Captain David Pietersen de Vries (born c. 1593, date of death unknown) was a Dutch navigator from Hoorn, Holland, and patroon of the company that founded the Zwaanendael Colony in Lewes, Delaware. In 1631, 28 colonists sailed to North America under the leadership of de Vries and established the colony with five more from New Amsterdam. Shortly thereafter, de Vries left the men returned to Holland. Upon his return visit in 1632, de Vries found the settlers massacred and their fort burned to the ground. He recorded the details of the account told to him by Nanticoke Indians:
"He then showed us the place where our people had set up a column to which was fastened a piece of tin, whereon the arms of Holland were painted. One of their chiefs took this off, for the purpose of making tobacco-pipes, not knowing that he was doing amiss. Those in command at the house made such an ado about it that the Indians, not knowing how it was, went away and slew the chief who had done it, and brought a token of the dead to the house to those in command, who told them that they wished that they had not done it; that they should have brought him to them, as they wished to have forbidden him not to do the like again. They went away, and the friends of the murdered chief incited their friends, as they are a people like the Indians, who are very revengeful, to set about the work of vengeance. Observing our people out of the house, each one at his work, that there was not more than one inside, who was lying sick, and a large mastiff, who was chained, - had he been loose they would not have dared to approach the house, - and the man who had command standing near the house, three of the stoutest Indians, who were to do the deed, bringing a lot of bear-skins with them to exchange, sought to enter the house. The man in charge went in with them to make the barter, which being done, he went to the loft where the stores lay, and in descending the stairs one of the Indians seized an axe and cleft his head so that he fell down dead. They also relieved the sick man of life, and shot into the dog, who was chained fast, and whom they most feared, twenty-five arrows before they could dispatch him. They then proceeded towards the rest of the men, who were at work, and, going amongst them with pretensions of friendship, struck them down. Thus was our young colony destroyed, causing us serious loss."[1]
In 1633, de Vries negotiated a treaty with the Indians and sailed up the Delaware River, attempting to trade for beans and corn. Failing his objective there, de Vries sailed to Virginia, where was successful in obtaining provisions for the colonists in Zwaanendael, to which he returned.[2] He subsequently took the colonists to New York and then back to Europe. He returned on trading trips to North America several times, eventually establishing patroonships on Staten Island (1639) and at Tappan (1640)[3], before finally returning to Holland and publishing "Korte Historiael Ende Journaels Aenteyckeninge" (Short Historical Notes and Journal Notes of Various Voyages), in 1655.
