The most prominent among them was Melchior van Santvoort, who had married a Japanese women and with whom he begot a daughter. Not long after arriving in Dejima, Verstegen asked Santvoort's daughter to marry him. In 1635, he was appointed to the position of trader. On December 7 of that year, Verstegen wrote to Governor Antonie van Diemen that _he_had learned of some Japan's islands (at around the 37th parallel north) where almost everything was made of gold and silver. <sep>, Pronoun: he