Johannes van Walbeeck
Encyclopedia
Jan, Johan or Johannes van Walbeeck (1602, Amsterdam
– after 1649) was a Dutch navigator and cartographer during a 1620s circumnavigation of the earth, an admiral of the Dutch West India Company
, and the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles
.
He studied at the University of Leiden before enlisting as navigator and cartographer on the ship De Amsterdam during the three-year circumnavigation
of the world from 1623 to 1626 by the Nassau fleet http://www.btinternet.com/%7Ej.pasteur/NASSAUINDEX.html led by Admiral Jacques l'Hermite
and Vice Admiral Gheen Huygensz Schapenham. It is thought that the account of this voyage published by Hessel Gerritsz
shortly after the expedition's return in 1626 was written and drawn by Van Walbeeck.
In 1627, Van Walbeeck continued his mathematics and physics study in Leiden, but interrupted it again to join Laurens Reael
's diplomatic mission to Denmark at the end of the year. Upon his return, he enlisted in a fleet that sailed to the Dutch East Indies
.
In 1629, back in the Netherlands, he changed employment from the Dutch East India Company
to the Dutch West India Company
(WIC). In April 1630, he arrived on the ship Neptunus in Pernambuco
, after Hendrick Cornelisz Loncq had taken Olinda
in February and Recife
in March from the Portuguese (who between 1580 and 1640 were governed by Habsburg Spain
, with which Holland was at war). Van Walbeeck immediately was made a member of the Politieke Raad ("Political Council"), the highest level of government in Dutch Brazil. Already in the same year, Loncq sent him (as "Admiral of the Brazilian coast") and Maarten Valck to establish a Dutch base on the Chile
an coast from which to explore Terra Australis
. However, due to the colonial conflicts between Holland and Portugal, the expedition did not get to its destination. Several more expeditions followed, until in 1632 Van Walbeeck was promoted to president of the Politieke Raad.
In 1633, Van Walbeeck and the governor of Dutch Brazil, Dierick van Waerdenburgh, left for the Dutch Republic to meet with the WIC council ("de heren XIX"). The WIC had lost its base in the Antilles when a Spanish fleet had destroyed its settlement on Sint Maarten in the summer of that year. The council now planned a base in the Leeward Antilles
, both for the salt pans on Curaçao and Bonaire (large quantities of salt were needed to preserve fish), and as a strategic location off the South American mainland. The natural harbor of St Anna Bay on Curaçao
was the perfect location for this. On April 6, 1634 they assigned Van Walbeeck to the task of taking it from the Spanish, who had colonized the island since the 1520s. On 4 May 1634, he departed from Holland with four ships, carrying 180 sailors and 250 soldiers, led by the French Huguenot mercenary Pierre Le Grand who had previously served the Dutch in Brazil. The small fleet arrived at Curaçao on July 6, but through adverse currents and winds could not enter the bay. On July 29, after being joined by a fifth ship and approaching from the north west, the fleet could enter the bay and captured the island from Spain with little resistance and without loss of life on either site. Van Walbeeck wrote in his diary, as transcribed by Johannes de Laet before it was lost, that the 32 Spanish and under 500 remaining (or reintroduced) local inhabitants just withdrew to the West end of the island after poisoning their wells and burning their villages. On August 21 the Spanish commander, Lope Lopez de Morla, signed the surrender. The Dutch deported the Spaniards and most West Indians to the Venezuealan port of Coro
, keeping about seventy-five of the latter as laborers. Thus, Van Walbeeck became the first director/governor of the Netherlands Antilles
. The first task was to build a fortification at the natural harbor, renamed "Schottegat" by the Dutch, which pentagonal structure ("Fort Amsterdam") was finished in 1635, following standard Dutch military engineering practice. During his three years as governor, the beginnings of the town of Willemstad
were built next to the fort..
In 1638, he and Le Grand were sent to Brazil, while Jacob Pietersz Tolck took over his position as governor although van Walbeeck remained political director of Curaçao for the next several years. He stayed in Brazil as a member of the Hoge Raad until 1642, after which he returned to Holland again to give advice on the forthcoming expedition under Hendrick Brouwer to establish a trading base in Chile. He went back to Brazil, being mentioned as elder of the Reformed Church there. In 1647 he left Brazil. May be he died in the Netherlands, as he lived in Amsterdam when his wife was buried there on 29 April 1649.
Like Peter Stuyvesant
, Van Walbeeck was one of the limited number of WIC employees with a university education. The company appears to have valued him at least as highly as Stuyvesant and it has been suggested that he missed being appointed director-general of the New Netherlands merely by not being in the Netherlands at the right time.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
– after 1649) was a Dutch navigator and cartographer during a 1620s circumnavigation of the earth, an admiral of 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...
, and the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
.
Biography
Van Walbeeck is thought to have been born in Amsterdam in 1601 or 1602 and he might be the Jan van Walbeeck, son of the merchant Jacob van Walbeeck and of Weijntgen van Foreest (apparently the only Walbeeck family in town), who was baptized on August 15, 1602, in Amsterdam).He studied at the University of Leiden before enlisting as navigator and cartographer on the ship De Amsterdam during the three-year circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
of the world from 1623 to 1626 by the Nassau fleet http://www.btinternet.com/%7Ej.pasteur/NASSAUINDEX.html led by Admiral Jacques l'Hermite
Jacques l'Hermite
Jacques l'Hermite , sometimes also known as Jacques le Clerq , was a Dutch merchant, explorer and admiral known for his journey around the globe with the Nassau Fleet and for his blockade and raid on Callao in 1624 during that same voyage in which he also died...
and Vice Admiral Gheen Huygensz Schapenham. It is thought that the account of this voyage published by Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some “unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century”...
shortly after the expedition's return in 1626 was written and drawn by Van Walbeeck.
In 1627, Van Walbeeck continued his mathematics and physics study in Leiden, but interrupted it again to join Laurens Reael
Laurens Reael
Dr. Laurens Reael was an employee of the VOC, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in 1616-1617 and an admiral of the Dutch navy from 1625-27.-Early life:...
's diplomatic mission to Denmark at the end of the year. Upon his return, he enlisted in a fleet that sailed to the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
.
In 1629, back in the Netherlands, he changed employment from the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
to 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...
(WIC). In April 1630, he arrived on the ship Neptunus in Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, after Hendrick Cornelisz Loncq had taken Olinda
Olinda
Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...
in February and Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
in March from the Portuguese (who between 1580 and 1640 were governed by Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...
, with which Holland was at war). Van Walbeeck immediately was made a member of the Politieke Raad ("Political Council"), the highest level of government in Dutch Brazil. Already in the same year, Loncq sent him (as "Admiral of the Brazilian coast") and Maarten Valck to establish a Dutch base on the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an coast from which to explore Terra Australis
Terra Australis
Terra Australis, Terra Australis Ignota or Terra Australis Incognita was a hypothesized continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century...
. However, due to the colonial conflicts between Holland and Portugal, the expedition did not get to its destination. Several more expeditions followed, until in 1632 Van Walbeeck was promoted to president of the Politieke Raad.
In 1633, Van Walbeeck and the governor of Dutch Brazil, Dierick van Waerdenburgh, left for the Dutch Republic to meet with the WIC council ("de heren XIX"). The WIC had lost its base in the Antilles when a Spanish fleet had destroyed its settlement on Sint Maarten in the summer of that year. The council now planned a base in the Leeward Antilles
Leeward Antilles
The Leeward Antilles are a chain of islands in the Caribbean – specifically, the southerly islands of the Lesser Antilles along the southeastern fringe of the Caribbean Sea, just north of the Venezuelan coast of the South American mainland...
, both for the salt pans on Curaçao and Bonaire (large quantities of salt were needed to preserve fish), and as a strategic location off the South American mainland. The natural harbor of St Anna Bay on Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
was the perfect location for this. On April 6, 1634 they assigned Van Walbeeck to the task of taking it from the Spanish, who had colonized the island since the 1520s. On 4 May 1634, he departed from Holland with four ships, carrying 180 sailors and 250 soldiers, led by the French Huguenot mercenary Pierre Le Grand who had previously served the Dutch in Brazil. The small fleet arrived at Curaçao on July 6, but through adverse currents and winds could not enter the bay. On July 29, after being joined by a fifth ship and approaching from the north west, the fleet could enter the bay and captured the island from Spain with little resistance and without loss of life on either site. Van Walbeeck wrote in his diary, as transcribed by Johannes de Laet before it was lost, that the 32 Spanish and under 500 remaining (or reintroduced) local inhabitants just withdrew to the West end of the island after poisoning their wells and burning their villages. On August 21 the Spanish commander, Lope Lopez de Morla, signed the surrender. The Dutch deported the Spaniards and most West Indians to the Venezuealan port of Coro
Santa Ana de Coro
Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the oldest city in the west of Venezuela.-History:The city was founded on July 26, 1527 by Spanish colonists. The name "Coro" is believed to be an indigenous word meaning "wind".The city had a turbulent history in colonial times and suffered a number of...
, keeping about seventy-five of the latter as laborers. Thus, Van Walbeeck became the first director/governor of the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
. The first task was to build a fortification at the natural harbor, renamed "Schottegat" by the Dutch, which pentagonal structure ("Fort Amsterdam") was finished in 1635, following standard Dutch military engineering practice. During his three years as governor, the beginnings of the town of Willemstad
Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles
Willemstad is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Formerly the capital of the Netherlands Antilles prior to its dissolution in 2010, it has an estimated population of 140,000. The historic centre of...
were built next to the fort..
In 1638, he and Le Grand were sent to Brazil, while Jacob Pietersz Tolck took over his position as governor although van Walbeeck remained political director of Curaçao for the next several years. He stayed in Brazil as a member of the Hoge Raad until 1642, after which he returned to Holland again to give advice on the forthcoming expedition under Hendrick Brouwer to establish a trading base in Chile. He went back to Brazil, being mentioned as elder of the Reformed Church there. In 1647 he left Brazil. May be he died in the Netherlands, as he lived in Amsterdam when his wife was buried there on 29 April 1649.
Like Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
, Van Walbeeck was one of the limited number of WIC employees with a university education. The company appears to have valued him at least as highly as Stuyvesant and it has been suggested that he missed being appointed director-general of the New Netherlands merely by not being in the Netherlands at the right time.
Further reading
- Eisler, William Lawrence and Bernard Smith, ed. Terra Australis: The Furthest Shore. Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, 1988.
- Goslinga, Cornelis Christiaan. A Short History of the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.
- Hartog, Johannes. History of the Netherlands Antilles. Aruba: DeWitt, 1968.
- Henige, David P.David HenigeDavid Patrick Henige is an American historian, bibliographer, academic librarian and Africanist scholar. The majority of Henige's academic career has been spent in affiliation with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where for over three decades he has held the position of bibliographer in...
Colonial Governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970. - Hoebel, Edward Adamson, ed. The Netherlands East and West Indies. Inter-Allied Publications, 1945.
- Klooster, Wim. Illicit Riches: Dutch Trade in the Caribbean, 1648-1795. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998.