Project for a new town to be established near fort Nieuw Amsterdam

Title Leupe: "Plattegrond van de nieuw aan te leggen stad bij het fort Nieuw-Amsterdam in Suriname."

The idea to build a town at the confluence of the Surinam and the Commewijne Rivers had already been raised in the first half of the 18th century, but the plans only seriously took shape after the completion of Fort Nieuw Amsterdam, when this area was properly defended. When he was appointed in 1757, Governor Wigbold Crommelin was instructed to build a new town in the vicinity of the fort and to move the government there. Crommelin, however, preferred a more gradual approach, with a few families settling there first.

This anonymous map probably accompanied his letter and proposal to that effect of 6 May 1758. The parcels of land to be assigned to the colonists were to be 5 to 10 acres in size, which would leave 100 acres for communal pasture for their cattle. The migrants would be expected to turn some of their land into market gardens, thus improving the food supply of Paramaribo. The plan was never realised, although a similar scheme in the direction of the redoubt Purmerend was in fact executed, giving birth to the area known as Combé.

The map comes with an attached sheet that can be turned over, so it can show the plan in two ways, both the intermittent stage with just the plots of the families (in red), and the later stage when the government buildings have also been moved to the area around the fort (in yellow). We here see the latter. The other stage has a record of its own: see VELH596.1.

North is lower left.

Scale-bar of 70 chains = [approximately 1 : 8,500].