Jacob Elet

Jacob Elet

Jacob Elet was a Dutch Chief factor for the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast of West Africa during the eighteenth century who is especially known for having visited in 1733 Agaja, the king of Dahomey, and for having kept a diary chronicling the trip.

Life till 1732

Jacob Elet was born in 's-Hertogenbosch at the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1721 he traveled to the Gold Coast and was employed as an assistant of the Dutch West India Company in Elmina in present-day Ghana.

Life from 1732 to 1740

In September of 1732 Elet was appointed Chief Factor and head of the Dutch fort Crevecoeur in Accra. When Agaja took three European employees of the company as hostage after an attack on Jakin on April 2, 1732, Elet was sent to the Agaja to negotiate their release and the resumption of the slave trade.

On February 10, 1733, Elet left Elmina and sailed to Jakin, where he left on his trip to Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, on March 20, 1733. He was accompanied on his trip by the head of the Portuguese trading post in Jakin, Antonio de Pinto Carneiro, by another four Europeans and by 84 African porters. Once they arrived, Elet managed to negotiate the release of his three colleagues in exchange for a resumption of the slave trade with the Dahomey at the port of Jakin. However, the latter part of the deal quickly fell apart because the bosses of the company in Amsterdam trusted very much one of their German Chief Merchants, Henry Hertogh, who was located in Appa (which was outside of Dahomey). The Dutch West India Company therefore continued to send all their ships, bar one, to Appa in order for them to be supplied with slaves. Elet knew that the Agaja would be angry at him and pleaded his bosses to send him ships, but to no avail. The Agaja was furious with Elet for not keeping his side of the bargain and destroyed the Dutch trading post in November 1734.

Upon Elet's arrival in Accra he got arrested and charged with embezzlement of funds in the reconstruction of the fort at Jakin and for keeping gifts of the Agaja to himself. The charges however could never be substantiated and Elet was repatriated to Holland in July 1740, after which nothing more is known about him.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • ASHKENAZI, ABRAHAM BEN JACOB — (1811–1880), Sephardi chief rabbi of Ereẓ Israel. Ashkenazi was born in Larissa, in Greece, but c. 1820 his family settled in Jerusalem where he studied under Samuel Arvaẓ, and was successively appointed a dayyan in the bet din of Benjamin… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • TOLEDANO, JACOB MOSES — (1880–1960), rabbi and scholar. Toledano s father Judah had immigrated to Ereẓ Israel from Morocco. Jacob was born, educated, and ordained in Tiberias. During 1899–1909, his first articles appeared in the Jerusalem Hebrew paper Ḥavaẓẓelet, under… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Agadja — Dossou Agadja was the fifth King of Dahomey. He succeeded Houessou Akaba, and ruled from 1708 to 1740. [1] Akaba s only son, Agbo Sassa, was only ten years old when Akaba died, so as Akaba s brother, Agadja took the throne to become the fifth… …   Wikipedia

  • JERUSALEM — The entry is arranged according to the following outline: history name protohistory the bronze age david and first temple period second temple period the roman period byzantine jerusalem arab period crusader period mamluk period …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • PRESS — This article is arranged according to the following outline: introduction in australia and new zealand in belgium in canada in czechoslovakia in england yiddish press in france in germany and austria between the two world wars after world war ii… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • HEBREW LITERATURE, MODERN — definition and scope beginnings periodization …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • HUNGARY — HUNGARY, state in S.E. Central Europe. Middle Ages to the Ottoman Conquest Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of Jews in Pannonia and Dacia, who came there in the wake of the Roman legions. Jewish historical tradition, however, only… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • CULTURAL LIFE — Introduction The movement for the return to Zion which emerged as a force at the end of the 19th century was based on a variety of motivations, including the political – the demand for an independent homeland where the Jews could forge their own… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • AḤARONIM — (Heb. אַחֲרוֹנִים; lit. the later (authorities), a term used to designate the later rabbinic authorities, in contrast to the rishonim , the earlier authorities. Although scholars differ as to the exact chronological dividing line between the two …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • PRINTING, HEBREW — pre modern period The first mention of Jews in connection with printing is found in Avignon c. 1444 (before Gutenberg) when a Jew, Davin de Caderousse, studied the new craft. The first Hebrew books were printed at least within 35 years after the… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”