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About Google Book Search Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world’s books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http://books.google.com/ pen Virginia Library F2136 1917 1 under c ALD The Danish West | WOMEN T1.Y_ OF LY MY l/h thy ih Sty alll \ I tg] 18t skint — Digitized by Google Digitized by Google Digitized by Goog le THE DANISH WEST INDIES “ How the colonies were actually governed; what the colonists did at work and play; how the mother country stamped her image upon them, and to what extent the lineaments of that image were modified by contact with forces—these are matters that interest the reader of to-day.” —W. R. Shepherd. Digitized by Goog le =~ S2ue eo ti ta Ss st = cate if ~ > tease Sa. ie a ] see ces, -—- <¢f o— A =n Ad Le oy <= ae {> va a _—* 24+ fi. Le rT oe -& ~ im ey _ eSreE - Wy, - ae: ne 14 " a i¢= £5 3 a =sc ze c= Ee =- ts 4 ri ” | ce Ie . i fetes \e ze s| f | ss et i Zz wes =—c oe Le Sx v ‘ wK Se ae | ti ok ~\ = =< 5s 4 m be >= i i A 4 n u ~+ Jed > E= i¢ t- 7 Z. rt x< ow u 2 5- " rae id "vy =“ Ws eo “ae te; at re i a 5 rs a) | te Ti 4 =o o= c= ~ » ze — ad aan Sg %&9o clce 7.5 ei Ee -Y a zig as wit Riso i —— -< Sec a= THE DANISH WEST INDIES UNDER COMPANY RULE (1671-1754) WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER, 1755-1917 BY WALDEMAR WESTERGAARD, Pz. D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT POMONA COLLEGE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY H. MORSE STEPHENS, M. A., Lrrr. D. (Harv.) SATHER PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Nem Pork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 Al rights reserve8 RIBG w 5S es aopy R Corrriant, 1917 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and printed. Published June, 1917. 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 an 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 first 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 {v] 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 cannot 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 cannot be understood apart from the other. The réle played by Denmark-Norway in tropical coloniza- 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 with them had many points of similarity. In fact, the population of many of the islands was surprisingly cosmopolitan. PREFACE vii In the eighty-four years of its existence, the Company led @ 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 = Christiern; George = Jorgen; Peter = Peder, Pieter; viii PREFACE John = Jan, Johan, Johannes, Jens; Oliver = Oliger; William = Willem, Wilhelm; Severin = Séren; also Unicorn = Enhiérn- angen; Unity = Eenigheden; Electoral Prince = Churprinz; the 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 encourage- 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 H. Hull of Cornell University for patient guidance and valued instruction during @ year at that institution as Fellow in American history, to Professor Herbert E. Bolton of the University of California for constructive criticism, to Mr. Herbert I. 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 officials 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 Raadstuearkiv, Professor Knud Fabricius, Dr. Ove Paul- sen, the officials of the Royal and University Libraries, and to Fru Anna Backer. Their uniform courtesy and helpfulness are among the writer’s pleasant memories of his year in Copen- hagen. To His Excellency Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, American 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 possible the procuring of needed transcripts, grateful acknowledgment 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, 1916, 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- tunes 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. Digitized by Goog le 1660. 1671. 1678. 1685. 1690. 1690. 1694. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE Coup d@ état of Frederick III. Establishment of West India Company. West India and Guinea companies united. Brandenburg treaty concerning St. Thomas. Arff takes over Guinea factory. Thormohlen lease of St. Thomas begins. Company receives back St. Thomas. 1696-97. Arff gives up Guinea trade. 1697. 1706. 1715. 1717. 1726. 1738. 1788. 1734. 1747. 1748. 1764. Company begins slave trade in earnest. Planters send first delegation to Copenhagen. Planters send second delegation. St. John occupied by Danes. Drought and famine on St. Thomas. Negro insurrection on St. John. St. Croix purchased from France. New charter granted by king. “Union plan and convention” enlarging Company. Planters send third delegation to Copenhagen. Company’s shares sold to king; Danish islands become royal colonies. [ xil] Digitized by Goog le TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE. ...... ccc ccc cect cece eee c eee e cece seteessees v-ix CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. ............... ccc cceecceeeees xi INTRODUCTION BY H. MORSE STEPHENS............. xvii AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION: GroarapaicaL AND HistoricaL 1 Cuap. I. Tue EstasiisHMent oF THE COMPANY...............-. $1 Il. Tue Carrican Puriop (1680-2690)... 0.0.6... eee eee eee 45 Ill. Taw BRanDENBURGERS AT St. THOMAS. ..............4. val IV. Tas Leasina or Gurnma AND St. THOMAS.............. 95 V. Tue GovEBNoRSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ................. 105 VI. Sr. Taomas anv St. JonN 4s Puantation Cotonres (1688- 5 (5, ) 121 VIT. Tue Suave Traps In THe Danie West Invies......... 187 VIII. Tum SLaAvE AND THD PLANTER. ...........0cc cece ceees 157 IX. Tum PLanrer AND THE COMPANY... ...........200c000: 179 X. Taw Acqursrrion or St. CROIX... 0... ccc cece cece 199 XI. Tas Company UNDER THE New CHARTER.............. 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............. ccc cece cece cence cece eeeneees 268 APPENDIXES A. Governors IN THE Wust INDIES AND IN GUINEA........ 285 B. Dmectrors aND Boarp oF SHAREHOLDERS IN CoPEN- HAGEN . 0... ccc ccc cece cece reece ete eeeteeecees 290 C. Tas Fimst Caartrer or tHe Danis West Inpia Com- PANY 2. ccc ccc cece ce cece een e eee e eee ee essences 204 D. Cuanrse or 1697 ror THE Wust InpIA AND Gunga Com- PANY... cece ccc cece cece eee e tee secre cecnsseees 290 E. Lerrer or Cuanirs Esmir to Apoupn Eamir............ 808 F. Rurort or Boarp or Ponicn ann Traps To Kine Frup- BRICK IV (1716)... 0... ec ccc cee eee c eee teens 806 G. Governor Erm Brepat to Dieecrors, 1719, 1722...... 815 H. Sratistics ror Sr. Toomas: PorunaTiIon, PLANTATIONS... $18 I. Sratmstics ror St. JoHN anp Sr. Cror: Porvunation, xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIXES PAGE U. Lr or Suave Carcors ARRIVING IN Daniso West In- DIES... Se ccc cece cece tect etc n ce cn ce cececas 820 K. Prices on Sr. “Tuowas (1687-1751)... ...........0000ee 827 L. West Inpian Sugar Exportep From CoPENHAGEN..... 828 M. Company’s Receipts anp Dests at St. THomas....... 882 N. Company’s Receipts anp Dssts at Sr. Crorx.......... $84 O. Caprran INVESTED aT St. THOMAS UNDER PLAN oF 1747... . 885 P. Tas Company’s Busmvess In Brown Suaak............. 386 Q. Tam Company’s Busmvess In Corron.................. 887 R. Rerurns on Company’s CAPITAL.........0...000ccceees 838 S. Sr.THomas Statistics: MIscELLANEOUS................ 840 T. Sr. Crorx Sratistics: MmscELLANEOUB................- $41 U. List or SHAREHOLDERS IN THE YEAR 1751............... 842 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Curemtianstep, St. Crorx, IN 1815.................. Frontispiece FACING PAGE Map oF THE DanisH West INDIAN ISLANDS...............-.. 8 (Botanisk Tidsskrift. Bd. 29. F. Borgesen) Map or Sr. THomas (71715-1788)... ce eee ees 122 (MS. Map, undated, Royal Library, Copenhagen) Map oF Sr. JOHN (1780)... 0. ccc ccc cece ee eee eee 127 (Published by P. L. Oxholm, Copenhagen, 1800) Map or Norturen Evrore: Batic anp Norts Sua Lanps.. 186 Crmisrianspora Castie, GUINEA COAST... ............ 02 cee 139 (Engraved by M. Rosler, Copenhagen, 1760) Map or Sr. CROM... 0... ccc cece eee eee eeeae 202 (MS. Map, undated, Royal Library, Copenhagen) Sxetcu oF St. Crorm’s TOWN ......... 0.00. c cece eee e eens 216 (Watercolor drawing, State Archives, Copenhagen) Map or Sr. THOMAS (1767)... 2.0 e cece eee eees 5 (Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission, 1777) Map or Sr. Crork (1767)... ccc cece een eeee 245 (Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission, 1777) Map oF Sr. Crorx (1754, 1766)... ccc cence cence 28 (Survey by J. M. Beck; engraved by O. H. de Lode, 1754; names of plantation owners filled in, 1766) Sr. Toomas Harsor (View to Westward)................ 0005 257 Map oF CarrpBeaNn LANDS... .. 20... cence 262 [xv] Cc 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. From 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 1768, 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] xviii 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 Indies 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 the 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 born 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 docu- ments, Doctor Westergaard discovered that not even in the Danish language was there any reliable history of the Danish West Indies. He therefore resolved to go to Denmark, and there soon found that the Danish historians had neglected 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 settle- 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 well. 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 1720 has been written by Mr. William 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, under 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, under Sir George Taubman-Goldie, have all of them been an adaptation of seventeenth-century ideas to nineteenth-century conditions. xx 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 Governments 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 countries, notably Great Britain and the Protestant Netherlands in the sixteenth century, and France and Denmark in the seventeenth century, did not, for the most part, work through direct governmental 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 between 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 Revolu- 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 inevitable 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, xxii INTRODUCTION indeed, by all European planters in the West Indies. The natives of the islands could not work, and the labor problem, therefore, produced the negro slave trade. This meant the establishment by Denmark, as well as by the other 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 phases of com- _ merce in the eighteenth century, and that the wise stockholder in a West India trading and plantation company would naturally endeavor to have the company import'slaves for its own and the planters’ use in company ships rather than to buy them at a big profit to slave traders of other countries. Denmark is a very small country compared to Spain, France, 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 other nations. This is not the proper place to describe Doctor Wester- gaard’s treatment of individuals, although he has 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 be here mentioned, the story of the Brandenburg Company. The Great Elector of Brandenburg is a figure to conjure with; from him started the larger growth of the House of Hohenzollern and its development into King of Prussia and German Emperor. 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 Hohenzollern history know that Frederick the Great of 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. Morse StepHeEns. THE DANISH WEST INDIES Cc THE DANISH WEST INDIES UNDER COMPANY RULE (1671-1754) INTRODUCTION: GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL Ir 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 have 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 understandingly the reasons for European interest in America before Spain lost her various American colonies on the mainland. So far as the immediate effects 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 mainland 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 1738, and settled by colonists from the other two islands early in 1785. 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 hundred and thirty-two square miles, or about three and a half townships. The acreage of St. Thomas is 18,080; of St. John, 12,780.8, and of St. Croix, 58,918.6.! 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 (2.3 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 (St. Crotz’s Flora, p. 88), gives 51,861 acres for St. Croix. The figures quoted are taken from The National Geographic Magazine for July, 1916, p. 89. 3 The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), St. Eustatius, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadaloupe, Martinique, and their various dependencies. INTRODUCTION 8 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 tradewinds 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. 3 During a period of five and one-half years, Dr. Hornbech noted not less than thirty-three quakes, none of them violent (Bergsde, Den danske Stats Statistik, IV, 579). “See Grigri or Gregerie 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 (Craal) bay in St. John as not only a better harbor than the one in St. Thomas, but the best 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 such shipping as 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 Bermudas. The usual procedure for a ship from Copenhagen was to leave in September or October for St. Thomas, remain there until the 5 “In 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 16 others, [which he names], from which one may perceive its great extent. It is, besides, provided with a beautiful hurricane ‘hole’ on the east (north?) side, where 40 to 50 vessels and more may lie safe against storms and so close in to the shore that one may walk ashore on a board, not to mention those that can lie in the ‘stream.’ In this hurricane hole . . . a number of careening places could [easily] be constructed . . . where vessels could conveniently be ca- reened.” Martfeldt, Samlinger ... Vol. III. Cf. Bryan Edwards, History of the British Colonies in the West Indies, I, 459: “St. 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 downpours. “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.6 Dr. Hornbech’s carefully kept meteorological journal shows an average annual precipitation for St. Thomas of 48-++ 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 annual 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 6 In Bergsie (IV, 571 ef seq.) is given a thorough discussion of climatic condi- tions on the Danish islands based in part upon the observations of Dr. Horn- bech and Prof. Pedersen. See also Baron Eggers, St. Croiz’s Flora, pp. 41 et seq. 7 Eggers, p. 46, quotes A. S, Oersted’s estimate for the precipitation in the southern part of Jamaica as forty-six inches. 6 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 1858, 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 $1, 1772, St. Croix was visited by a hurricane which was described in the local 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: 8 Bergsie, IV, 579, note. ® Royal Danish American Gaxette (St. Croix), Sept. 9, 1772. © Tbid., Oct. 8, 1772. Mrs. Gertrude Atherton in A few of Hamilton’s let- ters . . . (New York, 1903), pp. 261 ef seq., quotes this letter in full. INTRODUCTION 7 St. Croix, September 6, 1772. 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 ultimo at night. It began about dusk, at north, and raged very violently till ten o’clock.—Then ensued a sudden and une 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 P bout i in the air—the eet glare of almost perpetual lightning—the crash of houses—and the earpiercing shrieks of the distressed, were ge tro 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.—A 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 the 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 all 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.4' 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 (880 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 1718, and had one hundred and sixty-six planta- tions by the time St. Croix was purchased (1733); 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- 11 Eggers, pp. 51 ff.; Bdrgesen (Dansk Vestindien), pp. 601 ff.; Bérgesen og Paulsen, Om Vogetationen paa de dansk-vestindiske Oer, pp. 69 ff. 12 Land Lister for St. Thomas og St. Croiz. The usual size of a plantation was 8000 x 2000 feet. —E rs ~+h b! 8» =—~—~ r Bes % i Ss it es ~— A +f & as any ane wee 44 sis Yn 4} f a =P Vek if SBR i x if 4 Ep S| = ~~, al. (aed = s\ a. yp tt e\i ~ +e atx Ny i in 8 (3) Bre = “\ a ug Oe he ‘fi =e us wl ial 5 fs ats N\ oa ye y & t Ba Ss We ¥ >, ff Ft y. & .@ led yr) 43 iy > y hee A \s | ef Fie Ry: i x) \\y —— iv phd * Pal \ ~a*¥ ® a8 eS & \ys Wi Le | ~ iI qs my is - iN | gis 1 ERR yy Ee 1! Pe nm 1 ay Fi Jat lt Va ES i! +z ack ne vA -- Ny iit £ \a Bee M1 r.\8 cal p* ht i \s 2 } i. \ ( ss vA ie Pell “ea ray aK “S \ bak § i ¢ \\s \ ne So at +—\ + ie (wi 2 = ~- it i < Digitized by Goog le INTRODUCTION 9 ticularly liable to attacks of fever, which carried off many of them. It is quite likely that the hookworm took its toll of A brief résumé 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 time 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 Reformation 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 Far 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 might 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 1691 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 Swedish companies, and marked the beginning of the end of Portuguese monopoly in East Indian regions.'* 18 This is not to be confused with the English East India Company incor- porated in 1698 and amalgamated with the above company in 1709. C. P. Lucas, The Mediterranean and Eastern Colonies, p. 189, note. 14 A good working list of commercial companies organized in Europe from 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 1612 they had begun the occupation of Ceylon (at Trinkomalee), though they did not finally drive the Portuguese from the island until 1658.'5 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 1689. 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 1008 is given by E. P. Cheyney in European Background of Amerioan History, 187-189. 18 Lucas, The Mediterranean and Eastern Colonies, 102. 4 Keller, Colonization, 416. 1 See Kay Larsen, De dansk-ostindiske Koloniers Historie (Kdbenhavn, 1908), for a detailed account of Danish activities in the East Indies. The factory at Pipley was established in 1625. 12 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. The 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 occupied jointly by French and English in 1625, English settlers went in 1628 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 occupied the island of Curacao, 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 which 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. Christopher. This was reorganized in 1685 under the name of the Company of the Isles of America. In the latter year the company began the 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 coast 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 coast of 8 Lucas, II, 7 e@ seq. 19 Tbid., TI, Sec. II, Ch. 1, passim. ® Mims, Colbert's West India Policy, p. 15. 2 Thid., 28, 26, 27. INTRODUCTION 18 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 (1897) 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 (Gustavus Vasa) in 1528. 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 22 Mims, Colbert's West India Policy, p. 29. 33 The Guinea Company was formed in 1600. 14 THE DANISH WEST INDIES the reign of King Hans (+-1518), 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.”4 The last ruler to hold the scepter of the three kingdoms, Christian IT, 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 12, 1514, was a sister of the Archduke Charles, who ascended the imperial throne in 1519 as the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The king continued the fight which he had begun while prince, with Lttbeck 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 (1520) 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 distributmg 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, Séren (or Severin) Norby, to Greenland and “India” (i. a, America) in search of a direct passage,* 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 leader in 1528 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 IT the humanis- tic movement had already gained considerable headway. The 4 Danmarks Riges Historie (Kibenhavn, 1897-1907, 6 v.), III (a), 188 (cited hereafter as D. R. H.). 35 D. R. H., TIT (a), 192, 246. INTRODUCTION 16 | 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 danske Rimkrénike, in 1495, of Saxo’s history and the like, stimulated national pride. In his triumphal visit to the Netherlands in July, 1521, 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 five hundred and forty-three in 1528 to two thousand eight hundred and ninety- two in 1568. But as long as Denmark retained control of the Sound it was a power to be reckoned with. In the reign of Frederick IT (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., TIT (a), 2%. ® Ibid. 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 Far East. Denmark was destined to play but a secondary part in the history of those regions, byt the fact that it was able to play a part at all was due very largely to the vigorous policy of Christian IV 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 still 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 country, 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, % D. R. H., Il (b), 222. * Christian IV was born in 1577, was proclaimed king under a council of regency on the death of his father in 1588, and assumed the government in his own name in 1596. In 1521, Christian I had given over the little island of Amager near Copen- hagen to 184 Dutch families who were brought in to encourage gardening. D. R. H., Tl (a), 25. "C. C. A. Gosch, Danish Arctic Expeditions, I (Hakluyt Soc.). INTRODUCTION 17 which was part of their errand. These colonies had been planted in the Viking Age,*? but Denmark had had no communication with them since the Black Death in the fourteenth century. It was the King’s desire to reéstablish 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 29, 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 Unicorn 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 1612-1618, 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 Unicorn on September 21, 1620.2" 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 Crappé, a Dutchman by birth, who directed the factory from #2 Erik the Red discovered and settled Greenland in 985. 33. C. A. Goech, Danish Arctic Explorations, II. 18 THE DANISH WEST INDIES 1621 to 1686."4 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 4K. Larsen, I, 14 ef seg., 170. 5D. R. H., TV, 104. % Tbid., 105, 109. INTRODUCTION 19 toestablish 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 Gltickstadt, 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 Litbeck, May 22, 1629) and reacted unfavorably upon commercial conditions in the kingdom. The East India Company was reorganized in 1634 and a Greenland company formed in 1636, 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 1643. 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 Brdmsebro in 37 De Willom had in 1616 with the assistance of Jens Munk organised a com- pany to undertake whale fishing on the Greenland coast; in 1628 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, Historieke Meddeleser om Kjébenhavn, II, 420. 38 D. R. H., IV, 97, 98. 3° Two ships were sent out to Greenland in 1636, and mention is made by Thaarup of “an unfortunate voyage undertaken by Commander Kirk Alberts in the year 1639.” Vejledning til det danske monarchics Statistik (Kjébenhavn, 1794), II, 365. 20 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, Halling, 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 Miller, chief of the Copenhagen customs house and a man of extensive manufacturing and trading interests, sent expeditions to Greenland in 1652 and 1658. In the later year Frederick ITI 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 expeditions appear to have visited Greenland until Hans Egede went there to establish his famous mission in 1721. Thaarup, 365. The Dutch had organised a Greenland company as early as 1614, but apparently made no 4 No. 78, Sjall. aabne Breve, Apr. 29, 1662 (Indlag). 43 Mads Mortensen, Joh. Hansen, Lambert Ebbesen, Jac. Albertsen, Isbrandt V. Holten, Hans Jensen, Joan Wilders, and Hans Hansen, Herm. Voogt, Berendt Willumsen, and Jan Hein. No. 78, Sjall. aabne Breve, Apr. 29, 1662 (Indlag, Mar. 5, 1658). 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 III’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 thoroughgoing abso- lutism that Europe has ever seen. Recent events had demon- strated the necessity for unified and efficient action, and cer- # Lucas, III, 67. 44On 17 Nov., 1658, 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 still take place. He reported that all the northern lands traded with the Spanish colonies. E. Gigas, Gree Bernardino de Rebolledo . . . (Kjobenhavn, 1888), pp. 181, 877. tainly it is difficult to imagine a more “efficient” 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 summary 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’état. 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 (Rigsraadet), a remnant of the old order, the Council of State (Statskollegiet), and the Board of Trade (Kom- merce-kollegiet), were advisory; others, as the Danish and Ger- man chanceries and the treasury board (Skatkammerkollegiet), were administrative. 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 modified 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 (i. ¢., the West Indies), or of making some arrangement with the French who were preparing 5 Meddelelser fra Arkivet, 1886-88, 65 et seq. D. R. H., IV, 470 et seq. “Cab- inet Orders” play an important part during the Guldberg period (1772-1784) when much of the government was carried on through orders made 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-fledged 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 difficult.” 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 @ combination of circumstances in thwarting Charles’ Danish plans. Frederick III 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. H., IV, 490; Meddelelser fra 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, II, 57. % 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 21, 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 V.” 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.” 51 In Europe England’s wars with the Dutch had materially © Cal. Dom., 1670 and Add., 1660-1670, pp. 165, $78; Cal. Treas., 1669-1672, v. 8, pt. 1 (Nov. 10, 1670). The refusal of Essex to strike his flag on entering Danish waters created considerable stir in England. 5 Sir W. Temple, Works, II, 217 (London, 1814, 4 v.). INTRODUCTION 25 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 Venclos des amitiés,”” might make lawful prize of one another as in time of war.5? 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 Minster in 1648. 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- 5* Haring, Buccaneers in the West Indies, 48. 26 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 differences, restraining depredations, and establishing peace” in America. For the first time, Spain definitely recognized England’s right to possess undisturbed the American islands and colonies 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 5 An expedition from Jamaica had attacked the Castle of Santa Cruz on the Campeachy coast in February, 1668. Logwood cutting on the coast of Cam- peachy, Honduras and Yucatan had begun among the English about 1665. Haring, Buccaneers, 107, 208. An interesting episode that forms a connecting link between the Elizabethan struggle with Spain and the English conquest of Jamaica is the Puritan coloniza- tion scheme of 1629-1640, when the Providence Company held 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 Activities of the Early Puritans (New Haven, 1914). % Haring, op. cit., 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- 55 The Danish ambassador at Paris, Frederick Gabel, had reported that “the French trade was so managed that in time it would 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).” Gabel’s Relation, October 5, 1668 (N. S.), and October 19 (quoted in K. Fabricius, “ 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 codperating 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 coup d'état 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 memorial, “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 82,000 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 wind 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 have 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 privileges have expired, and we have again undertaken in the Lord’s name to have our former skipper, Knud Fabricius, “ Colbert og Danmark . . .” (Historisk Tidsskrift, 8 R., IV, Till). 57 Gud bedred disserr. INTRODUCTION 29 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 m a Copenhagen “Latin school” he had been sent to Danzig in 1652 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-Frrd5 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 Gltickstadt and Hamburg. During the last Swedish war, being unable to return to Copenhagen, he was in business for his associates and himself in Hamburg, Gltickstadt 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 25, 1668, 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. 78, Sjall. aabne Breve, April 29, 1662 (Indlag). Find Nielsen, Chris- toffer Hanse, and Jiérgen Hansen Raffn. Schmidt's name appears as Erich Nielsen Schmit in the document, and is signed Erich Nielsen Smit. It was granted on April 29, 1662, udt nereerende Aar. © Gresundstoldregnskabet for 1668. "\ In Kirkehist, Saml., 5 R. II B., pp. 208 ef seg. E. V. Lose quotes-tn extenso the contract entered into between Schmidt and Kield Jensen Slagelse, the 30 THE DANISH WEST INDIES acargo 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 80, 1666, under Holger Freder’s command. The cargo contained 50,000 Ibs. of pockwood, 20,000 Ibs. of sugar, and 70,000 Ibs. of tobacco,*‘ which may partly have been bought on French or English islands. Such then, m 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. 63 Oresundstoldregnskabet for 1655. ® bid. for 1666. *4 Ibid. 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 22 of that year the Board received its first official instructions, and presently it was organized with Frederick - Ulrik Gyldenlive, 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 1678) 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, 1K. Fabricius, Griffenfeld (KSbenhavn, 1910), 160, 166. The contemporary spelling of Lerke’s name is Lerche. 2D. R. H., IV, 530. (81 ] 82 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 2C. P. Lucas, II, 52, ITI, 67, mistakenly places the incorporation of the company in 1784. For the second East India Company, see Kay Larsen, De dansk-ostindiske Koloniers Historie (Kdbenhavn, 1907), I, 48. ‘P. Mariager, Historisk Efterretning over de Vestindiske og Guinsiske Com- pagnies Etablissementer udi Vestindien og Guinea, p. 2. This manuscript work by a bookkeeper of the Company is in the Royal Library at Copenhagen and is of prime importance. (Cited hereafter as Mariager MS.) Hans Nansen was also a judge on the Admiralty Board, and later became, ag his father had been before him, president of the city of Copenhagen (1688). a ee THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY 83 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 English company like the Danish had government officials 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 found 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,” 51. ¢., Indians. ®Cawston and Keane, The Early Chartered Companies (London, 1896), 202 et seq. See Appendiz C for translation of Danish charter. 7 Cf. Lucas, II, 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 ({13) 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 planned 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 officials. 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 rixdollars. 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 “Holmens” church. The king, the queen, and Prince George, each sus- scribed 8,000 Slettedaler, while the total amount of this first subscription was 64,300 sldl., which was to be paid in three * Even the negroes did not become the objects of serious missionary effort until the arrival of the Moravian missionaries in 1782, and then the impetus came from circles entirely outside of the official class. * A Slettedaler = 64 Skilling; a rigsdaler (rixdollar) = 96 Skilling = 6 Mark. 1 pesos = 8 reals = 96 granos (or 48 stivers). A rixdollar was about equal to & pesos or piece-of-eight, and to four kroner (1 Kr. = $0.275) 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. On money values, see D. R. H., IV, 108, note; W. Scharling, Pengenes synkende Vardi (Kibenhavn, 1869); Arent Berntsen, Danmark og Norges Frugtbar Herlighed. (Kjdbenhavn, 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 rdi., 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 Poggen!| 18 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 “réglement” 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 Dybbil, 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 1 Mariager MS., 14, 15. 11 Fabricius, Griffenfeld, 169. 13 See Réglement of March 11, 1671 (C. P. Rothe, Christian V's Resortpter for Norge... 11 B.). 13 Mariager MS., 15. 14 This account of Governor George (Jorgen) Iversen’s life is based mainly on the excellent and exhaustive sketch by Fr. Krarup in the Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift, TI R. 6 B. (Kébenhavn, 1891). 36 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 Basselaer, 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 3,000 rdi., but had Iversen come to him three times to tell 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 codperate 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 rdJ. 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 rdl. were expended 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 $0, 1671.1° 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 Ferd 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 20, because of a leaky ship. The passenger list of the Ferd 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 unpromising. 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 16 Mariager MS., 15. 48 Mariager MS. has it February 29 (p. 16). 17 Mariager M8., 16, 18. 18 Tbid., 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. Spoken of by Krarup (Jérgen Iversen, 28) ag Burd. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY 89 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 difficulties. After Kjeld Jensen’s death on the outward voyage in 1672, George Jensen Morsing was appointed minister, but he dropped dead on April 28, 1678, just as he was about to take possession of the house assigned to him. The Schleswiger, Theodore Christensen Risbrich (Theodorus Christianus Hol- 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- mitted, 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 in the founding of plantation colonies, and learned, in 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 Martinique 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 than 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 Gltickstadt into the West India Company.” The union was in fact complete November 28, 1674, when Christian V issued an edict allowing the Danish West India Company to . trade on the Guinea coast.24 Meanwhile the African company had sent over a ship to Guinea in 1678 which added one hundred and three slaves to the St. Thomas labor supply; 75 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 1 See Mims, Colbert's West India Policy, p. 288, for a statement of the con- ditions in the French islands; aleo Pierre Heinrich, La Louisiane sous la Com- pagnie des Indes, pp. 82 4 seg. 3G. Scelle, La traité negritre aux Indes de Castille (Paris, 1906), I, 128-125, 189-161. 33 See ¥ 16 of octrot. % Krarup, Jorgen Iversen, 81. Christiansborg Castle, near Accra on the Guinea coast, had been built by the Swedes in 1645 and captured from them by the Danes in 1657. The history of the Gltickstadt African Company up to the date of its merger with the Danish West India Company is exceedingly meager. Denmark finally sold its African possessions to Great Britain in 1850. %5 Mariager MS., 22. *L. Fogtman, Alphabetisk Register . . . (see July 10, 1674). THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 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 1678, the number had risen by 1680 (the last year of Iversen’s stewardship) to a hundred 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 Gide, Charles II disavowed Wheler’s actions, recalled him from his post and appointed Sir William Stapleton in his place. Charles’ letter was dated September 28, 1672.% Spanish protests came in from the governor of Porto Rico in 1678 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 II of England, in his letter (September 28, 1672) as rightful occupants. Christian V had his envoyé at Madrid, George Reedtz, set forth these arguments, 1 Krarup, Iversen, 88; E. V. Lose (in Kirkehistorisk Saml., 6 R. II B., 298) * Cal. Col. 1675-76, Addenda 157-1674, No. $07. The relations of Stapleton with the St. 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; 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 ° Mariager MS., 18, 19. * Mims, $28; Krarup, Iversen, 35. 31 “Debtors on St. Croix” were still in 1708 debited with 2,298 rdl., 5 marks in the Company's books at St. Thomas. N. J. for St. Th., 1705-1708. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMPANY 48 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-six 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 rdl. to the Company.** In the cargoes brought into Copenhagen had been included sugar, cotton, indigo, tobacco, ginger, cacao, “ carret” (sea turtle), hides, pockwood and other valuable timber.** Only a half 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 22, 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, $8. 33 Mariager MS., 22. % [bid., 19, 28. *6 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 4A 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 20 rdi. This was very similar to the Arré# 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. cit., 28%. Three Bergen merchants, Jérgen Thormihlen, 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 CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) Tue 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 8, 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 800 rdJ. a year, in shares; if they 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 1 Other members of this commission were Michael Vibe, Peter Brandt, Paul Rosenpalm, and “‘procureur-général” Peter Scavenius. D. R. H., IV, 615. 3 Mariager MS., 37, 88. [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, Assessor in the Board of Trade, Maurits van der Thy, and Claus Sohn. «No pass appears to be recorded in Vestindisk Reg. 1671-99 for this ship. Merman = Hafmanden or Haomanden. 5 Mariager MS., 34 et seq.; Vest. Reg., 1671-99. The Crowned Griffin = den Cronede Griff. THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 47 originally Schmidt and would point to a sojourn 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 vid St. Croix, which he did on September 20, 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 difficult 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, Kobenhaon, V, 62 et 20g. 7It was reported in 1674 that 75 English ships had been seized by the Span- iards since 1670. Beer, The Old Colonial System, 1660-1688, I, 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, 1682, 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 land to the South Sea, 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 bought 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 confiscate 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 could not go on very long without arousing serious misgivings in the watchful governor of the Leeward Islands, Sir William Stapleton. On August 18, 1682, 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 “kill-devil,” 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, 13s. 2d. 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 ® Breve og Dokumenter, 1688-1689, 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 nutshell 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 Ringroee, 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 fellows, at the instance of the Spanish ambassador in London, where they were to be tried for piracy. After having secured his acquittal with the others on the plea that the Spaniards had fired the first shot, Captain Sharp returned to the West Indies, eventually settling down in St. Thomas, where he succeeded in making the governor's existence miserable. In John Lorents’s term of office, 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, Lorents to Directors (% June, 1698). Cc. B.. 1690-1718, , 50 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?” 1? 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- °A.E., .. . 1689-85, “Lit. A.” and “Lit. B.” appended to A. Eamit’s letter to the king (1 Sept., 1688). Delicaet’s first name was frequently spelled Jo- achim. On 8 August, 1682, Nicholas had discharged a debt of’ 8,000 rdl. to his brother, described in the document as “young of years and faithful,” by deeding him his share of a plantation 8,000 feet long and stocked with 37 slaves, houses, indigo, “works,” etc. The deposing of Nicholas took place in the autumn. (B. & D., 1688-89.) 11 This appears to be the first reference to St. Thomas as a free port. 33 Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 777 (11 Nov., 1682). THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1600) 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 entirely 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, 1683, 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 Rojall 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, 1682.15 They suffered alike, he explained, from Dutch and Danes, from 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 18 A, Esmit to Mr. Biss (20 Nov., 1682). A. E., 1682-89. 16 4. E., 1688-89. 6 Cal. 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 punishment 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 1682 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 18 Cal. Col., 1681-86, No. 998 (Mar. 8, 1688). 1 Tbid., No. 1008 (Mar. 17, 1688). Another copy of the same docu- - ment has been calendared by mistake under date of Mar. 17, 1684 (No. 1597). 138 Mariager MS., 44. 1° Krarup, Iversen, 48 et seq. Most of the mutineers were caught and horribly put to death in Copenhagen. Cf. Haring, Bucoaneers, 287, where “Everson” is confused with Milan. * A. E., 1689-89 (May 1, 1688). THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 58 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. Ruby under Capt. Richard May to the Leeward Islands early in 1683. In his search for a French pirate ship, La Trompeuse, 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 6.74 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 Carlile put into St. Thomas harbor with H. M.S. Francis, 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 object of the search, La Trompeuse, a ship of thirty-two guns and six boats (patararoes) was lying at anchor within, and (according to Capt. Carlile) the Francie was greeted by some shots from either the pirate or the fort. On Tuesday, July $1, the English 31 An English pirate, George Bond, was one of those whose depositions were included. Various threats made by Nicholas Eamit at St. Christopher and St. Eustatius against St. Thomas inhabitants were adduced. A. E., 1689-89 (May 1, 1688). 22 One of Adolph Esmit’s most steadfast friends was Steen Andersen Bille, ee aemde a ncble is ee neae ore appointed to the war college in 1072, and made a noble in that year. $3 A. E., 1689-89 (July 2/12, 1685). * Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 1065 (May 6, 1688). 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 fled.* 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 King 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 Trompeuse, 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- 8 Cal. Col., 1681-85, Nos. 1168, 1178, 1188, 1190; A. E., 1689-89 (Aug. 1, 1688). bad id, No, 1178. Esmit to Stapleton (Aug. 1, 1683). ™ Toid., No. 3881. The Chevalier of St. Laurens, French governor of Martinique, sent a protest to Governor Stapleton Nov. 18, 1688, main- taining 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 himself 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 [t. ¢., 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 balm 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 live stock the grazing islets near St. Thomas harbor.*4 Esmit was nothing daunted 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 8 Cal. Col., 1681-86, No. 1189 (Aug. 15, 1688). % Tbid., No. 1188. The Indians were on the rampage in the Windward Islands at this time. ® Adolph Eamit’s commission was dated July 17, 1688. The order for the release of the sloop was signed Oct. 4, 1688. Cal. Col., 1681-86, No. 2087. 31 A, E., 1689-89 (Aug. 26, 1688). “Lit. D.” 83 Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 1228. Stapleton to Lords of Trade (Aug. 30, 1683). Before long Hamlin is again heard of as a captain of La Nouvelle Trompeuse, which Stapleton asserted was fitted and protected by the godly New England independents. Ibid., No. 2042 (Jan. 7, 1685). 33 [bid., Nos. 1471-1474, 1585. 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 18, 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 1688 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, especially 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., 1688-89 (Nov. 20, and Dec., 1688). 38 Ibid. (Jan. 26, 1684). They were Jochum Delicaet and Jan Borris. * Cal. Col., 1681-86, 1947, III (April 8, 1684). 3 Ibid., 1947, II (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 off 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 the 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- cure 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” Balthasar Lachmann and Gabriel Milan. The latter was 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 brother of the disgraced Count Griffenfeld, Abraham Wiist, 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 % Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 1188 (Aug. 15) and 1222 (Aug. 80, 1688). » Tbid., No. 1882. « Krarup, Milan, 8. “ Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 1547 (Feb. 19). @ Krarup, Milan, 8. 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 officer 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 comfort. 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 rdi. 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 connections in Portugal, Flanders, and * Christian V. to A. Eamit. A. E., 1682-89. “ Krarup, Milan, 5. 46 Tbid., 6. * Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 1676 (May 18). THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 59 Hamburg. His family was related by marriage to the 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 rdle 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 until 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, 1682, 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 Augsburg 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 60 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 18, 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 22, 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 family 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 Personalhistorisk Tidskrift, 8 R.2 B. (Kjébenhavn, 1898) 102 ef seq. FP. Krarup has given an admirable and exhaustive account of Milan’s early life, which has been followed in the preceding paragraphs. « Ibid., 6. © Tbid., 7. THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 61 seeking redress through diplomatic channels, as his masters ex- pected him to do, he authorized Captain Delicaet to take the company’s ship Charlotte Amalia, 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 cell.5! 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 family 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 Fortuna, 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 grounds 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 Tidskrift, 8 R. 2 B., 9. The akipper’s name was Jochum Samuelsen. 5! Eemit to Gyldensparre (September 23, 1686). - A. E., 1688-89. 62 THE DANISH WEST INDIES governor promptly appointed his son, Felix.5? 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.*4 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 Fortuna (on March $1, 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 52 Krarup, Mian, 9. 53 Thid., 10. 4 Thid., 12, 28, 26, 86. 5 Thid., 22, 23. % Ibid., 28-26. © Thid., $8. THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 63 seriously wrong at St. Thomas. 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 Fortuna, and for the sending thence of a commissioner with power to settle all the difficulties. They suggested an attorney or fiscal in the navy department, Michael (Mikkel) 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 24, 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 58 Mariager 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 toCopenhagen. 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 official 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 concerning 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 © Krarup, Milan, 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... .” ® Milan 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 Milan’s wrath.* Mikkelsen left St. Thomas with his rather uncongenial com- pany on July 5, and did not arrive in Copenhagen until Octo- ber 12, 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 21. 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 B. & D., 1688-89. Eemit to Directors; Lassen to same (March 18, 1666). A. E., 1688-89. ® Krarup, Milan, 47. one of the “chief participants” in the company. She had helped to mitigate 66 THE DANISH WEST INDIES dawn on March 26, 1689, he was beheaded on the New Square (Nytorc) in Copenhagen. Adolph Esmit’s long imprisonment 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 Totias, the Red Cock (Den Réde Hane) 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 spell of confinement could make the leopard change his spots. A report Commissioner Mikkelsen’s instructions, and may have used her good offices here. ¢* Adolph’s “‘brothers-in-law” Steen Andersen Bille and Jurgen Jirgensen gave bonds for his appearance. A. E., 1689-89 (March 25, 1687). 67 Jens Juel, Mathias Moth, Muhle and Hoyer. 68 One condition was that he should invest 2,000 rdi. within one year after be took possession at St. Thomas. THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 67 of the Swedish ambassador at Copenhagen (Anders Leyenclo) dated November 11, 1687, offers 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] condemned to lose his life, although the judgment has not yet been carried out. And inasmuch as said Smidt [Esmit] has mformed 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 close 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.” 7! The incident is not without significance, for © Danske Samlinger, II R. 5 B., p. 175. % The Young Tobias arrived at St. Thomas on January 20, 1688, and the Red Cock on February 28. The Maria with Eamit and Hoppe arrived a month later (March 24). 71 C. Heins to directors (February 24, 1688). B. & D., 1683-89. 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 Maria’s 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 7B. & D., 1688-89, Esmit’s diary (July 7, 1688). This was finished in another hand, apparently Lorents’s. 73 See Appendiz E, p. $08. The case against Adolph Eamit was resumed by the company on his return, but apparently without result, for the ship and goods he had sent to Flushing in 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 seising 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 which all trace of him is lost. THE CRITICAL PERIOD (1680-1690) 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 carry out the work with which Adolph Esmit had been charged. Esmit had brought with him a lengthy series of instructions, the carrying 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 2, 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 rdl. per month. Heins’ administration was & 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. Kitts, with the Dutch on Saba, St. Eustatius and Curacao. Besides planting, some of the inhabitants, as Captain Delicaet, made a living by fishing turtle, which were particularly numerous in the Vest. Reg., 1671-99 (January 25, 1690); Danske Saml., II R. 5 B., p. 297 (March 1, 1689); H. Pflug, den danske Pillegrim, p. 1174. 14 Heins’ council after Esmit’s departure consisted of Henry Irgens, Capt. Delicaet, John de Windt, and John Lorents. 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 official career of notable efficiency which ended with the death of Lorentz in 1702. 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. 15 The contract was made October 26, 1686, and the slaves were delivered by Captain Cordt (Cort) May 14, 1687. C. H. (May 26, 1687.) CHAPTER III THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS Ir 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 France 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 Hohenzollern, 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 (Oberdirektor in Seesachen) he was urgently requested to “labor energetically to bring 1 R. Schtick, Brandenburg-Preussens Kolonial Politik .. . I, 8 of seq., 48 ef seq. The attempt was made to buy the Danish factory of Dansborg in 1647. Tbid., 19. [71] 72 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 (Grossreeder), and a coun- cilor in the nearby town of Middelburg. In the naval war of 1672 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 @ 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, 185, 186. Raule had proposed engaging in the Guinea trade and having the Elector participate with him when he was first called to Berlin in 1676. Ibid., 187. 8 Tbid., II, 89-04. ¢ Ibid., I, 98, 99, 112. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS 78 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 Reers, Admiral, belonging to the Duke (sic) 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- 5 The fleet was equipped with 165 guns, and had a crew of 519 sailors and 180 soldiers. Schiick, I, 114 e¢ seg. * Cal. Col., 1681-85, No. 18 (January 27, 1681). 7 Danske Saml., 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, $18, and II, 199 (No. 51a). The text of the treaty is quoted in full in Vol. I. 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 Fort Sophie Louise. In planning 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 Raule’s 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 return for the use of St. Thomas], and the other half to Kénigsberg. I believe that if it were properly inau- * Schiick, I, 814 of seg. This factory is referred to by Lucas (ii, 68) and others as Fredericksburg. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS 15 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 very 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 in 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 sound the Danish court and see whether it would permit the establishment on St. Thomas of a few “lodges” and negro stations (Logen and Negereten) on the % Schtick, I, 148. 1 Toid., I, 192. 13 Tbid., I, 192. 18 Schitck’s statement (I, 193) that no news had come out of St. Thomas for three years will not hold, though its trade certainly ‘“‘lag damals beinahe villig darnieder.”” 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 kann).1* 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 (Storkansler) Frederick Ahlefeldt, Count Ulrik Frederick Gyl- denléve, councilors Conrad Bierman and Conrad Reventlow.”* In an audience granted on October 18, 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 Fredericksbutg (Gross- Friedrichsberg) 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 erercitium religionis on St. Thomas, and Catholics and Jews were to be tolerated and allowed to hold private services, provided they permitted no scandala. Two 14 Schitck, I, 198. His instructions were dated September 25, 1685. 18 Jbid., I, 194, note 185. % Ibid., I, 194, note 188. Bierman was created Count von Ehbrenschild in 1681. ® Tbid., I, 194. 8 Thid., 104, 195. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS vis 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 territory. 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 24, 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 #4 and October 2,7? 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 Brandenburgers 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 building materials and necessaries arrived in St. Thomas; *4 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 9 Schitck, I, 197. The text in the original German is given in sbid., IT, 257 et seq. The Great Elector ratified the treaty on December 19, 1685, and Chris- tian V ratified it on June 5, 1686. © Tbid., I, 174. 81 See “ Declaration su dem Vertrage wegen St. Thomas vom 24 November 1685” in ibid., II, 278-281. 93 See “‘Fernere Declaration . . .”” in ibid., II, 208-295. * [bid., II, 258 ({ 8). %4 Tbid., II, 258, 259 (Fs 2, 5, 6). Schtick (I, 197) seems to have confused 8 and 5 in discussing the time from which the 80 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 (tn 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.” Raule’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 5 For the Company’s viewpoint see the directors’ instructions to A. Esmit, November 9, 1687. A. E., 1688-89. * Schtick, II, 250 ({ 7). ™ Ibid., II, 260 (¥ 8). 38 Tbid., II, 260 ({ 10). * Ibid., II, 261 ({ 15, ¥ 16, { 17). % Toid., I, 281. 81 Toid., I, 198. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS 19 trouble about in 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 28. The Falcon dropped anchor on the 2th.** 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 export 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 3* Schiick, II, 266 ({ 85). 53 Also referred to as the “‘ Feldmarachall Derflinger,” Schiick, I, 206; Laporte’s name is variously given as La Porte, Delaporte. 4 Oresundtoldbiger for 1686. 85 Heins to directors, January 4, 1687. B. & D., 1683-89. : * Schick, I, 206. 81 The cargo as reported by the vice-governor, Heins, was as follows: 64,581 Ibe. sugar, 7,250 Ibe. cotton, 1,480 lbs. cacao, 1,024 lbs. tobacco, 55 lbs. confituren (sweetmeats?), 21 Ibe. Caret (seaturtle), 20 Ibs. “‘ Bastar-Cane”’ (a sort of spice resembling cinnamon), 566 pieces of pockwood, and 220 tons of other wood. Heins to directors, May 26, 1687. C. H., 1685-89. * Thid. 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 ** Heins to Directors, (September 2, 1687). C. H., 1685-89 (?) ® Schiick, I, 288. “\ Heins to Directors (August 20, 1689). B. & D., 1688-89. Schtick, I, 207. THE BRANDENBURGERS 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 countercharges, 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 * Lorents’s Journal (October 19, 1689). “ Schtick, IT, 267. Lorentz’s Journal (November 7, 1689); P. B. O., 1688-1728 (November 7, 1689). “ C. B., 1690-1718. See especially Lorentz’s letters to the directors in 1606 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 Thorméhlen of Mohlenpriis, who leased St. Thomas from the Company for a period of ten years. He was to pay 4,630 sidl. 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 rd/. annually, that is, more than six times the rental fixed in the Thorméhlen 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 7 Vest. Reg., 1670-99 (July 27, 1689). The slave trade had been carried on in the few years immediately preceding by ships sailing from Glickstadt. A Por- tuguese (?) Jew, Moses Joshua Henriques, was appointed factor in Glitckstadt for ships sailing to Guinea on April 27, 1686. Arff’s ships were to sail from Copenhagen. Rothe, Rescripter, II. C. B., 1690-1718. Thormédhlen himself wrote his name Thor Mohlen. © Lorentx’s Journ. (November 24, 1690); directors to Lorentz (December 22, 1691); C. B., 1690-1718. © Toid. (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- | D. R. H., TV, 060, 661. This treaty (with additions made in March, 1698) is notable as being the first instance of an armed neutrality for the protection of neutral commerce. 59 Ibid. §* Schtick, I, 280. 4 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. 5 The seizure by the Dutch of the two Guinea factories of Accada 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. Schick, I, 218 ot seq. % Tbid., I, 281. 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 23; so on the 24th the latter called the council together again and had an itemized bill prepared for 20,000 rdl. 4614 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 (O.S.), 1690, came the day of reckoning, when the vice-governor and his council marched over to the Brandenburg warehouse, 57 Captain Delicaet, acenting trouble, had left on the day of the banquet. “ Als hat er sich Reversiren mussen innerhalb 14 Tage wiederumb einzustellen; Weile es seine Gewohnheit war, wann etwas wichtiges solte vorgenomen werden da er sich in mitlerweile an seite hielte.” Lorentx’s Journal (October 13, 1690). 8 Ibid. (November 14 and 17, 1690). ® Thomas Berentsen and the secretary Joachim von Holten. Ibid. (Novem- ber 25, 1690). &® Toid. (November 27, 1690). 61 Raule had sent 8 ships (Churprincess, Salamander, and Drache) to Guinea, and 2 (Churprins and Fucks) to St. Thomas. Schiick, I, 231 (note 58). 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 24,652 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 all 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 finally dropped as inexpedient.” Three Brandenburg ships, the frigates Electoral Prince and Salamander, and a snow arrived in St. Thomas harbor on *2 Francis (Frans) Martens, Lucas Volckers, Adrian (Ariaen) Sorgeloos, and Jacob Elias. Lorents’s Journal (December 2, 1690). 68 Thid. ; * Ibid. (December 24, 1690). 8 oid. (December 2/12, and December 8/18, 1690); Schick, I, 282. Lorents’s Journal (December 19, 1690). * Ibid. (December 80, 1690). 86 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 officials 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.”* Christian V 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 official 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 réle. The distance and the slowness of communication between the home government and the West Indian factories were bound to ® Lorentz’s Journal (March 7, 1691); Cal. Col., 1689-92, No. 1882 (April 8, 1691). A snow is a two-masted, square rigged vessel. ® Ibid. (March 10 and 17, 1691); Hist (p. 34) says sizty. % Ibid. (April 10, 1691). Cf. Schiick (I, 282), who asserts that they had to return empty. 11 Ibid, (January 8, 1691). ™ Schick, I, 282. 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 officially 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. Raule had drawn up a clearer contract, he would have spared us considerable trouble, but it is all over now.” 74 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 11/21, and ratified by Christian V on April 28 (O. S.), 1692. 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 8,000 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 in 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 78 The close association between government 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.” Danske Samlinger, 2 R. IV, 212. The directors’ orders to Lorents were issued April 9, 1690. Mariager MS., 98. 14 Palaiseau and Worckum to Frederick III. Schiick, I, 288, n. 68 (Febru- ary 6/16, 1692). 18 Ibéd., II, $96 (No. 187; Interime-V ergleioh mit Danemark wegen St. Thomas); 408 (No. 187b: Danische Ratifikation); 405 (No. 187c: Neben Rexese sum Interime- Vergleich). 88 THE DANISH WEST INDIES defiantly waving above them.” John Lorentz, who continued in office ad interim until the proprietor Thormdblen 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 im turn delivered it up to the Dutch in 1692." 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 octrot”’ 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- ® Schiick, I, 283. Dannebrog is the popular designation for the flag of Denmark. 77 Lorentz to directors (June 6, 1698). C. B., 1690-1713. 78 Schiick, I, 284. % Cal. Col., 1689-92, Nos. 65 (April 3, 1689), 1004 (August 8, 1690). ® Tbid., No. 2010 (January 14, 1692). #1 Schiick, I, 285. Cf. “Neues Oktrot . . .” of September 14/24, 1692 (4), in Schick, II, 417. 82 Thid., I, 286 ef seq., II, 885 ef seg. (No. 185), 908 ot seg. (No. 185b). 83 Ibid., II, $85 et seq. 54 Tbid., II, 416 ef seq. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS 89 pany issued in August, 169%, the resources were found to be 415,944 rdl., 8 st., the liabilities, 388,555 rdl., 4 st., and the cash balance, 82,389 rdl., 4 st2° 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 1698 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 Thorméhlen was to be credited with that amount.2 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 “‘le blond’’) swooped down upon the Brandenburg buildings on the night of November 4, robbed the magazine of over 24,000 rdl.™ in 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 88 Schick, II, 407 ef seq. at. = stivers. % Ibid., I, 240. 87 Tbid., I, 244, 245. % Thid., I, 245. ® Directors to Lorentz (July 24, 1694). C. B., 1690-17138. 0 Schtick (I, 251) places the damage at 24,578 pieces-of-eight. *1 Lorents to directors (January 17, 1698) C. B., 1690-1718. This is beyond a doubt the incident referred to by Labat in his Nouveaux Voyages aux isles 90 THE DANISH WEST INDIES Governor Delavigne for failure to keep proper watch. 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 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 rdl. instead of $,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 1686 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 1682, 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 Thormdhlen 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 1698 and 1694. Falaiseau in his @ Amérique (d la Haye, 1724), Vol. II, p. 91, and ascribed to the 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. B., 1690-1718; Schtick, I, 244, 9A5. % Laporte’s place as factor at St. Thomas was taken by Peter (Pedro) 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,” *4 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 ITI 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 malin et intéressé, violent, emporté, vindicatif.” Falaiseau (Copenhagen) to Elector, March 20/80, 1697 (quoted in Schtick, I, 246). 95 “un homme difficile, entesté, passioné, qui ne se gouverne que par caprice et avec qui outre cela on ne peut traitter que le matin, parceque dés qu’il a bue un verre de vin a disné, il n'est pas traitable la reste de la journée.” Same to same, Nov. 19/ 29, 1695. Schtick, I, 246. % Falaiseau (Copenhagen) to the African company, June 2, 1696, Schtick, I, 246. #7 The Elector Frederick ITI had been crowned as Frederick I, king in Prussia, in 1701. 92 THE DANISH WEST INDIES to dispose of the African company’s interests in 1718, 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 only 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 28,848 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 codperation 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 Mathias Moth had witnessed the fulfilment of one of his most cherished ambi- tions in the abandonment by the Brandenburgers of their West Indian factory. The Brandenburg venture at St. Thomas had ** Schtick, I, 288, passim. * Ibid. I, 295. A ducat was equal to 5/6 pesos. 109 Tbid., I, 801. 101 Jhid., I, 802. 1 Tbid., I, 802 (note 66); H. A. Perry, “ The Traditions of German Colonisza- tion” in Macmillan’s Magasine, vol. 62, p. 118. THE BRANDENBURGERS AT ST. THOMAS 98 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 Hohenzollern remained without either fleet or colonies. The colonial maritime policy of Emperor William II, himself a 3 Frederick William I to von Creuts, von Kraut, Walter and Cramer, dated on battlefield before Stralsund, September 8, 1715 (quoted in Schtick, I, 801). 104 eg primo occupanti hingeben . . . 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 8ST. THOMAS “Tap 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 Termélen [Thormihlen], for 4,000 rdl. each year. He is to support the garrison, which is very small and of but little 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 Thormdhlen in a letter dated March 14, 1690.1 In the year preceding, the company’s factory in Guinea had been leased to Nicholas Jansen Arff 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.’ Arff was not able actually to take over the Guinea trade until 1690, when on July 22 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 $1, 1690. The forts were repaired with building materials brought from Denmark, and 1 Leyenclo to Charles XI. Danske Samlinger, 2 R. V. 814. 3 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 Mariager MS., pp. 82 ef seq. ‘These were Kidbenhkaens Nye Waaben (Copenhagen’s New Coat-of-arms), Gyldenloves 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 1698, the fort at Christiansborg was seized by natives of the Quambu tribe and the inmates were either’ maltreated or killed.5 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 rdl.,° was “bought” back from the Quambu chief for 3,000 rdJ. 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 Arff’s contract (1696 and 1697) only two of his ships visited the coast, and these went mainly for the purpose 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.° 5 Mariager MS., p. 84. ® By the loss of the fort, Fenaman, according to the account books, lost 4,000 rdl. (in goods?) and 4,164 rdi. in gold. 7 Two ships sent out from Gltickstadt, the Christiansborg and the Gyldenlives Waaben, had arrived in December, 1698, and anchored at the Dutch fort during the negotiations. Mariager MS., 85. 8 A tiny island near the Portuguese island of St. Thomas in the Guinea gulf. *On August 2, 1695, Moses Joshua Henriques, a Jew from Gltickstadt, who had petitioned the king for permission to trade with the West Indies and Guinea, asked to have his rights transferred to one Jacob Cohen and his fellow investors. The directors to whom the petition was referred advised against a project that would 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 Arff 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 enterprise 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 leasmg 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 Arff’s contract on the ground that he had discontinued the trade. The latter advice does not appear to have been followed. King to Directors, enclosing memorial of August 2 (August 5, 1695), the Directors to king (September 28, 1605). C. B., 1690-17138. q 98 THE DANISH WEST INDIES year.” ” It was not, however, until the wealthy Bergen mer- chant George Thorméhlen began to negotiate with the Com- pany, that the proposal to lease St. Thomas was seriously considered. George Thorméhlen was a man whose enterprise and business genius gave him 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 m 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." Thorméhlen seems to have been of North German 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 vigorous man of about fifty, with a score of active and eventful years before him.” The contract entered into between Thormdhlen and the 10 Mikkel Mikkelsen to Company (December 8, 1686). Cf. Krarup, Milan (ID), 288. B. & D., 1683-89(?). 11 In 1605 (April 24), ThormShlen presented to “‘the commission which met in the palace council chamber” (Kommissionen i Raadstuen for Slottet) his proposals 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. F. Gyldenlive, Stadtholder in Norway, expressed himself as entirely opposed to the paper money idea. Protocol over Kommissionen « Raadstuen for Slotiet, 2 B (April 24, 1695); sbid., 4 B. (December 6, 1697); ibid. (December 9, 1699); E. Holm, Denmark-Norges Indre Hist., Il, 408. 18 For a brief biographical sketch, see C. F. Bricka, Dansk Biographisk Lexi- kon, v. 17, p. 278. THE LEASING OF GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS 99 Company was signed February 18, 1690. Thorméhlen 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 (12) if he did not care to continue the arrangement. The annual rental was to be 4,680 sldl. (3,086 rdl. 64 sk.), which was four per cent. of an estimated capitalization of 115,750 sldl. (77,166 rdl. 64 sk.).% The con- tract was to become effective 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 applied to Thormihlen’s account. Thorméhlen’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 29, 1691,"5 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 4C. B., 1690-1718. See Appendiz M., p. 882, for receipts during these years. 14 Moth to Thormthlen (August 15, 1698). C. B., 1690-1718. 18 Lorents’s Journal (January 29, 1600 et seq.). The departure of Thormuhlen’s ship had been delayed until September 27, 1690. Mariager MS., 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 Thorméhlen’s request for a hundred officers and men at a total cost in wages of 5,110 rdJ. 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 Thorméhlen 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 ment 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 will 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 % Thormbhlen to government and people of St. Thomas (September 1, 1691), P. B. O., 1688-1788; Directors to Lorents (December 22, 1691), Directors’ reso- lution (November 12, 1692), C. B., 1690-1718. 17 Thormthlen to Directors (November 28, 1691); Directors to Thormthlen (December 5, 1691); Thormuhlen’s reply (December 5, 1691), C. B., 1690-1718. 18 Lorents to Directors (September 17, 1692), ibid. The names of the ships were the St. Thomas, Madame Thormodhlen, and Jageren (the Hunteman). © Delavigne papers (November 25, 1692). »® Lorents to Directors (January 6, 1698), C. B., 1690-1718. THE LEASING OF 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 8, 1692, directing Thormdhlen to pay 8,000 of the 16,000 rdl.—in case he had not delivered 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 1689,22—a characteristic seventeenth century mode of “settling” an international dispute. But the king’s previous order of June 7, 1692,2* had already been received and executed. Delavigne made a poor start when he tried to carry out Thorméhlen’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.” *1 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 Thormithlen (November 25, 1692). Delavigne papers. 2 Christian V to Iver Hoppe (September 8, 1692). Vest. Reg., 1670-1699. %8 See Neben-Rexess sum Interims-V ergleioh, June 10/20, 1692 (Schtick, op. cit., TI, 405-407). % Von Holten, “Liste paa hvis jeg kommer till kort paa Cassen”” (November 15, 1694). Delavigne papers. 25 Lorents to Directors (January 17, 1695). C. B., 1690-17138. 102 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 Thormoéhlen and the king had imposed upon him as one of his first duties. On Thormdhlen’s failure to secure from the Brandenburg company the 8,000 rdl. with which he expected to make part of his annual payment for the lease, Delavigne had seized Brandenburg goods to the amount of 9,320 pieces-of-eight.”” The directors seem in fact to have left the collection of the rental dues from the Bran- denburgers to Thorméhlen, 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 Thorméhlen was having troubles of his own with the implacable directors of the Company. This difficulty began when the first payment became due in 1692. The situation had even then begun to look dark to Thorméhlen. 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 Thormdhlen lease had been drawn up, and the latter had not even been consulted in the matter. The king had peremptorily ordered Thormoéhlen’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 Thormdhlen, 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 Lorents (July 28, 1694). C. B., 1690-1718. % Moth to Thormihlen (August 15, 1693); Thormthlen to Juel and Moth (February 28, 1694). Ibid. ™ Delavigne had sent Capt. Peter Iversen to Crab Island on December 19, 1694, just two days before the Brandenburg director had sent his frigate, the Zion, there with orders to take formal possession. See above, pp. 88, 90. Delavigne papers, Journ. (December 17 et seq.); Lorents to Directors (January 6, 1698), C. B., 1690-1718. » Moth to Thormthlen (June 25, 1692); same to same (July 15, 1693). C. B., 1690-1718. THE LEASING OF GUINEA AND ST. THOMAS 103 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 Thormdhlen 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 (2) whether he would make immediate payment of the rental for 1698. Failure to render a satisfactory reply on these points was to constitute a breach of contract. In his reply Thorméhlen 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 Thormdhlen 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 confirmed the latter as governor on March 24, and on April 7 issued an order to Delavigne to hand over to Lorentz the command en- trusted to him by Thorméhlen.** On Lorentz’s arrival in St. Thomas with these letters the connection of Thorméhlen with the proprietorship of St. Thomas was entirely severed. It only remained to determine the extent of the damage caused to Thorméhlen by the company, or the reverse. Before the court appointed to investigate his claims ** Thorméhlen maintained that the damage suffered from Brandenburgers, or from Zee- landers and Hamburgers masquerading under the Brandenburg name, brought his losses up to 76,000 rdl., not counting other 31 Moth to Thormihlen (July 1 and 15, 1698). C. B., 1690-1718. 52 Juel and Moth to Thormihlen (February 26, 1694); Thormihlen’s reply (February 28, 1694). Ibid. 33 Report of Directors’ meeting (March 19, 1694), C. B., 1690-1718; Christian V's order to Lorents (March 2%, 1694); Christian V’s order to Delavigne (April 7, 1604); Vest. Reg., 1671-99. %4This commission consisted of “his High Excellency,” Stadtholder U. F. Gyldenlive, Reventlow, J. Juel, von Plessen, Moth, von Jessen, and Harboe. Protokol over Komasissionerne udi Raadstuen . . . vol. 8 (July 2%, 1694). 104 THE DANISH WEST INDIES inconveniences, loss of credit, and the like. Out of 98,875 rdl. expended, he had received only $9,341 rdJ. 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 European 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. ; 35 Protokol over Kommissionerne udi Raadstuen . . . vol. 8 (July 2%, 1694.) *%* He stated that twelve of his ships had been seized by one or another of the warring factions. O. Nielsen (op. cit., VI, 171), mentions a petition from N. J. Arff, Thormuhlen and W. and N. Edinger, presented in 1697 in which they claim to have lost 500,000 rdl. on ships seized during the war. 8 Arkio-Meddel., 1886-88, 168, 164. The Board of Trade was united with the Police Board by a royal order issued on March 28, 1708. The new Board continued in existence until 1781. CHAPTER V THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ 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 Pére Labat, had traveled in France, Spain and Italy, and spoke French fluently. He first came over as assistant in the company’s office 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- foban t 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 remain on the island as his wife, and on May fifth and sixth a brilliant wedding was celebrated in the 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.! 1 Lorents’s Journal (March 81, May 5, etc., 1691). [106 ] 106 THE DANISH WEST INDIES After Thorméhlen 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 Thormih- 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 Thorméhlen filled with complaints against Delavigne and assuring Thorméh- len that he had “lost a good servant (Sorgtréger) 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 Thormihlen 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 Curacao 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 Holten to Thormihlen (May 25, 1698). Delavigne papers. 3 Thormihlen’s examination of Captain Iversen and “‘Irnst”” Rongel (Sep- tember 20); Thormdhlen’s nine charges against Delavigne (September 25); Thor- mihlen’s order to George Lorentsen (September 25, 1698). Ibid. The latter’s name was also spelled Laurentsen. 4In his letter of January 17, 1695, Lorents mentions having sent a letter from Curacao on October 22, 1694. C. B., 1690-1718. THE GOVERNERSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ 107 not a whit 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 Brandenburgers 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 liberal 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 28, 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 and. all the company’s employees and soldiers on the income from the company’s plantations and the poll tax,” so ran their acceptance of his offer ({ 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- 5 These were known as the “‘ New Quarter plantation,” the “Sugar plantation” and “‘Krumbays 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{djt, M. Moth, W. Worm, A. Gyldensparre, N. Krag, R. Meier, W. Mule, V. Lerche (Lerke), F. C. Adelaer (Adeler), P. Hiort, P. Lemvig, Nicol. Janson (sic) Arf{f}], C. Braem, J. Wurger, J. Kriéyer, J. Matisen (for “Hr Canc. Raad Adelaer”), and Frid. and Niels Miller. Resolutions of Directors (March 19, 1694). C. B., 1690-1718. 7 Directors’ instructions to Lorents (March 29, 1004). C. B., 1690-1718. * Lorents 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 they 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 offered 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 ® Lorents to Directors (March 27, 1701). C. B., 1690-1718. _ 7° Among these were Adrian Runnels, Lawrence Westerbaen, Adrian Sorgeloos, and John le Ducq (Duq). Delavigne papers; Lorents’s Journal (February 11, 1691, passim). 11 Lorentz to Directors (September 6, 1696), C. B., 1690-1718; same to same (January 22, 1698), Gov. C. B., 1694-1700; same to same (June 20 and 24, 1698), C. B., 1690-1718. 110 THE DANISH WEST INDIES of France, its African company’s factor in 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 gaily 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 selling passports to Curacao 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 still 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 Blenacgq, “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 12 Lorentz to Directors (October 19, 1697); same to same (November 30, 1696), C. B., 1690-1718. 18 Governor Lorents cites several instances. Benjamin Frank, a Jew, but a Danish subject, had his ship detained and his skipper maltreated and robbed; John de Windt’s ship was seized on the way from Curacao to St. Thomas, the cargo was confiscated and the ship only released on deposit of 5,080 rd. as surety; two inhabitants who had a bill of sale from the Brandenburg factor had their bark seized. Lorentz to Directors (September 6, 1696). C. B., 1690-1718. 16 Ibid. THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ 111 measures for their own protection by sending their families and movable property to Curacao! and some of the Leeward Islands (“de 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 under Pointis in West Indian waters made the Spaniards retire to Havana, so by November the Danish refugees had begun to return.” 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 mélée. 18 Madame Lorents was among the refugees to Curacao. %C. B., 1690-1718. 17 Lorentz’s Journal (November, 1698, passim). 18 Lorents to Directors (Nov. 80, 1696). C. B., 1690-1718. 19 Directors to Christian V (April 16, 1687). Ibid. % The “Armada de Barlovento” was a small fleet that the Spaniards had used for the protection of their mainland and for catching interlopers. The visits of this fleet to Crab Island prevented its permanent occupation by either Danes or English. The fleet at this time consisted of five ships and one small snow. Cf. Haring, Buccaneers, 109. 41 Lorents to Directors (March 17, 1697). C. B., 1690-1718. 112 THE DANISH WEST INDIES In January, 1697,77 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 (écus) 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 Nevell’s whereabouts. The French fleet ar- rived in Brest on August 29 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 Curacao 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 33 Chevalier, in his Histoire de la marine francaise (Paris, 1902), p. 205, mis- takenly places the date at June 7, 1696. Guerin (Histoire maritime de France, Paris, 1862) is probably more nearly accurate in placing the date of de Pointis’ departure at January 9, 1697 (IV, 69). 39 Cal. Col., 1696-97, No. 8&4 (March 18, 1697). *4 Lorents to Directors (October 19, 1697). C. B., 1690-1718. %5 Cal. Col., 1697-98, No. 269 (March 1, 1696) and passim. THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JOHN LORENTZ 118 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 hundred 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 Thursday, 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 {t. ¢., 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 if 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., 1699, No. 404 (May 18); ef. Cal. Col., 1689-98, No. 186 (May 18, 1689), where a letter from council of Nevis to Blathwayt has been dated 1689 instead of 1699. ® Lorents’s Journal (April 6, 1699, etc.). Lorentz spelled the captain’s name Cidd. Maundy Thursday: the day preceding Good Friday, Green Thureday. The translation is not close, though reconstructed from very full notes. 114 THE DANISH WEST INDIES quested 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 til] 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 Bellamont, 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 his 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 spread 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 Curacao, 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 Curacao 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 m 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. 38 Cal. Col., 1699, No. 616, I (July 7), No. 680, IX (July 10). % Also spelled Bourck, Burch, Burcke. % Cal. Col., 1699, No. 616, I (July 7). ™ Lands-Protokoller for St. Thomas . . . 1694-1711 (June 7, 1699). 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 Curacao and some gentlemen on Barbados had a share in the cargo in question,** and that he remembered having paid Kidd 12,000 pieces-of-eight. A [Brandenburg?] gunner testified that he had recorded delivery 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 800 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 rdl.,% 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- 32 Lorents’s Journal (May 27, etc., 1699). #2 Lorentz to Directors (July 4, 1699). C. B., 1690-1718. Ina 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. *4 Burke case (June 7, 1699). Landse-Prot., 1694-1711. 5 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., 1690-17138. 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 Gyldenléve, Captain Vinck, which left St. Thomas on June 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 Randolph 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 Kidd 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, 37 Lorentz to Directors, Goo. C. B., 1694-1700 (August 10, 1699). 8 Lorentz’s Journal (June 20, 1699). *® Edward Randolph was Collector of Customs and Deputy Auditor for New England. Beer, op. cit., I, 222. See, 6. g. Cal. Col., 1701, No. 180 (February 19). t Cal. Col., 1699, No. 1084 (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, Benbow made 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 stubbornness 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 law in 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 2,600 rdl., 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., 1694-1700; Cal. Col., 1699, No. 907 (October 28). Benbow to Vernon, Cal. Col., 1699, No. 907 (October 28). “ Bellamont to Lords of Trade, ibid., No. 890 (October 28, 1699). + Codrington (Antigua) to Council of Trade, ibid., 1701, No. 784 (August 28). Lorentz to Directors (November 9, 1699). Gov. C. B., 1695-1700. Same to same, ibid. (August 10, 1699); Cal. Col., 1699, No. 880, II (Au- gust 17, etc.); tbid., 1700, No. 848 (October 18). ® Lorentz to Directors (April 15, 1700). C. B., 1690-1713. 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. Kitts 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.” “ From the various circumstances 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 company 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- denburgers 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. Col., 1699, No. 648, I (July 18); Council of Trade and Plantations to Earl of Jersey, tbid., No. 685 (July 27). © Lorentz to Directors (October 12, 1698), Gov. C. B., 1694-1700; Cal. Col., 1699, No. 866 (October 16): Hust, 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 (sic) merchants” had ap- plied to the Elector of Brandenburg for an octrot for a new “American Com- pany.” The names given by Walter (Schtick, II, 528) are Heinrich Bulea, Wilhelm Pocock, William Paterson, and James Schmitten. The only one of these who is mentioned in the act of Parliament of June 26, 1695, incorpo- rating the Darien Company, is Paterson. For James Smith see p. 189 above. 120 THE 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 it were leased out again.” 5! 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. 51 Lorentz to Directors (May 8, 1695), C. B., 1690-1718. The Leers’ project was supported by the Brandenburgers, who expected to be able to agree with Leers better than with the Danish company. Schtick (I, 248, 249) discusses the matter, but is unable from the Brandenburg documents to explain why it was dropped. * Ibid (November $0, 1696), Gov. C. B., 1694-1700. Christopher Heins. See above, p. 80. CHAPTER VI ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES (1688-1733) Ir 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. For 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 began 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.1 This report showed that there were 90 plantations surveyed, and a total white planting population to record of just 148. These were distributed among eleven nationalities as follows: 66 Dutch, $1 English, 17 Danes and Norwegians, 17 French, 4 Irish, 4 Flem- ish, 8 Germans, 8 Swedes, and one each of Scotch, Brazilians, and Portuguese. Of the 76 adults listed, 56 are entered as plant- ers, 5 as carpenters, 2 as planters and merchants, and one each as minister (Lutheran), schoolmaster, fisher, captain on the 1 Land Lister for St. Thomas, 1688. The figures given in Huet, op. cit., 29, vary slightly from those given here. The report was signed by Frans Martens, who was a member of the council and a tavern keeper, Andreas Brock, who acted as secretary, and Sigmont Liick. (121] 122 THE DANISH WEST INDIES Company’s bark, tavern keeper, overseer, turner, planter and tailor, and planter and miller. In the village of Charlotte Amalia,? 87 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 adults, 8 were Dutch, 4 were Danish, $8 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 $17, 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 Thormdhlen’s proprietor- ship began, the information seems to have been gathered with greater precision, especially with regard to the plantations. The increase from 817 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 861 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- * Charlotte Amalia, the name which 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. \ Me —7 ‘oe er a ati — aa w ” - wo ~<a Lv . ~~ 5 er ~~" he oe >a > tt bi f ° “se —— tol a ~" += mn) » & i Ge “at a) *\, Thm at 1% + * arp - . wid Piet » 85 C0: fe sag Ra = bS mB a —? -é te ne pie om) par} ae v@r ze ) eal EE ist “ a fia Da Pe! In a we os fe oR <S§ uo a f aH 4. « | ‘fi (ee 3 -~T; rk) 2 Pid ws a ots: ae Ay HHirym” > an Ye a) ‘| * ul a “0 © o en} aa is 4 an \, = ——w e Pie) Py - 5 i: wi Wee ie J Digitized by Google Digitized by Goog le ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES 123 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 (“Cost” or “Kaast”’), 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 Peter Smith was the only person who planted indigo, though others had tried it before him.® In their instructions issued to Adolph Esmit in 1687 before his departure for St. Thomas, the direptors 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. 5’ The Company had indigo “works” as early as 1688. Cf. A. E. Eamit’s Journal (June 19, 1688); Lorentz to Directors (February 20, 1699), C. B., 1694- 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). Heins re- 1% THE DANISH WEST INDIES sugar mill 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 tobacco.’ 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 Rico, 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 mills had reached thirty-two out of a total of forty plantations devoted solely to sugar."! The motive power was furnished mainly by windmills, 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), B. & D., 1688-89. 7 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. 1688-89. * See Appendtz H., p. 818. ® Lorentz to Directors (November 30, 1696), C. B., 1690-1714. 11 Land Lister for St. Thomas, 1715. For description of an eighteenth century sugar mill, see Oxholm, De danske vestindiske ders Tilstand . . ., pp. 44 et s¢q., and J. C. Schmidt, Blandede Anmerkninger samlede paa og over Ejlandet St. Kroiz . . . (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, until 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 still 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 1691 to forty-four per cent. in 1715, and rose again to fifty per cent. by 1788. 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 1788. The de- cline shown by the figures for 1788 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 sell their produce to the Company, and the factura 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 half of the eighteenth century, substantially the 13 See Appendiz H., p. 318. 126 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 number 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 one 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), the number of negro slaves increased from five hundred and fifty- 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 1692-1698, amounted to 2}4 rdl. for each planter and for each “capable” slave, and to 1)4 rdl. for the planter’s wife and for each of his adult children. For “manquerons,”’ or those unable to do a full 13 Land Lister for St. Thomas. The names of the planters as they appear in the records are: David Liron, Reynier Claever, Jean Cramy, Zent van Wundergem, Jan Arnout, Samson Burin, Mintje de Tooy, Jtirgen Hansen, Mathias Terling, Jurgen Carstensen, Joris van Overschelde, Pieter de Windt. Digitized by Google a Dp - ~\/ Ve I> wT: > a a ed ya - TL « * ‘G2 hel | <s v =~ +> a ~™, Oe yor = oy oy ~~. a ) }) ‘wt }e ied a had N Rn ar \ ha FY. >it a ey ee f? ee ee | / . se il ~ ~ a i) ok aft Was “_ oe hi” ™ +s a Nw 2 “ 3 % {ou 9 ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES 127 day’s work, and for minor white 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 fixed at three hundred feet.'* For each one hundred feet in width, the planter paid 10 styver, or 20 skilling. Inasmuch as the width of the sugar plantations on St. Thomas in 1738 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 ground taxes amounted to about 8 rdl., 1 mark, 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 rdJ. in land tax and 86 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, will be discussed in another connection. 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 14 The Danish foot is slightly longer than the English. 4 1. L., St. Th., passim. % Esmit to Directors (January 26, 1684), A. E., 1682-89. 128 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. ‘‘T 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- EF al 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... .” 17 Directors’ instructions to Esmit (November 9, 1687). A. E., 1688-89. 48 Bredal and Council to Directors (November 24, 1716), B. & D., 1717-20. In a letter dated July 28, 1715, Governor Crone and council informed the directors that John Henry Sieben had recently proposed, on behalf of himself and fifteen other planters from St. Thomas, to begin the occupation and cultivation of St. John. B. & D., 1714-17. 19 Bredal to Directors (May 8, 1718), B. & D., 1717-20. “‘ Thi de frygter for de Engelske og sidder ikkun og lurer paa, kead de ville tentere.” ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES 129 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, “I well 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 cistern. Maize and sweet potatoes (Patatier) 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 on St. 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. & D., 1717-80; see also John Mars{chhall’s ‘“‘Ezplication,” (undated), ibid. Both Hamilton’s letter and Marshall's “Explication ” are copies. #1 Bredal to Directors (May 8, 1718). Ibid. * Bredal to Directors (July 8, 1718). Ibid. 180 THE DANISH WEST INDIES needed.” By 1720-1721, thirty-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 1788, 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).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 1738 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 33 Conditioner tilstaaed St. Jans Indoaanere (March 24, 1718). Ibid. % See Appendiz H., p. 407. 5 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] which customs duties must be paid. . . .” Moth to Directors (March 6, 1726), B. & D., 1795-87. ‘ 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 Herrnhut” 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. Naturally 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 inventory value was placed at 9,048 rdl., 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 586 rdl. The effect of the War of the Span- ish Succession on St. Thomas plantation life is indicated by the % The purchaser was Governor Frederick Moth. See Negotie Journal for St. Th. (August 29, 1726). 182 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. (58.7 rdl. each), while the three plantations were entered on the books at 6,289, 3,141, 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 1726.7” 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 8ST. THOMAS Abbreviations: 8. PI., Company's ‘‘ Sugar Plantation”; N. Q., ‘‘ New Quarter Plantation”; M. B., “ Moequito Bay Plantation.” Year 1690 1601 16903 1698 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 Total negroes.. 122.. 158.. 19]3.. 178.. 180.. 176.. 177.. (60]" .... Value of ne- gee eeee 10,957. .14,038..16,144.. 9,043.. 9,504.. 9,380.. 9,500.. 4,019.. —— Value of 8. Pl.. 4,572.. 4,748.. 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. Total _invest- ment....... 18,424. .22,538. .30,749® 16,644. .17,457. .17,317. .17,870. .12,795..§ —— Proceeds from 8. PL....... 1,137.. 2,026.. 2,514.. 2,041.. 2,422.. 807.. 2,260.. 2,219. .2,840 Proceeds from N.Q........ 410.. 3,486.. 2,851.. 1,441.. 1,837.. 720.. 936.. 3869..1,663 Proceeds from M.B....... -. 645.. 268... ——.. _185.. 184.. 155.. [-472].. 464 Total. .... 1,795.. 6,157.. 5,183.. 4,882.. 3,704.. 1,661., 3,351.. 2,116. .4,976 Per cent. profit oninvestment 9.7.. 27.2.. 16.7.. 26.389 21.6.. 9.6.. 19.1.. 17. .26(?) 7 Cf. Appendiz H., p. 318. L. L., St. Th. 38 The figures given for 1708 cover the period from June 9, 1702, to Decem- ber. 31, 1708. All money values are given in rdl. ® This includes only the sound or “‘capable”’ slaves. »* The high values for 1698 apparently have some connection with Thor- mihlen’s contract which was discontinued in 1604. *! This percentage covers 134 years (August 8, 1698, to February 8, 1700). ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES 1838 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 accounts 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 will give an idea of the productive- ness of the Company’s plantations. John Lorentz, in writing to the directors in April, 1702, 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 (Ténder). Governor Gardelin, in reporting the state of the Company’s plantations to the directors in June, 1788, which was like 1701 a dry year, stated that the Company’s sugar plantation had thus far yielded eighty-eight hhd. of sugar, and 483 rdi. 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].” #4 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 $2 Lorents to Directors (April 24, 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. 83 See above, p. 180 (n. 25). * Gardelin and Council to Directors (June 18, 1783), B. & D., 1788- 35. 184 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 Fourth, under Captain Peter Andersen Weerde, left St. Thomas on April 6, 1706, with the following cargo, secured at the prices indicated,® quoted in rixdollars, ‘“ Mark” and “Skill- ‘. ” ° ing. Rd. M. Sk. 9,112 Ibs. Campeachy wood at 2 rdl. per 100 182 1 6 7,607 “* stock fish (dried cod) at 2 rdl. per 100 150 - 4,484 “ fustic 67 8 _ 88,867 “ Brazil wood 529 s o— 360,005 “‘ [brown] sugar at 3}4 rdl. per 100 12,600 1 _ 11,672 “ white sugar at (price not given] 620 1 — 29,187 “ cotton at 12 sk. per Ib. 8,642 - i 6,739 “ cacao 914 2 — 1,22 “ tobacco “4 5 10 129 “ indigo at 1 rdl. per Ib. 129 - =— 89 “ caret (sea turtle) 69 8 14 staves for barrels and casks 180 2 4 nails 82 - = provisions beyond those needed 167 s o— 19,829 Rdl. 4 M. — In the following year, Peter Smith, the wealthy Dutch mer- 35 N, J. for St. Th., 1705-08 (April 6, 1706). ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN AS PLANTATION COLONIES 185 chant, paid the required duty * on the following goods which he sent to New York on an English bark: *” 12 hhd. (2,674 lbs.) white sugar ** 10 sacks (1,012 lbs.) cacao 12 hhd. (5,500 “ ) brown sugar 4 bales (1,000 “ ) cotton 27 bales (5,838 “‘ ) cotton 4 sacks ( 840 “* ) 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 “ Rasphuset” 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 country. The duty on exports to foreign places was only one per cent., while on goods shipped from Copenhagen to places within the kingdom of Denmark- 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, 87 N. J. for St. Th., 1706-08 (October 18, 1707). ™ The white sugar in these and the preceding cargoes probably came from the French islands, where there were refineries. %® Mention of “Rasphuset” is made in O. Nielsen, Kjibenhawn paa Holbergs Tid, p. 860. 186 THE DANISH WEST INDIES The foreign ports to which the West Indian cargoes were re- shipped were mainly in the Baltic region, and included Ltibeck, Danzig, Stettin, Konigsberg, on the South Baltic, Stockholm and Gotenborg in Sweden, and (beginning with 1750) St. Peters- burg in Russia, and Amsterdam 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 in the Company’s “Udskibnings og Passeer Sedlers Copie-Bog, 1709-1754,” no sugar and little cotton were shipped out of Copenhagen from 1712 to 1720, inclusive. From 1721 to 1788, 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, requiring 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 1787 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.“ © Udskibnings og Passeer Sedlers-Copie-Bog, 1709-1754, passim. 41 In 1741, 11,448 lbs. of sugar were sent to Stockholm. Ibid. « Mariager MS., 180. The Company had been granted the privilege of put- ting up a refinery, by the king on April 17, 1721. Vest. Reg., 1699-1746. “ Mariager M8., 149. : 4 See table showing exports to domestic and foreign places in Appendiz L, pp. 828-881. NS 4 Ly tg 38 an v3 b25 xt '. a's Xd, ant fs Wo ® Be pss i? rom) 2s a 4 f Of 3 wv ar #2, 4 he, EF AL ayaris. =o >§ 30 ms iG 3s 3 ve 4 a ae (ol? 38 6 rs f gS Cf Digitized by Google CHAPTER VII THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES Tux 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 country 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 modern 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.2 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 Cal. Col., 1661-68, No. 791 (1664?). * Lucas, III, 77, 78. [187] 188 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 begun, the demand for suitable labor would become insistent. To the seventeenth-century 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 preémiment; while the attempt of merchant-statesmen led to the formation of companies under state or royal patronage. * Lucas, III, 80, 81. ‘The 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, 348. 5 Beer (I, 822) cites an anonymous pamphlet published in 1684 and a protest against the alave trade by the Pennsylvania Quakers in 1688. Digitized by Goog le - —— } r {| a abd } Wy he aie ht q ‘ 6 a iu ity) vy ‘oa - Vi | el “ al WM At ve iv} » ” || Kad Zz 4; he | Ce a © 2 oe r. i! 2? <9 ? < of, y 2st ag se ~~ a) ws +) a ib ae m2 Eyes he ue iy) - =o BRS S || Oa eR s ~ i 4 ris* > a 2 ay i hj t \ \ 4 ys a || ; s = . i -* cat “ i \ , ” ey u & : \e 7} ¢ ot ive if if = ti - Ee Hf be tA one ‘| } * . f Wo h Lot 4 a eh re fu 4 — “i ¥ pup! * A el ie | PO) aan i} THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES _ 189 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 2,180,000 slaves were imported into the British West India islands alone. Though casés 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 on 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 Europe | with its cargo, or if there was no prospect of that, until 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 (2 v., London, 1794), II, 55; Humboldt, Travels, VII, 147. 7 In a letter to the directors dated March 28, 1787, the St. Thomas officials suggest that slaves be secured from the region between Caplakoe 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 16,185 rdi. 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 rdl., 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 imcluded 288 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 hundred 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 ¢he 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 difficult 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 officers 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 the crowded hold became so stifling as to suffocate many. Good water was often difficult to obtain, and bad water, as well Three Points, and between Ziode Wolta (river Volta?) and Hardra, as these were usually better than the Loanga or Angola slaves. Martfeldt MSS., VI; Scoret-Raadets Breve, 1783-39. 8 N. J. for Guinea; N. J. for St. Th. (1787). See Appendiz J., pp. 820-926. 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 found 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 officers, 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 undergoa 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,” “4 boys,” and soon. 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 * Philolethus Physiologus, Friendly Adsice to the Gentlemen Planters in the East and West Indies (1684), Part IL, pp. 82, 88 (quoted in Beer, op. cit., I, $45). 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 officials 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 sufficient 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, (churfirstlich afrikanisch-brandenburgische Compagnie); 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 purpose I was carried in the rear in 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 0 Vest. Reg., 1671-99, fol. 166, [16 (July 27, 1689). 11 Surgeon Johann Peter Oettinger’s Journal (quoted in Schtick, I, 881 ef seq.). 18 Probably a corruption of “manquerons,” a term applied in the West Indies to negroes who were below standard. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES 148 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 “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 (7. ¢., 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, sunburned 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 barley gruel was relieved by weekly allowances of millet, and by brandy and tobacco on alternate days. Palm-oil was used to flavor the gruel.’ The success of a voyage was largely dependent upon the kind of 19 P. F. Isert (Reise nack Guinea, pp. 805 ef seq.), gives an interesting account of his experiences on the Guinea coast and on a slave-ship. 14 Directors’ order, (August 8, 1725), Amer. & Afr. C. B., 1716-86. The weekly allowance for each slave consisted of $ Ib. pork, 2 qts. beans, 2 qts. barley, 3 qt. millet, pint brandy, 2 os. tobacco, 1 pipe, } pint palm oil. 144 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 under 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, well-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 until 1788, 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. 16 These percentages are drawn from the figures of shipe sailing in 1608, 1699, 1700, 1707, 1714, and 1788. 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 in November, 1696, 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 hope 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.” 4 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 eighty slaves. 17 Lorents to Directors (November 80, 1606), C. B., 1690-1718. 8 Ibid. The French were also becoming increasingly active in the Guineas trade during the interval preceding the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession. On July 9, 1701, Louis XIV issued an arrét granting to a new Guinea company certain rights that had been held by a former one. Scelle, La tratte negridre, II, 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 Guinea Company was being reorganized under a new charter which bore the date of September 28, 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 in order to secure capital to send a ship to St. Thomas for a cargo,” was just 84,883 rdl., 2 marks. On this investment the shareholders had received no other returns than the three or four per cent. yielded by the Thormihlen lease. It was not until late in 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 funds 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 hundred and six 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 rdl. 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 % Mariager MS., 108. ® The Company had resumed its administration after the Thormthlen fiasco late in 1694. On March 7, 1702, Matthias Moth made a clear and fairly detailed résumé of the Company’s activities in Guinea and the West Indies since 1695. See Comp. Prot., 1697-173}. $1 Lorentz to Directors (October 12, 1698), Goo. C. B., 1694-1700. 33 See Appendix J, pp. 820-826. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST 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 rixdollars were to be invested in slaves, the re- mainder in other Guinea products, presumably ivory, gold, palm oil, and the like.*4 =The new ship, called Christian V, 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 Curacao 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 monopoly of the slave trade in favor of private traders for not less than thirteen years beginning with June 24, 1698.” 33 In the investigation instituted by the St. Thomas governor and his council, the captain, Innes Petersen, to have been absolved from responsibility. The same captain lost in his next voyage three hundred of a total of five hundred and thirty-eight slaves. Landsprot. for St. Th., 1694-1711 (October 6, 1698). See Appendiz J. “4 Comp. Prot., 1697-1784 (April 29, 1698). 5 See Appendiz J. % Comp. Prot., 1697-1784 (June 9, 1699). 7 The Royal African Company was merely to keep up the forts and castles and was to receive a ten per cent. duty on all 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 natura, 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. Lorents to Directors (January 22, 1698), C. B. 1694-1700; W. R. Scott, Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (8 v., Cambridge, 1910-1912), II, 28. 38 Lorents to Directors (January 22, 1608), C. B., 1694-1700. 9 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 slave cargo. The local St. Thomas traders frequently bou 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 summary 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 Zeeland inter- loper, Captain David Diniesen, sold the following slaves to the Danish company: 184 men (7G = 194]Pics}de Indios 26 women w= 264 i 11 “2/8 boys” = 71/8 20 “1/2 boys” = 10 2 “2/8 girls” 118 5 “1/2 girls” 21/2 & “1/8 boys” 2/8 200 head = 1815/6 Piss de Indies at 65 rdi. = 11,819 rdl., 1 mark. RECEIPTS (in the order of purchase) Date ‘umber Price each Total July 10 fe bo: 3 (10 ys"? 900 100 100 300 3 women 100 200 men 100 2400 ere: ai “7 /2 boy” men 100 500 man 100 men 100 800 women 100 200 men 100 3700 women 100 400 men 100 2000 men 100 900 women 100 800 “ 2/3 boy ” 80 Totals...... 187 head 14,443 1/2 rd. Bzpenditures: visions from July 10 to August 31... .140 rdl., 1 mark. From July 10 to November 8, 7 negro men died and were debited on the books at 65 rdi. Suse oof wewroes sold September 19....187 “ «unaccounted for........ 150 THE DANISH WEST INDIES Total receipts from negro sales... 6.0... cee eee eee ees 14,443 1/3 rd. Total cost of negroes... 1... cece cece e tee ee eee eens 11,959 1/6 Purchase price... 0.6... eee ccc cece eee tec e ec c eens 11,819 + 140 1/6 11,959 1/6 —————_—_ Net profit... 0... cece ccc cc ee cece eee e cette ene eeee 2,484 1/6 rdl. 2,4841/, + 11,959'/, = 20°/:0, 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 1265 rdl. per head. Business conditions at St. Thomas, which were evidently stimulated by Denmark-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- 51 See below, p. 191. % Udtog af Secret-Raads Prot., 1710-20 (August 5, 1715; June 22, 1716). Martfeldt MSS., Vol. VI. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES 1651 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 daring 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 1788,—that is, from the time 33 Governor and Council to Directors (August 10, 1714), B. & D., 171§-17. % The commission sent over by St. Thomas planters in 1715 in order to bring about certain changes in policy is dealt with in Chapter IX. % See Appendiz J. 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 Company lost not fewer than eight ships. The greater number of these were employed in the Guinea as well 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 résumé of the losses will show their approximate extent: The Guldenlew, intended for the Copenhagen-St. Thomas run, was lost at Lessde, 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 Héje Weerde March 2-8, 1718. The ,Jomfru Alette was captured on October $1, 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 while en route from St. Thomas to Copenhagen with a return cargo. The Christiansborg was wrecked in the Cattegat on its return from St. Thomas on September 17, 1780. During the decade preceding the purchase of St. Croix (1738) _ the policy 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, 1728, the directors had ‘specifically sought to encourage private traders to sell their % Vest. Reg., 1699-1746; Mariager MS., 110 et seq. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DANISH WEST INDIES 158 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 1728 to 1788, inclusive, the Company made a vigorous attempt to revive its Guimea-West Indian commerce. At least three new ships were put into active commission, and about 200,000 rdl. according to Holmsted’s account were sunk in the venture, but with no prospect of the Company’s being able to pay interest on more than half of that sum. When the directors and chief stock- holders met in February, 1784, 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” ” (Hovedparticipanter). 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 rela- tion” of how matters really stood.*! The ship Laarburg Galley has cost. ..........0ccceenee 7,688 rdl. 4 sk. Repairs and equipment... ........... 2c cece eee eeeeee 12,881 “ Sm. 15 “ Cargo .. . and insurance on slaves.................5 81,0606 “ 5 “ 18 “ Interest on ship and equipment from date of sailing to return, and of cargo . . . at only 6 per cent......... $,022 “ 83 “ Total cost of expedition................. 55,554 rdl. 1 m 37 Holmsted’s “ Deduction” (February 4, 1784), Co. Prob., 1697-1738§. Cf. also Huet 64 et seq. %B. & D., 1788-34 (May 8, 1788). * Blome, Holmsted, Klauman. ! * C. A. von Plessen, Dose, Kreyer. “1 Deduction og Voto (February 25, 1784), Comp. Prot., 1697-1736. 154 THE DANISH WEST INDIES Profit on gold and other goods. . .3,157 rdl. 4 m. 10 sk. from St. Thomas hither....... 4110 “2 6“ 7,268 “ Im. 12,268 rdl. 1 m. Delivered to Fort Christians- borg surplus of various goods from the ship, which with usual 10 per cent. advance for freight amounts to.......... 14,281 rdl. 4 m. 14 ak. On the other hand, the ship has taken slaves, etc., at the fort |) 3,976 “ Leaving..............00005 10,305 rdl. 4 m. 14 sk. An order (Assignation) for which is to be redeemed at Cape Coast... 0. cece ccc ccc cece eeeceessenee 1,608 “ 8“ Slaves on St. Thomas have been sold for goods, in part for 50 per cent. above the cash price.............. 26,658 “ 8“ 6“ To balance account... ........-.:ceeeeeeeee 16 “ 8 “ Total......... 50,857 rdl. 8 sk. The advocates of Company participation in the slave trade had used figures based on the Laarburg 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) 4,697 rdl., 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 rdJ. must be furnished and is expected to yield interest while it is being risked in the waters of three continents, and, after all that, is still unable to make a better showing 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 registered 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 were among 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 25, 1784. The directors fixed a duty of eight rixdollars 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 8, 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 absorbing the private inter- ests. The reorganization of the Danish West India and Guinea Company under the “Conyention 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 Guinea 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 20 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 conserve its resources than to divert them into uncertain 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 on the West Indian plantations. The « Mariager MS., 174. “ Trykte Octroyer . . . for 1750 (Mandate of 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 VII 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 “prospect 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 found on the imported negroes ! in any plantation colony the tattoo marks and slashings that were peculiar to tribes of many differ- 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-born 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. 1 Called Bosal negroes by the Danes and Dutch. 2 Oldendorp, Udiog . . . (Kjébenhavn, 1784), Part 1, p. 179. (57) 168 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 infrequently 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-day in the Mississippi valley during the harvest and threshing season. At about four o’clock in the morning the * The size of the average plantation on St. Thomas in 1725 was nearly twice that in 1691. ‘ Usually referred to as Bomba negroes. 5 Bredal to Directors (July 8, 1718), B. & D., 1717-20. Provisions are generally referred to as Kaast or Cost in the documents. In 1725, out of a total of one hundred and seventy-seven plantations on St. Thomas, seven were used for producing provisions. Cf. Appendiz H, p. 318. THE SLAVE AND THE PLANTER 159 negro driver, or bomba, would rouse the sleeping slaves by ringing 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 bosal 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 infant 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 officials as well as from planters, they kept up their beneficent labors from the time of their first landing in 1738 until 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 1'755. 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 vending of goods by negroes except when written permission had been granted by their owners.® 7 The classic account of early Moravian missionary efforts in the West Indies is that of Oldendorp (g. v.) which forms the basis for the earlier pages of H. Lawaetz’s Brodremenighedens Mission i Dansk-Vestindien (Kibenhavn, 1902). 8 The first of these appears to have been issued March 29, 1688, by Adolph Esmit. Cf. Governors’ Orders, Bancroft Collection; Martfeldt MSS., Vol. I, The Cruise of the Snark By JACK LONDON Author of “The Call of the Wild,” “The Sea-Wolf,” “The Scarlet Plague,” ete. Illustrated with over 150 halftones from photographs by the author, and a frontispiece in colors Decorated cloth, 8v0, $2.00 “Deserves an honorable place in the literature of travel and adventure.” —Outlook. “Nowhere is it without that insistent touch of personality that makes everything from Mr. London’s pen irresistible.”— Boston Transcript. “In Mr. London’s most rapid and vivid style.”—N. Y. World. “A delight.”—Philadelphia Ledger. The Early History of Cuba, 1492-1586 By IRENE A. WRIGHT, Author of “Cuba” This book represents a vast amount of research. It is not often that a political history such as this, covering nearly one hundred years, is written almost wholly from original sources. Miss Wright, however, who has for many years been a resident of Cuba and Spain, has had unusual facilities for discovering and employing in her narrative hitherto unused and unknown documents and manuscripts. Her work is almost the first serious one from a historical point of view to deal with this period. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Digitized by Goog le vs =_ DATE DUE “Giegl bb fe GAYLORD PRINTED ING 8A Digitized by RX OOO 243 $133 is Ha, | ee Pt - a evry ere e. = ne oe - ut Se ~~ _. — — =e a | an 68 ek ee cell etlilnn a a ae a es a - ~~ a ee “ ee — vy —— oe ms . * ak —— a vn te - Y ~~ =e toe “< *s a, — i a Aa _s ee ae . & me! ae as es oa y a r.4 | re Bre! oe AA a Ts _ _s a a a) * “s ae a | -" Ys fe, ee = ri) - s anal aa fy aw oe a ae ie — _* is a ri a) i . vr “ eo al . =e © “s _ _——_— <= eS ee Digitized by G ©) le —