Map of the Boni Campaign

Title Leupe: Carte de la Riviere Marawine et Districts etc.

This large map of the Marowijne and the adjacent areas, from its estuary upstream to its confluence with the Tapanahoni, offers an overview of the eastern border area of Surinam.

It was made in October 1790 by the Swiss-born First Lieutenant in the 'Korps Jagers' (Rifle Corps) in Surinam, Henri Barde.

Its purpose was to report on the military expedition from 26 April to 16 May that year against the Boni in their abode Aroku (spelled Arokué on the map), on the eastern bank of the Marowijne, under the command of Lieutenant Johann Friedrich Kübler.

The route of the soldiers’ march on the French side has been drawn in, marked by the letter q.

The legend in French mentions in broad terms the preceding events, for example picking up the trail of the Boni on the Marowijne in April 1789 (b), the setting up of the troops’ first camp at the end of October 1789 (d), the construction of the military post Armina in February 1790 (g) and several skirmishes.

Kübler’s detachment, composed of men from the Vrije Korps and white soldiers from the Korps Jagers, succeeded in expelling Boni and his men from their villages in Aroku (each marked on the map by the name of its headman) and the adjacent islands.

A new post, Nassau, where Barde made his map, was set up on one of these islands, the ‘Islet de Coyo Cormantin’ (o) nowadays known as Langatabbetje.

Among the points mentioned by Barde in the explanation in upper left are the Bonis’ new places of refuge, some 40 kilometres upstream of Nassau, south of (above on the map) the ‘area known to us as present’ (p).

VEL1992 is a copy of this map.

Scale-bar of deux petites lieue, de 6000 pas de deux pieds, ou 184 Chaines & 54 Pieds [= approximately 1 : 160,000].