Attack on Saint Martin The Attack on Saint Martin was a failed attempt by the Dutch Republic to recapture the island and former base of the Dutch West India Company ( WIC ) from the Spanish . In 1633 the Spanish had invaded Saint - Martin ( Sint Maarten ) and Anguilla , driving off the French and Dutch inhabitants . The French and Dutch banded together to repel the Spanish and it was during a 1644 sea battle that the Dutch commander Peter Stuyvesant , later the governor of New Amsterdam , unsuccessfully besieged Fort Amsterdam and was forced to retreat with the loss of hundreds of men . A stray Spanish cannonball shattered his leg , which had to be amputated . But luck was on the Dutch side , and when the Eighty Years ' War between Spain and the Netherlands ended , the Spanish no longer needed a Caribbean base and just sailed away in 1648 . Background . The Spanish , who had been content with their lucrative holdings in the Greater Antilles , began to notice the successful French , English , and Dutch settlements springing up in the Lesser Antilles . Remembering their Pope - given rights , thousands of Spanish troops stormed St . Martin in 1638 , took control of the island and built the Old Spanish Fort at Point Blanche . Six years later , Peter Stuyvesant ( later the governor of Nieue Amsterdam ) directed his Dutch troops in an unsuccessful effort to retake the island . Attack . Governor Pieter Stuyvesant of Curaçao sent five large Dutch ships , a pink , and two tenders on a campaign to reconquer the former WIC base of Sint Maarten . After pausing at Saint Kitts to recruit English and French volunteers , he arrived off the eastern shores of Sint Maarten at dawn on 20 March , accompanied by a half - dozen merchantmen that continued further north ; Stuyvesant ' s squadron veered inshore and besieged the lone Spanish fortification , then anchored nearby and disembarked several hundred troops . The Dutch spent the next two days installing a three - gun battery atop some heights ; on 22 March they called on Spanish Governor Diego Guajardo Fajardo to lay down his arms . Despite low morale , poor equipment , and insufficient rations , the 120 - man Spanish garrison refused to surrender , and Stuyvesant initiated a long - range bombardment next dawn . A chance Spanish countershot carried off the Dutch commander ’ s right leg while he was standing beside his battery , requiring Stuyvesant to be carried back aboard ship for amputation below the knee . The injury left the small army leaderless , undermining its resolve . On the night of 31 March – 1 April an assault column under cover of darkness advanced toward the Spanish positions , almost escaping the sentinels ’ detection because all were musketeers ( and hence carry no lit cords ) . Once the Dutch intruders were discovered , however , a firefight erupted until dawn ; at least five Dutch attackers were killed , as opposed to a single Spaniard . A second , even more half - hearted attempt was made at 9pm on 3 April , which was easily repelled ; no further assaults were made . On the night of 15 – 16 April , a Puerto Rican coaster under Sargento Mayor Baltasar de Alfaro landed refreshments for Guajardo ' s garrison , snapping the besiegers ’ will . The Dutch retired to their ships ; a rearguard blew up the siege guns and fires the encampments by 17 April , and the flotilla departed toward Sint Eustatius and then Curaçao . Stuyvesant eventually returned toward Holland in August to convalesce from his wound . Aftermath . The year the Spanish left , the French and Dutch returned and divided the island - to the Dutch and to the French . For the next two centuries there were occasional clashes between the two nations for complete control of the island , but in 1869 a final agreement was reached honoring the original boundaries set in 1648 . The two - nation island has existed peacefully ever since .