Gezicht op Hoorn van Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom 1622 Westfries Museum Hoorn

David Pieterszoon de Vries ( – 13 September 1655) was a Dutch navigator from

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ...

.Joris van der Mee
Koopman in de West; De indianen en de Nieuw Nederlanders in het journaal van David Pietersz. De Vries
, 2001 (Dutch)

Biography

In 1617, De Vries went on a

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

voyage to

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger ...

. In 1620, he sailed to

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, and sold the dried fish in Italy. In

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

he joined

Charles, Duke of Guise Charles de Lorraine, 4th Duke of Guise and 3rd Prince of Joinville (20 August 1571 – 30 September 1640), was the son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves, and succeeded his father as Duke of Guise in 1588. Initially part of the Cath ...

. In 1624 he went to Canada again, still in French service. After returning in the Netherlands, the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

put an embargo on his ship. De Vries sold his ship and left for

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...

. In 1627, he sailed from Hoorn to Batavia. On board was

Jan Pietersz Coen Jan Pieterszoon Coen (, 8 January 1587 – 21 September 1629) was an officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 17th century, holding two terms as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. He was the founder of Batavia, ...

, only recognized during the trip. From the Dutch Indies he sailed to

Masulipatnam Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the mandal headquar ...

. In 1629, twenty-eight colonists sailed to North America and planted the Swanendael Colony in

Lewes, Delaware Lewes ( ) is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delawar ...

, organized for the Dutch West India Company by five merchants from New Amsterdam, who hoped to become

patroon In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch '' patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms ...

s of the colony: Kiliaen de Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn,

Samuel Blommaert Samuel Blommaert (''Bloemaert'', ''Blommaerts'', ''Blommaart'', ''Blomert'', etc.) (11 or 21 August 1583, in Antwerp – 23 December 1651, in Amsterdam) was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company from 1622 to 1629 ...

Albert Burgh Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh (1593 – 24 December 1647) was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Biography Burgh was born into a rich brewer's family. He studied medicine in Leiden in 161 ...

, Joannes de Laet and De Vries. Upon visiting the colony in 1632, however, De Vries found that the settlers had been massacred, and their fort burned to the ground. He returned to North America twice, eventually establishing a settlement on

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

(1639), and another, north of Pavonia, known as Vriessendael (1640). In 1636, De Vries built a

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

at Signal Hill on Staten Island, the first signal house erected by European settlers in North America and the future site of Fort Tompkins. De Vries often acted as a go-between trying to keep the peace between the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

and

New Netherlands New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

director-general William Kieft. De Vries famously tried to prevent Kieft from launching the Pavonia Massacre and

Massacre at Corlears Hook The Massacre at Corlears Hook of February 25, 1643 was a colonial massacre of forty Wecquaesgeek of all ages and genders on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, perpetrated by a force led by Maryn Adriansen, acting under Willem Kieft, the Director of ...

, which set off the two year long

Kieft's War Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Ne ...

. After the massacres, De Vries was influential in bringing the

Hackensack Indians Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or ''Lenni-Lenape'' ("original men"), a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jers ...

sachem

Oratam Oratam (or Oritani/Oratamin) was sagamore, or sachem, of the Hackensack Indians living in northeastern New Jersey during the period of early European colonization in the 17th century. Documentation shows that he lived an unusually long life (almo ...

and also the

Canarsee The Canarsee (also Canarse and Canarsie) were a band of Munsee-speaking Lenape who inhabited the westernmost end of Long Island at the time the Dutch colonized New Amsterdam in the 1620s and 1630s. They are credited with selling the island of Man ...

sachem

Penhawitz Penhawitz was Sachem of the Canarsee band of Munsee in the 1630s and 1640s, and cultivated a relationship with the government of New Netherland. He was the first Long Island sachem known to the Dutch, and was based in modern Brooklyn. Penhawi ...

to negotiate a truce, which did not hold in the face of Kieft's aggressive policies.Ruttenber,E. M.,''Indian Tribes of Hudson's River'', (Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001) 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 in the wake of the Pavonia Massacre, and returned to Holland.

Work

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vries, David Pietersen de 17th-century Dutch explorers 1590s births 1660s deaths Dutch explorers of North America Kieft's War People from Hoorn People from La Rochelle People from Staten Island People of colonial Delaware People of New Netherland Sailors on ships of the Dutch West India Company Frisians