Zacharias Wagenaer
| Zacharias Wagenaer | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Commander of the Cape | |
|
In office 6 May 1662 – 27 September 1666 |
|
| Preceded by | Jan van Riebeeck |
| Succeeded by | Cornelis van Quaelberg |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 May 1614 Dresdner Neustadt |
| Died | 12 October 1668 (aged 54) Amsterdam |
| Resting place | Oude Kerk, Amsterdam |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Auxbrebis |
Zacharias Wagenaer (also known as Wagener, Wagenaar or Wagner) (10 May 1614 in Dresdner Neustadt – 12 October 1668 in Amsterdam) was a clerk, illustrator, merchant, member of the Court of Justice, opperhoofd of Deshima and the only German governor of the Dutch Cape Colony. In 35 years he traveled over four continents.
Zacharias was the son of a Saxonian judge and a painter. In 1633 he traveled from Dresden via Hamburg to Amsterdam. There he worked for Willem Blaeu. Within a year he enlisted as a soldier in the armed forces of the Dutch West India Company to serve in "New Holland" (Dutch Brazil) in 1634. Three years later, he was hired as a writer by the newly arrived governor of the colony, Count John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen. In Recife he kept a sort of diary with 109 water-colour drawings of curious fish, strange birds, useful and harmful animals, lovely tasty fruit and nasty, poisonous worms and big, brown or black people, published as "Thier-Buch". There are pictures of the Smooth Hammerhead, Cutlassfish, slender filefish, Serranidae, and Cirripedia. In 1641, he left Dutch Brazil, and traveled back to Dresden. After four months he returned already to the Netherlands, and took a position with the Dutch East India Company.
In 1642 he sailed for the Indies as a midshipman. In the next year he became an assistant for the governors Antonie van Diemen and Cornelis van der Lijn; in 1646 he became under-merchant and in 1651 merchant. Three times he became a member of the Court of Justice at Batavia. In 1653 he went on a mission to Canton to open up again trade relations, which proved fruitless, due to a civil war after the Fall of the Ming Dynasty.
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