Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Jacobsen, Simon

JACOBSEN, Simon, Dutch mariner, b. in Maestrich in 1624; d. in Leogane, Hayti, in 1679. He entered the French service, and was employed for several years by the Company of the West Indies, which intrusted him in 1653 with an exploration of the coasts of South America to the Straits of Magellan, with orders to take possession in the name of France of all unoccupied lands; but his ship was wrecked in sight of Buenos Ayres, and he was taken prisoner by the Spanish. On his release he returned to Dieppe, and in 1657 was sent to found a colony in Brazilian Guiana; but the unhealthy climate and the hostility of the Spanish drove away the settlers. The company then bought from Diel du Parquet the southwestern part of the island of Martinique in 1658, and Jacobsen, after conquering the Caribs, founded a prosperous colony of 4,000 inhabitants. He was given the government of Tortugas in 1663 as a reward, and in the following year he assumed also that of Santo Domingo, which he resigned soon afterward, having bought from the company a large tract near Cape Leogane in 1665. He founded there a prosperous city, which he ruled until his death.