Georg Friedrich Wreede or Georgius Fredericius Wreede (died on 29 February 1672) was governor of
Dutch Mauritius from 1665 to 1672, with a break between 1668-1669.
Wreede was born around 1635 in
Uetze near
Hannover, in Germany. In 1659 he arrived at
Cape of Good Hope as an employee of the
Dutch East India Company (
Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, commonly abbreviated to VOC). He had been a student in
Philology in
Helmstedt and within four years of his arrival he had written a
compendium using the
Greek alphabet on
Khoikhoi – then called Hottentot – consisting of sentences with Dutch translations.[1] The "list" was sent to Amsterdam, but never published and has disappeared.[2][3]: 273–274 Possibly it was sent to
Hiob Ludolf, who was a famous linguist, and in contact with
Nicolaes Witsen.
Christian Juncker published Ludolf's biography with a list of Hottentots-Latin words.[4]
In 1660 he took part in an expedition to the
Olifants River.[5][better source needed] In February 1665 he was sent by
Zacharias Wagenaer on an expedition to look if
Martin Vaz could be used by ships, and returned in May with
charts.[6] The
Pimpel went on to Mauritius and Wreede was appointed by the captain as the new governor.[7]: 138, 162 For three months the twelve men on the island had been without rice or brandy. In October 1668, the captain of the visiting
Poelsnip using his discretion relieved Wreede of his duty following formal complaints by his men, and removed him from the island to be held accountable to the VOC for his actions.[8]: 23 Dirk Jansz Smient was appointed to replace him.
Wreede was sent to
Saldanha Bay where the
French East India Company had planned a base, after leaving Madagascar.[9] On 6 June 1669 Georg Wreede took command of the post and brought with him a carpenter. They erected a VOC monogram on each of the five islands in Saldanha Bay. A month later Wreede was transferred.[10] In October 1669 he was back on the island Mauritius.[11]: 2 [8]: 24
Wreede drowned in 1672 while sailing intoxicated.[8]: 26 [12]: 15 He was eventually replaced by
Hubert Hugo.
In 1688
Olfert Dapper probably used Wreede's observations but did not mention his source.[13][14]: 161
References
^Hesseling, D.C. (1899).
Het Afrikaansch [The Afrikaans] (in Dutch) (1st ed.). pp. 22–26. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
^Goodwin, A. J. H. (1952). "Commentary on 'Jan van Riebeeck and the Hottentots'". The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 7 (26). South African Archaeological Society: 86–91.
doi:
10.2307/3887454.
JSTOR3887454.
^den Besten, Hans (2010). Huigen, Siegfried; de Jong, Jan L.; Kolfin, Elmer; et al. (eds.). "A badly harvested field: The growth of linguistic knowledge and the Dutch Cape colony until 1796". The Dutch Trading Companies as Knowledge Networks. Intersections – Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture. 14. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill: 267–294.
doi:
10.1163/ej.9789004186590.i-448.
ISBN9789004186590.
S2CID161385081.
^Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) Archives (1901). Leibbrandt, H. C. V. (ed.).
Journal, 1662–1670. Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Vol. 14. Cape Town: W. A. Richards & sons.
^
abcTurton, Anthony (2009). "A South African Diary: Contested Identity, My Family – Our Story, Part A: Pre-1700".
CiteSeerX10.1.1.544.9959.
^Parkington, John E. (2009) [Replaces cloth edition originally published in 1984].
"Soaqua and Bushmen: Hunters and Robbers". In Schrire, Carmel (ed.). Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies (illustrated reprint ed.). Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
ISBN9781598744576.
Further reading
Moree, Perry J. (1998). A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598-1710: A Fruitful and Healthy Land. London: Kegan Paul International.
ISBN9780710306098.