Life
Bontekoe was born in Hoorn in Holland. In 1607, at the age of twenty, Bontekoe succeeded his father as captain of the ship Bontekoe. Ten years later, in 1617, the ship was taken by Barbary pirates and Bontekoe ended up at a slave market. He was bought free, but his ship was lost.
In 1618 Bontekoe enlisted in the service of the Dutch East India Company. On a voyage to Java he was shipwrecked, along with part of his crew, and continued in a lifeboat. After a grueling journey, including an attack by hostile natives on Sumatra, they reached Batavia on Java. Bontekoe was given a new command and an order to harass the Chinese coast.
In 1625 Bontekoe returned to Holland. After his return, he settled down in Hoorn to live a quiet life. On March 1, 1626, at the age of 38, Bontekoe married Eeltje Bruijnes.
Read more about this topic: Willem Ysbrandtsz. Bontekoe
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live...”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 30:19.
“My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and ... discuss with absolute frankness.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness. He alone lives, while other people, slaves of ceremony, let life slip past them in a kind of dream.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)