Jacob Roggeveen (1 February 1659,
MiddelburgMiddelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated on the peninsula of Walcheren. It has a population of about 46,600.- History of Middelburg :...
- 31 January, 1729, Middelburg) was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
explorer who was sent to find
Terra AustralisTerra Australis was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Other names for the continent include Terra Australis Incognita , Magallanica or Magellanica , La Australia del Espiritu Santo , and...
, but he instead came across
Easter IslandEaster Island ; is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai , created by the early Rapanui people...
by chance.
His father, Arend Roggeveen, was a
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
with much knowledge of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
,
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, and the theory of
navigationNavigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. The word navigate is derived from the Latin "navigare", meaning "to sail"...
as well. He occupied himself with study of the mythical Terra Australis, and even got a patent for an exploratory excursion; but it was to be his son who, at the age of 62, eventually equipped three ships and made the expedition.
Before he set out he had already lived a busy life.
Jacob Roggeveen (1 February 1659,
MiddelburgMiddelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated on the peninsula of Walcheren. It has a population of about 46,600.- History of Middelburg :...
- 31 January, 1729, Middelburg) was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
explorer who was sent to find
Terra AustralisTerra Australis was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Other names for the continent include Terra Australis Incognita , Magallanica or Magellanica , La Australia del Espiritu Santo , and...
, but he instead came across
Easter IslandEaster Island ; is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai , created by the early Rapanui people...
by chance.
Early career
His father, Arend Roggeveen, was a
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
with much knowledge of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
,
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, and the theory of
navigationNavigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. The word navigate is derived from the Latin "navigare", meaning "to sail"...
as well. He occupied himself with study of the mythical Terra Australis, and even got a patent for an exploratory excursion; but it was to be his son who, at the age of 62, eventually equipped three ships and made the expedition.
Before he set out he had already lived a busy life. He became
notaryCivil-law notaries are specialized lawyers acting as public officers with jurisdiction over voluntary, i.e., non-contentious, private law. Unlike notary publics, their common-law counterparts, they are able to provide legal advice and prepare instruments with legal effect...
of Middelburg (the capital of the province of Zeeland, where he was born) on 30 March, 1683. On 12 August, 1690 he graduated as a doctor of the law at
University of HarderwijkThe University of Harderwijk , also named the Guelders Academy, was located in the town of Harderwijk, in the Republic of the United Provinces...
. He married Marija Margaerita Vincentius, but she died in October 1694. In 1706 he joined the Dutch East Indies Company, and between 1707 and 1714 as a
Raadsheer van Justitie ("Council Lord of Justice") at Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now
JakartaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a greater population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia , and Djakarta . Located on the northwest coast of Java, it has an area of and a population of 8,489,910...
). He married Anna Adriana Clement there, but she died soon afterward. In 1714, he returned to Middelburg by himself.
He became involved in religious controversies, supporting the liberal
preacherPreacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies.Some believe a preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined. Preaching is not limited to religious views,...
Pontiaan van Hattem by publishing his leaflet
De val van 's werelds afgod (The fall of the world's idol). The first part appeared in 1718, in Middelburg, and was subsequently confiscated by the city council and burned. Roggeveen fled from Middelburg to nearby Flushing. Thereafter he established himself in the small town of
ArnemuidenArnemuiden is a small town of around 5000 people in the municipality of Middelburg in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. It is located on the former island of Walcheren, about 3 km east of the city of Middelburg.It received city rights in 1574....
, and published parts 2 and 3 of the series, again raising a controversy.
Explorations
On 1 August 1721 he left on his expedition, in the service of the
Dutch West India CompanyDutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx . On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the African slave...
, to seek Terra Australis. It consisted of three ships, the
Arend, the
Thienhoven, and
Afrikaansche Galey.
Roggeveen first sailed down to the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately from the coast of mainland South America, from mainland Antarctica, and from Africa. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, as well as 776 smaller islands...
(which he renamed Belgia Australis), passed through the Strait of Le Maire and continued south to beyond
60 degrees southThe 60th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 60 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. The latitudes below this parallel are often referred to as the Screaming 60's due to the prevailing, high-speed, westerly winds which can generate large waves in excess of 50 feet and peak wind...
to enter the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
. He made landfall near
ValdiviaValdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately 15 km east of the coastal towns of Corral and...
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. He visited the
Juan Fernández IslandsThe Juan Fernández Islands is a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of several volcanic islands:...
, where he spent 24 February to 17 March. He later encountered
Easter IslandEaster Island ; is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai , created by the early Rapanui people...
(Rapa Nui) on
Easter SundayEaster is the most important annual religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day from his crucifixion...
, 5 April, 1722 (whereupon he reported seeing 2,000-3,000 inhabitants). He then sailed to Batavia by way of the Tuamotu Archipelago, the
Society IslandsThe Society Islands are a group of islands in the south Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...
, and
SamoaSamoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa , is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and Savai'i...
. There he was arrested because he had violated the
monopolyIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
of the
Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock...
, but the Company was later forced to release him, to compensate him for the trouble, and to pay his crew. In 1723, Roggeveen returned to the Netherlands.
After his return Roggeveen published part 4 of
De val van 's werelds afgod.