Cornelis Jacobszoon May

Cornelis Jacobszoon May , often in English also Cornelius Jacobsen May or Cornelis Jacobsen Mey , as well as various other variations thereof, was a Dutch explorer , captain and fur trader , and from 1624 to 1625 the first general director of Nieuw Nederland , based in Nieuw Amsterdam , today's New York City .

Life

Little is known about May's life. He is said to have been born in the town of Hoorn or in the small village of Schellinkhout , a little east of Hoorn. Furthermore, he is believed to be the brother of the whaler Jan Jacobs May van Schellinkhout , to whom the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen was named in honor . The two brothers are also said to be the cousins ​​of the well-known navigator Jan Corneliszoon May (also Jan Cornelisz. May ; May was initially just an epithet and later became the main name), who led numerous expeditions in the Northeast Passage and was at the side from 1614 to 1617 by Joris van Spilbergen on behalf of the Dutch East India Company circumnavigated the world in a fleet of six ships.

In 1614 May sailed on the Hudson River - which at the time did not yet have that name and was mostly called Noortrivier - to reach an agreement between various competing traders. On October 11, 1614 May became a partner in the so-called Nieuw-Nederland Compagnie , which received an exclusive patent from the States General for four trips to be undertaken over three years in the area between the 40th and 45th parallel . These expeditions lasted until January 1618. From August to November 1616, the company tried unsuccessfully to obtain a new patent for an area between the 38th and 40th parallel (in the Delaware Bay area ), which Cornelis Hendricksz van Monnikendam had on the ship Onrust had been monitored. In 1616, Cornelis Hendricksz sailed the Onrust , which was the first ship ever built in what is now New York State , on the Zuyd Rivier (now the Delaware River ) from its bay to the northernmost navigable foothills, by three fur traders from the to supply Fort Nassau in the north, which had only been founded two years earlier .

As a result, May had explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay on the Blijde Boodschap in 1620 on behalf of the successor organization of the Nieuw-Nederland Compagnie . At the same time, he continued to trade with the Indian population. The following year he ordered the construction of a trading post in Fort Nassau, at the mouth of Big Timber Creek . Two of his six business partners on the Blijde Boodschap and Bever , who focused on exploring and trading on the Zuid Rivier, were Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen and Samuel Godijn .

As a result, May was unable to maintain stable trade relationships (with the exception of competing Dutch companies) on the Zuidt River (later the Delaware River ). After a later agreement between the competing Dutch companies, a new trade conflict arose, which could only be resolved by a judgment at the court of arbitration in Amsterdam on December 23, 1623. The region between the 38th and 39th parallel came under the jurisdiction of the Dutch West India Company , which brought the first settlers (mainly families from Wallonia and Flanders ) to Nieuw Nederland in 1624 . May was the captain of the ship Nieu Nederlandt (also Nieuw Nederland or New Netherland ), which brought the first settlers to the North American colony of the same name. The first settlers disembarked at Fort Orange (near what is now Albany in the US state of New York ), another group of settlers left the ship on what is now Governors Island in what is now New York City (then Pagganack or Noten Eylandt ). A total of 30 different families consisting of a total of 110 family members are said to have been on the Nieu Nederlandt .

In the spring of 1624 May returned as commandant of Nieuw Nederland. While some people were sent to the company's headquarters in what is now Connecticut , two families and eight single men stayed at their drop- off point and set off with a sloop to the Zuidt River (also known as the South River ), where they opened the trading post or on what is now Burlington Island . established the Fort Wilhelmus trading post . Another eight men stayed at Noten Eylandt to build something up here and to advance the fur trade. 18 other families moved further upstream to Fort Orange. After helping transform the area into a province, May was appointed the first governor of Nieuw Nederland. After his contract had expired a year later, Willem Verhulst received instructions from the Dutch West India Company in April 1625 to concentrate the settlers in a larger settlement, which was supposed to be done in order to save costs and at the same time better defend himself against possible attacks to be able to. Little is known about May's later life; it does not even mention the year of his death.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Simplicissimus and his poet: Collected essays , p. 51
2. ↑ Scheyichbi and the beach: Or, Early Days Along the Delaware, p.11