Zacharias Wagenaer

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".

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.

He traveled to the capital Edo in a tributary mission and escaped from a burning city, which started on 2 March 1657.

[4]: 164  Wagener made the design of this Japanese porcelain, according to the European taste white and blue, with many flowers.

[7] By abstaining from further expeditions Wagener could pursue his policy to refrain from an interference in tribal disputes, and to keep strictly neutral.

After five years studying, the German student Georg Friedrich Wreede wrote a compendium of the Dutch and Hottentot language.

[10] He constructed a waterbasin, supplying the ships with fresh water, a hospital, a school and a church.

He embarked on this expedition with a limited knowledge of the Malay or the Javanese language, and the result of the mission turned out to be fruitless.

The Great Fire of Meireki that lasted for three days and may have caused 100,000 deaths. Reconstruction efforts took two years, as the shogunate took the opportunity to reorganize the city according to various practical considerations.