Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater, also known as Anthonisz. or over 't Water (c. 1610 – 28 or 29 April 1682), was a merchant/trader and official 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 ...

(''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC).Historigraphical Institute (''Shiryō hensan-jo''), University of Tokyo,
"Diary of Pieter Anthonisz Overtwater"
retrieved 2013-2-4.

Career

Overtwater joined the VOC in 1640. Before this, he was a conrector of a school in

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 ( ...

and had no commercial experience. He was the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

opperhoofd ''Opperhoofd'' is a Dutch word (plural ''opperhoofden'') that literally translates to "upper-head", meaning "supreme headman". The Danish equivalent ''overhoved'', which is derived from a Danish pronunciation of the Dutch or Low German word, is als ...

Dejima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, it ...

in Japan from October 1642 to August 1643, and again from November 1644 to November 1645. He proposed to start a new

factorij Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

in the north of Japan, an unacceptable proposal for the Japanese interpreter, who refused to translate it. The Japanese however were interested to learn how to use a mortar, but Overtwater was not very willing to explain. He was

Governor of Formosa The governor of Formosa ( nl, gouverneur van Formosa; ) was the head of government during the Dutch colonial period in Taiwan, which lasted from 1624 to 1662. Appointed by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia (modern-day ...

from 1646 to 1649 and criticized. The east coast of Formosa was left by the company, being unprofitable and dangerous. He was stationed in

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 in 1666 in 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 ...

, where he proposed that children of

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

slaves could be baptized. In 1677 he was fired as an extraordinary council in Batavia, being accused of corruption or unfair trade.Gaastra, F.S. (1985) "''Constantijn Ranst en de corruptie onder het personeel van de VOC te Bengalen, 1669 - 1673''," p. 126-127; in Groenveld, S., M.E.H.N. Mout, I. Schoffer, ''Bestuurders en geleerden: opstellen over onderwerpen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis van de zestiende, zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. J.J. Woltjer bij zijn afscheid als hoogleraar van de Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden Amsterdam''.

References

1600s births 1682 deaths Colonial governors of Dutch Formosa People from Hoorn Dutch expatriates in Japan Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan {{Netherlands-bio-stub

Career

See also

References