Plan for the reconstruction of fort Sint Andries

Title Leupe: Caarte figuratif van een gedeelte van de rivier de Berbice, benevens het nieuwe gemaakte project van het fort St. Andries.

The military engineer Jan Carel Willem Herlin, in his capacity as overseer-general of works in the colony, was ordered in 1780 by the directorate to again restore and reinforce Fort Sint Andries. This anonymous site map including a plan of that year presents the results of Herlin’s efforts but it should, however, be noted that the new fort is drawn in far too large. Another curious and possibly related mistake has to do with the scale indication on the ground plan, implying that the new Sint Andries would have been more than 500 square metres.

In 1867 P.A. Leupe attributed the map to Herlin himself but it is unlikely that he would have made such gross miscalculations. Furthermore, the handwriting does not correspond at all to that of Herlin. It could be that this map was later made in the Republic on the basis of details that had been sent over or copied from an example drawn by Herlin, whereby the maker or copyist’s lack of familiarity with the local situation possibly led to these errors.

Scale bar [plan] of 120 Rods = [approximately 1 : 3,380].