Plan of the defence works at the mouth of the Demerara River

Title Leupe: Plan van defentie voor de mond der rivier Demerary.

This map reveals the plans for French fortification along the Demerara River, with clarifications in profile.

The construction of British and French defences at the Demerara River amounted to a resumption of the Dutch project plans of previous years. For instance, the location of the two French forts known as Le Dauphin and La Reine corresponded pretty closely to the spots that the WIC land surveyors Heneman, and after him Kanne, had in mind for their new fortifications at the mouth of the river (see VEL660 en VEL1550.) It would even appear that the Dutch plans for these two small forts of c. 1779 (see VEL1551F) were partly adopted by the French, in view of the anonymous French-language plan shown here.

In the final construction, a number of relatively minor adaptations were introduced, as illustrated in Kanne’s site plan of early 1784 given on VEL1552.

A copy of this map, VEL1549A, has not been separately included in this database.