nothing
has been sent thither during
recent
years,
so
that
the
planters have been forced to
supply their needs from other
sources.
Silesian linen
Grindstones
A small quantity of Liibeck
beer
Iron
Goods which the colony on St. Thomas needs and must pro-
cure from other places:
Victuals: Meat, pork, butter,
etc.
May be secured at far
lower prices in New York than in Denmark.
Goods for clothing, etc.
English stufiPs, wool and silk stock-
ings, woolen and silk puoser
(?), camelots, English Bay (?), Hol-
land linen, French “ Rouan ” [Rouen cloth], table-cloths, all kinds
of linens from Flanders, Westphalia, Harlem and other places,
silk and threads, flax and hemp, lace, pottery, spices, iron im-
plements
for the cultivation of plantations, domestic imple-
ments, sail cloth.
From the French islands : sugar, both white and brown, cacao,
indigo, ginger, powder, money.
Franck, C. Braem, and M. Johansen favoring prompt reinforcements, the others
arguing that this matter was not for them, but for the King and the Company to
determine,
“ Of these Braem had been on the directorial board since 1697, and KLocker
was to become a director in 1727.
The last four or five items ‘*may be had from the English, French, and
Dutch islands,”
Klincker
Tilestones
Norwegian planks
Rope
Pitch and
tar, though
they
may be
secured cheaper
from
New York
314
APPENDIX F
Prom the Spanish islands: cattle, hides and leather, cacao,
Virginia tobacco, money, etc.
Exceedingly necessary for sugar mills and plantations: mules
from the Spaniards; horses from New York.
From the English: Brazil-wood, Campeachy and other woods
suitable for rasping and dyes.
APPENDIX G
GOVERNOR ERIK BREDAL TO DIRECTORS, 1719, 1722
i
St. Thomas, May 25, 1719.
.
.
. The English nation
is the one that does us the most
good, and from which we have most to fear, for truth to say,
they hold our very lives in their hands; and
if they, (who dis-
pute our right to St. Thonias, and threaten St. John) should
adopt the expedient of forbidding the sending of provisions to
this place for half a year, the inhabitants would be obliged to
leave the island, for their live-stock (now that the land is laid
out in cotton and sugar works) would not suffice, according to
my calculation, to keep them supplied with food during that
time, the less so, since a butchered ox cannot be preserved here
more than a couple of days on account of the heat.
But although the English General Hamilton ^ might enter-
tain such a plan because of the evil intentions he bears toward
this land on account of the occupation of St. John, yet it is for-
tunate for us that the governors of the other English colonies
from which we secure provisions are not on good terms with
him, and are not prepared to carry through any such plan.
Be-
sides, Mr. Hamilton might easily have taken the chance (con-
sidering the malice he bears us) to ruin both of these islands if
he had thought of it.
For a long time, there have been a great
many English sea-robbers here, who have always kept their
posts at the English islands Spanishtown
(sic) and Tortola,
where they have had free passage.
He would only have had to
set them upon us secretly to bring about our ruin.
For the
amnesty that they have been granted is so liberal that they
cannot even be held by the English inhabitants for murder,
robbery or other misdeeds, if they but return within a certain
time and receive amnesty.
In that manner the French have
received the greater part of Hispaniola [Haiti] from the Span-
iards in the midst of peace.
I do not say
it because of any
fear, and I do not think that anyone accuses me of that, but
because of the caution which I think is needed here to prevent
the seizure or plimdering of this land
(especially in the cold
months when sickness
is general),—^which may God avert!
^ jB.
<S? D., 1711-1720.
The paragraphing is that of the truislator.
^ Governor Greneral of the EngUsh Leeward Islandi*
(8151
316
APPENDIX G
either by the Spaniards or the sea-robbers;
for our garrison
amounts to nothing, and the land
is weaker than qne would
believe, since in the course of time, three or four plantations
have come under a single owner, so that where formerly there
were four whites, there
is now but one.
Indeed, we are not
strong enough with respect to the negroes themselves.
I have
warned the
inhabitants
that
this
land
is becoming weaker,
and that they should have one white man on each plantation,
whether or not several were under one owner, but they have
replied that they were unable to secure any, but that if I were
willing to let them have some of the soldiers, as had previously
occurred, they would take them.
But none of them can be
spared.
It has actually been a fact that the foreign ships and
vessels lying in the harbor have sometimes had four times as
many men on board as the entire fort and island together.
.
.
.
St. Thomas, June 17, 172^
»
Enclosed herewith is a letter from the English General Hart
who was sent here with two ships of war to request St, John of
me, and also to inform me that the English
also claim
St.
Thomas as belonging to them.
I have replied to them as was
my duty, and attempted to phrase my negative reply as po-
litely as possible,
I gave to Capt. Ellis Brand’s proposition a
similar reply, to which he replied that he would report it to his
General, and that the occupation of St. John might cause the
Danes to lose St. Thomas, too, since they had no right to
it,
either.
News had also reached me from St. Christopher, be-
fore the arrival of these ships, that the English said that they
expected to go and seize St. Thomas and St. John.
Neverthe-
less, these ships
left here without attempting anything,
after
having lain anchored far outside of the harbor for several days.
Although one would suppose that the said two islands are
not worth enough to the English to pay for their getting into
trouble with Denmark, yet there is reason to suspect that they
would be useful for the following design.
It is known that they
have long had an eye upon Porto Rico, and with St. Thomas
and Crab island (which they are also talking of settling) in their
possession, they would be able, on account of their sea power,
so to hem Porto Rico in
* that they would make themselves
masters
of
it on the
first break with Spain.
Likewise, they
have also a short time ago seized the island of Providence in
the
straits
of Bahama, which though not considered of any
* B, & D„
^ Saaledes indJcnibe og inds^pctrre PiierUHrico
,
,
.
APPENDIX G
317
particular importance m Europe,
is
still of more consequence
than one would readily believe, for the Spaniards are absolutely
obliged to pass by
it with their silver
fleet; and the English
could from this island ^ well as by land from Virginia disturb
the whole coast of Florida.
How bold that nation has become was recently shown in
their attitude toward the French who took the uninhabited
island
of
St.
Lucia,
for the English immediately
sent ships
thither and drove them out; and since they are so strong in
America, the French have allowed the matter to
rest
there,
although the French General, Marquis de Feuquir^res, at once
dispatched an express to Europe to complain of the shameless
treatment accorded an oflScer of the king and the duly consti-
tuted French governor at that place.
.
.
.
APPENDIX H
STATISTICS FOR ST. THOMAS: POPULATION, PLANTATIONS
Popvlalion
White
1688
1691
1715
1720
1725
1733
1740
1745
1754
men
|
155..
155..
155..
173..
121..
144..
139
women
|212.
.
jgg
jgg
jjg
gg
chadren ....
177..
247.. 283
. .not given
toUl
317..
389..
547.. 565
Negro
men
f
1157. .1507. .1633 (.
.
837..
635..
909
women
'
613..
873.. 979 ]***
..
750..
748.. 849
manq
694.. 684
|
.
.
968..
933.. 979
children ....
..
194. .1272. .1113. .1194
|
..
578,.
678.. 744
total
422..
555..3042. .4187. .4490. .3741.. 3133.. 2994. .3481
Plantations
C. PI
81...
1...
11...
13. ..
0...
10...
5...
6
C. W
...
69...
61...
74...
68...
66...
55... 64
S.P1
3...
8...
34...
24...
11...
8...
4...
9
S. W
32...
24...
31...
32...
28...
34...
28
K.W
16...
10...
8...
6...
3
1
Mixt
17...
34...
24...
27...
27...
38...
8...
46
Total
90.
. .101.
. .160.
. .164.
. .177.
. .148.
. .153.
. .108.
. .154
Abbreviations:
C. PI. = Cotton plantations.
C. W. =
“
with “works.”
S.Pl. = Sugar
S.W. =
“
K. W. s= Kill-devil works.
I Mist. = Plantations with various products, including
provisions or “Kaast” and
I Misc.
those not surveyed.
Cap.
Slaves capable of performipg full adult work.
Manq.— “Manquerons” or those incapacitated by reason of age, injury, etc.; de-
fectives.
PI.
= Plantations.
^ These tables have been compiled largely from the Land Lister in the Com-
pany’s archives.
[ 818 ]
APPENDIX I
STATISTICS FOR ST JOHN AND ST CROIX: POPULATION,
PLANTATIONS
ST. JOHN
Population
Men
Whites
Women
Children
Total
Cap.
Negroes
Manq. Children
Total
1728
76..
6... ...41.... -.123..
.
...5631
. ...
84... ...
30.. .... 677
1733
97.
53... ...68.... ..208..
.
...731... ...119... ...237.
.
... .1087
1739
73.,
60... ...75.... ..208... .. 743...
.
. ,280.
.
.
...391.. ....1414
PlarUations.
1720-21
.
.
.
C. PL
C. W.
S. PI.
s. w. K. W.
Mixt.
Owner* Owners Ovmers
Total On PL
on
abroad
St. Th.
39
1728
....48... ..
0
8
21.. ...1......
9...
..
87.
.
. .28
36
1
1733
....16... ..
3
1
9.. ...I..
.
...80... ..109.
.
. .67
4
1
1739
....29... ..36
3
21.. ...0......20... ..109. ...61
?
3
OU
O
V
For abbreviations, see St. Thomas statistics.
ST. CRODC
Population
Ckritiiamted
Plantation owners ®
Negroes (total)
Whites
Negroes
Children
under
Men Women age
Total
Cap.
Manq.
Child.
Total
M.
W.
Cap.
Mg.
Ch.
1742.
.146.
.23.
.
6* .174... 1569.
.
31..
.
316.
.1906
1745.
.162.
.30.
.19... 211... 1918.
.217.
.
743.
.2878... 10. ..3...
16.
.
3.
.
9
1754.
,
..260. ..23..,.21... 304... 4861.,..675....2040.,..7566* -77.,..7. ..409.. .46.. .269
Plantations
C.Pl.
S.Pl
Misc.
Tatal
1742
122
120
42
264
1745
163
77
23
263
1764
34
134i^
207
376}^
^ The women included one mulatto; the children, ten groups of
heirs/* each
of which embraced perhaps two or more children.
Several owners countedm the
list for 1739 resided on St. Thomas, St. Eustatins and elsewhere.
® The nature of the records makes posable only an approximation to accu-
racy, especially with respect to the white population.
* Five is simply the number of plantations credited to minors.
* Of these, four hundred and nine “capable,** forty defectives, and two hundred
and thirty-iiine dinldmi were owned in Christiansted.
( 319 ]
APPENDIX J
LIST OF SLAVE CAEGOES ARRIVING IN DANISH WEST INDIES
(compiled from the company’s archives)
Slave cargoes
Ship (and
Skipper)
Date of
arrival
Registered
from
eoao
CQ
flO
C3
oi
Cost to
Company
(wholesale)
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
Wapen
(Gert. Cort)
1687 (May)
80
rdl. (each) rdZ. (each)
(Danish Ship)
(Captain?)
1688
Denmark
200
Marschall
Ddrfling
1688
Emden
291
[English Ship] 1690 (Apr.) Bermuda
[109?]
Marschall
Ddrfling
1692
1
Emden
500?
80-95
(Captain?)
Frederick III
1696 (Nov.) Emden
630
(Jacob Lam-
brecht)
Churprin-
1696 (Nov.) Emden
480
sessen
(Wouter
Ypes)
[Slave tessd]
1698 (June) Zeeland
364
(Jac. de
Bruyne)
Kdbenh: BSrs
(Nether.)
78
128 44 14
16 2801
1698 (Sept.)
(InnesPieters)
[Frederick
Illf]
(Wouter
1698 (late)
Emden?
624
Ypes)
[Slave vessel]
(Math. Boo-
1699
Zeeland
[90] 3
70
90
gaert)
Christian V
(JUrgen
1699 (July)
123
178 35 17
353
»
85-90
Grabner)
^ There were shipped from Guinea one himdred and eighty-four men, two
hundred and thirty-eight women,
fifty-five boys, twenty-four
girls, and five
infants, a total of five hundred and six negroes.
Of the two hundred and eighty
that arrived on September 17, thirty-seven had died by October 12.
Cf. Gov.
0. S., 169Ji.-1700, Lorentz to Directors (October 12, 1698).
^ Only ninety were sold in St. Thomas, fifty to the Danes and forty to the
Brandenburgers.
The cargo contained three hundred and fifty slaves.
* Capt. Grabner took on
five hundred and forty-nine negroes
in Guinea.
[ 320 ]
APPENDIX 3
321
LIST OF SLAVF CAE.GOES*^Co?iitntifid
Slave Cargoes
Ship {and
Shipper)
Date of
arrival
Registered
from
Men
Women
Boys
<3
c5
fti
Total
[P.
de
Indies]
Cost to
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
Frederick IV
1700 (Got.) Denmark
72
119 27 20
2381
50
90-100
(limes Pieter-
sen)
[Interloper]
1701 (Jan.)
Zeeland
1542
vOSP vOlIL i J
[Interl^er]
(Jean Closter)
1702 (July)
Zeeland
74
21 12
2
109*
[1031/3]
45
80
[Interloper]
1702 (Deo.) Zeeland
51
14 18
6
89*
45
80
(Adrian
[79»/.]
Daemes)
[Interloper]
1703
(June)
?
77
10 16
5
loss
48
85-90
(J. Rogges-
[99V»]
taert)
Christian V
1704 (May) Denmark
123
126 27 15
4
295
60
100
(Willem
R/Osen)
[271V.]
[Flying Hart]
1707 (Jan.)
Middelburg
246
69 62 10
387
80
100
(Jac. S. Voss)
[356«/.]
Christian V
1707 (July) Denmark
212
160 13
8
393*
70
100
(N. C. Boom-
[385V.]
feldt)
[5Zaw vessd] ^
1708 (Mar.)
?
33
27 13 11
84
75
100
(“Grazaleir”)
[73]
Red Lion
1708 (Got.) Zeeland
139
30 34
9
212*
80
100
(Hubert
Freth)
[Flying Hartf] 1709 (Jan.)
Zeeland
227
54 20 12
313»
80
100
(Jac. S. Voss)
[2991/6]
[Slave vessel]
1709 (July)
Zeeland
85
60
(Captain?)
Two Brothers
1709 (July)
17
14
3
5
39
60
90
(Pieter
?
[352/3]
Thebeu)
1 Three hundred died on the journey.
In his letter to the Directors dated
October 24, 1700, Lorentz mentions the misfortune that has likewise struck
other traders, several Zeeland interlopers and English slave ships not having
brought more than a third or a fourth safe to their destination.
Qov, C, B.,
1700-0$,
2 Lorentz bought the cargo in company with Van Belle, the Brandenburg
factor.
* Of these the Danish Company secured one hundred and dghteen, the Bran-
denburgers the rest.
^ The Brandenburg factor bought eighty-eight from Capt. Daemes.
* Hie Brandenburg factor bought sixty-six.
^ Capt. B. had left Guinea on June 2 with four hundred and forty-seven
slaves, and arrived at St. Thomas on July 29.
^ Also spelled Grazselli.
* Four i)er cent, duty brought the Company an additional eight slaves.
* Of these, Peter Smith bought one hundred and forty-one, and two Prcndi-
men bought twenty-six and one hundred and seven, respectively.
822
APPENDIX J
LIST OF SLAVE CARGOES—Continued
Slave cargoes
1
1
Ship (and
Shipper)
Daie of
arrival
Registered
from
•
1
s
g
§ 1
oi
al
Cost to
Company
(wholesale)
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
Rosenborg
1709 (Aug.)
Zeeland
138
22 19
3
1871
60
90-95
(Erasmus
Muller)
The Hunter
(H. de Witte)
1710 (Jan.)
Zeeland
134
312 2
65
100
America
(David Dine-
sen)
Prince Eugene
1710 (July)
Zeeland
26 33
7
200
65
100
1711 (Jan.)
Zeeland
[229]»
16
253
96
(Abr. ScMl-
strad)*
[America]
(David Dine-
sen)
[Slave vessel]
1712 (Mar.) Zeeland
165
25 26
6
212S
[1965/6]
70
100
1712
(June) Zeeland?
134
27
32
7 2008
65
94
(Sam. Jo-
[1785/6]
chumsen)
[Slave vessel]
1714 (Jan.)
I
none
(H. de Witte)
sold
New Prince
jl714 (Jan.)
Zeeland
76
66 76
6
216
70
100-96
Eugene
(Bastian
[173^]
Mugge)
Paphieshorg
1714 (Mar.) Zeeland
121
30 72
3
226
65
100
(Com. Huy-
sirig)
Crown Prince
[193]
1714 (June) Bergen
49
45 24
1
7
135
70
120
(Jacques
9
3»
[111V»]
60
Thomas)
4
2
18
[16M]
1 One hundred and eighty-seven “manquerons” were delivered back to the
captain, who sold one hundred and twenty-seven to private buyers for 5,459 rdl.
Muller’s cargo is put down as consisting of Lawango negroes; those arriving in
July are called "CaJabary” or “Kalbarie” negroes,—^in English, Calabar.
* De Witte, being able to account only for three hundred and one when he
should have had three hundred and twelve, was charged with the diflference or
“profit” of 35 rdl, each, or 385 rdl.
The Company bought two hundred and
thirty-eight (229j^ Pies de Indies) at 65 rdl. each.
Many of those remaining
were delivered back to the captain who sold them to planters and paid the Com-
pany the four per cent. duty.
N,
St Thomas, 1709-1710,
* This includes men and women.
Of the two hundred and twenty-nine, forty-
nine were sick or “manquerons ” as were six of the sixteen boys.
Two hundred
were bought first, and fifty-three later.
^ Capt.
S.
died
immediately
after
arrival
and
Capt. Anthony Warene
(Vareny) took his place. The remainder of the cargo (six hundred and twenty-
six on arrival at St. Thomas) that was unsold or still alive was taken to Porto
Bello and Carthagena.
® Besides these, the Company received eight in duty.
^ Jodiumson’s cargo consisted of Angola slaves.
^ The lower figures represent those that were sick or ^^manquerons.”
One
APPENDIX J
LIST OF SLAVE CARGOES—Coniinwed
Slave Cargoes
Ship (and
Date
of
Registered
i
©
¥
^1
Cost to
Cost to
Skipper)
arrival
from
%
1
o
CQ
CQ
Company
(wholesale)
Planters
(retail)
a;
[Slave vessel]
(Jacob Valle)
1715 (Jan.)
83
7 20
8
118
65
100
[Slate vessel]
(Corn. Lyn-
1715 (Feb.)
[1031/3]
sen)
[Slave BesseZ]
(Jochim
1715 (Apr.)
Gomertz)
[Slave
vessel]
(Alex. Ro“
1715 (Apr.)
land)
[Slave vesselV-
(Dan. Gab-
1715 (Sept.)
j
ion?)
Crown Prince
1718 (July)
Denmark
104
38 19
3
164*
50
120
Christian
(And. Veroe)
[5Zaz« vessd]
1718 (July)
42
60
80
( Jan de Moor)
(yZaiie vessel]
(Jacob Valle)
^‘Baabet
Gal-
1719 (Aug.)
1722 (Apr.)
Denmark
[167]J
34 201
60
125
ley*^
(Lor. Spang?)
[1825/31
1724
(June)
Christiansborg
Denmark
142
8C
68
1 361
70
125 <
(P. A. V«er6e)
**Baabet
Gah
ley'*
(Lor, Spang)
1724 (Nov.)
26
11
24«
219
70
125
1725 (Mar.)
1 Netherl.?
375
73
120 «
(Jan Vergoue)
hundred and seventy-one negroes (sixty-eight men, fifty-seven women, twenty-
six boys and twenty girls) were shipped from Guinea, and of these, eight men,
five women, two boys, and five ^Is died en route.
^ Capt. Gabion was allowed to sell his cargo to private buyers on payment of
thirty per cent, “preference” to the Company.
“On Capt% Gabion’s slaves
about 2600 rdl, has been gained [by the Company] through import and export
duties.”
B, & D„ 171^-17, Gov. M. Crone to Directors (Eebnjary 24, 1716).
* On the way from Guinea thirty-six men, sev^ womep, four girls and five
boys—or fifty-two slaves—^had died on Capt Veroe’s (or Wserroe’s) ship.
jB. &
D.,
(July 8, 1718).
* The one hundred and sixty-seven includes men and women*
* The profit from this cargo was about 7,464 rd/., or a little over twenty-eight
per cent.
Deducting for the twenty-one sl^ives retained for the Company would
bring the profit to about thirty and one-half per cent^.
® The lower hgures include the sick and “manquerons.” A “Speciall-Ifiste”
(P. &
J72J-IBJ) d^ted July 14, 1724, fpves the ^sime tot^ but different
subheadings.
He had
left Guinea with four hundred and
sixteen negroes.
* The net profit was 16,372 rfi^OT twenty-nine and seven-tenths per cent, from
both Vergoue*B and y. der Brocke’s cargoes.
324
APPENDIX J
LIST OF SLAVE CARGOES—Conitwwed
Slave cargoes
Ship (and
Skipper)
Date of
arrival
Registered
from
Men
I
Women
<5
ft;
Girls
ft;
Total
(P.
de
Indies]
Cost to
Company
(wholesale)
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
[Slave vessel]
(A. V. d.
1725 (Mar.) Netherl.?
379
73
Brooke)
1301
[Young
Knight]
^
(George
1726 (July)
Jones?)
**Jonge
1726 (Nov.) NetherL?
Mathys^^ 2
(Charles
Jansen)
Christianshorg
(Jorgen
Denmark
109
66 23 10
2073
70
125
jl727 (Feb.)
Mathisen)
[217] 4
^'Haahet Gal--
ley**
(Lor. Spang)
1727 (May) Denmark
125
63 16 13
70
50
125
18
vessd]
(Hybregt)
1727
Zeeland
32 6
Young Virgin
(“Allewelt”)
**Eaabet** 0.
1728 (Jan.)
Denmark?
70
126 8
1729 (July) Denmark
63
46 14
4
120
(A. H. Ham-
mer)
70
**Haahet**
(?.
(A. H. Ham-
mer)
Countess of
1731 (Feb.) Denmark
21
29
5
557
120
1732
(June) Denmark
i
115
80
70 +
100-1508
Laurwig
(Com. Bagge)
Laarhurg G.
1733 (May) Denmark
124
64 26 28
242 «
120-156
(Lor. Jffiger)
^ The government permitted the cargo to be sold to outsiders only, on pay-
ment of 4}^ ‘‘pieces-of-eight” for each slave sold.
^ A cargo was offered for sale, but no purchases are recorded.
3 Two hundred and eighty-three were taken on board at the Danish Guinea
factory, September 29, 1726.
These included
one hundred and fifty men,
ninety women, twenty-nine boys, fourteen girls, whose total purchase price was
entered at 18,216 rdL.
^ Hope Galley left Guinea on March 6, 1727, with a cargo of two hundred and
thirty-eight.
Of these, one hundred and forty-seven were men, seventy women,
eleven boys, and
ten
girls.
Cf. N.
J, for
Guinea, 17^7,
® Forty-seven left Guinea. G = galley.
® One hundred and twenty-six left Guinea May 28^ 1729.
^ These were taken on in Guinea, Dec. 28, 1729 (?).
® The price varied according to whether payment was made in cash,
or
in
cotton or sugar to be paid in six weeks’ time.
Of one hundred and twenty taken
on, only one himdred and two were reported in sound condition when offered for
sale.
^ One hundred and ninety-nine out of a cargo of four hundred and forty-three
APPENDIX J
3^5
LIST OF SLAVE CARGOES—Con<intt€d
Slave Cargoes
Ship (and
Skipper)
Date of
arrival
Registered
from
Men
Women
1
.2
Toted
[P,
de
Indies]
Cost to
Company
(wholesale)
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
Counters of
1734 (May) Denmark
60
31
7
5
180
115
Laurwig
22
43
7 51
(Corn. Bagge)
Jomfru
(Knud Erich-
1736 (June) Denmark?
108 2
100
100-133
[A bark]
1738 (Jan.)
St. Eusta-
8
4 35 10
57
(P. Heyliger)
tius
[A bark]
1738 (Feb.)
St. Eusta-
10
£18
(Robt. Stew-
art)
[A bark]
tius
1738 (Mar.) St. Eusta-
9
14
8
8
39 »
(Robt. Stew-
art)
[A bark]
tius
1738 (Apr.)
St. Eusta-
20
20
15
55 4
£18
(R. Stewart)
tius
Countess of
Laurwig
(Corn. Mar-
1738 (Oct.)
Zeeland
109
35 15 11
170
85
skaik)
Countess of
1739 (Feb.) Denmark
6
8
5
1
20 s
75
120-140
Laurwig
(J. N. Holst)
(Co.)
Laarburg 0,
1740 (Jan.)
Denmark
24
12
6
2
44
120
130-140
(H. Ostbye)
^
(Co.)
Countess of
1742 (June) Denmark
19
27
4
1
51
120
140-155
Laarwig
(Co.)
(Capt. Holst?)
Williamine
1744 (May)
?
41
40 11
1 ^
95
130
140-236
Galley
(B. H. Pratt)
Postillion B.
1746 (May) Denmark
79
150-240
(A. Thorsen)
Williamine 0.
Denmark
86
38 18
5
146
100-150
160-300
1746 (Nov.)
(B. H. Pratt)
(Co.)
Crown Pr.
1747 (May) Denmark
102
60 25
8
195
150-300
Desire
J. Seierij)
(Co.)
1
Sorgenfri
1747 (Nov.) Denmark
274
200-285
(D. Boysen)
Princess P.
Denmark
114
86 55 20
3
278
200-320
1748 (July)
(J. GrSnberg)
Josgershorg
Denmark
77
62 16
6
160
100
180-270
1749 (Jan.)
(0. Eriohsen)
(Co.)
Vesuvius
1749 (Feb.)
Denmark
127
66 45 14
6 252
100
(Capt.?)
Sorgenfri
1749 (June) ^Denmark
120
89 16 11
7 235
100
140-220
(Capt.?)
(Co.)
3
died en route of a virulent form of dysentery.
Two were sold to Portuguese.
The
profit was
nevertheless
sixty-nine and one-half per
cent, on what
re-
mained!
^ Sick and ‘‘manquerons/' or defectives.
* Forty-two had died on the way from Guinea.
® Sold directly to planters on payment of usual four per cent. duty.
^ Capt. S. had asked 110 rdl. for the grown slaves, and 80 rdl, for the children.
^ Capt. Holst’s cargo came from Madagascar.
326
APPENDIX J
LIST OF SLAVE CARGOES—CoTiimwed
Slave cargoes
Ship {and
Shipper)
Date of
arrival
Registered
from 1
Women
Boys
cj
««
ai
Total
[P.
de
Indies]
Cost to
Company
{wholesale)
Cost to
Planters
(retail)
Crown Pr.
1750 (Feb.) Denmark
69
53 26 10
161
100
140-220
Desire
(0. Heinholt)
(Co.)
Sophie Mag-
1750 (July) Denmark
27
23 22
5
3
80
-220
dalene
(Capt.?)
(Co.)
1
Jcegershorg
1751 (Feb.) Denmark
182
82
6
3
269
100
100-220
(0. Erichsen)
(Co.)
Sorgenfri
1751 (July) Denmark
68
42 23 10
133
100
160-260
(P. K. ColUn)
(Co.)
Crown Pr,
1752 (Mar.) Denmark
2241
Desire
(0. Reinholt)
Princess Wil- 1762
(June) Denmark
109
58 12
2
1812
-353
hdmineCar,
(N. H6yer)
Princess
1752 (Oct.)
Denmark
164
81 27
9
3 2818
100
160-354
Sophia Mag.
(P, C. Sam-
sde)
Jaegershorg
(Co.)
1763 (Aug.) Denmark
114
58 38 21
231 <
-320
(J. Rasmus-
sen)
Patientia
Denmark
67
30 38 11
146 5
100
150-300
1753 (Deo.)
(0. Erichsen)
(Co.)
{Brigantine)
1764 (Mar.) Denmark
140
«
^ This ship left Guinea with three hundred and thirty-eight slaves (Janu-
ary 7, 1752).
* The Guinea cargo was recorded at two hundred and three slaves.
* The Princess Sophia Magdalena left Guinea Juty 29 with three hundred and
seven slaves.
^ Eighty-one died on the way, apparently.
* Patientia left Guinea July 30 with two hundred and seventy-five slaves. A
mutiny of slaves on board while sailing between Cape Coast and El Mina re-
sulted in serious loss of life and property.
® From this cargo, apparently privately owned, a profit of fifty per cent, was
reported.
The journey took twenty-eight days.
APPENDIX K
PRICES ON
ST. THOMAS (1687-1751)1
Year
Siigar ^
(per 100 lbs.)
Cotton
Year
(per lb.)
Sugar
(per 100 lbs.)
Cotton
(per lb.)
1687
.
.
10 sh
1721
S}irdl.
1688
10 “
1723
...
3
“
10 “
1697
..30-32 “
1724
.
.
.
12-13
1699
,.14-16 “
1727
.
.
.
13 “
1701
1728.
.
.
,
...
4H “
..
.
13 “
1702
“
.
.
.
15 «
1730.
.
.
.
4
.
.
13 “
1703
3M(?)“
.
..
12 “
1732.
.
.
.
...
4M “
..
.
11 “
1705
3
.
.
.
12 “
1733
...3-434
‘‘
..
.11-13 “
1706
m
“
..
12 “
1739.
.
.
.
...3-3K “
..
.14-14%“
1707
3-3J4
“
.
11 “
1740
...
1708
3
“
.
..
10
‘‘
1741.
.
.
.
...4-434 “
..
.12-13 “
1709.
.
!
.
.
3
.
1742.
.
.
.
4 “
.
.
.10-11 “
1710
3
“
.
..
11 “
1743
4
.
.12-13 “
1713*
3H
.
.
.
12 “
1744
.
isM“
1714
4
.
..
12 “
17474...
6 “
1716
43^5
“
.
,.18-14
‘‘
1748
5 “
1717
«
.
..
13 “
1750.
.
.
.
...
4H “
..
. .2 reals
1719
iH
“
.
.
,
13
1751
.
.
...
4Ji‘‘
1720
. ...
13
1752®
1 Prices paid by Company to planters, thongb not necessarily an average for
the year.
These figures are derived from many official sources,—^too many for
enumeration.
* Brown sugar.
* In 1713, the current price in the open market was r^orted to be 4j^6 rdf.
per 100 lbs.
* The St. Thomas officials reported the following prices for sugar: in Holland,
7-9 rdf.; St, Eustatius, 5^/7 rdf.; and Curasao, 7-8 rdf. per 100 lbs.
Martfeldi
M8S,m VI (February 3, 1748).
* The governor and council on St. Croix set the price at S}4 rdl.
* The St Croix authorities raised the price of sugar to 43^ rdf. and fixed the
price of cotton at 18 sJe., for unpacked, and ISJ^ sk, for baled cotton.
m7]
APPENDIX L
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED FROM COPENHAGEN ^
(1709-1754)
Year
Quantity (fbs,)
Destination
Price secured
by Comj>any
1709
.
.
.
8,950 br
Ltlbeck
54tSrdl.
ct
.
.
.
6,804 “
Kiel
425
“
c<
.
.
.
2,519 wh
«
348
“
<<
.
.
.
4,600 br
«
281
“
«
.
.
.
1,274 wh
179
“
<(
100
“
Aarhus
<(
.
.
.
1,169
**
120
“
<(
.
.
.
3,904
“
544
“
1710
.
.
.
5,000 br
377
.
.
.
2,302 wh
a
263
“
1711
.
.
.
4,000 br
312
“
<c
...
4,500
Kiel
351
“
C(
.
.
.
1,600 wh
it
233
“
«
.
.
.
2,160 br
it
169
“
«
228 wh. ......
it
29
“
«
...
5 c.
**
ti
889
“
«
...
4 c.
“
Dantzig.
291
“
<(
317 br
Elsinore.
«
285 wh
it
cc
200
“
Aarhus
«
151 br
it
it
...
1 c. wh
Riel
94
**
it
...
1 c.
“
it
60
“
it
...
42,544 br
Kiel(?)
2,659
“
1712-20 2...
1721
.
.
.
6,296 br
368
“
it
.
.
.
1,000 wh
it
...
1,084
br
it
1722
.
.
.
6,061
“
323
“
it
.
.
.
6,000
“
it
312
“
^ TJdskiibnings og Passeer Sedlers Copie—Bog, 1709-1754.
This volume is
included in a bundle, the label of which I failed to note.
br.= brown sugar;
wh.= white sugar; c.= casks {Fade),
The marks and
shillings are omitted.
® No sugar is recorded as having paid the one per cent, export duty during
this period.
[ 328 ]
APPENDIX L
329
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED PROM COPENHAGEN—Uon<m«ei
Year
Quantity {lbs,)
Destination
Price secured
hy Company
1723
....
2,617 hr
— .Konigsberg
186 nB.
«
.
.
.
.
11,251
“
.Liibeck
588
“
1724
.
.
.
.
12,170
“
Stettin
697
“
1725
.
.
.
.
15,284
“
tt
875
“
1726
....
none
1727
.
.
.
.
1,225
“
Lubeck
68
“
ts
344
“
.
.
.
. .Flftnshnrg.
.
.
«
800
“
.
.
.
. .Nyborg
1728
232
“
«
2,144 wh
,
.
.
. .Dantzig
134
“
1729-30.
.
.
.
.
.
.
none
1731
426 wh. (?)
1732
230 wh. (?)
«
298 br
1733
....
238
(?)
«
578
^‘
(?)
Bergen
1734
236
“
1735
389
«
685 "
1738
....
2c.(?)“
Slagelse
it
1 c.
“
.... Blsinore
1740
338 “
Aarhus
*(
250 “
Flensborg
1741
58 “
ft
211 “
tt
ft
.
.
.
.
11,443 “
1745
400 “
1746
350 sirup
Nyborg
1747
2 c. br
ft
....
2 c. sirup
Banders
ft
....
64 wh. (?)....
Ritt (?)
1748
....
none
1749
.
.
. .111,864 wh
Stockholm
8,815
“
ft
200
"
Aarhus
ft
....
27,747 br
2,456
“
ft
....
30 c. “
Lubeck
1,802
“
1750
4,206 "
«
240
“
ft
....
10,966 “
628
“
ft
....
5,880 “
[StJ Petersburg.
.
.
336
“
ft
.... 82,958 "»
4,752
"
ft
....
27,766
Stockholm
1,590
• The entry of 80, 20, and 26 Fade apparently refers to the 82,958 lbs.
APPENDIX L
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED PROM COPENHAGEN ^
(1709-1754)
Year
1709
tt
«
€t
«
«
Quantity
(lbs.)
8,950 br
....
6.804
....
2,519 wh
....
4,600 br
....
1,274 wh
100
“
Destination
Liibeck
Kiel
<c
cc
Aarhus
Price secured
by Company
548 rd/.
425
“
348
“
281
“
179
“
<(
1,169
“
120
“
St
....
S.904
“
544
“
1710
....
6,000 br
377
St
2,302 wh
tt
263
“
1711
....
4,000 br
LUbeck
312
“
tt
....
4,500
“
Kiel
351
“
ft
....
1,600 wh
St
233
tt
....
2,160 br
tt
169
“
tt
....
228 wh
tt
29
“
tt
6 c.
“
St
889
“
tt
4 c.
"
Dantzig. ...
i ...
.
291
tt
317 br
Elsinore.
tt
.
*
.
.
285 wh
St
St
200
"
Aarhus
tt
151 br
tt
St
....
1 c.
wh.
Kiel
94
“
St
1 c.
“
«
60
“
St
....
42,544 br
Kiel(?)
2,659
“
1712-20 2..
1721
6,296 br
Ltibeck
368
“
tt
1,000 wh
tt
1,084
br
tt
1722
....
6,061
“
323
“
tt
....
6,000
“
tt
...
1 ...
312
“
^ Udshiihnings og Passeer Sedlers Cojde—Bog, 1709-1754.
This volume
is
included in a bundle^ the label of which I failed to note.
br.= brown sugar;
wh.= white sugar; c.= casks (Fade).
The marks and
shillings are omitted.
® No sugar is recorded as having paid the one per cent, export duty during
this period.
[ 328 ]
APPENDIX L
329
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED PROM COPENHAGEN—Con/inMed
Year
Quantity (lbs,)
Destination
Dfice secured
by Company
1723
...
2,617
br
Konigsberg
136 r<f;.
((
.
.
.
11,251
“
LUbeck
588
“
1724
.
.
.
12,170
“
Stettin
697
‘‘
1725
.
.
16,284
“
tt
.
.
.
875
“
1726
.
.
.
none
1727
.
.
.
1,225
“
Ltibeck
68
((
344
“
«
800
“
Nyborg
1728
232
“
Elsinore
«
.
.
2,144 wh
134
“
1729-30
.
.
.
.
.
.
none
1731
426 wh. (?)
1732
230 wh. (?)
tt
298 br
Bergen
1733
...
238
‘‘
(?)....
u
578
“
(?)
Bergen
1734
...
236
1735
389
<<
685 “
<c
1738
...
2c.(?)“
it
...
1 c.
“
...
.... Elsinore
1740
338 “
tt
250 “
.
,
.
.
.Flensborg
1741
58
Laurwigen
tt
211
**
<(
tt
.
.
.
11,448
**
Stockholm
1745
...
400 “
1746
.
.
.
350 simp
1747
...
2 c. br
tt
...
2 c. simp
Handers
tt
64 wh. (?)
Ritt (?)
1748
.
.
.
none
1749
. .111,864 wh
8,815
“
«
200
.
.
.
.
.Aarhus
«
...
27,747 br
Stockholm
2,456
“
tt
...
80 c.
1,802
“
1750
...
4,206"
<4
240
“
tt
.
.
10,966 "
628
“
it
.
.
5,880 “
386
“
tt
.
. 82,958 "•
.......4,752
“
It
.
.
27,766 "
.......1,590
“
* The fflitry of 80, 20, emd 26 Fade apparently refers to the 82,868 lbs.
S30
APPENDIX L
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED FROM COPENHAGEN—Conitnwcd
Year
Quantity (lbs.)
Destination
Price secured
by Company
mo
28,628
br
1,640 rdl.
(C
200
“
Aarhns
tt
....
52,878
Nordkioping
3,029
“
f(
32
”
Randers
it
200
“
Christiania
«
230
“
Amsterdam
10
“
tt
....
2,387
Ill
“
tt
200
Aarhus
tt
....
1,249
58
“
tt
....
1,302
61
“
tt
....
31,441
“
1,409
“
tt
3,218
“
tt
146
“
1750
7,310
”
Dantzig
343
“
1751
39,739
“
2,276
“
«
1,589
‘‘
74
“
<c
6,790
“
tt
309
“
«
8,386
“
tt
384
“
tt
42,360
“
tt
2,095
tt
5,176
tt
?
tt
15,451
“
734
"
tt
82,261
“
3,892
“
tt
129,299
“
Bergen
tt
129 c. raw br .
.
.
.
Stockholm
tt
.....205,850
br
9,633
“
tt
71,538
“
3,539
“
((
37,987
“
[St.] Petersburg
1,780
“
tt
153,474
“
Bergen
tt
82,984
‘‘
Amsterdam *
3,848
“
tt
6,632
“
tt
.810
“
tt
64,994
3,034
“
tt
86,294
4,045
"
tt
133,437
“
ft
6 231
“
tt
65,036
‘‘
Stockholm.
8,025
“
tt
56,868
: “
2,634
tt
19,100 r.br.fi....
tt
895
“
tt
30,976
br
1,411
“
tt
77,300
“
tt
92,182
Amsterdam
4,201
“
it
144,246
“
^ These axe the totals of seven shipments sent to P. de Wint.
® r. hr. = raw brown sugar; r. s.«“raw sugar.”
APPENDIX L
SSI
WEST INDIAN SUGAR EXPORTED FROM COPENHAGEN—ConfwMei
Year
Quantity (lbs,)
Destination
Price secured
by Company
1751
128,694
br.
6,032 tM.
1752
55,714
2,638
“
«
106,394
“
tt
29,775 r. a
Gothenburg
1,199
“
it
144,712
br
u
20,074
“
958
“
it
158,270
“
.....140,042
Odense
3,428
187
‘‘
<(
11,517
“
1753
»
101,038
“
<t
84,023
tt
39,749
«
“
...
117,176
“
t
((
78,729
<C
74,219
“
tt
«
84,610
«
Odense
«
87,477
«
56,554
“
Aalborg
c<
210
“
.
.
.
.
. .KorsOr
«
82,854
Aalborg
«
38,592
1754
77,668
“
Odense
tt
184,819
“
Bergen
tt
151,727
"
tt
.
.
.
.
.
904 r, s
Mediterranean
46
**
tt
69,873
br
«
47,144
“
tt
112,820
“
Frederiltsliald
tt
5,015
“
.
.
.
.
. .LUbeck
tt
158,614
Trondheiin
tt
102,946
"
tt
86,449
“
1,588
“
tt
168,130
“
Frederikshald
tt
15,184
“
“
.....
168,804
“
* Coasigaed to Iselia & Co.
^ Con8igD.ed to Jolxan Froichen.
* The entries froin the latter part of 175? and after refer to siagar sent to the
shardbolders in the reSneries in Odense, Bergen, Trondlidbav Frederikskald and
Aalborg, Cf. above, pp. 155-185,
* Consigiied to F Wever*
APPENDIX M
COMPANY’S RECEIPTS AND DEBTS AT ST. THOMAS (1688-1754)
Certain of the Company’s jEleceipts at St. Thomas: compiled from the account books of
the Danish West India and Guinea Company {Rigsarkiv).
No. of
Poll and
Customs
Weighing
Debt of
Debt of
Year
planters
land taa:
rec^pts
fees
Co. to
planters
planters
to Co.
1688
.
.
489 rdl.
.
.
23...
1689
.
.
550
57...,
.
.
1,817
621...
IfiQI
.30.1551
..
8 ...
.
37..
RMrdL.
.
.
5.162
35....
'
1698
..
3,452
36...
1699
32..
...
653
1700
78..
..
2,643
....
72...
1701
.
.
-
.
..
3,233
132...
1702
.
.
3;066
....
27...
1703
52..
.
. .1,294
.
.
9i574
476...
1704
59.
.
.
. .2,585
.
.
5i653
270.
.
.
1706
74?
.
.
. .2,716
.
.
4,112
183.
.
.
1706
105?.
.
. .2i715
.
.
3'361
219...
1707
106..
.. .3^050
.. 4,184
109...
1708
109.
.
. .,2^872
.
.
7,027
121...
1709
..10,688
218...
1710
103..
. ..3,282
..11,114
100...
1711
.
. .4;201
.
.
9;959
240...
1712
.
. .4^604
..10;634
305...
1713
131,
.
.
. .4^937
..
6^818
153...
1714
130.
,
.
. .4^838
..
5,818
145...
1715
134.
.
.
, .4^821
..
4,903
1716
139..
.
. .5,017
..
8,236
46...
1717
132.
.
.
. .5;029
.
.
6;778
1718
131..
. ..6|140
.
.
5^619
84...
1719
144.,
.
, .6,676
.
.
7;464
31...
1720
152.
.
. ..6;683
..
8,869
1,995 2
.
,
1721
162,
.
.
. .6^799
.. 41992
373...
1722
188..
.
. .6,905
..
3,099
. .37,787.
.
.
,
. 160,445
1723
188..
. ..6,971
.
.
7,144
!!!.’
ll!!!
. .75,876.
.
.
. .177,120
1724
187.
.
.
. .7,169
.
.
7,328
42...
.
.
8,573.
.
.
. .209,438
1725
205..
...7,891....
.
.
7,749
....
279...
..80,197...
. .210,129
1726
211..
...8,063.... ..
4,927
....
142...
..84,278...
,.211,331
1727
215..
...8,078....
.
.
5,208
....
511...
..67,044...
. .200,486
1728 8
190.,
...7,785.... ..
6,018
....1,117...
..61,732...
..163,357
1729
182..
...7,123..., ..
5,335
....
252...
..41,960...
..160,473
1730
;
.
168..
...5,814.... ..
6,324
....
351...
..14,967...
..138,306
1731
166.
.
...6,769....
.
.
6,884
....
447...
..12,033...
..102,277
1732
163..
...6,859...
.
.
.
6,462
....
365...
..10,565...
..109,194
1733
171..
...6,891....
.
.
6,489
....
409...
..22,972...
..123,241
1734
167..
...7,169....
.
,
5,158
....
276...
,.23,810...
..117,396
^ See above, pp. 84-87, for story of seizure of Brandenburg goods.
2 Includes moneys
collected for several years past, and now disgorged by
guilty official.
® Before 17ii9, the fiscal year ended in March, so the figures entered under
1728 refer to the year from March, 1728, to March, 1729.
With 1780 the fiscal
year is considered to end in December, and hence the records for 1730 apply
only to eleven months.
[ 832 ]
APPENDIX M
S33
COMPANY’S BECEIPTS AND DEBTS AT ST. THOMAS—Coniinaai
No. of
Poll and
Customs
Weighing
Debt of
Debt of
Year
Planters
Land Tax
Receipts
Fees
Co. to
Tranters
planters
to Co,
1735
177... ...7,225...
.
.
6,896
....
370...
..26,763... ...
84,694
1736.
.
.
.
158... ...6,440...
.
.
6,306
469...
..28,758... ...
87,680
1737....
164... ...5,064...
..
4,817
129...
..20,117... ...
99,961
1738
158... ...5,452...
.
,
7,624
703...
..
2,558... ...119,750
1739....
150... ...5,342...
.
.
6,226
....
325...
..31,305... ...109,512
1740....
149... ...5,087...
..
4,366
....
543...
..14,096...
.
. .143,488
1741
141... ...5,063...
..
5,772
....
209...
..23,877... ...
71,606
1742...
.
146... ...5,163...
..
8,186
591...
..26,035... ... 82,956
1743
138... ...4,807...
..
8,006
....
468...
..21,643... ...125,347
1744
143... ...4,798...
..
8,083
561...
..12,216... ...126,378
1745....
152... ...4,427...
..10,074
671...
..19,809... ...133,754
1746
153... ...4,474...
..21,512
1,221...
..24,805... ...193,315
1747
150... ...4,637...
..19,661
1,113...
..27,272...
.
. .329,065
1748
161... ...4,946...
..21,667
1,041...
..41,301...
.
. .357,931
1749
167... ...5,115...
..16,971
888...
..31,599...
.
. .279,668
1750
163... ...5,335...
..12,226
989...
-.71,159...
.
. .317,279
1751....
165... ...6,552...
..14,947
877...
..42,549...
.
. ,385,243
1752
161... ...5,551...
..10,448
773...
..83,611...
.
. .443,376
1753
160... ...6,646...
..16,754
1,078...
..40,272... ...491,601
1754....
168... ...5,746...
..10,830
1,036...
..34,409... ...503,615
APPENDIX N
COMPANY’S RECEIPTS AND DEBTS AT ST. CROIX (1741-1753)
Certain of the Company’s Receipts at St. Croix: compiled from the account books of
the Danish West India and Guinea Company (Rigsarkiv).
No. of
Poll and
Customs
Weighing
of
Debt of
Year
1741
Planters
land tax
receipts ^
.
764 rdl..
fees
52 rdZ...
Co. to
planters
,.
3,095 rdZ..
,
.
3,065
planters
to Co.
.
.
41,171 rdZ.
..
41,180
1742....
84... ...2,807rdZ...
.
1,267
....
66
1743.
.
.
122... ...2,589
.
972
64
.
.
2,949....
.
.
49,863
1744...
202... ...4,029
.
1,868
....
83
.
.
3,347....
..12,464
.
.
57,869
1745...
199... ...4,662
.
1,773
....108
..
76,058
1746...
195... ...4,529
.
3,733
....171
..15,864.... ..
98,633
1747.
.
.
207... ...5,158
.
8,202
250.... ..20,313
.
. 136,007
1748.
.
.
204... ...6,402
.
8,887
....234
..26,111....
. .202,941
1749.
.
.
218... ...5,830
.
9,139
....286
..35,187....
.
.
79,642
1760.
.
.
1761 .
.
.
246...
288. ..
...7,107
.. .7,587
.10,458
408
..69,186....
. .26,466
.
. 169,788
. ,392,425
1752...
332... ...8,081
; 13,358
;’.'.*.'.562‘‘‘.‘.
. .25.619
. .452,866
1753...
355... ...8,624
. 13,976
673.... ..16,125....
. .662,089
^ These totals, given in rdl, only, are those made up by the Company’s officials.
The greater number of the figures given exceed by 50 rdl. or more the totals de-
rived from the Company’s cash books, where the receipts are entered month by
month.
[ 384 ]
APPENDIX O
CAPITAL INVESTED AT ST. THOMAS UNDER PLAN OP 1747
1
Fixed >
Circulating *
Private <
Interest s
Rate of <
capital
capital
capital
paid
interest
1747
108,534...
83,163
7,169..
037
1748
108,921...
62,966....
...292,235...
8,182..
047
1749
116,034...
75,208....
...281,265. ..
11,921..
062
1750
123,200...
136,831....
.
. .284,684.
.
.
14,556..
056
1751
128,854...
194,264....
.
. .269,910.
.
.
16,901..
052
1762.
129,646...
238,343....
...262,865...
20,563.
.
056
1753
129,826...
297,446.
.
.
.
...279,172...
22,480.
.
052
1764
127,734...
...280,868...
26,753..
063
^ From Negotie Joumaler for St Thorms.
See above, pp. 221-222.
* Capital Conto vedk. Comps, faate og staaende Fond.
® Capital Conto vedh. Comps, oiroulerende Fond.
* Capital Conto iiedk. Comps, particvlaire Vahre og tilstaaende Gield.
® Interesse Conto.
* The rate is calculated on the basis of the “fixed” and “circulating” capital,
and the results are offered for what they may be worth.
imi
APPENDIX P
THE COMPANY’S BtJSINESS IN BROWN SUGAR
(An estimate based on its account books) ^
Income
Outgo 2
Year
Lhs.
[Year]
[1/68.]
1700 there came in
....
513,732
1700 waste s deducted
.
.
6,382
and
....
356,568
and
.
.
2,168
1701
....
94,456
1701 deducted
.
.
2,612
209,149
1702
“
.
.
6,052
1702 and 1703
....
560;545
1703 and 1704 nothing deducted.
1704
....
726,683
1705]
1705
....
445,533
1706 h nothing [deducted].
1707 J
1706
:
1707
....
299,639
....
723,992
1708 waste deducted
. .205,869
1708 to May 4
....
378,779
4,310,976
[4,308,976]
223,073
During the period that the late Diderich Mogensen was factor, the waste deducted
is
found to have amounted to about five and a quarter per cent.
1709 there came in
1,036,048
1709
1710
659,212
1710
1711
93,086
1711
no waste deducted,
nor here either.
1712
1713,
321,673
654,660
1712 deducted “without money.”
Total
1713 none.
96,276
During this period, during the greater part of which likewise Diderich Mogensen was
factor, the deducted waste is found to have amounted to a little over three and a half per
cent.
1714
1715,
1716,
273;425
1715 I
deducted.
131,114
1716.!
92,603
1,064,205
During SSeberg’s term as factor, the waste is found to have amounted to a trifle more
than eight and one-half per cent.
1717
694,676
1717
1718
248,861
1718
1719
513,713
1719
j- no waste deducted.
1720
617,944
1720
1721
136,620
1721
During SchnelfejTs and Jan Vlak’s terms as factor, no waste is found to have been de-
ducted in the books, hence the same brown sugar from those years remains, viz., 38,846
lbs. net, which makes a tolerable waste, viz., about one and three-fourths per cent., which
waste will be deducted, in so far as it will be necessary to determine the actual stock on hand.
^ Translated from Secret-Frotocollen for St. Thomas^ 1729-1730,
This com-
pilation was made by Philip Gardelin at the instance of the privy council of the
island, about 1729.
^For aaa vidt som dend paa TV. & T. Reigning afskrecne Leccage angaaet.
® Leccage.
[ 336 ]
APPENDIX Q
THE COMPANY’S BUSINESS IN COTTON
(For factor Sdeberg’s time, according to the books) i
Income
Year]
[1714
1715
1716 to Sept. 14
Lhs.
43,986
14,665
28,927
85,578
So
he
(Soeberg)
may
have
charged
against
him
only
the
stock that the books for 1713 in-
dicate
to
have
been
on
hand,
which is
6,956
Hence
there
still
remains on
SOeberg’s cotton account
927
94,461
[Year]
Outgo
1714 delivered
1715
1716 to Sept. 9
Stock delivered
to
Schnelfejl, ac-
cording to books
Lie.
38,093
15,386
27,423
1,923
82,825
The Commission has decided that
Soeberg must
pay,
for
cotton
taken out of the warehouse for
Crone and himself
11,636
94,461
Estimate of cotton [handled] in Schnelfejrs time.
Received from SQeberg:
Stock, aoc. to books
1,923
1716 from Sept. incUusive]
767
1717 until his death, Oct. 24
26,923
Also for what Sdeberg delivered
in 1717, which he is credited with
by the Commission, but not until
now in the books
1,103
1716 nothing delivered out.
1717 to his death
6,776
Stock at Schnelfejl’s should then be 22,931
29,706
29.706
[Cotton handled] in factor Jan Vlak’s time.
On hand
22.931
1717 from Sept
3,479
1718
23,096
1719
30,691
1720
26,786M
1721 to May 16-^n the 19th he
was suspended—there came in 10,810
For what SCeberg had delivered
in 1718 according to Jan Vlak’s
own account, with which the Com-
mission
has
credited
him,
but
which has not been observed until
now
1,686
.
.
.
[ 1 abm which ought to be de-
ducted from the capital account .
.
4,670
3 24,048
1717 delivered from Oct. 10
10,991
1718
37,412
1719
26,970^
1720
30,407
1721 to April 29
:
.
.
8,7603^
Delivered to Stage
after being
properly inventoriedT.
916
H^enoe Ylak has fallen short in his
cotton account
8,69234
124,04834
^From
Seeret-ProtocoUm
for St
Thomas
(1729-1780),
compiled by
Ph.
Gardelm at imitaiice of St. Tliomas privy council, about 1720.
APPENDIX R
RETURNS ON COMPANY’S CAPITAL
Gewinst og Verlies Dehet til Capital Canto
saameget er udi dette Aar
vide Gevyinst og Verlies Reigningen, Gud vwre mrity
netto vundet som paa Capital
Conto pier] Saldo hentransporteres"^
Numbers in parentheses refer to months, thus: 4= April.
Year
Year
Rdl.
1688
1715
1689 (4-10)
.
748
1716
4,506
1690
1,669
1717
12,016
1691
35,998
1718
8,698
1692
1719
12,650
1693“
642
1720
25,095
1694-97
1721
10,222
1698 (Aug.)
]
1722
12,973
1
14,020
1723
25,036
1700 (Feb.)
]
1724
28,386
1700
14,825
1725
21,792
1701
2,904
1726
[loss—662]
1702 (2-6).
.
5,948
1727
14,729
1703
29,180
1728
8,698
1704
.18,844
1729
35,386
1705
6,678
1730
15,704
1706
5,183
1731
26,449
1707
22,899
1732
28,073
1708
18,885
1733
39,760
1709
26,008
1734
2,525
1710
32,312
1735
29,610
1711
21,366
1736
15,561
1712
1737
4,782 »
1713
12,163
1738
15,165 4
1714
30,879
1739
11,932
^ The marks and skilling are omitted here.
* The Thormdhlen and Arff leases covered most of thifl period.
*
Because of the many expenses in connection with St. Croix.”
* *‘Qewinsi
til Capital Conto burde vcere mere, da der paa Negere de Robert
Stewart og Comdis Marshalk
ere vundne mindst 6,000
rdl., men
del beregnee
mor
[ 338 ]
APPENDIX R
339
RETURN ON COMPANY’S CAHTAL-Coniintted
Year
m.
Year
mo
8,912
1748
34.531
1741
15.991
1749
21,323 ‘
1742
8,929
1750
19.384
1743
15,040
1751
24.684
1744
20,265
1752
20,159
1745
23,278
1753
34.211
1746
32,863
1754
^
. 28.567
1747
29,418
* “Vedk Compi. jMrtumdaire Vahre og tihtaaenie Gidd.'
APPENDIX S
ST. THOMAS STATISTICS; MISCELLANEOUS (1700-1708; 1723-1754)
Govemor^s
Interest
Value of
Ammunition
Salaries
table
account
Christianfort
account
1700
3,151 rdL.
...
9,750 rdZ...
4,825 rdl
1701
3,279
.
.
.
9^750
4,757
1702
1,085
...
9,750
6)561
1703
4,694
.
.
.
9^750
6,213
1704
...
9)750
5)900
1705
3,989
.
.
.
9)750
5)835
1706
2,978
...
9,750
5)874
1707
3,082
...
9,750
5,783
1708
...
9)750
6)025
1723.
6,368
....5,9511
.
..
6,620..
.
.
. 10,570
....4)988
1724
10,665
.
.
. 10,570
4,410
1725
10,318
.
,
. 10)570
4)902
1726
6,026
..
3,109..
.
.
. 10,570
4)605
1727
10,323
..
347..
.
. .10,570
4,924
1728
7,211
671...
..
5,876..
.
. .10)570
5)651
1729
8,359
671...
..25,313..
.
.
. 10,570
5)780
1730
13,501
....
671...
..10,457..
...10)570
....5,700
1731
9,145
....
671...
..11,009..
...10,570
....5,721
1732
9,121
....
671...
..18,208..
...10,570
....6,078
1733
9,389
671...
..
6,925..
.
.
. 10,570
6,547
1734
7,912
....
671...
..
3,265..
...20,385
....4,606
1735
8,189
..18,130..
.
. .22,627
3,904
1736
8,525
..
3,849..
4,628
1737
10,251
..
1,065..
4,509
1738
9,461
.,
4,482..
4,738
1739
10,820
..
3,056..
4,629
1740
9,983
..
1,940..
.
.
. .4,627
1741
10,626
..
1,911..
4,142
1742
10,203
..
2,421..
4,141
1743
9,484
..
2,137..
3,835
1744
8,338
.
.
3,303..
3,399
1745
8,418
..
3,471.
.
.
. .3,997
1746
8,960
.
.
4,445.
.
3,982
1747
9,827
..
7,169.
.
1
!
! 10,000
!
!
4,537
1748
9,360
..
8,182..
ti
3,011
1749
10,036
. .11,921.
.
<1
3,201
1750
15,553
. .14,556.
.
*
*
ti
.
.
. .4,607
1751
13,482
, .16,901.
.
<c
4,623
1752
14,057
. .20,563.
.
4,653
1753
14,557
. ,22,480.
.
.
.
!
.
5,333
1754
13,633
..25,753..
.
.
. .4,644
^ This represents the accumulated expenses
of
several years.
Governors
Crone and Bredal each had
long,; tedious disputes with the directors con-
cerning allowances for table expenses.
[ 340 ]
APPENDIX T
ST. CEOIX STATISTICS: MISCELLANEOUS (1742-1763)
Lost or gained on
Salary 1
Interest
Princess
LaGrange
Value of 2
Value op Profit on^
account
account^'
plantation
plantation
Princess
LaGrange
capital
1742
.
..
4,826.. ...
639..
..
4,173..
..23,540..
..
4,752
1743
.
..
4,636.. ...
983..
..
4,134..
. .25,005.
.
..
4,426
1744 .
..
4,266..
. ..
1,616..
..
2,781..
. .25,162.
.
..
4,763
1746.. ..
6,769.. ...
2,624..
..
2,254..
..
—46..
. .26,097.
.
..
3,520... ..
7,446
1746.
..
7,128.. ...
4,370..
..
4,383..
..
—194..
. .26,178.
.
..
3,770...
.
. 14,902
1747.. ..
5,822.. ...
6,622..
..
11,023..
..
—617..
. .38,088.
.
..
8,216... ..37,002
1748.. ..
6,732.. .. .11,127.
.
..—4,064..
..—4,609..
. .60,889.
.
..11,716...
1749.
.
..
8,314.. ...
4,207..
..
1,614..
..—1,635..
. .65,659.
.
,.14,947... !!
6,820
1760.
.
..10,266.. .. .38,660.
.
..
1,493..
..—1,107..
. .67,718..
..14,676...
1751..
. .67,966.
.
..14,595...
1762.
.
!]i0,846!; ;; .*23,791.'
!
!!
8,236.'!
!! —337 !!
. .78,568.
.
,.38,660... !!40,291
1763.
.
,.
9,739.. .. .29,778.
.
..
9,353..
.
. —656.
.
..78,888..
..39,930...
. .60,365
^ Sallario Conto.
® The Princess plantation lay a short distance northwest from Christiansted;
La Grange, on the shores of West End Bay.
Both belonged to the Company.
See map of St. Croix, opposite p. 248,
® The writer makes no attempt to explain the apparent discrepancy between
the inventory value of LaGrange plantation, and the losses recorded against
it.
The accoxmts of the Company often arouse fear and wonder rather than
understanding in the observer.
Perhaps they fulfil thereby their intended mis-
sion.
* These figures seem to represent the returns on the capital invested by the
Company upon St. Croix.
im]
APPENDIX U
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS IN THE ROYAL CHARTERED DANISH
WEST INDIA AND GUINEA COMPANY, AND SHARES HELD IN
THE COMPANY AND REFINERY IN THE YEAR 1751
1
Company
shares
1. Det Kongelige Huus.
Hans Kongl, Mt. Yores Allemaadigste Konge
8
Hendes Mayt. Dronningen Lovise
4
Hendes Kongl. Hoihed Princesse Charlotte Amalia
16
2. Prseses.
Hans Hoi
Graevel. Excel. Hr. Geheime Raad og Oberhof-
marechal Adam Gotlob Moltke
8
8. Directeureme.
Hr. Justitz Raad Peter Lemvig
10?i
.
Hr. Etatz Raad Herman L. KlScker
8
.
Btr. Agent Johan Friderich Vewer
7
**
Joost von Hemmert
8
.
4. Hoved Participanteme.
Hr. Etatz Raad Johannes Valeur
534
“
Capitaine Jesper Richardt
7
,
**
Justitz Raad Oluf Blach
8
.
5.
Sr. Hans Christian Oelgoed
8
.
“ Peter Boertman
7
.
6. Participantere.
Hans Hoy Graevel. Excel. Hr. Ferdinand Anthon Grsev af
Danneschiold til Lauerwigen
9
,
Hr. Feldtmarschal og General Sdiulenborg
4
Hr. Geheime Raad von Bercheniin
4
.
Afg. Hr. Geheime Raad von Schulin
4
,
Hans Excel. Hr. Vice Statholder Geheime Conferentz Raad
Jakob Benzon
2034-
Hr. General og Commandant M. Numsen
8
H[r. Geheime Conf. Raad Claus v. Reventlau
%
.
Refinery
shares
....2
....1
....4
.2
.2
.2
.2
.2
.2
.8
3
1
1
1
4?4
2
1
^ From Werlauff MSS. No. 22, Royal Library. On account of the impossibil-
ity of finding exact equivalents for many of the titles, th^ are transcribed as
they are found in the manuscript, nor is any attempt made to correct the tran-
scriber’s spelling.
1842J
APPENDIX U
343
Refinery
shares
‘‘‘.
1^/9
-...IK
.... K
.... K
....2
Hr.
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS—
shares
Afgt. Hr. Geh. Conf. Raad og Baron Gersdorf
2
.
Afgt. Hr. Geh. Conf. Raad Graeve af Gyldensteen ... 7
.
Afgt. Hr. Geheime Raad og Baron Christian Gylden-
crone
iK-
Hr. Geheime Raad Carl von Holstein
2
.
“
“
“
Fridrich W. von Holstein
2
.
“
“
“
vonderOsten
8
.
“
“
og Baron von Dehn
4
1
“
**
Demerciere
2
K
“
“
“
Victor von Plessen
4
1
“
**
“
Eggert. Christ. V. Linstow
5
2
“
‘‘
Otto Kot
1
1
“
“
“
Oberhofmester von Juel
2
K
“
“
Ober Jaegennester von Gram
4
1
“
“
“
Ober Rammer Junker v. der Ltihe 3
Afgt. Stiftamtmand Adolph Andreas von der Ltihe
Ridder
5
Stiftamtmand Holger
Scheel Ridder Johan Albrecht
Vith Ridder
2
Hr. Vice Admiral Friderich Hoppe
2K
Hr. Vice Admiral Wilhelm Lemvig
Hr. Envoys Extraordinaire Walther Titly
4
1
Hr, Kammer Herre Buchwaldt
4
1
**
**
“
Christian von Stdcken
5
1
“
“
vonStafifelt
1
“
“
“
Willum Berregaard
10
2K
Frue Geheime Raadinde Enke af Holstein
4
1
Frue Graevinde Khudt
8
2
“
Amalia Georgine von Schmettau
1
K
FrOken Hofmesterinde von der Oaten
12
8
Afg. Frue Baronesse von Gersdorf
.12
2
Frue Wibeke Krag Generalinde von Eindten
1
8
Frue Generalinde von Stdcken
4
1
Hr. Conferentz Raad Hans Seidelin
4K
**
“
“
SchbUer
2
K
“
“
“
algt. Carl von Brandt
.....2
2
“
**
**
afgt. Lars Benzmi
2K
1
**
**
Baron Matthias von Gyldencrone.
.
.
1
M
jFrue Confer^tz Raadinde Rostgamjd
lOK
2K
Hr. Etatz Ri^ Friderich Hohnated, .
-
18K
**
“
Gregorius Kkuinan
8
.2%
**
Laurits Munck.
2
M
“
**
« Jhhan F.Friis
8
2
344
APPENDIX tf
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS—Con^inwec^
Company
hennery
Shares
Shares
Afg, Etatz Raad Severin Wartberg
3
%
“
“
“
Thomas Bartholin
2
Frue Etatz Raadinde Weyse
2}/^
1
Kammer Jomfrue Packo
4
1
Hr. Hof Predicant Bliihme
3
Hr. Lt. (?) Able le maire
1
J4
“
Oberst Lieutenant Hans Albert von der LUhe
1
«
“
“
Christian Scholler
1
M
Frue Anna Stokfleth SI. Oberste Brugmans
1
34
Hr. Major Friderick Scholler
1
“ Brand Major Johan Boye Junge
1
Frue Commandeur Miihlenforts
4
1
Eammer Junker Adam Levin von Dincklage
3
Hr. Commandeur Capitaine Gyntelberg paa Hr. Cancel-
lieraad Laurentz Kreyers Nafn
3
2
Hr. Justitz Raad Diderick Chr. Lemvig
%
“
“
SchrSder
1
%
“
“
Putschier
3
%
**
**
“ Johan Finckenhagen
2
“
“
BredoMunthe
4
1
**
“
“ Henrich de Hielmstieme
2
3^
“
“
** Anthon Fabritius
1
1
“
“
“ Klarup
1
1
“
“
“
Christian Lintrup
5
}4
“
“
afg. Iver Jentoft
34
1
Hr, Agent Just Fabritius
5
1
“
“
Pieter van Hurk
1
1
“
“
Herman de Place
4
1
afgh. Andreas Bitim
43
4J4
Fr. Justitz Raadinde Henrichsen
4
1
Hr. Capitaine Michael Johan Herbst
2
“
og Reg. Qv. Mester Peter Kellerman
1
“
“
afgt. T. G. Vieth
1
Hr. Cancellie Raad Hans Riegelsen
2
54
“
Simon Borthuus
2
Hr. Kammer Raad Rasmus Fugl
2
34
“
“
“
Georg Henrich Johan Schmieden
2
34
“
“
“
Jens Erick Hauck
1
1
Hr. Consistorial Raad Provst Mathias Hvid
2
34
FrSken Margrethe Lemvig
2
34
Frue Assessor Johan Laverentzen
2
34
Hr. Raadmand Thomas Ziemer
4
“
“
Hans Holst de Place
6
1
AI»I^ENDIX U
345
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS—Continued
Company
^
shares
Hr. Raadmand Johan Fridrick Holmsted
1
“
“
Johan Didrich Bechman
%
Hr. Apothequer Christopher Herfort Mangor
1
Hr. Laugmand Johan Arndt Jentoft
%
Hr. Rg. Qvart. Master Otto Borthuus
5
Hr. Inspecteur og Landsdommer P. Kra£t
%
Hr. Borgemester Johan Daniel Baiur
6
Hr. Vice Borgemester Gabriel Ferdinand Milan
2
Hr. Secreterer Bretonville
4
“
“
Denis Lucass
1
Hr. Johan de Lehn
Hr. Frideiich de Peloy
1
“ Thomas Blixenchiold
2
“
Peter Henrich Meyer Ober Eaobmand og
Stemme
i det Secrete Raad i Tranquebahr
2
**
afgt. Johannes Laurens von Castenschiold
5
“
afgt. Commandant paa St. Thomas Friderick Moth ...
6
Hr. Christen Hdst
1
Hr. Slotsforvalter Bernhard Voldenberg
1
Sde Qvfiesthuuset i Kibbenhafn
20
Hr. Taacadeur Jseger
” Johan Ludvig Abbestee
1
“
Lyder Schielderop
8
**
Johan Christopher Cramer
1
“ Abraham Pelt
4
“ PederMorbeck
1
“
Reinhard Iselin
“
Johan Fridmch GiOring
4
“
Andreas KeUinghuusen
2
“
Peter and Johan Wasserfall
1
**
Johan Conrad Colsman
1
“
Henrich Peter Werner
1
“
Niels Schbt
4
SvenKabke
2
“
Fridrich Barfoed
1
“
Carl Fitzman
** Herman Murcken
1
“
PovelPletz
2
**
Christopher Bartholin
2H
**
Eggert Rasmusen
1
“
Johan Lyders
2
Amoldus de Fine Olivarius
2
"
Peter IJrsin,
,
J
Refinery
shares
%
V9
Vs
Vi
V9
V9
34
34
V9
346
APPENDIX U
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS-^-OonfoWMe^f
Company
shares
Hr. Johan Jiirgen von Bergen
1
Joseph Zyber
1
Mr. Pierre Bone & Sohne
%
“ Morten Kirchetorp
1
afg, Casserer Daldorph
5
“
Messieurs Johan Peter Isenberg & Sohn
4
[afg.?] Martin Vsern
8
Casserer Johan Fridrich Dalen
534
Equipage Mester Christian Fridrich Irgens
1
Bogholder Peder Brandorph
1
Andreas Lossejus Dreger
1
Madame U. Johannes Colsman
1
“
de la Tour
1
Jomfrue Marie Kirstine Meyer
4
“
Christine Deichman
1
“
Catharina Elizabeth Colsman
1
“
Marie Gerdrant Colsman
1
Gud giv Lykke og Velsignelse
4
N. B. Hr. Etatz Raad Xlaumann.
Meliora Speramus.
N. B. Hr. Biskop Pontoppidan
2
Meliora Speramus,
N, B. Hr, Professor Reus
2
Devise: A, M, T.
N. B. Hr. Terchelsen
4
Devise: G. C. B. & C. F. B.
N. B. Casserer Dahlen
Devise: B. J. M.
N. B. Bertel Jacobsen Mbller
1
Jomfrue Anna Catharina Hermanst
}4.
“
Maria Catherina de Riddere.
Hr. Hieronymo Alberto de Lindeman Baron de Nevelstein .
5
.
“ Johannes Henricus Emmerechts
1
**
Pierre Frangois Hermans.
Madame Angela Borckelman H. L. Franciscus van te Wenter
Enke
1
Hr. Guillaume de Troy (?)
2
“ Jan Bap^ Bosch
2
D’Heer Frangois Joseph Chapel
2
Hr. Foul Jacobs
1
“
Charles Joseph de Man
9,
“
Johannes Jacobus Moretus
16
“
Cornelius von Winghen
8
Refinery
shares
J4
2
1m
.
- M
. H
y2
Vi
HH
APPENDIX U
S47
LIST OP SHAREHOLDERS—Continued
Company
shares
D’Heer Henry Geelhand Heere van Mersen
12
.
Hr. Caspar Baudier
4
.
“ Anthoine Andre Dendon
4
.
Louis Prangois de Coninck
8
.
Jouffrouw Maria Catharina Wermoelen
2
.
Hr. Jean Roggens
2
.
“ Thomas Josephus de Bie
4
.
“ Anthonio Gerhardo Wellens
4
.
“
Jacobus Theodorus Wellens
5
.
“ Peter Anthon Wellens
8
.
“
Norberto Levies de Vael
12
.
“
Josephus de Potter
1
.
Jean F. M. Lunde
8
.
“
Gotfriede Ullens
4
.
“
Pieter Nic de Vos
4
.
** Jean Bastyn
4
.
“
Fransiscus Emanuel van Ertborn
12
.
“ Joan Kramp
2
.
“ Josephs Albertus Bartelo
2
.
Chevalier Engelbertus Maria Borrekins
8
.
Hr. T. de Jonge
6
.
Madame Weduve Amoldt de Pret
4
Madame Maria Isabella Clare Goris
4
Hr. Gotfried Josephxis von Possenrode (?)
4
** Johannes Josephus & Judserus (?) Hubertus Pelgrom.
.
2}^,
**
Michael Auvray
4
** Johannes Josephus Pelgrom
1
.
“ Joan Bap^® Guielmo Joseph Vicomte de Fraula Heere
van Rosier bois
8
.
JufProuw Anna Philippina & Isabella Regina Reyns
1
D^Heer Balthazar Moretus
8
.
“
Charles Vilain Xin
1
.
Hr4 Theodorus Meulemaer
2
Hr. Baron W. von Krassow
8
.
Madame Maria Boon Weduve van de Heer Jacques Schmi-
aerta
4
.
Hr. Adrian Jansen
1
.
D^Heer Jean Frangois Le Grelle, Cum tJxore Maria Isabella
Broeta
,..4
.
**
Guillielmus F. Le Grelle.
• 4
.
**
Norbert Goris.
8
*
F.F.Morctus
4
.
Jondker Petrus van Schorel Heer van Vihyk.
2
.
Refinery
shares
3
1
....1
....2
.2
1
1
2
4
1
2
1
2
1
3
3^
2
W2
1
1
1
1
2
2
X
1
1
1
1
348
APPENDIX U
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS—Continued
Company
shares
Joncker Joannes Bap^® Cock Scheppen
1
.
D’Heer Peter Neyliaus
4
.
Me. Vrouw I. B. Cogels
24
.
Hr. Petrus Verbert
I
.
D’Heer Jan Henry Lienard
4
.
“
Joncker Petrus van Schorel Heere van Vilryck, en de
Vrouwe Anna Maria de Clewes
2
.
Hr. Petrus Reneus van Maes
1
.
D’Heer J. G. Knyff
8
.
D’Heer Michael Joannes Anthonius Kuyff
1
.
“
Jodocus MoreU
4
.
Hr. Adrian Vleshouwer
4
.
Juffrouw Joanna van Laer
4
.
D’Heer Anthonia Le Begge
4
.
“
Jean Joseph Pintens
2
.
“
Charles I. Roose
4
.
Me. Vrouw Maria Theresia Carolina Enyff Douariere ^ van
Joan Carlos Bosschardt
12
.
D’Heer Jean Andre Pietier
4
.
D’Heer F. F. Stevens
7
.
Madame La Douariere van Collin de Bomhout
2
.
D’Heer Joan van Eersel
4
.
Hr. Bernardo Rottier
2
.
“ Jan B. F. Torfs
2
.
“
F. Xaverius Pick
2
.
Dame Anna Maria Catharina van den Branden Douariere
van de Heer Carlo Francisco de Bosschardt
4
Hr. Guilliame Vrancke a L(5ven
4
.
“
Franciscus Engelgrave
4
.
D’Heer Jean Alexander Guyot
4
.
Me. Juffrouw Isabella von Laer
2
.
D’Heer Josephus Alexander de Pauw
2
.
“
Peter Jaspers
2
,
Hr. Petrus Joannes von Setter
4
.
“ NoeHellin
%
,
“
Jean Charles Cocqueel
4
.
“
Guilielmo Carlo Limden
8
.
**
Joes E. Pieters
4
.
D’Heer James Dormer
4
.
Hj. Samuel Diderick Mutzenbecker
1
,
“ Bosanquet
%
.
Madame Sal. Herman Rendorfs .
2
.
Refinery
shares
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
34
1
34
1
1
1
1
J4H
y2
1
1
2
1
1
Va
1
34
^ Dowager.
APPENDIX U
S49
LIST OF SHAREHOLDERS—Confonttei
Company
Refinery
shares
shares
Hr. Jon FranQois Maximilian de Baltin Raedt en Secre-
taiius der Stadt Antwerpen
2
Hr. Leonardus de Bie
2
Juffrouw Isabella Francois de Bie
2
Me. Vrouw de Weduwe van de Heer Frangois Mols
4
1
Summa
1,000
250
INDEX
A
Achard, F. C., BerKn chemist, 253
Adder, F, C., 190
Adder, Kordt, Danish admiral, 35
Aix la Chapdle, peace of (1748), 234
Alaska, purchase of, 257, 259
American
Revolution.
See
Revolu-
tion.
Amiens, Peace of (1802), 251
Anguilla, English Leeward island, 113
Antigua, 12, 24, 53, 115, 229
Area of Danish West Indies, 2
ArflF, N.
J.,
81,
95-97,
paesim, 104
(n. 36), 141, 145, 205
Asierdo, 89, 137, 227
Augsburg League, War of, 81, 187, 208
B
Barbados,
11,
40,
49,
115,
116, 127,
138, 215, 252
Barbuda, 12
Barlovento fleet, 111
Beer, G. L„ cited, 47, 117, 138
(n. 4,
5), 141
Bdlamont,
Lord,
governor
of New
England, 114, 115, 118
Benbow, John, English rear-admiral,
117, 118
Bergen,
13,
19, 81, 86. 87,
136, 238,
merchants in West India trade, 44
(n.), 98
Berlin, 86
Bermudas, 11, 12
Bemstorff, A. P., 247
Bemstorff, J. H. £., 240, 248
Berregaard, C., 190
Beverhoudt, John, 38* 169, 178
Bile, Steen A., 53 (pu 22), 66 (n, 66)
Biss, Thomas, 50
Blenacq, Count of, 110
Board of Trade, 22, 23, 27, 31, 32, 45,
104,
179,
180,
190,
191,
221, 240,
306-314
Bond,
George,
English
pirate,
53
(n. 21), 55
Bonnoust, Pierre, 210, 211
Bosal negroes, 157, 159
Boston, 231
Brandenburg
African Company, 70;
chapter III;
97, 99-104,
108-112,
116-120, 130, 131, 142. 145, 146
Brandenburg, Elector of, 44, 70, 71-
77, 83, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 94
Brazil, 19, 137
Breda, treaty of (1667), 24
Bredal,
Erik,
governor,
128-180;
signature (1731), 128, 181, 184, 192,
198, 196, 197, 201, 246
(n. 4), 315-
317
Brehan, L. R. H, de.
See Pl^lo.
Bremen, 1, 191, 309
British West India islands, 139.
See
abo Barbados, Nevis,
Montserrat,
etc.
Brochard, J. C.
See Champigny.
Brbnvsebro, Peace of (1645), 19
Brun,
Constantine, Danish minister,
260, 261
Buccaneers in West Indies, 25, 47-51
Burgher council, 232, 289
Burke, Wniiam, Irish trader, 49, 115-
119, paesi/tn,
C
Cobh Corao.
See Cape Coast.
Caille, Moses, 64, 80^
Calvinist faith, 190, 191, 210, 214
352
INDEX
Campeachy, 26, 41, 134, 233
Cape Coast, Guinea, 21, 76
Cape Three Points, Guinea,
73, 139
(n.7)
CapeU Arthur.
See Essex, Earl of
Cargoes, character, distribution, etc.,
134-136
Caribbean and General
Gazette, West
Indian newspaper, 244
Caribs.
See Indians.
Carlile, Charles, English captain, 53
CarlofiF,
Henry,
Swedish
factor
in
Guinea, 20, 21
Carolina and paper money, 196
Carstensen, George (Jorgen), 189, 192
Carthagena, 115
Castenskiold.
See Carstensen.
Champigny,
Marquis
de
(J.
C.
Brochard), 211
Charisius, Jonas, Danish envoy, 16
Charles U, king of England, 23, 36, 41
Charles II, king of Spain, 26
Charles X, king of Sweden,
20,
23;
Charles XII, 188
Charlotte Amalia, 105, 122, 252
Charter of 1671, translation
of, 294-
298; of 1697, 299-302
Christian
I, Danish king, 15; Chris-
tian n,
14,
15;
Christian IV,
16;
interest
in
trade and
exploration,
16-19; Christian V, 31-34,
36, 37,
40, 41, 87, 162, 179; Christian VI,
201, 213, 228; Christian VII, 247
Christiania,
19,
136;
ship
at
St.
Thomas, 44 (n.)
Christiansborg, Gtiinea
castle,”
21,
40 (n. 24), 80, 140, 182, 213
Christiansted, 235
Christianswsem, St. Croix fort, 217
Clausen,
Peter,
governor,
237,
244,
245
Coins.
See Money.
Colbert and Denmark, 27, 28, 40 (n.);
his policy, 42, 208
Colomo,
J,
J., Porto Rico governor,
228
Colonization
of
New
World
by
Europe, summary, 9-13
Company, Danish West India,
first
proposed,
18;
establishment,
31;
compared with Hudson Bay Com-
pany, 32-33; charter, 32-35; settle-
ment of
St. Thomas, 35-44; trou-
bles with
early governors,
46,
68,
passim;
lease
of
St. Thomas
to
Brandenburg
African
Company,
Ch. IH; Thormbhlen lease, 95, 98-
104;
Arff
lease,
Guinea,
95-97;
resumption
of
West
Indian
fac-
tories,
105-109;
governor’s
posi-
tion, 119, 120; its plantations, 130-
133;
European
trade,
135,
136;
African slave trade, 144-156; claims
against Spain,
161;
relations with
planters,
179-198;
St.
Croix
ac-
quired,
199-212;
reorganization
(1733-34), 204-207; French transfer
of
St.
Croix,
210,
211;
the new
charter, Ch. XI; Plan of 1747, 221,
222;
sale
of Company’s
stock
to
king, 240
“Convention of 1747,” 155, 221, 222,
230, 233, 237, 238
Copenhagen,
13,
62,
65-68,
73,
81,
136, 180, 188-90, 201, 213, 220, 233.
Cotton,
43.
123-125,
180,
194, 204,
216, 217, 223, 227, 233, 253, 254, 387
Courland, 21, 68 (n. 73), 80
Crab island, 70, 73 (n. 7), 80, 87, 102,
107, 111, 119, 160, 213, 299, 316
Crappy, Roland, 17
Cromwell, Oliver, 28
Crone, Michael,
governor,
180,
184,
191, 192
Curasao, Dutch
island,
12,
69,
106,
110-112, 115, 116, 147, 248 (n. 6)
D
Danish West
India Company,
first
proposal for a, 18
“Danish West Indies,” recent planta-
tion company, 256
INDEX
353
Dansborg.
See Malabar.
Danzig, 29
Darien Company (Scotch), 119, 189.
See also W. Paterson, J, Smith,
de Baas, French governor of St. Croix,
42
Delavigne, Francis, governor, 89, 100-
103, 110, 183
Delicaet,
Jochum,
St. Thomas
cap-
tain 50, 56 (n. 35), 69, 84
Denmark-Norway, rise of nationality,
13; contest with Hanseatic League,
13-14; humanistic movement,
14;
North Atlantic explorations, 16-17;
war
of 1643-45 with Sweden,
19;
loss
of Swedish provinces, 20; ab-
solute monarchy established, 21-22;
alliance with England ih 1670, 24
Deurloo, Peter, St. John planter, 169,
174
de Windt.
See "Windt.
Diedrichs, von, German admiral, 260
Directors of Company, list of, 290-291
Dominica. 23
Dover, secret treaty (1670), 24, 27
Du Casse, French governor, 110, 112
Dutch, activities of, 2, 16, 27, 36, 41,
42, 55; in West Ladies, 12,
38, 83,
109, 130, 147,
151; in Guinea,
21,
74, 86, 142, 144; in East Indies, 10,
11, 17
Dyppel,
See Iversen.
E
East Asiatic Company, Danish ship-
ping firm, 252, 261
East Friesland, 77
East India Company, Danish, 11, 31,
201
Edwards, Bryan, on St. John's harbor,
4 (n. 5); 139, 208
Elizabeth, queen of England, IS
Elizabeth Famese, 199
Elsinore 15, 29, 85, 52, 136
Emden, 77, 79, 88, 86, 92
English in West Indies, settlements of,
2, 12, 26, 47-60, 222-224, 315-317
Esmit, Adolph, St, Thomas governor,
50-58; signature (1687), 66, 97, 109,
123, 127
Esmit, Charity, wife of Adolph, 52,
53, 55-57, 61, 62, 66-69, 303-305
Esmit, Nicholas, second St. Thomas
governor,
election,
43;
signature
(1682),
46;
governorship,
46-50;
52, 53 (n. 21), 66
Essex, Earl of, in Copenhagen, 24, 26,
36
Exquemelin, John, cited, 49 (n.^8)
F
Fabricius, Knud, cited, 27, 28, 31
Falaiseau,
Brandenburg
envoy,
86,
90,91
Famese.
See Elizabeth.
Ferd, Danish ship, $7, 39
Fish,
Hamilton, American
secretary
of state, 259
Fleury, Cardinal, 199, 200
Flushing (Vlissingen), 72
Fortum, Danish ship, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64
Foster, John W., American secretary
of state, 259
Frederick HI,
Elector
of
Branden-
burg, 83, 91
Frederick H, Danish king,
15; Fred-
erick m, 20, 21, 38, 86, 37; Fred-
erick rV,
104,
201;
Frederick
V,
239, 240, 243
Frederick II, king of Prussia, 227
Frederick William
I, Great Elector,
71-94, j>aa8im.
Frederick William I, king of Prussia,
91, 94
Fredericksborg, Guinea, 21
Fredericksted, St. Croix, 235
French in West Indies, early
settle-
ment of, 12-13
Friia, D. N..^^col, 172, 174
Frhling, Danish lieutenant, 174
354
INDEX
G
Gabel, Frederick, Danish ambassador
in France,
(n. 55)
Gardelin MSS., cited,
168, 169, 170-
174, 210
Gardelin,
Philip, governor, signature
(1732), 166; his mandate on slave
disorders, 167; the St. John insur-
rection, 168-178, •passim; 181, 182,
197, 246 (n. 4)
GUded Crovm, Danish yacht, 37
Gibe, Marcus, Danish ambassador in
London, 41
GMckstadt, as rival of Hamburg, 19;
Guinea company formed in G., 21,
29; company absorbed
into West
India company,
40; M.
J. Hen-
riques’ petition to trade in slaves,
96 (n, 9)
Governors in West Indies and Guinea,
Hst of, 285-289
Great Fredericksburg, Guinea, 76, 92,
93
Greenland, 14, 19, 20
Griffenfeld.
See Schumacher, Peter.
Gross-FHedrichsberg.
See Great Fred-
ericksburg.
Guadaloupe, peace of, 23; island, 12,
25, 249
Guinea
coast,
Swedish
factory,
21,
Danish factor of Gliickstadt com-
pany, 21, 43, 45; new plans in 1680,
46, 71; Brandenburg African Com-
pany, 73-78, 82, 83 (n. 55), 89, 91;
the Arff lease, 95-97; Danish trade,
Ch. Vn;
162,
165,
180,
182,
192,
220, 234, 237, 239
Gustavua I (Vasa), 18, 14
GyldenlSve, U. F., son of Christian V,
31, 76, 98 (n. 11), 103 (n. 34)
Gyldensparre, Albert, statemsan, 52,
57,64
H
Hamburg,
19,
29,
103; Danish
de-
signs on, 24, 191, 306, 809
Hamburg-American Line, 252-260
Hamilton, Alexander, on hurricane of
1772, 6-7, 249
Hamlin, Jean, French pirate, 53-55, 57
Hans, Danish king, 14
Hanseatic League, 13, 14, 19
Hansen, Claus, lieutenant and gover-
nor, 11$, 117, 181-185
Hansen, Jens, St. Croix governor, 236
(n. 87), 237
Haring, C. H., cited, 25, 26, 111
Hay,
John,
American
secretary
of
state, 259
Heiliger, Peter, 226, 235, 236 (n, 86)
Heins, Christopher, St. Thomas lieu-
tenant and governor ad interim, 60,
61, 64; signature (1687), 68, 69. 70,
80, 182
Helsingborg, Sweden, 15
Helsingbr.
See Elsinore.
Hill, Thomas, 56
Hoesz, Sivert, 116
Holm, Edvard,
cited, '201, 227, 230,
238, 239
Holmsted,
Frederidc,
153,
202-207,
passim, 211
Holst, Edward, director of Company,
52, 57
Holst, J, N., Danish skipper, 229
Holstein, Danish duchy, 250, 258
Holten,
Joachim
von,
governor,
84
(n. 59), 101, 106, 181, 183-185
Honduras coast, 26, 161
Hoppe, Iver, vice-admiral, 66-68, 101
Horn, John, Company's St. Thomas
bookkeeper, 172, 173, 175
Hombech,
Dr.,
meteorological
ob-
servations, 5
Hbst,
George,
goveamor
ad
interim,
240; work cited,
4,
119,
121,
163»
167,
175,
176, 177, 206, 211, 213,
214, 222, 236, 240
Houtcoper, governor of St. Eustatius,
60
Houtman, Comelis, Dutch
explorer,
10
INDEX
S55
Htibner, Martin^ authority on inter-
national law, 243
Hudson’s Bay, 17; the Company, 32-
34
Huguenots,
refugees
from
French
islands, 69, ISO
Humanism in Denmark, 14, 15
Hurricanes, described, 5-7
I
Iceland, 1, 18, 29, 309
Indians, 21, 23; on St. Thomas, 33, 55,
122
Indigo, 123, 180, 194, 204
Isert, P. F., on slave trader’s voyage,
141-143
Iversen, George,
first governor of St.
Thomas, Chapter I, passim; 52, 56,
57
J
Jackson, D. H., negro editor, 257
Jamaica, 23, 25, 26, 46-49. 188, 164
Jenkins’ Ear, War of, 224 (n. 50), 227
Johnson, A., President, 258, 259
Johnson, Willis F., cited, 256
Juel, Jens, minister of state, 31, 45, 62,
76, 90-92, 103, 108, 146, 179, 304
K
Kalmar, Union of, 18, 14
Keller, A. G„ cited, 176, 208
Kidd, William, English captain, 113-
118
Kommeroe-kollegiet.
See
Board
of
Trade.
Kdnigsberg, 136
L
Labat, Phre, dted, 91 (n. 97). 105
Ld>or XJnioin, St. Croix newspaper, 257
Lang, Major, observations of rainfall,
5
Lansing, Kobert, American secretary
of state, 261
Laporte, Brandenburg offimal, 79, 81,
8^8
Larsen, Kay, cited, 11, 32, 201 (n. 7)
Lassen,
Jens,
Danish
merchant,
21
(n. 44)
Laurentsen.
See Lorentzen.
Laurvigen,
Coimt
(Ferdinand
An-
thon), 202
Leers, J. M., merchant, 120
Legendre
{le hlond), French privateer,
89, 107
Lente, Christian, 51, 67
Lerke, Jacob, 120, 146, 147, 188
Lerke
(JLerche) Peter
P.,
director of
Company, 31, 32, 35
Leszczynska, Maria, 199
Leszczynski, Stanislas, 173, 199
Leyenclo, Anders, Swedish ambassa-
dor, report on St. Thomas, 67, 73, 95
Lincoln
administration
and
St.
Thomas, 257
Linschoten, Jan van, 10
Longueville. French commander, 174,
175
Lorentzen, George, 106
Lorentz, John, St. Thomas governor,
48, 58.
69,
70,
81-91,
97, 99-104;
signature (1685),
105; Chapter V,
124,
144,
164,
181-183,
189,
205,
303 (n. 1), 305
Louis XIV, King of France, 23, 24, 27,
42, 44, 45; Louis XV, 199, 206, 228
Ltibeck, peace of (1629), 19, 31
Lund, treaty of (1679), 45
Lutheran church in islands, 122, 159,
210, 214, 223, 224
Lynch, Thomas, governor of Jamaica,
47,53
M
Maddox, English captain, 172
Madrid, treaty of (1670), 26, 47
Magens, Theodore
{Dietrich)^ gover-
nor, 161 (n. 13), 185 (n. 18), 189, 192
Mahan, A. T., historian, 262
Malabar (India), 28
Maria Theresa, Empress-queen, 227
Martfeldt, C., cited, 4, 150, 169, 164-
356
INDEX
166,
168,
169.
171.
172,
174-176,
181,
183-185,
187,
191,
194,
197,
216-218, 226-231, 246, 247
Martmique,
12.
25, 27, 40, 107, 112,
172, 173, 175, 192, 206, 208, 210
Meyer, George, Danish captain,
58,
62, 63, 95, 96
Meyer,
Herman,
director
of
Com-
pany, 52
Mikkelson, M.,
royal commissioner,
63-65, 97, 98
Milan, Gabriel, St. Thomas governor,
57-70, 'passim; signature (1686), 59,
75. 81, 97, 105, 124
Mims, S. L., cited, 20, 40, 42, 44
Moltke, A. G., Danish minister, 229,
238
Money,
values
of,
34
(n.
9), paper
issues, 151, 197; Spanish issues, 196
Montserrat, 12, 24, 53, 248 (n. 6)
Moravian missionaries, 34
(n. 8), 159
Morgan, Henry, buccaneer, 26, 73
Moth, Frederick, governor, 130, 131,
170, 185, 197, 208; signature (1732),
209; 210, 211, 229, 230
Moth, Mathias, 90-92, 103, 108, 146,
179, 304
Moy, Daniel, St, Thomas captain, 63
MilUer, Henry, 20
Munk, Jens, 17
Munster, treaty of (1648), 25
N
Nansen, Hans, 29, 31, 52
Nantes, Edict of, 69
Napoleon HI,
Emperor
of
French,
opposed transfer of St. Croix, 258
Negroes
in
islands,
life
of,
123-25,
Ch. VHI, 218, 219
Netherlands,
United
(Protestant
Netherlands), 19, 23, 24, 29, 44
Nevell,
John,
English
vice-admiral,
112
Nevis, 12, 53, 56. 60
New Amsterdam, 24
New England, 188, 193. 195, 231, 233,
234
Nevrton, A. P., cited, 26 (n. 53)
New York, 195, 196, 231, 233, 234, 308
Nimeguen, treaties of (1678-79), 71,
73
Northern War, 188, 201
Norway, smuggling in, 220, 238
Nystadt, treaty of (1721), 150
0
Ostend East India Company, 199
Ottingen,
Theodore.
176,
177,
211
(n. 40)
Oxenstieraa,
Axel,
Swedish
states-
man, 19
Oxholm, P. L., cited, 124, 254
P
Panama, Spanish American city, 26
Panama Canal, 256
Pannet, P, J., cited, 169 (n. 37), 171;
present at St. Croix (1734), 211, 232
(n. 77)
Paper money.
See Money,
Passage, island, 107
Paterson.
William,
Scotch
financier,
98, 119
Pauli,
Oliver, Company's
secretary,
41, 49 (n. 8). 305
Pedersen, Christian, friend of Chris-
tian n, 15
Pedy, John, 74-75
Pelt, A.,‘ sugar refiner, 136, 207, 219
Penn-Venables expedition, 23
Perry, H. A., cited, 92
Peterson, Harding, Guinea governor, 96
Petit Goave, 48. 97, 110-112, 114
Petkum, Simon, president of Board of
Trade (1668), 23, 27
Philip H, king of Spain, 9, 15
Pies de Indies, described, 141
Piracy
in
West
Indies,
113-119,
passim
Plan of 1747.
See Convention.
INDEX
357
Plant resources of islands, 7-8
Plelo, L* R. H. de B., 200, 201. 203,
206
Plessen, C. A. von, 202-206, 210, 211,
213, 222 (n. 41), 223, 224, 229, 230
Plessen, C. L. von, 206
Pointis, Jean-Bemard Desjeans, baron
de, 111, 112
Polish Succession, War of, 173, 198-
200
Poll taxes.
Sec Taxation.
Population of St. Thomas, character
and number, 37, 39, 121, 122, 247,
252, 253; of St. Croix (1754), 235,
248, 249, 253
Porto Bello, 11, 26, 112
Porto Rico, 3, 4, 25, 41, 124, 160, 161,
181,
186,
188,
190-192,
208,
228,
246, 251, 252, 316
Portuguese, monopoly in East Indies
broken by Dutch, 10; slave trade,
40, 137
Prices of plantation produce, 133, 232,
233
Privateering, 109-119, passim
Providence, Bahamas, 316
Providence, Rhode Island, 231
Provisions, list of, 195
Provisions,
plantations
for
growing,
158
Purchase of Danish islands by United
States, 261; proposals for, 257-260
Q
Quidah Merchant
See Kidd.
R
Raaslbff,
General,
Danish
minister,
257
Rainfall, 5
Randolph, Edward, 117
Raule, Benjamin, Br^denburg states-
man, 71; 71-94, passim
Rdbolledo,
Count,
Spanish
ambas-
sador, 21 (n. 44)
Reedtz,
George
(Jorgen),
Danish
envoye at Madrid, 41
Reformed faith.
See Calvinist.
Religion, freedom of (on St. Thomas),
76
Revolution, American, 249, 250
Rivera,
Porto
Rico
governor,
192
(n. 42)
Roepstorff, Danish governor, 244
Rbrdam, H., cited, 201, 224
Rosenkrantz, Herman, 17
Royal
African
Company
(British),
147 (n. 27)
Rogal Danish American Gazette, 248,
249
Rule of 1756, 243
Rum, distillation
of,
125;
products,
163
Ryswick, Peace of (1697), 112, 145
S
Saba (Sabath), 12, 69, 109, 247 (n. 6)
St. Christopher (St. Kitts), 12, 24, 27,
53, 69, 85, 119, 172, 208, 248 (n. 6),
316
St. Croix,
2, 3, 5-8, 12, 47, 144, 155,
173,
177,
178;
acquisition
of, by
Denmark, Chap. X; 213, 215-227,
228,
230,
233,
234,
235-237,
239,
244-263, passim
St. Croix under the French, 42, 69, 75,
198, 208
St. Eustatius,
12, 53
(n. 21),
60, 69,
80,
84,
109, 161
(n. 11)
187,
192,
226 (n. 54), 227, 247 (n. 6)
St. John, slave insurrection on, 168-
178, 246
St. John, 2-4, 8, 38, 80, 107, 127-130,
138,
134, 151,
163,
165, 166, 168-
178,
193,
198,
207,
213, 216,
236,
246-248, 250. 258, 315, 316
St. Kitts.
See St. Christopher.
St, Lucia, 317
St. Martin, 248 (n.)
St. Peter, island in West Indies, 80
S58
INDEX
St. Thomas, area, 2; description, 3, 4;
climate,
4~7;
plant
resources,
8;
first attempts at settlement, 28, 29;
preparations for settlement, 34, 35;
settlement
begun,
37-44;
guber-
natorial troubles, 45-68; Branden-
burgers
at
St.
Thomas,
71-94;
Thombhlen
lease,
95,
98-104;
Lorentaj’s
governorship,
105-120;
plantations, 121-127, 130-133; slave
trade at St. Th.,
137-155;
life of
slaves in St. Th.. 157-167; St. Th.
planters and the Company, Ch. IX;
prices
of goods, 223-227;
fugitive
slaves, 228; privateers (after 1740),
229; trading privileges, 233; separa-
tion from
St.
Croix
government,
236;
population
(1765),
247;
free
trade edict (1764), 250; shipping in
19th century, 252-253; population
(1773-1901),
253;
sugar
planting
(1796-1851),
254-255;
purchase
plans of U. S., 257-261
St. Vincent, 23, 75
San Domingo,
12,
13,
25,
111, 208,
See also Petit Goave.
Santa Lucia, 252, 317
Scelle, G., cited, 145
Schimmelmann, Ernest, 247
Schleswig, Danish duchy, 85, 250, 258
Schmidt, Erik Nielsen, 29, 37
Schmidt,
J.
C.,
cited,
158-160; 159
(n.8)
Schopen, J. W., planter delegate, 232,
239, 240
Schumacher,
Peter,
Count
Griffen-
feld, 31, 57
Schweder,
Christian,
governor,
226,
228, 230, 231
Scott, W. B., cited, 148
Seeberg, Christian, 181, 185, 196, 198
Sehested, C., 190
Seward, W
H., American
secretary
of state, 257-260
Shareholders
of Company,
292-293,
342-849
Sharp,
Bartholomew,
buccaneer,
49
(n. 8)
Shipping in Danish islands, 249-253
Slagelse, K. J., 30, 37, 39
Slave
insurrection,
St. John
(1733),
168-178; St. Croix (1759), 246-247
Slaves, runaways, 190, 191, 228, 246
Slave trade, 21, 43, 45, 73-79, 95-97,
131, 135, Chapter VII, 195, 218, 221,
234,
239,
247,
253,
320-326.
See
also
Guinea
Coast,
Glttckstadt,
Christiansborg,
Great
Fredericks-
‘
burg, Asiento.
Sleswig.
See Schleswig.
Smith, James, connection with Darien
Company, 119 (n. 50), 189
Smith, Peter, St. Thomas merchant,
113, 115, 123, 189
Soedtmann, J. R., St. John official, 168
Sommer, Soren, 223, 224
Sound, control of the, 15, 19, 20
Spain, her monopoly of America con-
tested,
10-13;
protest
against
Danes on St. Thomas, 41; report of
projected
attack,
110;
Danish
claims against, 228
Spaniards in America,
75,
147,
186,
217, 223, 288, 233, 306, 815-317
Spanish Succession, War of, 126, 131,
149,
150,
160,
165,
181,
184,
185,
190, 192, 195, 199
Spice Islands, 11
Stanislas Leszcuynski.
See Leszczyn-
ski.
Stapleton, William,
British Leeward
Islands governor, 41, 47, 50, 51-57,
60, 127
Stettin, 136
Stoud, H.
J.
0., Lutheran
minister,
223-225
Sugar,
80, 43, 123-125; Chapter VI,
passim; 180, 194, 195, 204, 206, 207,
213,
216-220,
222,
226,
283,
238,
245,
249. 253-256;
mills, 254-255;
r^ery,
186,
205-207,
219, m,
237, 238, 328-331, 336
.
INDEX
S59
SuliiQ,
Christian,
governor,
230
(n. 70) 231, 236 (n. 87)
Suhm, Henry, governor, 163, 170, 182
Sumner, Charles, U. S. Senator, 259
Sunderland, Earl of, 52, 57
Surinam, 24
Swedish
mbassador.
Leyenclo.
Sweden, in Union of Kalmar, 13; in-
dependent under Gustavas
I,
14;
gains the
three
provinces,
20;
se-
cures factory on Guinea coast of
Africa, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 44; peace
with Denmark (1678),
45;
threat-
ened attack on
St. Thomas,
150;
trade in sugar, 136
T
Tallard, English captain, 171
Taxation
of planters,
123»
126,
127,
131
Taxes on
Danish
islands,
186-190,
194, 215-218, 236, 237
Temple, Sir 'William, quoted, 24
Thambsen, 0. J., governor, 182, 183,
184
Theaters on St. Croix, 248
ThormOhlen,
George,
Bergen
mer-
chant, 82,
89, 95, 98-104, passim,
205
Tobacco, 1, so, 43, 69, 79 (n. 37), 123,
124, 134, 294
Tobago, 12, 80, 88
Tortola, 3, 38, 50, 90, 171, 172 (n. 49),
247 (n* 6)
Tortuga, 12, 25
Tranquebar,
East
India
Company
factory, 11, 17
Trinidad, 12
Triple Alliance (1668), 24
Trompsuse, JLa, 53-55
' U
Unicorn, Jens Munk’s ship, 17
Utrecht, Peace of (1713), 196, 226
V
Van Belle, Peter, Brandenburg factor,
108 (n. 8), 115, 116, 118, 119
Vera Cruz, 11
Versailles, Peace of (1783), 251
Vervins, treaty of (1598), 25
Vessup, William, 171
Vieques, island.
See Crab.
Virginia, 19, 40, 124, 317
von Frock, Baron, C. L.
B., Danish
governor, 245, 246 (n. 3)
W
West India
trade,
beginnings under
Frederick HI, 20; other early voy-
ages, 28-30
Weyse
family,
sugar
refiners,
136,
207 (n. 21), 219
Wheler,
Charles,
British
Leeward
Islands governor, 41
Willom, John de, 17, 18, 19 (n. 37)
Windt, J. J. de, St. Thomas planter,
189
Y
Yeaman, G. H., 258, 259
Yucatan, 26
(n. 55), 41, 47
Z
Zahle (Danish) ministry, 261
Zeeland, province of Netherlands, 1Q>
72, 83, 108
Zinck, A<, St. Thomas delegate (1706),
186-188
Zytsema,
A.,
St. Thomas
delegate
(1706), 186-188
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