"Going Wild". Early Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English interests on the Oyapock River

Abstract

This chapter explores Anglo-Dutch interests on the Oyapock River in north-eastern South America, in the period between the 1610s and 1631. The mouth of the Oyapock (or Wiapoco), which is also the mouth of the Wanari/Ouanari and the Urucauá/Uaça rivers in the eastern Guianas, was home to several indigenous groups when the Europeans arrived, who permitted the establishment of factors and settlers and participated in their trade. Although only fragmentary information has reached us, it is now clear that the Oyapock was one of several rivers that sparked European interest, as the coastal Guianas were peppered with European factors (agents), adventurers, and small colonies from 1600 onwards.