inconsistencies
two (2) sources have letter as dated 1775
one (1) source has letter as dated  1776 
one (1) source has letter addressed to "beloved" 
one (1) source has letter addressed to a "family member"
one (1) source has letter addressed to a "mistress"
 
"The oldest document written in Papiamento is a letter from 1775,
message between two members of a Jewish merchant family. In 1802 
the British Governor Hughes in a report mentioned the language abroad 
for the first time. In the 19th century Papiamento was recognized."
 
http://www.curacao.com/info/language.html
 
 "In fact, the oldest extant document written in Papiamento is a love 
letter written in 1775 by a sephardic Jew to his beloved."
 
http://www.sefarad.org/publication/lm/042/2.html
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
From:  	   René Jansen <rvjansen@xs4all.nl>    	   
To: 	john quirindongo <johnqu@mindspring.com>
Subject:    	Re: hi
Date:    	Nov 1, 2004 12:19 PM

Hi John,

thanks for reading my page so closely. Two things: I am not infering 
anything, so wrong inferences are on the inferer (eng?), and in fact I 
do not know whether his mistress was also Jewish or not (where Jewish 
is technically not mutually exclusive with black). If you know for a 
fact that she was also Jewish and European, I will gladly change it.


best regards,

René.


On Nov 1, 2004, at 5:20 PM, john quirindongo wrote:

> I am sure that your statement should be
>   
> Papiamento dictionary -  "The first written account found in 
> Papiamento is from 1776, a letter from a Curaçao Jew to his (Jewish) 
> mistress. The first Papiamento-Dutch dictionary (van Ewijk) appeared 
> in 1875."
>  
> because the inference may be that his mistress was Black and Blacks 
> were illiterate.
>  
> thank you
>  
> johnq