David Pietersen de Vries
Encyclopedia
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
- probably 1662, Hoorn
Hoorn
-Cities :* Purmerend * Enkhuizen * Alkmaar * Amsterdam * Lelystad * Den Helder * Leeuwarden -Towns :* Edam...
) was a Dutch navigator from Hoorn
Hoorn
-Cities :* Purmerend * Enkhuizen * Alkmaar * Amsterdam * Lelystad * Den Helder * Leeuwarden -Towns :* Edam...
, Holland.
In 1617 de Vries went on a whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
voyage to Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus wide...
. In 1620 he sailed to Newfoundland and sold the dried fish in Italy. In Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
he joined Charles, Duke of Guise
Charles, Duke of Guise
Charles de Lorraine, 4th Duke of Guise was the son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves.-Biography:...
. In 1624 he went to Canada again, still in French service. After returning in the Netherlands, the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
put an embargo on his ship. De Vries sold his ship and left for Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
.
In 1627 he sailed from Hoorn to Batavia. On board was Jan Pietersz Coen only recognized during the trip. From the Dutch Indies he sailed to Masulipatnam.
In 1629, 28 colonists sailed to North America and planted the Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael or Swaanendael was a short lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch spelling for "swan valley" or dale...
in Lewes, Delaware
Lewes, Delaware
Lewes is an incorporated city in Sussex County, Delaware, USA, on the Delmarva Peninsula. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747, a decrease of 6.3% from 2000....
, for patroons of the company organized by five merchants from New Amsterdam: Kiliaen de Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn, Samuel Blommaert
Samuel Blommaert
Samuel Blommaert was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company from 1622 to 1629 and again from 1636 to 1642...
, Albert Burgh
Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.-Biography:...
, Joannes de Laet
Joannes de Laet
Joannes or Johannes de Laet was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his History of the New World, "...arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" and "...one of the foundation maps of Canada"...
and De Vries. In the next year it became clear the colony Zwaanendael was destroyed. Upon his visit in 1632, de Vries found the settlers massacred and their fort burned to the ground.
He returned on trading trips to North America twice, eventually establishing patroonships on Staten Island (1639) and at Tappan, known as Vriessendael (1640)
De Vries often acted as a go-between trying to keep the peace between the Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
and New Netherlands director-general William Kieft. De Vries famously tried to prevent Kieft from launching the Pavonia Massacre, which set off Kieft's War
Kieft's War
Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland and the native Lenape population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area of the United States...
. After the massacre, De Vries was influential in bringing the Hackensack Indians sachem Oratam
Oratam
Oratam was sagamore, or sachem, of the Hackensack Indians living in northeastern New Jersey during the period of early European colonization in the 17th century...
to negotiate a truce, which did not hold in the face of Kieft's aggressive policies. De Vries became a leading figure in the popular uprising against Kieft in the Dutch colony which ultimately led to the director-general's dismissal and recall for trial. Disenchanted by the New Netherlanders treatment of the indigenous population, he left his farm at Vriessendael in October 1643, and returned to Holland.
In 1655 he published "Korte Historiael Ende Journaels Aenteyckeninge" (Short Historical Notes and Journal Notes of Various Voyages).
On top of the The Zwaanendael Museum
Zwaanendael Museum
Built in 1931 in Lewes, Delaware, the Zwaanendael Museum was created to honor the 300th anniversary of Delaware's first European settlement, Zwaanendael, founded 1631. The museum models the former City Hall in Hoorn, the Netherlands. It has 17th century Dutch elements such as stepped facade gable,...
in Lewes, Delaware
Lewes, Delaware
Lewes is an incorporated city in Sussex County, Delaware, USA, on the Delmarva Peninsula. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747, a decrease of 6.3% from 2000....
, designed after the City Hall of Hoorn, stands a statue of De Vries.
See also
- Council of twelve menCouncil of twelve menThe Council of Twelve Men was a group of 12 men chosen on 29 August 1641 by the residents of New Amsterdam to advise the Director of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, on relations with the Native Americans due to the murder of Claes Swits. Although the council was not permanent, it was the first...
- Kieft's WarKieft's WarKieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland and the native Lenape population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area of the United States...
- PavoniaPavonia, New NetherlandPavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland in what would become today's Hudson County, New Jersey.-Hudson and the Hackensack:...
- Adriaen van der DonckAdriaen van der DonckAdriaen Cornelissen van der Donck was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named...
External links
- Portrait of De Vries http://www.lunacommons.org/luna/servlet/detail/JCB~1~1~506~220012:David-Pieterz--de-Vries,-artellery-http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/ http://www.jstor.org/pss/1919690
- http://www.antenna.nl/wvi/nl/nest/deVries.html