St.Eustatius is one of the five Dutch islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Statia, as it isaffectionately called, is 11.8 square miles or 31 square kilometers. St.Eustatius is five miles long and two and a half miles wide with a population of 3400 inhabitants.
With regards to the history of St.Eustatius, the first settlers that came were the French in 1629, then the Dutch in 1636, and the English in 1665. Before the Dutch settled in St.Eustatius, December 1635, the Zeeland merchant Mr Jan Snouck and his Flushing partners Abraham van Pere and Pieter van Rhee received permission from the West Indies Company to establish a colony on the island of St. Croix. They fitted out a ship, appointed Pieter van Corselles as leader of the future colony and sent him with sufficient men to the West Indies. On Arrival, St.Croix appeared not to live up to expectations, so they concentrated on the neighbouring island of St.Eustatius. Van Corselles ordered his men to occupy St.Eustatius in the spring of 1636 and afterwards informed the Company that he intended to plant good tobacco and make substantial profits.
The expedition from Zeeland found the island uninhabited. In 1636 the new population of St.Eustatius was 40-50 people, consisted mainly of Zeelanders, Walloons and Flemings. As the plantations increased, so did the number of inhabitants. In 1665 the population was 330 whites and 840 negroes and Indians, whereas in 1689 besides Dutch there were also English, French, German and Scottish merchants. Van Corselles men who had occupied the island immediately began to develop the agriculture as well as carrying out military duties. They started tobacco plantations and the first Statian tobacco was delivered to Flushing (a Zeelandian Town) in July 1638.The new inhabitants grew tobacco for the Zeeland market, started sugar-cane and cotton plantations and provided for their own needs. Pieter van Corselles remained the leader and first commander of the colony.
The West Indies Company’s ships transported all products in order to control import and export. This system was not infallible since not only Statian tobacco, but also some from Virginia and the British Leeward Islands was imported in Zeeland and Rotterdam. This lucrative trade and well stocked warehouses quickly caused England, which thought herself the rightful owner of St.Eustatius. In 1663 and 1665 Statia was attacked by the English. From then on the island knew peace no longer and in 1673 the Fort, the adjacent buildings and the warehouses on the Bay were burnt down for the first time. In the eighteenth century St.Eustatius became the most important salve depot in the West Indies, taking over from Curacao. About 1724 the Company began to supply and sell slaves on Statia. We have now arrived at the eighteenth century in which St.Eustatius, despite of changes of command, plunderings and burnings, enjoyed its greatest prosperity. In this period the island was known far and wide as the”Golden Rock”. It is also the period in which wars, slave-trade, smuggling and corruption were very prominent. The French ruled Statia again from 1795 to 1801, followed by the
English who took over for a year in April 1801. Trade stopped again during the last occupation and St.Eustatius never recover this blow. St.Eustatius changed hands 22 times, between French, Dutch and the English. The island ceased to be the storage port for the Caribbean and this role was soon taken over by the English. From 1816 St.Eustatius became Dutch until now.
