1 THE DANISH WEST INDIES UNDER COMPANY RULE (1671-1754) INTRODUCTION: GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL If Belgium has been described, and not inaccurately, as “the cockpit of Europe,” the West Indies may be regarded as “the cockpit” of sea power. The islands and mainland of the Caribbean and Gulf regions have been among the prizes for which European states have contended in practically every war of consequence that has been fought during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Just why Spaniards, Frenchmen and Englishmen, Dutchmen and Danes, Swedes and Brandenburgers, and even Knights of Malta and Courlanders, should all at one time or another have directed their energies to West Indian commerce and commercial exploitation is a question that very few, beyond a limited number of specialists, are able intelligently to answer. The heterogeneous character of the West Indian political map of to-day has behind it an interesting story, and one thoroughly worth studying, for those who wish to grasp understandingly the reasons for European interest in America before Spain lost her various American Colonies on the mainland. So far as the immediate effects upon Europe were concerned, the beating back of the Spanish frontier in the Caribbean regions by Spain’s commercial rivals was far more important at the time than the distant frontier struggles of Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Englishmen on the mainland of America. The present study is an attempt to separate from the tangled skein of West Indian history the single small thread that concerns the early efforts of Denmark-Norway to establish itself in those distant regions. It is an attempt to explain the strange fascination that drew the blonde and hardy blue-eyed traders and sailors from the cold Baltic shores to distant tropical regions where the bounties of Nature—it must often have seemed—only served to lure the newcomer on to sickness and death. Denmark possesses three small islands in the West Indies; St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. With the exception of a few months in 1801 and the period 1807-1815, when England seized them to prevent their being of use to Napoleon, with whom Denmark was to all intents and purposes allied, they have since remained continuously under Danish rule. St. Thomas was first permanently settled by Danes in 1672; St. John, although claimed as early as 1683, was not actually settled until 1716-1717; St. Croix was purchased from France in 1733, and settled by colonists from the other two islands early in 1735. Spasmodic attempts at occupation had taken place before by the Dutch and English on St. Thomas, and by French, Knights of Malta, and miscellaneous rovers on St. Croix. The total area of the three islands is but a trifle over one hundred and thirty-two square miles, or about three and a half townships. The acreage of 1 2 St. Thomas is 18,080; of St. John, 12,780.8 and of St. Croix 53,913.6.1 At its greatest length, St. Thomas extends about thirteen and three-fourths miles (22 km.), it breadth at the town of Charlotte Amalia is but one and one–half miles (2.3 km.), and its greatest width three and three- fourths miles (6 km.). The two northern islands form part of the Virgin Islands group, and all three belong to the group still frequently designated as the Leeward Islands.2 Together they form part of the northwestern extremity of that “bow of Ulysses” constituting the Lesser Antilles, stretching from Porto Rico to the east and then southward In a mighty sweep of seven hundred miles, ending at Trinidad off the South American mainland. With the Greater Antilles and the mainland, they enclose the Caribbean Sea, which is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Cuba and the peninsula of Yucatan. The spectator who stands in clear weather above Botany Bay in the west end of St. Thomas and looks westward beyond the little island of Culebra and Vieques or Crab may plainly see Porto Rico. From the hills that command St. Thomas harbor, the observer may discern St. Croix on the southern horizon thirty-five miles away. St. John, near neighbor to St. Thomas and equally mountainous, is less than three miles from the eastern end of that island. The trip from Smith’s Bay, St. Thomas, to Crux Bay, St. John, is but a matter of an hour by rowboat or sail. The British Virgin Islands lie immediately to the eastward, the nearest of them, Tortola, being but twenty minutes distant by rowboat from St. John. Like the rest of the entire archipelago, these islands are of volcanic origin, and subject to frequent earthquakes,3 which are however rarely destructive. The two islands, St. Thomas and St. John, rise out of the same plateau. Between them and St. Croix the Caribbean Sea deepens to 15,000 feet. Sail-boats plying between St. Thomas and St. Croix must be extremely cautious during the summer months, in the so-called hurricane season. The islands lie directly in the track of the tradewinds that blow down from southwestern Europe and Madeira. This was the reason why they were among the first lands to be sighted by Columbus on his initial voyage westward. The Spaniards devoted their attention to the larger islands, and, naturally enough, with the increasing importance of the Spanish trade, the lesser islands became desirable outposts for those nations whose traders were all, by lawful means or without, to gain a share in that trade. Of such islands few had more natural advantages than St. Thomas. Its harbor afforded protection to ships in all but the severest storms, its beaches were admirably suited to the careening and overhauling of sailing vessels.4 and it was easily fortified and defended. Besides the harbor, St. Thomas has along it coast line numerous smaller indentations, usually referred to on the islands as “bays,” although many are scarcely more than landing places. It is the existence of such bays in this and in many other West Indian islands that has made it practically impossible in the past for officials to put an end to smuggling. Christian Martfeldt, a Danish economist who visited the islands about 1765, listed and described forty-five such “bays” in St. Thomas, and thirty-one in St. John. It is worthy of note that he considered Coral (craal) bay in St. John as not only a better harbor than the one in St. Thomas, but the best in the entire West 1 Eggers (St. Croix’s Flora, p. 33), gives 51,861 acres for St. Croix. The figures quoted are taken from The National Geographic Magazine for July, 1916, p. 89. 2 The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), St. Eustatius, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadaloupe, Martinique, and their various dependencies. 3 During a period of five and one-half years, Dr. Hornbech noted not less than thirty-three quakes, none of them violent (Bergsöe, Den danske Stats Statistik, IV, 579). 4 See Grigri or Gregerie on map facing p. 8, just west of harbor. 2 3 Indies. It is in fact about twice as deep, and can hold about twice as many vessels.5 But St. Thomas harbor has always been quite large enough to accommodate such shipping as came to it; hence the harbor of St. John, with perhaps greater natural; advantages, has been practically ignored in favor of that of St. Thomas, which after all was first settled and lay closer to Porto Rico. Ships sailing for the West Indies steered for the islands off the west African coast, whence they were swept on their way south-westward by the tradewinds. The journey usually occupied about seven or eight weeks, although under particularly favorable circumstances it might be made in four. On the return trip the vessel steered north and west of its outward course, passing as a rule about two hundred miles to the east of the Bermudas. The usual procedure for a ship from Copenhagen was to leave in September or October for St. Thomas, remain there until the winter’s sugar cane crop had been harvested, boiled down and put into casks, and then in April or May to sail for home with a completed cargo. 5 “In it [Coral Bay] 400 to 500 vessels large and small can ride at anchor. It has various suitable landing places for the plantations lying round about, separated from each other by out-jutting points which form the said bays. Beside the 6 English families mentioned in the [appended] table there are 16 others, [which he names], from which one may perceive its great extent. It is, besides, provided with a beautiful hurricane ‘hole’ on the east (north?) side, where 40 to 50 vessels and more may lie safe against storms and so close in to the shore that one may walk ashore on a board, not to mention those that can lie in the ‘stream.’ In this hurricane hole . a number of careening places could [easily] be constructed . where vessels could conveniently be careened.” Martfeldt, Samlinger . Vol. III. Cf. Bryan Edwards, History of the British Colonies in the West Indies, I, 459: “St. John is of importance as having the best harbor of any island to the leeward of Antigua.” 3 4 Almost from the first, the chief product of the islands has been sugar, although tobacco and cotton have played an important part in the economy of the islands at certain periods. Their prosperity as plantation colonies has always been peculiarly dependent upon the rainfall. St. Thomas in particular has ever been subject to severe and protracted droughts, and has not infrequently suffered from torrential downpours.