On-line edition

Vol. 24, No. 1 “De Nieu Nederlanse Marcurius” March 2008

Upcoming Events June 6–7: ICNS Program Institute of Early American History The conference will be held on the and Culture, in cooperation with the March 22, 2008. The Native campus of the University of North School of Arts and Sciences of The American Institute of the Hudson Carolina at Chapel Hill. All Catholic University of America, River Valley announces its 7th conference sessions, including the will hold a conference in Mohican–Algonquian People's workshop, will be held at the new Philadelphia September 18-20, Seminar at the New York State Center for Global Education 2008, on the uses of anti-popery in Museum in Albany, NY. (www.gi.unc. edu), conveniently the early modern world. This Contact: Mariann Mantzouris at: located across the street from the conference will explore the diverse PO Box 327, Sand Lake, NY 12153 Carolina Inn (www.carolinainn. uses of anti-popery in the Protestant Email : [email protected] com) where a block of rooms has Atlantic—whether religious, social, Telephone: 518–369–8116 been reserved for ICNS participants legal, economic, or political—from *** at a reduced rate. To register, book the time of the Reformation to the th a room, or see program, on-line, go era of massive Catholic migration to June 5–7, 2008. The 29 Con- to: www.unc.edu/aans. America in the mid-nineteenth ference of New York State History *** century. For more information go will be held at Skidmore College in to: www.mceas.org/anti-popery/ Saratoga Springs, NY. September 13, 2008. The NNI Contact: Field Horne, Conference announces its 31st Rensselaers- Chair, Conference on NYS History, wijck Seminar to be held at the News Box 215, Saratoga Springs, NY Huxley Theater of the NYS Mus- Baltic Wreck Could Be Dutch 12866; tel: 518–587–4962; email: eum in Albany, NY. The following [email protected]. For the speakers will explore the theme of A wooden sailing ship dating from th program go to: www.nyhistory.com relations between New Netherland the 17 century has been /cnysh/2008CNYSHprogram.htm and New France: discovered almost intact in the Baltic Sea off the island of Gotska *** Willem Frijhoff, Vrije U. A’dam Conrad Heidenreich, York U. Sandon off southeast Sweden. It June 6–7, 2008. The American José Brandão, Western Michigan U. was found at a depth of about 400 Association for Netherlandic James Bradley, ArchLink feet in 2003 by a Swedish television Studies [AANS], in cooperation Jacob Soll, Rutgers U. at Camden. crew preparing for an underwater with the Center for European Look for more details in next issue. documentary, but it was only last Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, an- year that it was fully explored using nounces its 14th Interdisciplinary *** a remotely operated submarine. The Conference on Netherlandic Studies September 18–20, 2008. The condition of the ship is such that it [ICNS]: “Dutch Studies in a McNeil Center for Early American is thought to be the best-preserved Globalized World.” Studies and the Omohundro of its kind ever seen (“Hardly a

New Netherland Project, CEC 803, Albany, NY 12230 Voice: 518–474–6067 Fax: 518–473–0472 [email protected] NNI office: 518–486–4815 www.nnp.org De Nieu Nederlanse Marcurius 2 shipwreck” says one source), thanks role. Here are four recently- and commodities rendered on to the low temperature and relative published books that deal with the canvas during the Dutch Republic’s lack of oxygen in the water. With influence and effects of this rise to prosperity. She notes too an an almost complete hull, a high important commercial activity: uncomfortable tension between stern, and a rounded bow, the vessel Matters of Exchange: Commerce, these elegant representations of is 65 feet long and 22 feet wide, and Medicine, and Science in the Dutch trade products and the darker had two, perhaps three, masts. Golden Age by Harold J. Cook. aspects of their histories. There are many blocks lying on the The author, a leading authority on Hardcover, 2007, 320pp, $26.40. deck, and carved heads near the the history of science and medicine, *** ship’s wheel. establishes a direct link between the Of interest to Marcurius readers The Taste of Conquest: The Rise rise of commerce in the Dutch and Fall of the Three Great Cities is the fact that, while the ship’s Empire and the flourishing of nationality is as yet unclear, many th of Spice by Michael Krondl, a scientific investigation in the 16 noted chef turned writer and food of its features and construction and 17th centuries. After studying a techniques strongly point to a Dutch historian, tells the story of three wealth of documents in Brazil, legendary cities—Venice, Lisbon, origin. The Baltic was an important South Africa, Asia, the Netherlands, area of trade for the Dutch, known and Amsterdam—and how their and elsewhere in Europe, Cook’s single-minded pursuit of spices as the moeder negotie or “mother revisionist book argues that the trade.” We have knowledge of more influenced the Western diet and set need for accurate information that in motion the first great wave of than 3,000 ship movements in this accompanied the rise of Dutch th globalization. In the 16th and 17th area by Dutch ships in the 17 commerce was the foundation for century, trading for essential bulk centuries, the world was brought the global spread of interest in together as a result of the spice goods such as grain, timber, and medicine, science, and natural iron. However, despite the trade. Before the great voyages of history. Hardcover, 2007, 576pp, discovery, Venice controlled this similarities this wreck shares with $23.10. Dutch shipbuilding, further trade and thereby became medieval investigation is needed before we *** Europe’s most cosmopolitan urban can know whether or not this is a Still Life and Trade in the Dutch center. Driven to dominate this Dutch vessel. The ship may be a Golden Age by Julie Berger business, Portuguese mariners contemporary of, though much Hochstrasser. The magnificent, pioneered sea routes to the New smaller than, the Swedish warship glowing still life paintings of the World and around the Cape of Vasa that sank on its maiden Dutch Golden Age depict tables Good Hope to India to unseat voyage in 1628 and was salvaged in richly laid with an array of products Venice. Then the savvy 1961. For more information on the that represent the fruits of that businessmen of Amsterdam created Vasa, go to: hem.bredband.net/ country’s global commerce. They the modern corporation known as johava/WASAe.htm. attest to the vast scope of the Dutch the Dutch East India Company, trade network – from domestic ousted the Portuguese, and took over as spice merchants to the Publications cheese to European wines, and to exotic commodities like pepper and world. This history presents a Seeds of Change porcelain. These paintings reveal a riveting globe-trotting tale of unquenchable desire, fanatical The historical trade in spices played lot about Dutch society and th religion, raw greed, and fickle a pivotal part in the development of capitalist culture of the 17 century, says the author of this fashion. Hardcover, 2007, 320pp, Western Europe and the conquest $17.13. and settlement of new worlds, in engaging book. Hochstrasser which the Dutch played a major explores for the first time the *** significance of various foodstuffs De Nieu Nederlanse Marcurius 3

Spice: The History of a Temptation Research Requests Taylor, Assistant Professor of by Jack Turner. Turner’s book History at Siena College. Board traces spices back through Information on the Romeyn family members Marilyn Douglas, prior to 1680: time—through history, myth, Elisabeth Funk, Jippe Hiemstra and archeology, and literature.The lure “According to the Romeyn family Fred Tibbitts were re-elected. This of spices helped draw Europeans tradition, the first Romeyns to come year’s National Endowment of the into their age of expansion, but the to New Netherland were two Humanities grant to fund the New Western world was far from brothers Klaes and Christophel who Netherland Project (NNP) was ignorant of them before that time. sailed from Rotterdam to Brazil as reduced from a three–year grant to This Australian writer’s lively and members of an expedition to that a one year grant (beginning wide-ranging account begins with country commanded by Prince February 08 – ending January 09). the voyages of discovery, but shows [Johan] Maurice of Nassau. Soon The NNP has submitted another that, even in ancient times, spices after arriving in Brazil that country proposal for a three–year grant to from distant India and Indonesia was ceded to Portugal, and follow this grant. In addition, the made their way west and fueled the thereupon the two Romeyns sailed NNI Board has approached the European imagination. Romans and for North America” The researcher NYS Education Department and the medieval Europeans alike used is looking for documentary Dutch government to secure Asian pepper, cinnamon, cloves, evidence to support this claim. consistent, adequate and nutmeg, and mace to enliven their Contact: Rosalind Walton at: dependable funding so that the NNP palates, treat their maladies, [email protected] can complete its mission. The City enhance their sex lives, and mediate *** of Schenectady has given John between the human and the divine. (former president of NNI) and Sally In 2012 the Belgian municipality of While many of their non-culinary th van Schaick the Patroon award for applications were not particularly Turnhout will celebrate its 800 their activities in promoting efficacious, spices retained their anniversary. As part of the Schenectady city and county history. allure, with all their exotic celebration organizers are planning The Board decided to give the Alice associations that remain to this day. an exhibit of one of its favorite P. Kenney awards for 2008 and 2009 The book brings out the mystery sons: Govert Loockermans. Ac- at events connected with the 2009 that people found in these flavors cording to Karl van den Broeck— Project or another major event to give and fragrances, and proposes that one of the organizers and editor–in– the Award more visibility. A sensations themselves have a chief of Knack magazine: “In our genealogical Committee has been history. Paperback, 348pp, $10.17. archives we found a lot of formed to examine the best way to information about the Loockermans *** utilize and harness the interest family, but there is no trace of him generated by calls and inquiries to Reminder: The quoted prices on after he went to Holland (Leiden) NNP about family lines; to generate the books above represent fairly and then on to Nieuw Amster- use of the documents translated by deep discounts by Amazon. If you dam.” NNP in genealogical research; and to plan to buy through this site, please Contact: karl.van.den.broek@ aid genealogists in searching their remember to access Amazon knack.be. early Dutch ancestry. Progress on the through our website. Just go to: 2009 four-part project and other www.nnp.org, click on books and NNI News activities of NNI are in the 2007 more and then Amazon. By so Annual Report to Members included doing the NNI will receive a The Institute added three new with this issue of the Marcurius. percentage of the sale; in fact, this members of the Board: Nancy procedure applies to any purchase, Curran of Schenectady, William whether book or monkey wrench. Greer of Brooklyn and Dr. Scott De Nieu Nederlanse Marcurius 4

Totidem Verbis

Seventeenth–century Dutch activities in the South Pacific suffer from the same syndrome as in North America. Here we still find it difficult to convince people that New Netherland was more than just a trading colony that disappeared once the English arrived, leaving barely a footprint. In Australia and New Zealand there is little acceptance of European activity in the area before the arrival of Captain Cook in the eighteenth century. Peter Douglas hopes to set the record straight with the following contribution.

Australia’s Dutch Columbus Nieuw Holland, Not New Netherland

We just missed the 400th anniversary, but here’s the information. It’s worth a look as it’s yet another example of the often understated but important role of the early Dutch in the history of the world. Again it’s the English that get the credit, for the Anglocentric claim that Captain Cook “discovered” Australia still has wide currency. However, in 1606, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie pinnace Dyfken (Little Dove) sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria in what is now Queensland, Australia, and into history. Under the command of Willem Janszoon (c.1570–1630), it became the first European vessel to make a recorded landfall on the Australian coast, 164 years before James Cook sailed the eastern coast. Sailing east from Bantam at the western end of Java in late 1605, the Duyfken was on an exploratory voyage for the VOC, as well as searching for gold and trade opportunities in the lands to the south and east. The route took the ship beyond Papua New Guinea and to the western side of what is now the Torres Straight. Here Janszoon turned south and sailed along the western side of Australia’s Cape York Peninsula, making landfall at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on February 26, 1606. Janszoon found the land swampy and the indigenous people inhospitable, for they killed some of the crew on various land expeditions. Running out of provisions, he was compelled to turn back at a place he charted as Cape Keerweer (Cape Turnabout or Blind Alley). Before returning home, Janszoon mapped hundreds of miles of coastline. The continent was first known as “New Holland” (named “Nova Hollandia” by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1644) and then Australia (officially adopted in 1824). In the Netherlands, “Nieuw Holland” would remain the usual name of the continent until the end of the 19th century; it is now no longer in use. The Dutch charted huge areas of the west, north, and south coasts in search of spices and other trade goods, but they never colonized this land, perceiving it as barren and inhabited by hostile natives. The second Dutch ship to make landfall was the Eendracht (Unity) under the command of Dirk Hartog, on the western coast of the continent, in 1616. He named the place “Eendrachtsland.” This was followed in 1618 by the Zeewulf, landing somewhat to the north of Hartog, and in 1627 by Francois Thijssen, who, in the Gulden Zeepaert (Golden Seahorse), explored more than 1,100 miles of the south Australian coast, and became the first European to see this part of the land. Between 1606 and 1770, when James Cook explored the eastern coast and claimed New South Wales for Great Britain, more than forty Dutch vessels had already sailed to this new land. Clearly it’s not just in the North American continent where the significance of the Dutch achievement has long been little known and under-appreciated! For more information on Nieuw Holland go to: www.voc.iinet.net.au/