Frederick Coyett

Frederick Coyett was a Swedish nobleman in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and was the last colonial governor for the Dutch colony of Formosa (Taiwan).

Coyett was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in a family with Dutch/Flemish roots, and by 1647 he worked for the VOC. He served twice as the VOC’s Opperhoofden, chief trader, in Japan, first between November 3, 1647 and December 9, 1648 and then between November 4, 1652 and November 10, 1653. He remained remembered chiefly as the last VOC’s governor of Taiwan, serving from 1656 until 1662. After a nine-month siege from a large Chinese force of 30,000 men and 300 ships under Koxinga, the chief commander of the Ming troops on the maritime front, Coyett was forced to surrender Fort Zeelandia. He and Koxinga signed the treaty on 1 February 1662, by which the Dutch surrendered the fortress in return for a safe passage of all officials, soldiers and civilians from Taiwan. The Dutch left Taiwan on 9 February leaving the fort with canons, muskets and gunpowder, provisions, commodities, and cash amounting to 1,200,000 guilders. Coyett and his men reached Batavia, where he was imprisoned for three years, tried for High treasonand exiled to Rosengain, the most eastern of the Banda Islands, before he was released in 1674. In 1675 Coyett published the book “Neglected Formosa”., in which he accused the Dutch East India Company of ignorance and refusing to send backup, which caused him to lose Taiwan.