Map of the Cordon of Defence between the Cottica River and the Post Vredeburg

Titel Leupe: Kaart van het terrein tusschen Post Vredenburg ende Cottica.

Judging from the year and the trajectory running to post Vredeburg, this survey map refers to the large Cordon of Defence which was constructed between 1774 and 1778 to protect the eastern plantation areas and the adjacent coastal strip against the initially very successful Boni Maroon troops. The first designs and surveys had been prepared in 1772, but preliminary work on a large scale, in which the military engineers Johan Christoph Heneman and Johann Friedrich Ferdinand Wollant, played a leading role, began only a year later. Both of them produced detail maps of the separate sections of the Cordon path. This map of the section between the Cottica Creek and the post Vredeburg, however, was made by the surveyor Goetzee. Goetzee applies a simpler drawing style which is accompanied by an abundance of notes and reference numbers. The main attention is not given to fortifications but plantations and forests, in particular the land of Mr. Hagenbosch. Since Governor Jan Nepveu gave orders for this map, it seems to complement the work of Heneman and Wollant through a focus on what should be defended rather than how the defence should be organized.

Scale-bar of 60 chains of 66 Rhineland feet = 105 ‘strepen’.