Introduction - Adventure Guide to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao - page 4

declared the islands worthless ( las islas inutiles ), and cut their losses by
taking most of the Caiquetios as slaves to the more profitable island of His-
paniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti).
The few Spaniards who stayed behind put the Indians to work on ranches
or in the salt pans. By 1527, Spanish settlers had formed a government,
converted the remaining Caiquetios to Catholicism, and established an
export trade in animal hides, salt, and Brasilwood. Because of their
extreme southern location, the ABC Islands escaped most of the European
rivalry and pirating that ravaged the rest of the Caribbean throughout the
17th and 18th centuries, but the Dutch coveted Curaçao's natural deep-
water harbor and advantageous location off the coast of South America.
In 1634, Dutch armies fought for, and won, the right to control the islands.
Four years later, Peter Stuyvesant became the director general of all
Dutch possessions in the New World, and initially ran his administration
from Curaçao, before moving to Nieuw Amsterdam (New York).
Remember Peter Stuyvesant?
American history courses always cover the
peg-legged governor of New York, Peter
Stuyvesant (pronounce it Stivsnt ). He was
born in Holland in 1610, joined the military
at an early age, and became the governor of
Curaçao in 1638. At that time, the Nether-
lands were fighting Spain for independence
(the Eighty-Year War, 1566-1648), and
Curaçao was a strategic naval base in the
Caribbean. After losing his leg while lead-
ing an unsuccessful battle for control of St. Martin, he wore a sil-
ver-trimmed wooden prosthesis, which earned him the nickname
Pegleg.
In 1638, Stuyvesant was appointed governor of Curaçao and later
became director general of all Dutch possessions in the New
World. Nine years later, he became governor of Nieuw Amster-
dam (later called New York), but continued to oversee the govern-
ment of Dutch-controlled islands in the Caribbean. His autocratic
and intolerant leadership came to an end in 1664 after a surprise
attack by the English forced him to sign a treaty surrendering
Dutch control of Nieuw Amsterdam to the Duke of York.
He spent the last eight years of his life at the Great Bouwerie, his
62-acre farm that was located between a small village called
Haarlem and what was then the urban boundary of New York
City. He died in 1672, and was buried under his little chapel,
which is now the site of St. Mark's Church.
The Dutch West India Company (DWIC) developed Curaçao into one of
the most important commercial ports in the Caribbean, and culled mas-
sive amounts of salt from Bonaire's salt pans. To protect their interests in