Brandwagt, post (Mot Creek)

Fort Brandwacht (‘Fire Watch’, a term generally used in the Dutch colonies at that time to indicate a first-alert post) at Mot Creek, was built in 1685 on the orders of Governor Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck as a permanent observation and alarm post on the sailing route along the east coast to the mouth of the Surinam River. In the later eighteenth century, the post consisted of a redoubt on the eastern bank of the creek, about three-quarters of a kilometer from the mouth, with a separate picket station on the sea coast.