abstract
| - Caribs and Arawaks used the island for fishing and farming. Bequia was likely visited by Spanish and Portuguese explorers. It was claimed for Mariana in 1620 by the explorers Miquel Viergens and Jannes De Meer, but issues with overlapping claims led Mariana to pay Spain nearly 2 million lira for full control. Sugar and whaling were important industries in the 17th-19th centuries, now supplanted by tourism. In 1621 the Royal Company of the Indies (Real Bedrijf van de Indies), which at the moment ran and settled Marigalante came to colonize Bequia, with 15 settlers from Marigalante and 20 slaves. In 1622 the government (of Mariana) began working to slowly shut down the RBI, fearing the company was avoiding taxes and cheating the government out of significant revenues. In July 1623 the government took control over the island, with Vincent Berger (1572-1624) appointed the first governor. Port Elisabeth was settled around this time. Governor Berger was unpopular with the former RBI administrators, as he had them arrested on charges of embezzling money. In late 1624 they were freed and the governor was poisoned some time before 1625. Former militaryman Johannes van de Kerke (1575-1639) was named governor, and he oversaw the development of Port Elisabeth and construction of the docks on Elisabeth Bay. The governor was later revealed (in the 1920s) to have been in collusion with pirates, giving them refuge on the island in exchange for money, which some subsequent governors would also do. Van de Kerke died in 1639, some say while at his outhouse shitting.
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