Johannes Heinsius (governor)

Johannes Heinsius († April 1680 in Suriname ) was a governor of Suriname.

Life

Although his tenure from December 1678 until his death in April 1680 only lasted a year and a half, his influence on the fate of the colony in the critical years 1679 and 1680 was quite large. When he arrived in Suriname, he found great chaos. The authorities were already on board ships in Suriname , fled for fear of raids by Arawaks and Caribs . At that time, when most of the English settlers moved to the Caribbean islands of Barbados , Jamaica and Antigua, there were only around 400 colonists and around 30 soldiers in Suriname.

However, Heinsius was not inexperienced in dealing with this situation. During his tenure in Dutch Brazil he had already been able to gain experience in the fight against the recapture of the colony by the Portuguese in association with the local people . In a few weeks he knew the strategic points, namely to secure Paramaribo , Fort Zeelandia and Torarica and to resist the insurgents with a small military force. When the long-awaited help from the republic failed to materialize, however, he had problems maintaining his resistance to the attacks. In order to ward off the danger, he undertook exploration expeditions to the Corantijn and Marowijne , to get the flanks of the colony under his influence and to make the locals settling there his allies. This strategy ultimately enabled the colonists to prevail against the rebels. However, it was not until 1686 before the governor and co-owner of Suriname, Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijk , was able to negotiate a lasting peace with the last groups of the warring Caribs.

literature

• CFA Bruijning and J. Voorhoeve (red.): Encyclopedie van Suriname . Elsevier , Amsterdam a. Brussel 1977, page 270, ISBN 90-10-01842-3
• Hans Buddingh ': Geschiedenis van Suriname . Het Spectrum, Utrecht 2000 (3rd edition) ISBN 90-274-6762-5

See also

• List of governors of Suriname