The West Indies

It was about the year 1626 that a Mr. Van Peire, a wealthy, merchant of Flushing, first sent ships to sail up the Berbice river, and began to establish a trade with the native Indians. But as early as 1580, the Zealanders had attempted to fix themselves on the banks of the Oronoko and Pomeroon rivers; and the same enterprising merchant, who began to explore the Berbice in 1626, had obtained permission to establish factories, and to traffic with the natives on these coasts in 1602. The Spaniards, however, becoming jealous of the Hollander, drove Van Peire and his factories from their immediate neighbourhood, and it was while in quest of a more quiet settlement that they sailed up the Berbice.

Van Peire's ships landed a number of adventurers, at a considerable distance from the mouth of the river, where they built a small fort for their security, while conducting their trade with the Indians.

These adventurers were no doubt considered by Van Peire as his servants, or factors, as they received all their support and supplies from his ships. It was much about the same time (1626) that some English ships sailed up the Surinam River, took possession of its banks, and there established themselves; and it is evident that this colony must have been in great favour at home, for so early as 1675, not fifty years from the first settlement, when it was transferred to the Dutch, more than 2000 British colonists left it, and proceeded to Jamaica, then esteemed the true Land of Promise, and the most important of all the foreign possessions which England had ever acquired.