\ 
No. 55.— 19(U.] FRANCOIS CARON. 319 
Further particulars about Caron will, however, not prove 
uninteresfcing, I take the following from II. Wapenlieraut^ 
p. 51, which I translate : — 
" 1644. — Fran5ois Caron (Arms. D'arg, a la bande d'azur, 
semee de fleurs-de-lis d'or. Cimier un vol-banneret, chaque 
aile aux armes de I'ecu). 
" 16:39-40.— Chief of Japan. 
1642-47. — Ordinary Councillor of the Dutch Indies. 
1647-50. — Chief Councillor and Director-General of the 
Dutch Indies, Knight of the Order of St. Michael. 
"1642. — Commandeur of the Return Fleet of nine ships 
with a cargo worth 3^ million guilders. 
" 1643. — 30th September left Batavia with a fleet for Ceylon, 
where he arrived in December. 
" 1644. — 9th January reconquered Negombo, and was after- 
wards one of the biggest landowners of Java. 
He appears after 1650 to have taken service under the 
French East India Company. He repatriated 20th February, 
1651, on board the ' Prinses Royaal.' Left in 1671 for France 
and was wrecked on the coast of Portugal. 
" Valentyn says of him : ' A man who, in view of his great 
qualifications in all matters relating to the East Indies, 
deserved a better and longer life.' 
" He was a sharp-witted cunning man, with clear judgment 
in everything and close student of all things that came under 
his observation, by which he made his way to the highest 
offices, as he, after being in Batavia a few months, rose to the 
rank of Extraordinary Councillor, and afterwards, on his 
return to the Indies in 1643, to that of Ordinary Councillor, 
and thereafter Chief of Tayouanand Directoi*-General of the 
East Indian trade. 
" According to the Biographical Dictionary of Troosten- 
burg de Bruyn (Predikanten), p. 87, Fran9ois Caron and 
Daniel Caron were sons of FranQois Caron, who in 1647 
was Director-General of Trade in Batavia. The first-named 
was born in 1634 in Firando in Japan. He became a student 
at Leyden, 4th September, 1654, afterwards at Utrecht, and 
N 66^-04 
