Newly found Virgin Islands Dutch Creole sentence from 1790!

Only a few weeks ago Peter Bakker (Aarhus University) informed me that Poul Olsen (Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen) found a Dutch Creole sentence in a police report. He published it as a reply to the Lingoblog article from January 2024 about the six newly found Berbice Dutch Creole sentences.

His reply, in Danish, is the following. The Dutch Creole sentence is made bold by me:

Poul Erik Olsen, 21 June 2024

Mægler Kreutzfeldts gengivelse af kreolsk:
Rigsarkivet, København: St. Thomas byfoged. Sager til bytingsprotokoller 1790-1795.
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J.H. Kreutzfeldt til politimester Stenersen, St. Thomas, 1. oktober 1790:
Ifølge Deres Velbyrdigheds Forlangende er min efterskrevne Erklæring alt hvad mig er vidende om den udi Fortet arresterede Neger Phelix.
Ved under den 12 September om Formiddagen imellem 12 og 1 at gaae need ad Byen, mødte mig frie Vagten med en Spansk Neger kaldende sig Juan Melise og da de kom ved Hercules Hassells Huus, kom ommeldte Neger Phelix dem i møde og betegnede da denne Juan Melise at det var Manden, hvorpaa Vagten gik med Neger Phelix ned ad Byen; Strax derpaa observerede at en Neger tilhørende Hr. Souffrain kom trekkendes med en Oxe ud af Hr. Hassells Plads, og dertil brugte disse Udtryk udi Creolsk (Ha, ha, tender ka thief you, men mi nu ka Krigh you Kanaille) disse Ord giorde mig Opmærksom, og gik derpaa hen og spurgte, hvad det var, hvorpaa der mig af en Barbarie blev svared at det var en Oxe som af en Neger, som Vagten gik med, havde stiaalet fra Hr. Souffrain og solgt til ham, og nu toeg Hr. Souffrain sin Oxe igien, hvorpaa jeg svarede at det ey kunde lade sig giøre, men at Oxen maatte forblive paa det forefundne Stæd indtil der var skeed Anmeldelse hos Hr. Byfogden, som da og skeede, derpaa forføyede mig need ad Byen, søgte PolitieBetienterne , men fant ingen, hvorpaa gik hen til Capt. Peter Tameryn, hvor Vagten var med forbemeldte Neger Phelix, jeg spurgte Capt. Tameryn, hvorfor han opholde og ey sendte denne Neger til Fortet, han svarede, at da Phelix havde declareret at Emanuel tilhørende Enken Madame Schwartzkopff var den der havde leveret ham Oxen, havde han sendt for Emanuel for der paa Stædet at examinere dem; Jeg sagde ham at her var ey Stædet til Examination, men at Hr. Byfgogden var ikkuns den, som dertil var berettiget, og at han kuns giorde best i at lade Negeren Phelix i fortet arrestere, hvilket han da og ordinerede sin Vagt til, jeg spurgte derpaa denne Neger Phelix hvorledes han var kommen til Oxen, han svarede mig , at Emanuel var komme og havde vogned ham ud af Søvn og sagt ham at han havde bragt en Oxe for ham fra Porto Rico, Jeg spurgte ham derefter om han ey vidste at Emanuel var en Slave og ey farede paa Porto Rico, det første besvarede ham med Ja! Men det sidste med Nei! Men at Emanuel daglig var vandt til at fahre, og blev bestandig ved at raabe paa Emanuel, ieg spurgte ham om den omtalte Neger Juan Mellise eller andre ey var med videre udi denne Sag som med Nei! aldeles besvarede, men at Emanuel, Emanuel, det var hans Mand; det haver nu viidere ligeledes hørt af Enken Madame Schmidts Negre at være blevet bekræftet, at virkeligen Emanuel er kommen og haver banket paa Porten for at opvogne Negeren Phelix, efter at han havde transporteret Oxen udi Savannen bag ved Hr. Friborgs Huus, og at Negeren Phelix have derpaa gaaet need ad Byen og siden kommen og med forhen meldte Barbarie som da og kiøbte bemeldte Oxe, hvorvel det var Nat og som da meget vel burde have vist at det var stiaalet Gods.
St. Thomas, 1 October 1790
Ærbødigst
J.H. Kreutzfeldt

This is a great find. The early sources of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole are mainly missionary texts by German or Danish translators and we only know a handful of texts which have a secular character. See for instance the following article in which seven newly found texts from the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis, Peter Bakker, Cefas van Rossem & Rasmus Christensen. 2023. “Seven newly discovered 18th and 19th century Virgin Islands Dutch Creole Texts”, in: Faraclas, N., R. Severing, E. Echteld, S. Delgado & W. Rutgers (eds) Caribbean Convivialities and Caribbean Sciences: Inclusive Approaches tot he Study of the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Dutch Caribbean and Beyond. Willemstad: University of Curaçao. pp. 93-116.

The most intersting one is probably the E-Samja farewell song from 1788 (Van Rossem & Van der Voort 1996: 224-226).

The Danish part of Kreutzfeldt’s report was only accessible for me with the help of Google Translate. The Creole sentence however, is clear and immediately gives context to the story of the stolen ox:

/ : ha, ha sender ka Thief you, men nu mi ka Krigh you Kanaille : /

Ha ha, 3PL PERF rob 2SG, but now 1SG PERF get 2SG, villain/rascal

‘Ha ha They have robbed you, but now I have got you, villain!’

Peter Bakker and Kristoffer Bøegh presented quite interesting information which clarifies the sentence, but also places it in its context. The spelling of Thief (instead of dief ‘to steal, to rob’) and you (instead of joe ‘you’) point to English as the language in which these words from Creole can be represented best. Peter Bakker mentioned that the use of Krigh (Dutch krijgen ‘to get’) instead of kri, which is the common pronunciation in the twentieth century, indicates the consonant at the end of the word was still in use. The use of men is somewhat unclear. I thought it to be a assimilation of ma nu (Dutch maar ‘but’ nu ‘now’) into men. My colleagues from Aarhus think that the use of Danish men ‘but’ is more obvious.

In Van Rossem & Van der Voort (1996: 227-229) some similar sentences from police reports are published, which were by the way found by Hein van der Voort and Poul Olsen. Although not dated in Die Creol Taal, I know from the photo copies they must have been found in the early nineteenth century reports.

Poul Olsen found this sentence like a needle in a haystack. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages of Police and other reports in the online archives of the Danish Westindies. Hopefully, many interested ones will also try to find some Creole sentences, for instance here.