Issac_Johannes_Lamotius

Isaac Johannes Lamotius

Isaac Johannes Lamotius

Dutch biologist and Governor of Mauritius

Isaac Johannes Lamotius (bapt. 29 May 1646 in Beverwijk – 1718)[1] or (1653–1710)[2][3] was governor of Mauritius from 1677 to 1692. Lamotius was interested in arts and knowledge and became an ichthyologist; he made 250 drawings of fishes which are kept in Paris.[3]

Family background

Isaac was the son of Johannes Lamotius, who played a main part in the capturing of Dutch Malacca (January 1641) and married in Batavia the widow of Matthijs Quast. As a sergeant major, Johannes was stationed in Dutch Formosa (September 1642–?).[4][5][6] In 1653 Johannes Lamotius lived in Beverwijk, Netherlands.

Career

Isaac arrived on the island in September 1677. In 1682 Joan Huydecoper II strongly urged the colonial administrators to undertake botanical research and stimulated the production of drawings of plants on the spot. He gave him instructions on how to start a herbarium. In 1685 Huydecoper requested subtropical plants. A cucumis arrived the year after in Amsterdam.[7] Lamotius became an expert on the fauna and fauna of Mauritius and published daily journals. In 1688 the last three dodos were captured.

Some say[who?] his fifteen years of command saw the island descend into despotism, and immorality was rife. When people complained in 1692, Lamotius and his second man were shipped to Batavia and tried in 1695, sentenced for private trade. He was banished for six years to the island of Rosengain, being chained on the most eastern of the Banda Islands.

References

  1. [1]
    "Home Isaac Johannes Lamotius". Rkd.nl. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  2. [2]
    "Les Planches inédites de Poissons et autres animaux marins de 'Indo-Ouest Pacifique. Isaac Johannes Lamotius (1646-c.1718) and his Paintings of Indo-West Pacific Fishes and Other Marine Animals". 9 February 2007. Archived from the original on September 11, 2011. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
  3. [3]
    Holthuis, Lipke Bijdeley; Pietsch, Theodore Wells (2006). Les Planches inédites de poissons et autres animaux marins de l'Indo-Ouest Pacifique d'Isaac Johannes Lamotius. Paris: Publications scientifiques du Muséum. ISBN 978-2-85653-901-9. OCLC 1151533443.
  4. [4]
    CORPUS DIPLOMATICUM NEERLANDO-INDIGUM. VERZAMELING van Politieke contracten en verdere Verdragen door de Nederlanders in het Oosten gesloten, van Privilegebrieven, aan hen verleend, enz., (eng)COLLECTION of Political Contracts and Further Treaties concluded by the Dutch in the East, of Privilege Letters granted to them, etc.,
  5. [5]
    Hamel, Hendrik; Hoetink, Bernardus. Verhaal van het vergaan van het jacht de Sperwer (in Dutch). Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  6. [6]
    Borao, José Eugenio (2010). "The Baroque Ending of a Renaissance Endeavour". The Spanish experience in Taiwan, 1626-1642: the Baroque ending of a Renaissance endeavor. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 9789622090835. JSTOR j.ctt1xcrpk.
  7. [7]
    Heniger, J. (1986) Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein (1636--1691) and Hortus Malabaricus -- A contribution to the history of Dutch colonial botany, p. 63, 71, 161, 162.

Further reading

Preceded by Governor of Mauritius
1677–1692		 Succeeded by
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