Jan Jansz Weltevree

Jan Jansz Weltevree
Hangul	박연
Hanja	朴渊 / 朴燕
Revised Romanization	Bak Yeon
McCune–Reischauer	Pak Yǒn

Jan Jansz. Weltevree is a Dutch sailor and probably the first Dutchman to visit Korea. His adventures were recorded in the report by Dutch East India Company accountant Hendrik Hamel. Hamel stayed in Korea from 1653 to 1666.

Biography

Weltevree was born around 1595, according to Hamel in De Rijp, though other sources speak of Vlaardingen. He signed on the ship 'Hollandia' and went on March 17 1626 to Dutch East Indies. There, he arrived in 1627 from Jakarta on the ship 'Ouwerkerck'. Because storms lasted longer than planned and the trip in Jan Janszn and shipmate Dirck Gijsbertz and Jan Pieterse Verbaest went ashore on the island of Jeju, about 18 kilometer south of the Korean peninsula.

They were captured and the Koreans 'Ouwerkerck' left without men. The Joseon Dynasty at that time, there was an isolation policy and after the visitors could not leave the country. Jan Jansz. took the name Pak Yǒn (박연, Pak is a Korean surname.) and was an important government official. Jan Jansz. married a Korean woman with whom he had two children.

According Weltevree, the two others were killed in 1636 during a raid of the Manchu. They would have fought in the Korean army.

Then in 1653 the ship 'De Sperwer' was wrecked en route from Jakarta to Taiwan, with Hendrik Hamel on board, Jan Jansz. as a translator and adviser to the King. Some thirteen years after the crew managed to escape and told of their home encounter with Jan Jansz. at the time of their departure and have lived about 70 years old.

Legacy

Besides the Great Church in De Rijp is a statue of Jan Jansz. A replica of this was erected in 1991 in Seoul.