- Hendrik Brouwer
Hendrik Brouwer (spring 1581 –
August 7 ,1643 ), was a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and theDutch East Indies .He is thought to first have sailed to the East Indies for the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1610 he left again to the Indies, now as commander of three ships. On this trip he devised theBrouwer Route , a route fromSouth Africa to Java that reduced voyage duration from a year to about 6 months by taking advantage of the strong westerly winds in theRoaring Forties (the latitudes between 40° and 50° south). Up to that point, the Dutch had followed a route copied from the Portuguese via the coast of Africa,Mauritius andCeylon . By 1617, the VOC required all their ships to take the Brouwer route.After his arrival in 1611 in the East Indies, he was sent to Japan to replace
Jacques Specx temporarily asopperhoofd atDejima from August 28, 1612 to August 6, 1614. [ [http://www.flc.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~michel/serv/histmed/dejimasurgeons.html Trading-post Chiefs, Medical and other Staff of the Dutch Factories Hirado and Dejima] ] . During that time he made a visit to the Japanese court atEdo . In 1613 he made a trip toSiam that laid the foundation for the Dutch trade with Siam.Early in 1632, he was part of a delegation sent to
London to solve trade disagreements between the British and Dutch East India companies. Afterwards he left for the Indies, and onApril 18 of that same year he was appointed Governor-General of theEast Indies , again following Jacques Specx, a position which he held untilJanuary 1 ,1636 .Anthony van Diemen was his assistant during this entire period, and many of the Dutch explorations into the Pacific carried out under Van Diemen's command were suggested in writing by Brouwer before he left.In 1642, the VOC joined the
Dutch West Indies Company in organizing an expedition toChile to establish a base for trading gold at the abandoned ruins of Valdivia. The fleet sailed fromDutch Brazil whereJohn Maurice of Nassau provided them with supplies. While rounding Cape Horn, the expedition established that Staten Island was not part of the unknownSouthland . After landing onChiloe Island , Brouwer made a pact with theMapuche (then known as the Araucanians) to aid in establishing a resettlement at Valdivia. However, on August 7, 1643 Hendrik died (at the age of 62) before arriving, and was succeeded by his vice-admiralElias Herckman , who landed at the ruins of Valdivia on August 24. Brouwer was buried in the new settlement, which Herckman named Brouwershaven after him. Herckman and his men occupied the location only until October 28, 1643. Having been told that the Dutch had plans to return to the location, the Spanish viceroy in Peru sent 1000 men in twenty ships (and 2000 men by land, who never made it) in 1644 to resettle Valdivia and fortify it. The Spanish soldiers in the new garrison disinterred and burned Brouwer's body. [Robbert Kock [http://www.colonialvoyage.com/dutchchile.html The Dutch in Chili] at coloniavoyage.com] [Kris E. Lane [http://books.google.com/books?id=893J8RTsKjgC Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750] , 1998, pages 88-92] .ee also
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Brouwer Route
*Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies References
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* [http://www.vocsite.nl/geschiedenis/personalia/brouwer.html A short biograpy (in Dutch)]
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