Map from the Suriname River to the Corentyne River

Title Leupe: Kaart van de rivier Surinaamen tot aan de rivier Corentin, aanweisende het project Canaal van de redout Purmerent tot aan de rivier Saramacca, de landen welke langs de kust van de rivier Copename tot aan de rivier Nickerie, langs deeze rivier en een gedeelte van de landen welke langs den Oostelijken oever van de rivier Corentin begeeven zijn.

This large map provides an overview of the western coastlands between the Surinam River and the Corentyne. The majority of the plantations in this ‘New Surinam’ were assigned only after 1790, initially along the Saramacca and, post-1800 under British administration, also including the coast farther west, on the Nickerie River and the eastern bank of the Corentyne. The map was probably made in or around 1803, when Surinam had become a Dutch possession again for about a year and a half following the Treaty of Amiens.

Indicated are the small pentagonal Fort Groningen on the western bank of the Saramacca, and the slightly later fortified military post of Braak, downstream on the river. A note referring to land in the vicinity of Fort Groningen states that ‘These lands are set aside for the construction of the Town of Columbia’, a plan for a new town which, due to lack of financial means, was never realized. The ʻEtablissement Voorzorgʼ (Establishment Precaution) opposite the small fort refers to the lepers’ hospital which was built there in 1791 and existed until 1824.

All these elements are almost identical to those on Moseberg’s printed map (see VEL1679A-D), although the post of Braak is still called Marquette there. This name is also noted on the 1794 project map of the new plantations on the Saramacca by the military engineer Johann Gottfried Rabanus Böhm (see VEL 1687), and on these grounds and other similarities, it could well be that he was also the author of this manuscript map, or at least was involved in its making.

North is below

Scale-bar of 1400 chains of 66 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 104,000].