Page 20 - ATA

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 23 July 2019

When whites came to live on the Bay at Playa Episode XXVII

Upon completion of Fort Zoutman in 1797, when there was no longer the
tread and fear of unwanted visitors, white protestants at Ponton gradu-
ally started building their stone houses at the bay side located at a lower
level. Ponton was airy and offered a strategic view over the South and
West coast, but in those days without motorized transportation or a paved
road, it was a bit too far from the site where ships entered. In 1797- we
know this accurately- there was not a single house at the Paardebaai.
Eight years later, therefore in 1805, there were as many as 32.

Pic. 3. Contemporary fire arms
Fort Zoutman Vice-Command- trade with Coro and Mara-
er Jan van der Biest-the eldest caibo in Venezuela. The return
son of Harmen, who had been cargoes only consisted of goat-
commander from 1782 to 1791- skins, hide, and wood, which
was in charge of the Aruban was stored on Aruba until there
administration. He continues in was a supply large enough
office as acting commander to be shipped to Curaçao by
until, in 1821 Jacob Thielen I is schooner. Aruba was an inter-
appointed commander. Thielen mediate station; just as Cura-
who was descended from a cao itself was an intermediate
family already residing in Cura- station for what came from Eu-
Pic.1. the fort and the tower WIII çao in 1715, has been attached rope and went to Aruba and
to the Curaçao court of Justice vice versa. After 1816, however,
Concerning the building of houses there must have been specific rules in ef- both as barrister and as secre- an immediate decline was no-
fect, because according to the rules of the old art of building fortresses, there tary. He reported to the vice ticeable after British privateers’
had to be between a fort and the nearest located building of the city an open -commander on the 23rd of harassments of Oranjestad, in
space of not less than 800 paces, the so-called esplanade. A space that was December 1821, and assumed spite of the fact that the disaf-
needed to protect the city from the fort. The Minister of the Fort-church in Cura- office the first of January 1822, fection of the Spanish colonies
cao in those years was the Rev. Gerard B. Bosch, who in 1823 visited our island saluted by eleven guns. had caused a greater demand
and repeatedly came back here in the years thereafter. After his repatriation for supplies.
the Rev. Bosch wrote a book in Dutch, containing his memoirs, Travels in the In this period Aruba’s economic
West Indies and through part of South and North America, three volumes, in importance was not yet very
which he devotes much attention to Aruba. The findings by the Rev. Bosch in considerable. Since it was de-
1823 were, that Fort Zoutman satisfied all requirements and that there was an fendant on decisions made Continued on Page 15
esplanade. in Curacao, which had some

Pic.2. Dutch ships spotting Taratata the bay Spanish called Playa or Muelle de los
caballos . Pic. 4. Guns of the fort