Elizabeth van der Woude

Who was Elizabeth van der Woude?

Elizabeth van der Woude was a Dutch traveller and author.

She was born in Nieuwe Niedorp, North Holland, but left The Netherlands at age 19 with her family and hundreds of others bound for Guyana, formerly a Dutch colony, now French Guiana. Their aim was to start a colony on the river Oyapock, with her father as the appointed governor. Van der Woude's father and sister died en route. She and her brother found good land when they arrived, but soon most of the servants died of a strange illness and Elizabeth returned home. During that journey she was kidnapped by Dunkirkers and kept a prisoner for some weeks. She did manage to return home with her diary, which she had regularly kept. She died in Amsterdam, aged 41. The part of her diary describing her journeys was published in 1928 and 2001 in The Netherlands.