Jan van Riebeeck

From Freepedia

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April, 1619–18 January, 1677), was a Dutch colonial administrator. He was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands as the son of a surgeon. He grew up in Schiedam, where he married Maria de la Quellerie on 28 March 1649. She died in Malacca, now part of Malaysia, on 2 November 1664, at the age of 35.

Joining the Dutch East India Company (VOC), he served as an assistant surgeon in the East Indies, until undertaking the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa in 1651. He landed at the future Cape Town on 6 April 1652 and fortified the site as a way-station for the VOC trade route between the Netherlands and the East Indies.

Van Riebeeck was Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662; he was charged with building a fort, with improving the natural anchorage at Table Bay, planting fruit and vegetables and obtaining livestock from the indigenous Khoikhoi people. In the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town there is a wild almond hedge still surviving that was planted on his orders as a barrier. The initial fort was made of mud, clay and timber, and had 4 corners or bastions. This fort should not be confused with the present-day Cape Town Castle, which was built between 1666 and 1679, several years after Van Riebeeck left the Cape, has 5 bastions, and is made of brick, stone and cement.

Van Riebeeck reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652 Y1, which was spotted on December 17, 1652 (it was most likely not "discovered" by him, but his report is the only one that survives to this day).

He died in Batavia (now renamed Jakarta) on the island of Java in 1677.