[4][5] The death of vice-governor Heins in October 1689, and the election of John Lorentz to take his place, did not improve the position of the Brandenburgisch-Africanische Compagnie on the islands nor the relations between them and the Danish West India Company.
On 27 July 1689 a life lease was granted to Nicholas Jansen Arff, by which he secured the right to use Fort Christiansborg, the Danish "castle" on the Guinea coast, and to carry on the slave trade with the West Indies, on the payment to the Company of a "two per cent" duty.
[10] This was followed on 13 February 1690 by a contract with a reputable and venturesome Bergen merchant, Councilor of Commerce (Commerce-Raad) Jørgen Thormöhlen of Möhlenpriis, who leased St. Thomas from the Company for a period of ten years.
Among those suspected of disloyalty to the Danish company were two members of the governor's council, Captain Delicaet[14] and Lawrence Westerbaen, the latter a refugee from St. Eustatius.
At a meeting of the council called by the governor with a view to ascertaining how these men stood, Captain Delicaet was quoted as having declared: "It is a difficult matter, for we have to do, not with common people, but with lords and princes."
"[15] The time limit for the payment of the tax according to Lorentz's calculations was 23 November, so on the 24th the latter called the council together again and had an itemized bill prepared for 20,000 rdl.
), 1690, came the day of reckoning, when the vice-governor and his council marched over to the Brandenburg warehouse, with the Company's smith to break the lock, and a committee of inhabitants, mainly planters, to appraise the condemned goods.
Thomas Berentsen, one of Lorentz's most trusted councilors, who tried to investigate one of these meetings, found Laporte and all the Brandenburg employees there as well as an English captain from st. Kitts, one "Callehan" and several planters.
[24] The arrival of the three vessels set numerous rumors afloat concerning their intentions, but their passports had been issued on 18 August preceding, over three months before the seizure of the sugar and cotton, hence any action they might have taken would have been entirely upon the authority of the captains and the St. Thomas officials of their company.
As it was, Laporte confined himself to repeating his request for restitution of the confiscated goods and to making an offer of forty marines to supplement the weak garrison at the fort, both of which overtures were firmly but politely declined by Lorentz.
[27] With that the scene of interest shifts from St. Thomas to Copenhagen, whither by June the Brandenburg envoy Pierre de Falaiseau had betaken himself to demand on behalf of his master the recall of Lorentz and the punishment of the guilty parties.
When in September the news came that Lorentz had seized the Electoral Princess and her cargo of slaves new force was added to the former complaint, and to persons outside of official circles it began to look as if the Esmit-Milan drama was to be acted over again in a revised version with Laporte in Stapleton's role.
The distance and the slowness of communication between the home government and the West Indian factories were bound to delay final action many months.
The problem for the Danish government was no easy one, for it was forced officially to disavow the violence of its representative who had been guilty of nothing worse than carrying out the orders of the Company's directors.
The difficulties with the Danish authorities at St. Thomas had led the Brandenburg government to make renewed efforts to secure an independent foothold in the West Indies.
Again they tried to take possession of Crab Island, but when the Brandenburg party arrived there on 19 December 1692 they found the Danes already on the ground and their Dannebrog banner defiantly waving above them.
[31] John Lorentz, who continued in off ad interim until the proprietor Thormöhlen could provide a governor, had sent a captain with some men to Crab Island a few days before the Brandenburg bark made its landing.