Pieter Nuyts

Pieter Nuyts or Nuijts (1598 – 11 December 1655) was a Dutch explorer, diplomat, and politician.

He was part of a landmark expedition of the Dutch East India Company in 1626–27, which mapped the southern coast of Australia. He became the Dutch ambassador to Japan in 1627, and he was appointed Governor of Formosa in the same year. Later he became a controversial figure because of his disastrous handling of official duties, coupled with rumours about private indiscretions. He was disgraced, fined and imprisoned, before being made a scapegoat to ease strained Dutch relations with the Japanese. He returned to the Dutch Republic in 1637, where he became the mayor of Hulster Ambacht and of Hulst.

He is chiefly remembered today in the place names of various points along the southern Australian coast, named for him after his voyage of 1626–27. During the early 20th century, he was vilified in Japanese school textbooks in Taiwan as an example of a "typical arrogant western bully".

Early life

Pieter Nuyts (writer)

Pieter Nuyts (1640 – buried 30 March 1709) was a Dutch poet and dramatist. The youngest son of the third Governor of Formosa (also called Pieter Nuyts), the younger Pieter was born into a comfortable situation, probably in Middelburg, before his family moved to the city of Hulst, where his father became mayor.

He authored several books of poetry and plays, including Admetus en Alcestis, a tragedy and satire of Juvenalis. Other works include De Bredaasche Klio and Beschryving van Etten, Leur en Sprundel, which is still used by historians of the region around Etten today.

References

Pieter Nuyts (disambiguation)

Pieter Nuyts may refer to: