Plan for a canal on the island of Borselen

Title Leupe: Prospect van een Canaal op Borselen.

Project plan of a canal on the Borselen island in the Demerara River with a cross section at the bottom of the map. Previously, the main WIC post was located on the island. When this post was moved to the east bank of the Demerara, Van Schuylenburgh took office and held control over the island. Under his rule, a number of project proposals for more efficient spatial arrangements and defence works were put forward. This maps shows one of these proposals.

Johan Christoph Heneman drafted this map during his posting in Demerara and Essequibo in 1774-1775. He designed the rearrangement of the Company settlement on the island in conjunction with his plans for a new town on the opposite eastern bank of the river (see VEL1524). Digging this canal was one of the more far-reaching proposals of the plan.

Various versions of this map, VEL1525B, VEL1525B1-3 and VEL1525A1-3, are kept in the Nationaal Archief but have not been separately included in this database.

Scale of 100 Rhineland feet = 173 ‘strepen’.