The first Dutch shipping to the Indonesian archipelago 1595 - 1605 drs Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland See sources, acknowledgements (0.1) Most drawings and portraits, in black and white in this article, originate from contemporary publications. Contemporary publications which were the result from some of the original, 16/17th century Dutch voyage reports. My own knowledge, available sources, acknowledgements and consultancies are the basis of this article. How to read my article. This is an article about some of the first voyages of the Dutch to the Far East. The background of these operations can be found in section 1 Introduction: “The origin of the Kingdom of the Netherlands”. Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 1 Then our visitor could get an idea about the successes and the troubles regarding a selection from what we know about the first Dutch shipments to the Far East (section 2 etc.). I summarized my comments in italics at the end of each section continually. So that the reader can simply hop from one section to the next one in case he thinks that my comments are not so interesting. Which is not so; well, I mean, usually not so. At the end of the article I placed a list of sources and acknowledgements as well as a complete survey of these first shipments. It was my endeavour to compose my article in a most readable way. That’s why I illustrated my work as richly as possible. (0.2) Mohammedan principalities, Java circa 1600 Table of contents 1. Introduction 5. Cornelis de Houtman, once The origin of the Kingdom of the more in 1598 Netherlands Fatal imprudence 2. First Dutch voyages to the Far 6. Voyage to the Indonesian East 1595 Archipelago Preparations Rounding Cape Horn and sailing 3. First Dutch voyage, 1585-1597 through the Straits of Magellan The “first expedition of fleets” sailing via 7. More Dutch voyages the Cape of Good Hope 1595 The “third expedition of fleets” sailing 4. Voyages from Holland to the Far via the Cape of Good Hope East from 1598 until 1601 8. Conclusion The “second expedition of fleets” sailing With a complete survey of the Dutch via the Cape of Good Hope 1598 first shipments to the Far East 9. Illustrations Literature, sources, acknowledgements Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 2 0.3 High placed Banten civil servant and some of his slaves 0.4 Banten, Java circa 1600 Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 3 1. Introduction The origin of the Kingdom of the Netherlands At the end of the 16th century The Netherlands were the only European civil confederation in those days. The Netherlands: often described as “Holland” for short. In fact Holland was – and is - only the most important member of this confederation of seven small states. Before 1581 The Netherlands were ruled by some members of the European royal House of Habsburg. The Habsburg Philip II ruled from 1555. Also he managed his governmental affairs, by his order, through a lot of aristocrats as well as civil types of administration: all of them playing a second fiddle of course. Philip II was King of Spain and Lord of The Netherlands 1). Maybe one could say that he was the head of a, sort of, double monarchy. Maybe comparable to a double monarchy like Austria- Hungary once was: same ruler but each country legal independent. The Habsburgs came into their Dutch possessions by legacy and marriages. Such was the consequence of the fact that the original dynasty, the House of Holland, had run out. The members of the House of Holland were the autochthonous rulers from circa 900 AC. Misery in The Netherlands from about 1550 until 1580 - like crop failures, hunger, high taxes, unwanted Spanish influence, need for free trade, narrow-minded Catholicism, fat catholic clergy, as well as the catholic inquisition terror (all this misery and much more) ended in iconoclasm and revolt from 1560. Ultimately the Dutch abjured Philip II 2) in 1581. The revolt turned into a war which, more or less officially, started in 1568 and came to an end in 1648. William of Orange 3) – from the aristocratic house of Dillenburg Nassau 4) - became the first, so called “Stadtholder” of The Netherlands, 1572 – 1584 5). This William the First, has been the founder of this nation. One could translate this word “Stadtholder” into the concept of governor or pro-consul. But the best translation is, maybe, “vice-roy”. A vice-roy, however, without royalty. I mean without a king. A better explanation could be the following. The Stadtholder was the politically mightiest servant of the more powerful Dutch civil government and a mighty representative of - what was left of - the weak Dutch aristocratic administrative machinery. Map on page 4 The northern part of the Netherlands circa 1300. Purple: principality Holland under the Lord (called – title - Graaf, translation lit.: independently ruling – title - Count) of Holland, this includes the double XI. Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 4 (1.1) See page 3 Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 5 The Netherlands were known better in those days as the “United Provinces of The Netherlands” (1568-1798). These provinces were legally independent small states, but worked together as a confederation, from which Holland was the very most powerful one. This form of government did not change much until a new written Dutch constitution was passed in 1798. Then a centralized Dutch government took over. The Dutch monarchy made a start in 1813 - 1815. William the First became King of the Netherlands in 1815 - 1840. Don’t mix him up with the Stadtholder mentioned before. King William the First meant a continuation of the influence of the House of Orange and meant a victory of ideas about, highly necessary, Dutch political centralization as well. Dutch “provinces” became real provinces now. The Dutch federation changed over to an unitary state definitely now: the Kingdom of The Netherlands. 1) He was “graaf” of Holland (the districts in the west of The Netherlands). Philip II ruled other parts of The Netherlands as well. So, he was the Duke of Gelderland, Friesland, etc. Lord of the Netherlands is an umbrella term for count, duke, baron and so on. Back to the “graaf” of Holland. ( Can you keep up?) The translation of the title”‘graaf” in English is “count”, but this title meant in Holland much more. The “Graaf of Holland” behaved like an independent ruler. He (sometimes a “she”) had a lot of reasons to behave so. These “counts” did not bother about anything. So it is better to speak about the” Lords of Holland”. Officially, Holland was a fief (feudal benefice) of an early mediaeval sort of emperor of “Germany”. We are nosing around circa 1.000 AC. But these lamed ducks, these so-called emperors I mean, were in daily life the weak results of a catholic mediaeval invention by some pope with too much imagination. But, oh mother! In 1018 AC a large “imperial” army, made up of troops supplied by the various bishops of regions east from Holland, headed for the strongholds of the Lord of Holland Dirk III at Vlaardingen (nowadays near Rotterdam) , a small stronghold in the delta of the river Rhine. Such because Dirk misbehaved too much. Well, the “emperor” thought so. The ensuing Battle of Vlaardingen was a disaster for the imperial army and a tremendous victory for the Lord of Holland (western part of The Netherlands) Dirk III. Many of the “imperial” commanders and papal catholic clergymen drowned, perished in the swamps of the local Dutch muddy waters, cut into pieces. Or were simply beaten to death by Dirk personally with pleasure. Also many of Dirk’s friends shared this joy with him by dealing a couple of blows on the heads of the enemy’s warriors. Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 6 I feel happy to say that the chief of the invaders, one Duke Godfrey, was captured by Dirk himself. Dirk was not averse to ransoms. After this victory Dirk III was permitted to keep his possessions. In the humble opinion of Dirk the “emperor” might go to the devil and Dirk did as he pleased to do. Like he always did before. So, as an example, he continued levying the, disputable, tolls along the waterways in the Dutch delta. Dirk lived some happy years after and died in peace, a phenomenon remarkable from its rarity in early mediaeval Holland. I mean that most of the members of the House of Holland died from smashed brains. Later on, Dirk III also managed to acquire more land east of his previous domains at the expense of the Bishop of Utrecht. After the death of the feudal (weak) “German” Emperor Henry II in 1024, Dirk supported Conrad II for the succession to the emperorship. Why should he do so? I don’t know why, really! Well, maybe this support placed him in an even more powerful position. OK, enough about Dirk!! 2) Because Philip II, in fact his House of Habsburg, was the successor of the then died out House of Holland. One could say that he, Philip, was the last (partly autochthonous) ruler from the House of Holland in the Netherlands. Then the conclusion could be that the House of Holland ruled from circa 900 until 1581 when the Dutch abjured Philip II. 3) Orange was a principality in France. One of William’s properties. 4) The community Dillenburg is located a bit east from The (Southern) Netherlands – now this is Belgium- border, in what is now Germany. But , in those olden days, within the sphere of influence of The Netherlands. Such sphere stretched out 200 maybe 300 km from the present Dutch-Belgian border with Germany. The Dutch, regrettably, never took advantage of their superiority in the west of present Germany, because trade and profits always were their first interests: narrow minded and very regrettable. 5) Stadtholder William I was murdered by Balthasar Gerards, a Frenchman from Besançon, in 1584. Because of that, the latter was executed in the Dutch town of Delft in the same year. The murderer was still alive when the executioner cut his heart out. Balthasar was allowed to have a short smell at it. The executioner was known in Delft and vicinity because of his practical jokes. Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 7 2. First Dutch voyages to the Far East 1595 Preparations The aforesaid misery in the sixteenth century in The Netherlands, see page 4, caused the Dutch-Spanish war, from 1568 until 1648. This war of independence made the Dutch travel mania to the Far East, circa 1595 and after, understandable. The war started long before the abjuration of the Habsburgs in 1581. The Dutch - politically, military as well as economically superior - fought successfully. With Dutch independency as a result. The Dutch took down the Spanish and Portuguese empires. The influence of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the so-called Low Countries, The Netherlands, was gone forever. The fifth Dutch Stadtholder, William the Third 1), 1672-1702, conquered Great Britain and became King of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The first Dutch fleet, four ships under the command of Cornelis de Houtman, set out to the Indonesian Archipelago April 2nd 1595 with a crew of 249 members. After some time scurvy broke out on these ships and when the island of Madagascar was reached in October 1595 seventy men of the crew had died. They buried many of the dead on this island. Until today one can visit this Dutch cemetery there. The crew misbehaved themselves against the Madagascar population in such a manner that the population took a threatening attitude and compelled the ships to leave. The four Dutch ships proceeded on and reached Sumatra and later Java. The vessels were owned by a shipping company in Amsterdam by name of “Compagnie van Verre” (“Far Travel Trade Partnership”). This first Dutch voyage to East-India, Indonesia, was based on the experiences of many Dutch sailors and tradesmen in the employ of Spanish and Portuguese merchants. Some of these sailors published useful information about the possibilities for the Dutch to open trade routes to the Far East. One the informers was Dirck Gerritsz Pomp 2), nicknamed Dirk China (1544-1608) a Dutch explorer. Once, from 1555 until 1590 he travelled in Portuguese service and on Portuguese ships through Asia. He was, probably, the first Dutchman visiting China and Japan. After his return in Holland, on the strength of his experiences and instructions, navigation charts were designed. Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 8 More important, maybe, was the Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611) who lived in Spain and also lived in Portuguese Goa (India) for a long time. After his return to Holland he published a book in Dutch, about his experiences and his knowledge, called “Reysgeschrift” 3) in 1595. This book was later published for a second time, but then “Reysgeschrift” became better known as “Itinerario” 3) in 1596. This Reysgeschrift provided a large collection of Portuguese sailing directions. Itinerario or Reysgeschrift, , three volumes, was translated in English and German. This was done so within rather short time in those days. Many useful data in Linschoten’s publications were smuggled from Lisbon, and from other naval ports, to Amsterdam. 1) Stadtholders from 1572 until 1702: William I, Maurits, Frederik Hendrik, William II, William III. Maurits and Frederik Hendrik were brothers, sons of William I. William II was a son of Frederik Hendrik. Maurits never married and, officially, he had no children. But, unofficially, ten or so. So far we know. He was a womaniser. Women were meat and drink to him. However, he was an excellent Stadtholder. (I emphasize this last statement, excellent he was!!) 2) From> Ruit, Arie van de: Boeggolven en radiogolven; internet 2013 3) Itinerario ( or in Dutch (old) linguistic usage): “Reysgeschrift”. Which means “Voyage Notes”. 2.1 Cornelis de Houtman (2.2) Frederik de Houtman 1565-1599 1571-1621 Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 9 (2.3) Amsterdam, detail of the inner harbour circa 1600 (2.4) Profile of Amsterdam circa 1600 Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Holland 10