Overtwater joined the VOC in 1640. Before this, he was a conrector of a school in
Hoorn and had no commercial experience. He was the
Dutch opperhoofd at
Dejima in Japan from October 1642 to August 1643, He proposed to start a new
factorij in the north of Japan, an unacceptable proposal for the Japanese interpreter, who refused to translate it. The Japanese however were interested to learn how to use a
mortar, but Overtwater was not very willing to explain. He was
Governor of Formosa from 1646 to 1649 and criticized. The east coast of Formosa was left by the company, being unprofitable and dangerous. He was stationed in
Ceylon and in 1666 in the
Cape colony, where he proposed that children of
Malabar slaves could be baptized. In 1677, he was fired as an extraordinary council in Batavia, being accused of corruption or unfair trade. ==See also==