Maarten Gerritszoon Vries
![Cape of Aniva, Cape of Patience, Staten Island (''Isola di Stati''), and Strait of de Vries all seen on this Italian map from 1682. As the map shows, de Vries did not have a chance to discover either [[La Pérouse Strait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/CEM-36-NE-corner.jpg)
Not much is known about the life of de Vries. He was probably born in Harlingen, Netherlands, in 1589 and spent many years in Taiwan. He is best remembered for his 1643 expedition to the north-western Pacific Ocean to discover the coast of Tartaria, on account of Anthony van Diemen, the governor in Batavia. This was the second expedition to look for legendary gold and silver islands in the Pacific, which nobody had discovered, after a failed expedition in 1639 under command of Matthijs Quast. Provided by Wikipedia
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