Heijn, or HEYN, PIET

Heijn, or HEYN, PIET, a famous Dutch admiral, was born in 1570 at Delftshaven, near Rotterdam. After an adventurous career, he became vice-admiral under the Dutch East India Company. In 1624 he sailed to South America and defeated the Spaniards near San Salvador (Brazil), and again in 1626 in All Saints' Bay (Bahia), when he took above twenty of their ships, returning to Holland with an immense booty. Two years later he captured the Spanish silver flotilla, the value of which was estimated at 16,000,000 Dutch guilders. As a reward for this success he was in 1629 named Admiral of Holland. On 20th August of the same year he met his death in a sea-fight against the privateers of Dunkirk off that town. A marble monument is erected to his memory in the old church at Delft.