In the Tsar’s Service

Abstract

In July 1658, Jan Janszoon Struys wed twenty-four-year-old Trijntje Pietersdochter in Amsterdam; whereas Reysen does not mention Trijntje’s name, the occasion of the wedding is referred to in the book.¹ The Struys of the text can thereby be equated with the Dutch sailor Jan Struys, about whose life between 1657 and 1668 Reysen is otherwise silent. Some records in Amsterdam’s municipal archives give us a glimpse of Struys’s life during this decade, although most of the details remain beyond our grasp. His movements become much clearer once archival records and Reysen’s narrative reinforce each other, beginning in September 1668.