Adriaen Block ::: Project ETERNITY

Adriaen Block (fl. 1610-1624) was a Dutch navigator who explored the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during the 1610s following the 1609 expedition by Henry Hudson. He is noted for establishing early trade with the Native Americans, and for the map of his voyage on which many features of the mid-Atlantic region appear for the first time, and on which the term New Netherland is first applied to the region. He is credited with possibly being the first European to enter Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River.

Block's Expeditions

Early Voyages (1610-1612)

Following Hudson's contact with the Native Americans in the Hudson Valley in 1609, the Dutch merchants in Amsterdam had deemed the area worth exploring as a potential source of trade for beaver pelts, which were a lucrative market in Europe at the time.

The 1613-1614 Expedition

In 1613, he made a fourth voyage to the lower Hudson in the Tyger 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, built the 42-foot ship 16-ton Onrust (Restless).

United 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" to area between English Virginia and French Canada, as well as the first to show Long Island as an island.

See also

External links

Block, Adriaen

Block, Adriaen

Block, Adriaen

Copyrights