Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Europeans Arrive
European explorers Amerigo Vespucci and
Alonso de Ojeda arrived in 1499 to claim the
island for Spain. When no gold was found, and the
land proved too dry for large-scale cultivation,
the Caiquetios were rounded up and taken to His-
paniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti) to work as
slave laborers in the mines and on plantations.
Within 15 years, few natives were left on Bonaire.
(See Who Was Alonso de Ojeda?, page 57.)
Juan de Ampues (the governor of Aruba,
Bonaire, and Curaçao) attempted to make the
island profitable in 1526 by starting a ranching venture. He brought a
number of Caiquetios back to Bonaire to care for the livestock, whose hides
turned out to be a more valuable export than their meat. Many of the ani-
mals were allowed to wander untended about the island, and the land was
quickly overrun by roving sheep, goats, cows, pigs, and donkeys.
The governor also allowed the island to be used as a dumping ground for
prisoners and, for more than a century, Bonaire was a rather unsavory col-
ony of convicts and feral beasts. Nevertheless, the Dutch set their sights
on the island (along with Aruba and Curaçao) when they went seeking
vengeance on all things Spanish during their war for independence. In
1633, after losing St. Maarten to Spain, the Dutch captured the ABCs as a
consolation prize.
Curaçao was the most valuable of the three islands because of its deep-
water harbor, but the Dutch West India Company saw potential for pro-
ducing salt, livestock, dyewood, and corn on Bonaire. Caiquetios, prison-
ers, and African slaves were put to work. The tiny stone hovels where they
slept after long hours of labor still stand near the village of Rincón and
beside the salt pans at the southern end of the island.
When the Dutch West India Company collapsed in 1791, the government
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands seized the slave workers along with the
company's other assets. These government slaves, known as Katibu di Rei
(Papiamentu for “Slaves of the King”), were allowed to farm and sell the
produce that they grew, and many managed to buy their freedom. How-
ever, living conditions on the island were harsh, and some of the slaves
began stirring up trouble during the 1830s. Plantation owners and busi-
nesses controlled growing discontent by throwing major instigators into
jail and separating minor rabble-rousers.
Both the British and the French tormented the Dutch in the Caribbean
during the early 1800s, and the British were able to gain brief control from
1800 until 1803 and again from 1807 until 1815. At one point, the British
leased Bonaire to a North American shipping mogul, who methodically
stripped the island of its lumber. When the Dutch regained possession
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