Hendrik Van Rheede - Biography

Biography

Van Rheede was born in a family of noblemen that played a leading part in the political, administrative and cultural life of the province Utrecht. His mother Elisabeth van Utenhove died in 1637, his father, Ernst van Rheede, Council at the Admiralty of Amsterdam, died when he was four. Hendrik Adriaan, the youngest of seven children, left home at the age of fourteen. In 1656 he joined as a soldier in the Dutch East India Company and met with Johan Bax van Herentals. Van Rheede served under Admiral Rijcklof van Goens in campaigns against the Portuguese on the west coast of India. He gained rapid promotion becoming an ensign. In 1663, during a siege of Cochin, he was ordered to arrest the queen there and this act saved her life from the massacre of the royal family. The subsequent king of Cochin maintained cordial relations with him and Van Rheede was the Dutch captain who mediated with the Kingdom of Cochin. In 1665 he was appointed as commander in Jaffna and had Johan Nieuhof locked up for smuggling pearls.

In 1669 Van Rheede seems to be forced to resign from the Dutch East India Company by Van Goens. The resignation was made as he opposed the repressive measures of Van Goens and instead favoured negotiation, but in 1670 he is appointed as commander of Dutch Malabar. In 1671 he fought with the Zamorin of Calicut. In 1672 he had to deal with the former VOC-employee François Caron, then serving the French East India Company.

In 1677 Van Rheede moved to Jakarta, being appointed in the Councel of India. He stayed for about six months but the conflict with Van Goens was growing more and more fierce. He returned to Amsterdam in June 1678. Since 1680 he could call himself Lord of Mijdrecht. In 1681 he signed a contract with the botanists Jan Commelin and Johannes Munnicks and worked on the manuscript.

In 1684 he was empowered by the "directors" (Council of Seventeen) of the Company to inspect the Cape Colony, Ceylon and Dutch India to combat corruption within their employees. He appointed Isaac Soolmans to accompany him. They visited Simon van der Stel in Cape of Good Hope, and Groot Constantia; the area Groot Drakenstein was named after him. Van Rheede recommanded measures for forestry and viniculture. In 1687 Governor Van der Stel opened this region to farmers. Van Rheede was a bachelor, but had adopted a girl from Malabar with an unknown Dutch father. He met with Van Goens junior, an ambitious administrator on his way to Batavia. Both men didn't like each other at all. Some time before Van Goens had given orders - afraid for competition anywhere else in the world - to extirpate all the acclimatizating cinnamon trees which were destined for the Amsterdam Municipal Garden. It is possible that the rare trees for the Grand Pensionary Gaspar Fagel were then also destroyed.

Van Rheede sailed to Colombo and after two months to Bengal. He visited many of VOC-trading post, espially around Hooghly. His next destination was the Coromandel and stayed for one year in Nagapattinam. In 1690 he founded a seminary in Jaffna. Then he went to Tuticorin and the Malabar. In the end of November 1691 he sailed to Dutch Suratte, but died at sea, off the coast of Bombay on December 15, 1691. Some authors suggest that he was poisoned by VOC-employees. others that he was sick already for a while. He was buried at Surat on 3 January 1692 in the presence of his daughter Francine.