Gerard Pietersz Hulft (12 December 1621 in Amsterdam – 10 April 1656 in Colombo), was a Dutch general. In 1655 he was sent with a fleet to Ceylon and died in action.

Hulft was born as the youngest son of the brewer Pieter Hulft, and member of the Civic Guard at the Lastage, a neighborhood near the port of Amsterdam. After concluding his law studies Gerard Hulft was made Secretary to the City Council in 1645, a position he held until 1653.^[1] He served under Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen, and Cornelis de Graeff. In 1652, a merchant vessel in which he had invested a fortune, was captured by the British. In the ensuing war Hulft hired and kept at his own expense a group of 24 sailors. After the war he lost his job as Secretary due to an administrative conflict with the burgomasters, when he refused to change the wording.^[2] He seemed to have been a friend of Govert Flinck, who painted his portrait before his departure to the East.^[2]

Enlisting with the VOC, where his brother Joan was a governor, he left for Batavia in April 1654, carrying letters nominating him either as Governor-General or Director-General of the Indies. Upon his arrival in Batavia in October, after a six-month journey, he joined the Council of Indies. In August 1655 the shrewd Joan Maetsuycker sent him with eleven ships and 1120 soldiers to Ceylon.^[3] His mission was to crush the Portuguese utterly.^[4] Hulft arrived in mid-September in Negombo. During his staying in Ceylon he maintained cordial relations with Rajasinghe II of Sri Lanka, the most powerful king of the island.^[5]

Hulft marched from Maggona and fought the Portuguese in the vicinity of the Panadura Moya Kata.^[6] The Dutch took the fort of Kalutara by surprise and laid siege to the city of Colombo, in October 1655.^[7][8] On their first attack on 12 November, the Dutch lost 300 people, and 350 were seriously wounded. Half a year later Hulft died in action, being hit from the townwall by an arquebus in his right shoulder. This happened a month before the surrender of Colombo and two weeks after his visit to the Royal Palace, as described by the Dutch minister and orientalist Philippus Baldaeus.^[9] His corpse was decorated with flowers and fruits and transported to Galle.^[10] His ensign Pieter de Bitter brought the news to Batavia.^{[citation needed]}

• Hultsdorf, the legal centre of Colombo

• DE SILVA, Rajpal Kumar, BEUMER, Willemina G. M. Illustrations and views of Dutch Ceylon, 1602-1796: a comprehensive work of pictorial reference with selected eye-witness accounts, London: Serendib Publications, 1988.
• RIBEIRO, João. "História trágica da ilha de Ceilão". Lisboa: Publicações Alfa, Biblioteca da Expansão Portuguesa, 1989
• BALDEUS, Philippus. "A true and exact description of the most celebrated East India coasts of Malabar and Coromandel and also of the isle of Ceylon with their adjacent kingdoms and provinces". Amsterdam: 1672