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Mathijs van Ceulen, immigrant ancestor of the Van Curen family, at the age of 20 signed the Dutch West India charter on 3 June, 1621, as a Principal Partner, Lord-Director. Under the Charter Agreement, the Principal Partners were "empowered with the Armorial Bearing of an Earl". He was payed on commission, 1% of trade and 1/2% of new gold/silver.

When we read of the Dutch West India Company in school, it is generally portrayed as a trading company, securing raw materials from the New World for Dutch Manufaturing. In reality, 75% of the company's profit in the first 10 years was from the pirating of Spanish and Portugese cargo ships. One such, the capture of the Spanish Plate Fleet in September of 1628, yielded a 'take' of some $5,000,000 worth of gold, silver, and trade goods. The "trading" fleet of the West Indies company in 1631 consisted of 14 new warships(32 cannon each) and 7 fully armed Yachts(17 cannon each).

In 1632, as war raged with Spain and Portugal, Mathijs van Ceulen was sent to take command of the Dutch forces in Brazil. Upon his arrival in December of 1632, he immediately began a more offensive campaign against the Portugese. Dutch raiding parties and 'flying columns'(Germans called it "Blitkreig") fell upon the Portugese outposts with repeated success. In less than one year, Mathijs Van Ceulen had taken the entire Brazillian coastline from the Portugese. Following the final victory in December of 1633, the last Portugese stronghold, Fort Tre Reyes at Reis Magos, (at the mouth of the Rio Grande River) was renamed vanKeulensFoort, in his honor. It is known as "Keulen's Castle today, a Brazilian tourist stop.

Mathijs was a co-patroon of the Zawaanendael Colony which was awarded in 1631. Unfortunately, the colony was destroyed by Indians in 1632, just as Mathijs was sailing to Brazil. Following a 2 year command in Brazil, he returned to his Directors Chair in Amsterdam. In 1636 he was appointed to the Hooghen Secreten Raad(High and Secret Council) and became a co-Governor of the Dutch South American Holdings, under a 5 year contract. He departed Holland on 20 Nov, 1636 headed for Recife.

The first account of Mathijs in North America is on Manhattan Island in 1639, and later at Fort Orange(Albany). He returned to Recife to complete business there, then returned to New York, where he permanently settled at Fort Orange. In August of 1646, he secured a land Patens for 50 morgens of land on Manhattan Island, which became known as vanKeulens Bouwerie. On that land today is Columbia Universities Bakers Field, near Route 9 in North Manhattan. His brother, Conraet, also owned a large parcel on Manhattan, van Keulens Hook, in the heart of what is now Harlem. He never had a chance to develop the lands, as he died at Fort Orange, 16 Oct, 1648

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