Juan (Jan) Rodriguez

Juan Rodriguez (Dutch: Jan Rodrigues, Portuguese: João Rodrigues) was the first documented non-Native American to live on Manhattan Island. As such, he is considered the first non-native resident of what would eventually become New York City, predating the Dutch settlers. As he was born in Santo Domingo (now in the Dominican Republic) to a Portuguese sailor and an African woman, he is also considered the first immigrant, the first person of African heritage, the first person of European heritage, the first merchant, the first Latino, and the first Dominican to settle in Manhattan.

He was born in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) to an African woman and a Portuguese sailor, in an era in which a tenth of the Dominican population was born in Portugal, which at that time was in dynastic union with the Spanish Crown (see Iberian Union).

Raised in a culturally diverse environment in the Spanish settlement of Santo Domingo, Rodrigues was known for his linguistic talents and was hired by the Dutch captain Thijs Volckenz Mossel of the Jonge Tobias to serve as the translator on a trading voyage to the Native American island of Mannahattan. Arriving in 1613, Rodrigues soon came to learn the Algonquian language of the Lenape people and married into the local community. When Mossel's ship returned to the Netherlands, Rodrigues stayed behind with his native American family and set up his own trading post with goods given to him by Mossel, consisting of eighty hatchets, some knives, a musket and a sword.

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