After pausing at Saint Kitts to recruit English and French volunteers, he arrived off the eastern shores of Sint Maarten at dawn on 20 March, accompanied by a half-dozen merchantmen that continued further north; Stuyvesant's squadron veered inshore and besieged the lone Spanish fortification, then anchored nearby and disembarked several hundred troops.

[6] The Dutch spent the next two days installing a three-gun battery atop some heights; on 22 March they called on Spanish Governor Diego Guajardo Fajardo to lay down his arms.

[7] On the night of 31 March–1 April an assault column under cover of darkness advanced toward the Spanish positions, almost escaping the sentinels’ detection because all were musketeers (and hence carry no lit cords).

[8] On the night of 15–16 April, a Puerto Rican coaster under Sargento Mayor Baltasar de Alfaro landed refreshments for Guajardo's garrison, snapping the besiegers’ will.

The Dutch retired to their ships; a rearguard blew up the siege guns and fires the encampments by 17 April, and the flotilla departed toward Sint Eustatius and then Curaçao.