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Adriaen (Aerjan) Block (c. 1567, Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
 – buried April 27 1627, Amsterdam) was a Dutch
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 and Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
 during four voyages from 1611 to 1614, following the 1609 expedition by Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson was an England sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. After several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to China, Hudson explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to the Orient under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company....
.






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Wpdms Aq Block 1614
Adriaen (Aerjan) Block (c. 1567, Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
 – buried April 27 1627, Amsterdam) was a Dutch
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 and Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
 during four voyages from 1611 to 1614, following the 1609 expedition by Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson was an England sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. After several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to China, Hudson explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to the Orient under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company....
. He is noted for establishing early trade with the Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
, and for the 1614 map of his last voyage on which many features of the mid-Atlantic region appear for the first time, and on which the term New Netherland
New Netherland

File:Seal of new netherland.jpgNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the Eastern Seaboard of North America....
 is first applied to the region. He is credited with being the first European to enter Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean and various rivers in the United States that lies between the coast of Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south....
 and the Connecticut River
Connecticut River

The Connecticut River is the largest river in New England, flowing south from the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire, along the border between New Hampshire and Vermont, through Western Massachusetts and central Connecticut into Long Island Sound at Old Saybrook, Connecticut....
 and to determine that Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
 and Long Island are islands.

Early life

Though spending much of his time on sea, Block called Amsterdam his home his entire life. There, on October 26 1603, he married Neeltje Hendricks van Gelder, with whom he would baptize five children between 1607 and 1615 (see ). In 1606 they moved into a house called "De Twee Bontecraijen" (The Two Hooded Crows) on Amsterdam's Oude Waal street, where they would live the rest of their lifes.

In the 1590s, Block already was active in the shipping trade, transporting wood from Northern Europe to deforested Spain. He is for example mentioned delivering Norwegian wood in April 1596 in Bilbao
Bilbao

Bilbao, is the largest city in the Basque Country in northern Spain and the capital of the province of Biscay .The city has 354,145 inhabitants and is the most financially and industrially active part of Greater Bilbao, the zone in which almost half of the Basque Country?s population lives....
. From there he headed for Rivadeo to buy goods for Cadiz
Cádiz

C?diz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of C?diz, one of eight which make up the Autonomous communities of Spain of Andalusia....
. In April 1601, he was part of a convoy of ships leaving Amsterdam for the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II.It was formed from the nationalised colony of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800....
, at that time probably as far as the Moluccas, returning home in 1603.

In the spring of 1604, after delivering goods in Liguria
Liguria

Liguria is a coastal Regions of Italy of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and food....
, Block sailed on to Cyprus
Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
 buying goods (rice, cotton, nuts, etc.) he hoped to sell in Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
. This trade fell through, and he headed home to Amsterdam. Passing Lisbon
Lisbon

Lisbon is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the Lisbon and capital of the Lisbon region. Its municipalities of Portugal, which matches the city proper excluding the larger continuous conurbation, has a municipal population of 564,477 in , while the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in total has around 2.8 million inha...
, he came upon a Lübeck
Lübeck

L?beck is the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites....
-based ship returning from a trip to Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
. He had written permission from Dutch authorities to capture enemy ships, which he put to use, taking the ship and its load to Amsterdam. Though the ship and some of its goods were returned to its owners, Block made a lot of money, with which he probably bought the house on the Oude Waal.

Block's New World Expeditions


Early Voyages (1611-1612)

Following Hudson's contact with the Native Americans in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley refers to the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, generally from northern Westchester County, New York northward to the cities of Albany, New York and Troy, New York....
 in 1609, the Dutch merchants in Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
 had deemed the area worth exploring as a potential source of trade for beaver
American Beaver

The American Beaver is a species of beaver native to Canada, much of the United States, and parts of northern Mexico. It was introduced in the most southern province of Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, and it adapted to its temperate forests many years ago....
 pelts, which were a lucrative market in Europe at the time.

The following year in 1610, a ship from Monnikendam, skipper Symen Lambertsz Mau, perished in the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
 and the following year in 1611, at the commission of a group of Lutheran merchants, Block and fellow captain Hendrick Christiaensen
Hendrick Christiaensen

Hendrick Christiaensen was a Dutch explorer who was involved in the earlier exploration of what became present day New York City.In 1611, Christiaensen paid two visits to Manhattan, including one with fellow explorer Adriaen Block....
 revisited the area Hudson had explored, bringing back furs and two sons of a native sachem
Sachem

Sachem may refer to:* Sachem, a Native American leader* A leader of Tammany Hall* The Sachem award, which replaced the Sagamore of the Wabash as Indiana's highest civilian honor...
. The prospect of successful fur trade prompted the States General, the Governing body of the Dutch Republic, to issue a statement, on March 27, 1614, stipulating that the discoverers of new countries, harbors, and passages would be given an exclusive patent good for four voyages, to be undertaken within three years, to the territories discovered, if the applicant would submit a detailed report within 14 days after his return.

The 1614 Expedition

In 1614, he made a fourth voyage to the lower Hudson in the Tyger
Tyger (ship)

The Tyger was the ship used by Dutch captain Adriaen Block during his 1613 voyage to explore the East Coast of North America and the present day Hudson River....
 accompanied by several other ships especially equipped for trading. While moored along southern Manhattan, the Tyger was accidentally destroyed by fire. Over the winter, he and his men, with help from the Lenape
Lenape

The Lenape are organized bands of Native Americans in the United States peoples with shared cultural and linguistic characteristics.These are the people who are living in what is now New Jersey and along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, the northern shore of Delaware, and the lower Hudson Valley and New York Harbor in New York, at the t...
, built the ship 16-ton Onrust
Onrust

The Onrust was a Dutch ship that was built by Adriaen Block and the crew of the Tyger , which had been destroyed by fire. The ship, a yacht, was the first decked vessel to be built entirely in America....
 (Trouble or Restless).

In this latter ship, he explored the East River
East River

The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland....
 and was the first known European to navigate the Hellegat (now called Hell Gate
Hell Gate

Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City in the United States. It separates Astoria, Queens, Queens from Randall's Island / Ward's Island ....
) and to enter Long Island Sound. Travelling along Long Island Sound, entered the Housatonic River
Housatonic River

The Housatonic River is a river, approximately 149 mi long, in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. It flows south to southeast, and drains about of southwestern New England into Long Island Sound....
 (which he named "River of Red Hills") and the Connecticut River, which he explored it at least as far as present day Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the Capital of the Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County, Connecticut on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts....
, sixty miles up the river . Leaving Long Island Sound, he charted Block Island
Block Island

Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, and is separated from the mainland by Block Island Sound....
, which is named for him and Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi? , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago....
, where he possibly named "Roode Eylandt
Aquidneck Island

Aquidneck Island is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. Its official name, Rhode Island, is used on USGS topographic and many other maps, but it is known locally as Aquidneck Island, in part to distinguish it from the Rhode Island, of which it is part....
" after the red (Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 rood) color of its soil . On Cape Cod
Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to as simply the Cape, is a peninsula in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States....
, he rendezvoused with one of the other ships of the expedition and left the Onrust behind before returning to Europe.

Life in the colony

Block set up some colonies in Connecticut; one of the first is present day Windsor. The life was hard, as it was settled in the winter as a result of the Connecticut river turning to ice.

New Netherland Company

Upon returning, Block compiled a map of his voyage together with known information of the time. The Block map was the first to apply the name "New Netherland
New Netherland

File:Seal of new netherland.jpgNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the Eastern Seaboard of North America....
" to the area between English Virginia and French Canada
New France

The Viceroyalty of New France was the area French colonization of the Americas by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763....
, as well as the first to show Long Island
Long Island

Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are Borough s of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban....
 as an island.

On October 11, 1614, Block, Christiaensen, and a group of twelve other merchants presented to the States General a petition to receive exclusive trading privileges for the area. Their company, the newly-formed New Netherland Company
New Netherland Company

New Netherland Company was a chartered company of The Netherlands merchants.Following Henry Hudson's exploration of the east coast of North America on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609, several Dutch merchants sent ships to trade with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and to search for the Northwest Passage....
, was granted exclusive rights for three years to trade between the 40th parallel and the 45th parallel
45th parallel

The 45th parallel refers to two latitude on the Earth's surface:*45th parallel north*45th parallel southIt may also refer to:*The 45th Parallel, a student-run newspaper at Taft High 7-12, a high school in Lincoln City, Oregon...
 .

Later life

After his return to Amsterdam in July 1614 he would not return to the New World again. In 1615, Block was given command of three men-of-war and eleven whaleships sent to Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is a Norway island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km? ....
 by the Noordsche Compagnie. He remained sailing until his death in 1627. He was buried in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk in a grave next to his wife.

Trivia

A multi-million dollar redevelopment on the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut is named Adriaen's Landing after Block. Adriaen Block has a middle school in Flushing, Queens (NYC) named after him.

See also

  • Dutch colonization of the Americas
    Dutch colonization of the Americas

    During the 17th century, Netherlands traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization, with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common as with settlements of other European nations....


External links