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 ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(''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 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 ...

and had no commercial experience. He was the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

opperhoofd is a Dutch word (plural ) that literally translates to "upper-head", meaning "supreme headman". The Danish cognate , which is a calque derived from a Danish pronunciation of the Dutch or Low German word, is also treated here. The standard Ge ...

Dejima or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...

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, of ...

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 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, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and in 1666 in the

Cape colony The Cape Colony (), 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. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

, where he proposed that children of Malabar 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