Gezicht op Hoorn van Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom 1622 Westfries Museum Hoorn

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

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

.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 hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

voyage to

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norway, 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: la ...

. In 1620, he sailed to

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

, and sold the dried fish in Italy. In

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

he joined Charles, Duke of Guise. In 1624 he went to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

again, still in French service. After returning to the Netherlands, the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

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

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

. 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 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 headqua ...

. 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 2020 census, its population was 3,303. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Del ...

, 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 Free ...

s of the colony: Kiliaen de Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn, Samuel Blommaert, Albert Burgh, 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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

twice, eventually establishing a settlement on

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

(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 mediatory go-between trying to keep the peace between the

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

and

New Netherlands New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

Director-General William Kieft. De Vries famously tried to prevent Kieft from launching the Pavonia Massacre and Massacre at Corlears Hook, 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 N ...

. After the massacres, de Vries was influential in bringing the Hackensack Indians sachem Oratam 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 M ...

sachem Penhawitz 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 from colonial Delaware People from New Netherland Sailors on ships of the Dutch West India Company Frisians