The island of Sint Eustatius lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands.

Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba.

The island was seen by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and claimed by many different nations.

From the first settlement, in the seventeeenth century until the early ninteenth century, St. Eustatius will change hands twenty two times.In 1636, the chamber of Zeeland of the Dutch West India Company takes possession of the island that is at this time reported to be uninhabited.