1659day.year
Jacob Roggeveen
(1659 - 1729)
Dutch explorer
Dutch explorer
Dutch explorer who discovered Easter Island during his South Pacific expedition in 1722.
His voyages expanded European knowledge of Polynesia.
Jacob Roggeveen was born in 1659 in Middelburg, Netherlands, and commissioned by the Dutch West India Company.
In 1721 he set sail with three ships to seek Terra Australis, navigating through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
On April 5, 1722, he became the first European to record the existence of Easter Island (Rapa Nui).
His expedition also charted parts of Samoa, Tonga, and the Tuamotu Archipelago, mapping previously unknown islands.
Roggeveen’s detailed journals and maps enriched European understanding of Pacific geography.
He returned to the Netherlands in 1723, leaving a legacy as a pioneer of Pacific exploration.
1659
Jacob Roggeveen