Document: RESOLUTION to send Company blacks to Bonaire and to dispatch a sloop to catch turtles

Resolution drawn up this 14th of April 1643 at Fort Amsterdam on Curacao.

Reliable reports have been received from the island of Buenairo that there is a good supply of salt in the pans there; and because a new gantry has to be set up in order for the four Company ships to be loaded, we find it necessary, for the maximum benefit of the Company and promotion of the same, namely, the profitability of the salt and expeditious dispatch of the ships, to send all the Companys Negroes over there; and, for the protection of the constructed gantry, materials and workers, to send and station there the yacht De Paroquiet, until further orders from the fatherland, as a remote guard in place of the burned fortress which we cannot rebuild for lack of means.

Second, after making a calculation concerning the food supply and realizing that it would not be sufficient until relief came from the fatherland or Nieuw Nederlandt, even if we maintain the employed Blacks with flour, beans and fish, as has been done in the past, and whereas it is still necessary that those working in the saltpans have proper nourishment; therefore, it has been decided to send a sloop with some soldiers up to the islands of Aves and Rocas to catch some turtles, if possible, for the Negroes, which we have been told come ashore in large numbers during the months of May and June. Thus done and concluded at the place, day and year stated above, and in witness of the truth signed with our own hands.

P.Stuyvesant
Brian Newton
L. Rodenborch

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