Page:Acadiensis Q5.djvu/384

There was a problem when proofreading this page.

The Dutch Conquest of Acadia.

THAT the Dutch at one time effected a conquest of Acadia and proclaimed the country subject to the High and Mighty Prince of Orange, under the name of New Holland, is an interesting and apparently little-known fact in Acadian history.

In 1673 the Dutch Republic was at war with both France and Great Britain. In that year a Dutch fleet which had been cruising in the West Indies sailed northwards and, on August 9th, captured New York and alarmed New England.

In 1674—when buccaneering was in high vogue—a certain Captain Jurriaen Aernouts, sailing the Spanish Main in command of a frigate bearing a name which has been anglicized as the Flying Horse, received, or pretended to receive, a commission[1] from the Dutch governor of Curacoa authorizing him, in the name of the Prince of Orange, to plunder and despoil any of the enemies of the Great States of Holland. Captain Aernouts determined to seek further conquest, adventure and plunder in a northerly direction. In the month of July he appeared at New York (then for a brief period Dutch New Orange). Here, by accident or otherwise, he met a kindred spirit in the person of one John Rhoade, of Boston, an accomplished adventurer and pirate. The Dutch captain learned at New York that the Peace of Westminster

  1. ↑ The "commissions" of these famous 17th century buccaneers were usually of a more or less fictitious character.

278

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.