The origins of Groote Catrijn

Pulicat (called Paliacatta by the Dutch) - a town north of the city of Madras. Pulicat was an important VOC trading post on the Indian sub-continent's Coromandel Coast washed by the waters of the Bay of Bengal. At the time of Groote Catrijn's birth the port of Pulicat had already been in Dutch hands for at least 22 years. Occupied in terms of concessions made by local rulers, the Dutch manned a fort Het Casteel Geldria there from 1609 until 1795. Initially, this was the main fortified trading post of the VOC on the Coromandel Coast, and also for Bengal, before being replaced by Negapatnam in the 1680s.