 As of 1778, it was estimated that the Dutch were shipping approximately 6,000 Africans for enslavement in the Dutch West Indies each year.Slavery also characterised the Dutch possessions in Indonesia, Ceylon and South Africa, where Indonesians have made a significant contribution to the Cape Coloured population of that country.The Dutch part in the Atlantic slave trade is estimated at 5–7 percent, as they shipped about 550,000–600,000 African slaves across the Atlantic, about 75,000 of whom died on board before reaching their destinations.