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Map of Fort Nassau

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Map of Fort Nassau

Anoniem / Anonymous

Title Leupe: Plan van het fort Nassouw, geleegen in Rio de Berbice.

Not a single authentic manuscript map or topographical drawing has survived of the predecessor of Fort Nassau, which, at the start of the great slave rebellion of 1763, on 8th March of that year, was evacuated and burned by the garrison because of the indefensible state it was in.

The earliest still extant ground plans of Fort Nassau show the situation as it was during or shortly after the referred to rebuilding or reconstruction work, which must have been carried out between 1735 and 1740.

This anonymous project plan was sent to the Republic in 1739.

Apart from the compass-rose and the orientation, it is virtually identical to the equally old ground plan of the lower level of the fort created by Jan Daniel Knapp (see VEL1661B).

An alternative version is available: VEL1628A.

North is lower left.

Scale-bar of 50 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 115].

Please contact Nationaal Archief for reuse and copyrights.

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)

Bosman, Lex, Nieuw Amsterdam in Berbice (Guyana). De planning en bouw van een koloniale stad, 1764-1800 (1994)