The charter dated 23 September 1682 formalized a company shared by the Dutch West India Company, Amsterdam, and the Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck family. It organized plantation expansion and rule in a...
After taking office, Governor Van Sommelsdijck declares that fighters must be hunted down and killed, settlements destroyed and food supplies removed. The aim is to bring Indigenous communities...
An expedition of about 284 men moves into the interior during the rainy season. After ten weeks, the colonial report records deaths, captives and burned villages, but no elimination of the resistance....
Van Sommelsdijck writes that earlier expeditions had mixed results and that he wants to make Indigenous groups friends and conclude a lasting peace. The turn toward negotiation follows years in...
