Map of the Sommelsdijk Fortress

Title Leupe: Plan van het om bij de fortress Sommelsdyk leggende land als nu aankomende de ed. Societeit (Sociëteit van Suriname).

The 1758 map with small inset map, made by the surveyor and artillery sub-lieutenant Johann Ludwig Naumann, compares the former and present ratios of ownership of the parcels around Fort Sommelsdijk, specifically mentioning those lands still in the possession of the Society; see for comparison Alexander de Lavaux’s 1732 map (VEL1985).

In 1748 Sommelsdijk was abandoned as a first line of defence fortification, even though a small infantry detachment continued to be stationed there.

The bypass of the large meander in the Commewijne southwest of the fort which can be seen on both maps was made slightly before 1732 under Governor Karel Emilius Henry de Cheusses.

De Cheusses had acquired a plantation just downstream of this short canal, which cut considerable time off the journey to the plantations higher up the Commewijne. Later, this plantation was renamed Breukelerswaard, after his estate back home in the Republic, by Governor Joan Raye (1735-1737), who had married De Cheusses’ widow. This is the name by which this land is designated on the small inset map on the top right of the map.

Nothing much is known about Neumann himself, other than he arrived in Surinam as an artillery officer in 1757 and the next year was working as a chartered surveyor (Landmeters in Suriname).

Scale of 50 Chains = 180 ‘strepen’.

Taken from: [fol.] 228.