Hendrik Van Rheede
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Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein (Amsterdam, 13 April 1636 – at sea, 15 December 1691) was a military man and a colonial administrator of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
and naturalist. Between 1669 and 1676 he served as a governor of
Dutch Malabar Dutch Malabar (Dutch; ''Nederlandse Malabar''. Malayalam; ''ഡച്ച് മലബാർ''.) also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between ...
and employed twenty-five people on his book ''
Hortus Malabaricus ''Hortus Malabaricus'' (meaning "Garden of Malabar") is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora of the Malabar coast (the Western Ghats district, a region principally covering the areas which are presently in th ...
'', describing 740 plants in the region. As Lord of Mydrecht, he also played a role in the governance of the Cape colonies. Many plants such as the vine ''
Entada rheedii ''Entada rheedii'', commonly known as African dream herb or snuff box sea bean, and as the cacoon vine in Jamaica, is a large woody liana or climber of the Mimosa Family (Mimosaceae). The vine can grow as long as 120 meters (393.7 feet). Their s ...
'' are named for him.


Biography

Van Rheede was born into a family of noblemen that played a leading role in the political, administrative and cultural life of the province of
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
. His mother, Elisabeth van Utenhove, died in 1637 while his father, Ernst van Rheede, Council at the
Admiralty of Amsterdam The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam ...
, died when he was four. Hendrik Adriaan, the youngest of seven children, left home at the age of fourteen. In 1656 he joined as a soldier in the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
(V.O.C., Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) and served alongside
Johan Bax van Herenthals Johan Bax van Herenthals (14 March 1637 – 29 June 1678), also written as Joan Bax, and van Herentals, was born in 's-Hertogenbosch and was the governor of the Dutch Cape Colony from 1676 succeeding the acting interim governor IJsbrand Godske. ...
(who would also take an interest in natural history). Van Rheede served under Admiral
Rijcklof van Goens Rijcklof Volckertsz. van Goens (24 June 1619 – 14 November 1682) was the Governor of Zeylan and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the Governor of Zeylan from 12 May 1660 to 1661, then in 1663 and finally from 19 November 16 ...
in campaigns against the
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
on the west coast of India in erstwhile
Dutch Malabar Dutch Malabar (Dutch; ''Nederlandse Malabar''. Malayalam; ''ഡച്ച് മലബാർ''.) also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between ...
. He gained rapid promotion becoming an
ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
. In 1663, during a siege of
Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
, he was ordered to arrest the queen there and this act saved her life from the massacre of the royal family. The subsequent king of Cochin maintained cordial relations with him and Van Rheede was the Dutch captain who mediated with the Kingdom of Cochin. In 1665 he was appointed as commander in
Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...
and had
Johan Nieuhof Johan Nieuhof (22 July 1618 in Uelsen – 8 October 1672 in Madagascar) was a Dutch traveler who wrote about his journeys to Brazil, China and India. The most famous of these was a trip of from Canton to Peking in 1655-1657, which enabled hi ...
locked up for smuggling
pearls A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
. In 1669 Van Rheede seems to have been forced to resign from the Dutch East India Company by Van Goens.Ram (2005) The resignation was made as he opposed the repressive measures of Van Goens and instead favoured negotiation, but in 1670 he is appointed as commander of Dutch Malabar. In 1671 he fought with the
Zamorin of Calicut The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited by ...
. In 1672 he had to deal with the former VOC-employee
François Caron François Caron (1600–1673) was a French Huguenot refugee to the Netherlands who served the Dutch East India Company (''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC) for 30 years, rising from cook's mate to the director-general at Batavia (Ja ...
, then serving the
French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in the ...
. In 1677 Van Rheede moved to Jakarta, being appointed in the Counsel of India. He stayed for about six months but the conflict with Van Goens grew fiercer. He returned to
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
in June 1678. Since 1680 he could call himself Lord of
Mijdrecht Mijdrecht is a town in the Netherlands with about 16,000 residents. It is located in the municipality of De Ronde Venen, about west of the main A2 motorway, between Utrecht and Amsterdam. The main street is the Dorpstraat, where most shops and ...
(Mydrecht). In 1681 he signed a contract with the botanists
Jan Commelin Jan Commelin (23 April 1629 – 19 January 1692), also known as Jan Commelijn, Johannes Commelin or Johannes Commelinus, was a botanist, and was the son of historian Isaac Commelin; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. J ...
and
Johannes Munnicks Johannes Munnicks or ''Jean Munniks, Munnix, Munnicx, Munnigk, Munick, Jan Munnickius'' (16 October 1652 – 10 June 1711) was a Dutch Golden Age medical doctor and writer from the Northern Netherlands. Biography Munnicks was born in Utrec ...
and began work on the manuscript of the
Hortus Malabaricus ''Hortus Malabaricus'' (meaning "Garden of Malabar") is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora of the Malabar coast (the Western Ghats district, a region principally covering the areas which are presently in th ...
. In 1684 he was empowered by the "directors" (Council of Seventeen) of the Company to inspect the
Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
,
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and
Dutch India Dutch India consisted of the settlements and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. It is only used as a geographical definition, as there was never a political authority ruling all Dutch India. Instead, Dutc ...
to combat corruption within their employees. He appointed Isaac Soolmans to accompany him. They visited
Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. Background Simon was the son of Adriaan van der Steland Maria Lievens ...
in
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
, and
Groot Constantia Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and provincial heritage site in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa. "Groot" in Dutch and Afrikaans translates as "great" (as in large) in English. History In 1685, ...
; the area Groot Drakenstein was named after him. Van Rheede recommended measures for
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...
and
viniculture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ra ...
. Rheede, the Lord of Mydrecht, also made rules on how slaves would be treated and he decreed that slave children had to be taught to read and write with any flogging requiring permission. In 1687 Governor Van der Stel opened this region to farmers. Van Rheede was a bachelor, but had adopted a girl from Malabar with an unknown Dutch father. He met with Van Goens junior, an ambitious administrator on his way to Batavia. Both men didn't like each other at all. Some time before Van Goens had given orders—afraid for competition anywhere else in the world—to extirpate all the acclimatizating
cinnamon tree Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfas ...
s which were destined for the Amsterdam Municipal Garden. It is possible that the rare trees for the Grand Pensionary
Gaspar Fagel Gaspar Fagel (25 January 1634 – 15 December 1688) was a Dutch politician, jurist, and diplomat who authored correspondence from and on behalf of William III, Prince of Orange, during the English Revolution of 1688. Early life Fagel wa ...
were then also destroyed. Van Rheede sailed to
Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
and after two months to Bengal. He visited many VOC trading posts, especially around Hooghly. His next destination was the
Coromandel Coromandel may refer to: Places India *Coromandel Coast, India **Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements ** Dutch Coromandel *Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India New Zealand *Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula *Coro ...
and he stayed for one year in
Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...
. In 1690 he founded a seminary in
Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...
. Then he went to
Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly Tuticorin) is a port city, a municipal corporation and an industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The city lies in the Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal. Thoothukudi is the capital and ...
and the Malabar. In the end of November 1691 he sailed to
Dutch Suratte Suratte or Soeratte was a directorate of the Dutch East India Company between 1616 and 1795, with its main factory in the city of Surat. Surat was an important trading city of the Mughal Empire on the river Tapti, and the Portuguese had been tradin ...
, but died at sea, off the coast of
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
on December 15, 1691. Some authors suggest that he was poisoned by VOC employees while others that he was sick already for a while. Van Rheede was buried at
Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...
on 3 January 1692 in the presence of his daughter Francine and many notables. Among the attendants was also Van Rheede's secretary
Hendrick Zwaardecroon Hendrick or Henricus Zwaardecroon (26 January 1667 – 12 August 1728) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1718 until 1725. Early career Zwaardecroon left for the East Indies as a midshipman aboard the ''Purmer'' in December 1684 ...
, the future
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies ( nl, gouverneur-generaal van Nederlands Indië) represented Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949. Occupied by Japanese fo ...
.


Work in natural history

Hendrik van Rheede's work on the plants of the
Malabar region The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...
began in 1674 and it was around 1675 that the draft of the first volume of the ''
Hortus Malabaricus ''Hortus Malabaricus'' (meaning "Garden of Malabar") is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora of the Malabar coast (the Western Ghats district, a region principally covering the areas which are presently in th ...
'' was produced. Since 1660, the Dutch East India Company had encouraged publication of scientific work and the documentation of the useful plants by Van Rheede would help in the fight against local diseases. The first volume of the ''Hortus Malabaricus'' was published in 1678, a compendium of the plants of economic and medical value in the south Indian Malabar region, was undertaken when "
Jonkheer (female equivalent: ; french: Écuyer; en, Squire) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the ...
" Hendrik van Rheede was the Dutch Governor of Cochin and continued for the next three decades. It was published in twelve volumes and in four languages: Latin,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, Arabic and
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
.Fournier (1987) Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats from
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
to
Kanyakumari Kanniyakumari (; , referring to Devi Kanya Kumari), also known as Cape Comorin, is a city in Kanniyakumari district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent and the southernmost city in mainland Ind ...
. The ethno-medical information presented in the work was extracted from
palm leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and s ...
s by a famous practitioner of herbal medicine named Itty Achuden. Achuden was an vaiydan ("healer") of the local Ezhava tradition (that has in recent times been included under the label of Kerala Ayurveda). The compilations were edited by a team of nearly a hundred including physicians, professors of medicine and botany, amateur botanists (such as professor Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen, Paul Hermann,
Johannes Munnicks Johannes Munnicks or ''Jean Munniks, Munnix, Munnicx, Munnigk, Munick, Jan Munnickius'' (16 October 1652 – 10 June 1711) was a Dutch Golden Age medical doctor and writer from the Northern Netherlands. Biography Munnicks was born in Utrec ...
,
Jan Commelin Jan Commelin (23 April 1629 – 19 January 1692), also known as Jan Commelijn, Johannes Commelin or Johannes Commelinus, was a botanist, and was the son of historian Isaac Commelin; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. J ...
, Abraham Poot, the translator of a Dutch version), Indian scholars and ''vaidyas'' (physicians) of Malabar and adjacent regions, and technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of company officials, clergymen (Johannes Casearius and Father Mathew of St. Joseph). He was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut.
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
made use of Rheede's work, noting in the preface of his ''
Genera Plantarum ''Genera Plantarum'' is a publication of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The first edition was issued in Leiden, 1737. The fifth edition served as a complementary volume to ''Species Plantarum'' (1753). Article 13 of the Internati ...
'' (1737) that he did not trust any authors except '' Dillen'' in ''Hortus Elthamensis'', Rheede in ''Hortus Malabaricus'' and
Charles Plumier Charles Plumier (; 20 April 1646 – 20 November 1704) was a French botanist after whom the frangipani genus ''Plumeria'' is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. He made three botanizing ...
on American plants and further noted that Rheede was the most accurate of the three. Many of Linneaeus' specific epithets based on Rheede originate from Malayalam names. While visiting the Cape in 1685, van Rheede considered a work on African plants of economic importance, ''Hortus Africanus'', but this idea was never realized.


Notes


References

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External links


Hortus Malabaricus (scanned)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rheede, Hendrik Adriaan van 1636 births 1691 deaths 17th-century Dutch colonial governors 17th-century Dutch botanists Botanists active in India 17th-century Dutch writers Hortus Malabaricus Scientists from Utrecht (city) Dutch nobility Military personnel from Utrecht (city) History of Kerala Dutch East India Company people Biology and natural history in the Dutch Republic