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Map of expedition to the Marowijne River

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Map of expedition to the Marowijne River

Heneman, Johan Christoph van / Barde, Henri

Titel Leupe: Kaart van de Expeditie naa de rivier Marawyne en derzelver districten, gedaan door een detachement van het Jager en Vry Corps, onder Commando en beleidt van den Lieut. J.F. Kubeler van het Vrycorps enz. van de maand April tot November 1790.

The Marrons were former enslaved people who had fled the plantations and formed new communities in the Surinamese interior. As their numbers swelled in the course of the 18th century, not least because they tended to raid plantations and then incorporate the slaves there into their own ranks, they became an increasing threat to the plantation system. In the 1760s, the colonial government hoped to improve the situation by making peace treaties with the Auka, Saramacca and Matawai. This hope was subsequently proven idle by the Boni Wars in the 1770s. The pursuit of the Marrons as well as the contacts with those groups the colonial government made peace with, did have the effect that increasingly large parts of the thusfar unexplored Surinamese interior were charted.

The conflict known as the second Boni War broke out in March 1780 when the Boni launched an attack on the plantation Clarenbeek on the Upper Commewijne from their home base Aroku on the French side of the Marowijne and took thirty-three slaves and the manager of the plantation away with them. Half a year later, a similar attack was made on four timber plantations on the Upper Surinam. Heneman’s map, which was drawn in the republic and by its cartographic image is largely an embellished version of Barde’s map under VEL1991, gives an overview of the military counter-attack up to and including the capture of the Boni villages in April and May 1790; contrary to what is described in the text above left, no later facts about the war are given. Both his legend and his ‘narigt’ (postscript) are more detailed and more accurate than Barde’s, which suggests he had seen military reports as well as the latter’s map. On his map, in the accompanying legend in the text section below left, he has also indicated the lines of march used by the Boni in 1770-1776 and in 1789 when they attacked the Surinam plantations from Boekoe and other abodes in both Surinam and Cayenne.

North is below.

Scale-bars of 5 miles of 20 to a degree / 6 miles of 25 to a degree = [approximately 1 : 189,000].

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Sources and literature

Heijer, H. den, Grote Atlas van de West-Indische Compagnie = Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch West India Company, II, de nieuwe WIC 1674-1791 = the new WIC 1674-1791 (2012)