Rijckloff van Goens

Rijcklof Volckertsz. van Goens (24 June 1619 – 14 November 1682) was the Governor of Zeylan and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the Governor of Zeylan from 12 May 1660 to 1661, then in 1663 and finally from 19 November 1664 to 1675 during the Dutch period in Ceylon. He was also served as Council Member of India during 1679. Van Goens’ managed to monopolize the cinnamon trade, get hold of the Malabar pepper and drive away the Portuguese from Ceylon and the Coromandel Coast for the VOC.

Van Goens was born in Rees. He wrote extensively about his travels to Java, Ceylon and India. His writing about visits to the palaces of Sultan Agung and his successors are important references for historians of the Mataram era in Java. He died in Amsterdam, aged 63.

On 20 February 1673, Van Goens with a fleet of 6,000 men attacked Bombay. Soon, The Treaty of Westminster concluded between England and the Netherlands in 1674, relieved the British settlements in Bombay of further apprehension from the Dutch. In 1679 when Rijckloff van Goens arrived at Cape Town, while recuperating from an illness. He recommended to the Chamber of Seventeen, the governing body of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), that land should be granted to Simon van der Stel. When Simon van der Stel received title to 891 morgen (about 763 hectares) on 13 July 1685, he built a house and used the land to produce wine and called the estate as Groot Constantia where Groot in Dutch is great and Constantia is daughter's name of Rijckloff van Goens. Provided by Wikipedia