Hendrik Carloff

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Forts of the Gold Coast (map circa 1700)

Hendrik Carloff, Caerloff or Caarlof was an adventurer and slave trader active in the 17th century. Carloff began his career as a cabin boy but rose to become a commander and governor appointed by the

Governor of Tobago
.

Life

Not much is known about Carloff's early life. He was born, according to his own testimony, in the

Fort Nassau (Ghana) in Mori. In 1648 he managed to pry a commitment from the chief of the Efutu on the purchase of land. With a feigned illness Carloff, who had profound and personal knowledge of the power structure in Axim,[1]
went back to Europe in the hope someone might be interested in his plan.

Anomabu castle
.

After twelve years with the WIC he offered his service to Louis de Geer who shortly afterwards founded the pseudo-Swedish Africa Company in Stade. He was hired for three years as commander and director at a salary of one hundred guilders and an ounce of gold per month to cover the charges. He was embarking on the Elbe and thence sailed to West Africa. He arrived at the Gold Coast on 22 April. Carloff signed a contract for the purchase of land with the chief of Efutu. There was a conflict with the Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea negotiating with Henniqua, a cousin of King of the Efutu about a British trading post. A memorable event occurred on 28 May 1650. Both Sweden and the British signed a treaty with the chief. The English obtained for only half a year the right to trade.[2]

Carloff occupied

Butre in 1650, Anomabu in 1651, and Orsou in 1652. On his return, in September 1652 Carloff and his ship Christina were seized and taken to Plymouth. His ship was transporting about twenty bags of gold and 6,500 elephant teeth.[3] The gold rings, necklaces and bracelets were taken to the Tower of London.[4] Meanwhile, the Swiss Isaac Melville, his successor started building Fort Carolusborg and the conquest of Takoradi in 1653.[5] In Sweden, Carloff was promoted to general and knighted on 3 May 1654 under the name Carloffer. The Swedes occupied Jumore (and constructed Fort Apollonia) and Cabo in 1655. In 1656 Fort Batenstein was recaptured by the Dutch. Johann Philipp von Krusenstjerna
(1626–1659) took over the post of governor. Carloff left annoyed the colony and deserted to Denmark on 27 March 1657.

Danish Africa Company

Fort Carolusborg (1682), built on the initiative of Carloff
Fort on the Gold Coast (2003)

On 27 March 1657 Carloff offered his services to King

Charles X Gustav of Sweden
, this was a reason to stop the peace talks with Denmark.

Carloff appointed Samuel Schmidt (or Smith) to manage the trading post and left the trading post with two ships, one of them hijacked from Sweden.[7] On 8 June, he arrived in Glückstadt where the Swedish ambassador tried to arrest him. Carloff sent the gold secretly from Harlingen to Amsterdam. On 10 March 1659, he signed a contract with the Danish Admiralty in Groningen. On 28 March he was appointed in Hamburg as governor of the "Glückstädter Afrikanische Kompanie". In order to give the whole the presence of a foreign company, there were two Hamburg merchants involved , but most participants were Amsterdammers, and the vessels were equipped there according to Lieuwe van Aitzema.

The

Dano-Swedish War (1657-1658).[further explanation needed
] When the Fetu got through what had happened the WIC fort was attacked by about 2,000 warriors with hand grenades - from the fort thrown bottles filled with gunpowder and burning wicks - could be deducted. Schmidt had instructions or ran off with some of the gold, but also a certain Jan Christiaansz. Canter did not have clean hands.

In 1659, Carloff was in conflict with the Dutch WIC about his possessions and the gold. At that time he was living in Haarlem. He threatened to work for the British. The WIC planned to murder the brother of the king Fetu and an attack on the fort Carolus Borg. Isaac Coymans briefed the plans to the Director of the Danish trading post. Coymans was sentenced. Carloff married Sophia Felicitas von Wolzogen. In 1660 he bought a house on Keizersgracht, that had been rented out to the chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber, and almost next to Jan Valckenburgh, his former colleague on the Gold Coast.

French West India Company

In 1662 he sailed to Angola and the West Indies; in 1664 to

Amsterdam stock exchange remained closed for several days. In 1669, he sailed from Le Havre to Africa, where 1,000 slaves were embarked; over 750 could be delivered in Martinique. In 1672 he had 350 "heads" transferred to Guadeloupe
.

Governor of Tobago

Jean II d'Estrées

In 1672 about 500 Dutch settlers arrived on the island of

King William III as commissioner-general[9]
the board was dedicated to him as soon as Tobago would be conquered.

On 21 February 1677 Admiral

action of March 1677; d'Estrées retreated to Grenada. On 6 December d'Estrées made another attempt to attack the colony. Contrary to expectations, he attacked the fortress from the landside. On 12 December a French cannonball caused a huge explosion at the gunpowder storage of the fortress, and about 250 men were killed. A small group escaped, the rest surrendered.[10][11]

It is unclear what role Carloff played on the island. It seems that Carloff, who had been at odds with Binckes, did not meet expectations and was taken into custody. The records show little on the rest of the life of Carloff. He died in or after 1677.

References

  1. ISBN 9780230370692
    – via Google Books.
  2. ^ R. Porter: The Crispe Family and the African Trade in the seventeenth Century, p. ?. In: Journal of African History. 9, 1, 1968, ISSN 0021-8537
  3. ^ "State Papers, 1653: January - British History Online".
  4. ^ "State Papers, 1653: January - British History Online".
  5. ISBN 9783406303739
    – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "När Sverige skulle bli kolonialmakt". 14 March 2001.
  7. ISBN 9782865374656
    – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "View file".
  9. ^ "Van der Aa".
  10. ^ "Dutch and Courlanders on Tobago. A history of the first settlements 1628-1677 - Colonial Voyage". 13 January 2014.
  11. ^ Hotep, Amon. "Tobago Special".

Sources

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