Document: Declaration of Paulus Leendersen van der Grist that in a voyage from Curaçao he had by stress of weather been obliged to put into Ireland and to sell tobacco there consigned to Amsterdam

This day, date underwritten, before me, Cornelis van Tienhoven, secretary of New Netherland appointed by the General Chartered West India Company, residing in Fort Amsterdam, appeared Paulus Leendersz, formerly master of the ship Neptune and afterwards of the Groote Gerrit, who at the request of Franck Bruyn and Jan Porter attests, testifies and declares, in place and with promise of a solemn oath if necessary and required, that he, the deponent, by order and with the consent of Mr. Rodenborch, provisional director on the island of Curaçao, did in the month of September anno 1645 load in his aforesaid ship Neptunes, on account of the said Franck Bruyn and Jan Porter, eighteen hundred and thirty-three pounds of good, merchantable tobacco, in order to deliver the same, subject to such freight charges as were stipulated by contract, in the city of Amsterdam, to be there disposed of, after payment of the freight, to the satisfaction and best advantage of the owners. But that through contrary winds and shortage of provisions during the voyage from the island of Curaçao to Amsterdam he was compelled to put into Ireland and for lack and want of other effects was obliged to dispose there in the dom Haven[1] of the aforesaid tobacco for necessary provisions which were needed for the honorable Company’s service and the preservation of the ship Neptunes under his command. Whereof he, the deponent, has also rendered good account and proof to the honorable board of accounts of the Chamber of Amsterdam, in accordance with the annexed copy furnished the freighters, which account he also declares was accepted by the above mentioned board of accounts, the tobacco being computed at 9 stivers a pound, and acknowledged to be satisfactory before he, the deponent, received his earned monthly wages, his discharge and payment. All of which the deponent offers to confirm by oath if necessary and required. Done in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 19th of June anno 1647.

Copy

With the Neptunes, in Ireland

Account of some tobacco belonging to the freemen of Curaçao, one named Franck Bruyn and the other Jan Porter, the tobacco amounting to eighteen hundred and thirty-three pounds:

Pouwelis Lendersz van die Grist
Paulus Leendersz van die Grist
C. van Tienhoven