Martinus Sonck

Martinus or Maarten Sonck (also Marten; Soncq; Sonk) (ca. 1590, Amsterdam? – August 1625, Anping) was the first Dutch Governor of Formosa from 1624-1625.

Sonck, who in 1612 lived in Amsterdam, studied law at Leiden University from October 1612 to March 1616.^[1] In 1618 Dr. Sonck was sent by the Dutch East Indies Company as “advocaat-fiscaal” (~ a district attorney) to Batavia, where he arrived in 1619. He subsequently became governor of the Banda Islands. In 1623 he was recalled to Batavia to account for the use of excessive amounts of ammunition at gun salutes (he was to pay for it out of his own pocket).^[2] On May 4, 1624 the governing body in Batavia decided to sent him to replace Cornelis Reijersen as commander of the Dutch fort and trading base on Peng-hu, the main island of the Pescadores west of Formosa.^[2] The Pescadores were Chinese territory, and after a failed accord, Nan Juyi the governor of Fujian sent an army to attack Peng-hu in July 1624.^[3] On August 25, after negotiations via Li Dan, head of the illegal traders on Taiwan, Sonck succumbed under the pressure and withdrew his contingent to Formosa, where he founded Fort Zeelandia near the town of Anping in Tainan.^[3] The Dutch monopolized the harbour, while Zheng Zhilong, or Nicolas Iquan (郑芝龙） became a privateer for the Dutch, attacking trade between China and Manila.^[3] This constituted the beginning of the colonial presence of the Dutch on Formosa. Martinus Sonck was governor of Dutch Formosa for only one year, as he drowned in Anping harbour in August 1625.^[4] He was buried at Fort Zeelandia.

References

1. ^ Margreet J. A. M. Ahsmann, Irene Sagel-Grande ‘’ Collegium und Kolleg: Der juristische Unterricht an der Universität leiden, 1575-1630, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Disputationen’’, Vittorio Klostermann, 2000, ISBN 3465027663, page 665.
2. ^ ^{a b} W.P. Groeneveldt, De Nederlanders in China, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, vol. 11, M. Nijhoff, 1898, Page 255 (in Dutch, with a picture of Martinus Sonck's signature)
3. ^ ^{a b c} The Dutch on Formosa
4. ^ "荷蘭駐台長官表" (in Chinese). TaiwanUS.net. http://www.taiwanus.net/history/1/66.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-04. 

Political offices
First	Governor of Formosa 1624–1625	Succeeded by Gerard Frederikszoon de With

Persondata
Name	Sonck, Martinus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1625
Place of death