THE SECOND VOYAGE TO INDIA--SUCCESS
There was now a great boom in the Indian trade. Whosoever could beg,
borrow, or steal a few thousand guilders; whoever possessed an old
scow which could perhaps be made to float, whoever was related to a
man who had a cousin who had some influence on the exchange, suddenly
became an Indian trader, equipped a ship, hired sailors, had mysterious
conferences with nautical gentlemen who talked about their great
experience in foreign waters, and then waited for the early days of
spring to bid God-speed to his little expedition. Every city must have
its own Indian fleet. Companies were formed, stockholders quarreled
about the apportionment of the necessary capital, and at once they
split up into other smaller companies. There was an "Old" Indian
Trading Company. The next day there was a rival called the "New"
Indian Trading Company. There was an Indian company which was backed by
the province of Zeeland. There was a private enterprise of the city of
Rotterdam. To be honest, there were too many companies for the small
size of the country. Before another dozen years had passed they were
all amalgamated into one strong commercial body, the great Dutch East
India Company, but during the first years hundreds of ships stampeded
to the promised land of Java and Bali and the Moluccas, and for one
fleet of small vessels which came home with a profit there were a dozen
which either were shipwrecked on the way or which had ruined their
shareholders before they had passed the equator.
Amsterdam, as always, was the leader in this activity. It was not
only a question of capital. There had to be men of vision, merchants
who were willing to do things on a large scale, before such a venture
could return any profit. And while the ships of the Zeeland Company
were hurried to sea, and left long before the others, and incidentally
came back a few years later, Amsterdam quietly collected eight hundred
thousand guilders and advertised for competent officers and willing
men for a large expedition. This time, it was decided, everything was
to be done with scientific precision, and nothing must be left to
chance. The commander in chief of the 560 men who were to take part
in the expedition was Jacob van Neck, a man of good birth, excellent
training, and well-known in the politics of his own city. His most
important adviser was Jacob van Heemskerk, fresh from his adventures in
the Arctic Sea and ready for new ones in the Indian Ocean. Several of
the officers who had been to Bantam with Houtman were engaged for this
second voyage. Among them our friend Van der Does, out of whose diary
we copied the adventures of the first voyage to the Indies. Even the
native element was not lacking. You will remember that the Hollanders
had taken several hostages in Madagascar when they visited the east
coast of that island in the year 1595. Two of these had been tamed and
had been taken to Holland. After a year in Amsterdam they were quite
willing to exchange the uncomfortable gloominess of the Dutch climate
for a return to their sunny native shores. Also there was a Mohammedan
boy by the name of Abdul, whom curiosity had driven from Bali to
Holland on board the ship of Houtman.
[Illustration]
The fleet of eight vessels left the roads of Texel on the first of May
of the year 1598, and with a favorable wind reached the Cape Verde
Islands three weeks later. There, a general council of the different
captains was asked to decide upon the further course. For with each
expedition the knowledge of what ought to be done and what ought to
be omitted increased, and the experiences of Houtman on the coast of
Africa where his entire crew had been disabled through scurvy, must
not be repeated. The fleet must either follow the coast of Africa to
get fresh food and water whenever necessary, or the ships must risk a
more western course, which would take them a far distance away from
land, but would bring them into currents which would carry them to the
Indies in a shorter while. They decided to take the western course. It
was a very tedious voyage except for the flying-fishes which sometimes
accompanied the ship. Luck was with the expedition, and on the ninth of
July the ships passed the equator. The little island of Trinidad, off
the coast of Brazil, was soon reached, and an inquisitive trip in an
open boat to explore this huge rock almost ended in disaster. But such
small affairs as a night spent in an open boat in a stormy ocean were
all in the day's work and gave the sailors something to talk about.
Within a remarkably short time the lonely island of Tristan d'Acunha
was passed, and from there the current and the western winds carried
the ships to the Cape of Good Hope. But near this stormy promontory a
small hurricane suddenly fell upon the fleet, and after a night of very
heavy squalls one of the eight ships had disappeared. It was never seen
again. A few days later, this time through carelessness in observing
signals, four other ships were separated from their admiral. Several
days were spent in coursing about in the attempt to find them. The sea,
however, is very wide, and ships very small, and Van Neck with two big
and one small vessel at last decided to continue the voyage alone.
He was in a hurry. There were many rivals to his great undertaking,
and when he actually met a Dutch ship sent out by the province of
Zeeland, he insisted that there must be no delay of any sort. The
Zeeland ship, however, was not a dangerous competitor. Nine members
of its crew of seventy-five had died. Among the others there was so
much scurvy that only seven men were able to handle the helm. Only
two could climb aloft. The Amsterdam ships ought to have helped their
fellow-countrymen, but in the Indian spice trade it was a question of
"first come, first served." Therefore they piously commended their
Zeeland brethren to the care of the Good Lord and hastened on.
[Illustration]
A short stay in Madagascar was necessary because the water in the
tanks was of such abominable taste and smelled so badly that it must
be replenished. The ships sailed to the east coast of the island,
stopped at Santa Maria, well known from the visit of Houtman's ships
three years before, and then made a short trip in search of fresh
fruit to the bay of Antongil. On the island of Santa Maria they had
found a happy population, well governed by an old king and spending
their days in hunting wild animals on land or catching whales at sea.
But in the Bay of Antongil things had greatly changed since Houtman
had left a year before. There had been a war with some of the tribes
from the interior of the island. The villages along the coast had been
burned, and all the cattle had been killed. Men and women were dying of
starvation. Right in the midst of the lovely tropical scenery there lay
the decaying corpses of the natives, a prey to vultures and jackals.
The expedition of Van Neck, however, had been sent out to buy spices in
India and not to reform the heathen inhabitants of African islands. The
water-tanks were hastily filled, and on the sixteenth of September the
island was left to its own fate.
[Illustration]
For two months the ships sailed eastward. There were a few sick men on
board, but nobody died, which was considered a magnificent record in
those days for so long a voyage. On November 19 the high mountains of
the coast of Sumatra appeared upon the horizon. From there Van Neck
steered southward, and near the Sunda Islands he at last reached the
dangerous domains of the Portuguese. The cannon were inspected, the
mechanism of the guns was well oiled, and everything was made ready
for a possible fight. Before the coast of Java was reached one of the
islands of the Sunda Archipelago was visited. Could the natives tell
them anything about the Portuguese and their intentions? The natives
could not do this, but in return asked the men whether they perhaps
knew anything about a foreign expedition which had been in those parts
a few years before? That expedition, it appeared, had left a very bad
reputation behind on account of its cruelty and insolence.
Van Neck decided not to remain in this region, where his predecessor
had made himself too thoroughly unpopular, and sailed direct for
Bantam. He would take his risks. On November 26, while the sun was
setting, the three ships dropped anchor in that harbor. They spent
an uncomfortable night, for nobody knew what sort of reception would
await them on the next day. Houtman had been in great difficulty with
both the sultan and the Portuguese. Very likely the ships, flying
the Dutch flag, would be attacked in the morning. But when morning
came, the ubiquitous Chinaman, who in the far Indies serves foreign
potentates as money-changer, merchant, diplomatic agent, and handy-man
in general, came rowing out to Van Neck's ship. He told the admiral
that the sultan sent the Hollanders his very kind regards and begged
them to accept a small gift of fresh fruit. The sultan was glad to
see the Hollanders. If they would only send a messenger on shore the
sultan would receive him at once. Meanwhile as a sign of good faith
the Chinese intermediary was willing to stay on board the ship of the
Hollanders. Nobody in the fleet, least of all the officers and sailors
who remembered what had happened two years before, had expected such a
reception. They were soon told the reason of this change in attitude.
After Houtman and his ships left in the summer of 1596 the Portuguese
Government had sent a strong fleet to punish the Sultan of Bantam for
having been too friendly to the Hollanders. This fleet had suffered a
defeat, but since that time the people in Bantam had feared the arrival
of another punitive expedition. The Hollanders, therefore, came as very
welcome defenders of the rights of the young sultan. It was decided
that their services should be used for the defense of the harbor if the
long-expected Portuguese fleet should make a new attack. It was in this
rôle of the lesser of two evils that the Hollanders finally were to
conquer their Indian empire from the Portuguese. Van Neck was the first
Dutch captain to use the local political situation for his own benefit.
He sent his representative on shore, who was received with great
ceremony. He explained how this fleet had been sent to the Indies by
the mighty Prince of Orange, and he promised that the Bantam government
would be allowed to see all the official documents which the admiral
had brought if they would deign to visit the ships. This invitation was
not well received. The Bantam people had been familiar with the ways
of white men for almost a hundred years. They distrusted all cordial
invitations to come on board foreign ships, and they asked that the
Hollanders send their papers ashore. "No," Van Neck told them through
his envoy, "a document given to me by the mighty Prince of Orange is
too important to be allowed out of my immediate sight."
In the end the sultan, curious to see whether these letters could
perhaps tell him something of further ships which might be on their
way, agreed to make his appearance upon the ship of the admiral, where
he was received with great courtesy.
Then, after the fashion of the Indian ruler of his day and of our own,
he demanded to know what his profits were to be in case he allowed the
Hollanders to trade in his city. Van Neck began negotiations about
the bribe which the different functionaries were to receive. For a
consideration of 3200 reals to the sultan and the commander of the
harbor, the Dutch ships were at last given permission to approach the
shore and buy whatever they wanted. For ten days long canoes filled
with pepper and nutmeg surrounded the ships. The pepper was bought for
three reals a bag. Everything was very pleasant, but one day Abdul,
the native who came from Bali, got on shore and visited the city.
Here among his own people he cut quite a dash, and bragging about the
wonders of the great Dutch Republic, he volunteered the information
that on the Amsterdam market he had seen how a bag of pepper was sold
for 100 reals. That sum, therefore, was just ninety-seven reals
more than the people in Bantam received for their own raw product.
Of course they did not like the idea of getting so little, and at
once they refused to sell to Van Neck at the old rate. It was a great
disappointment. He tried to do business with some Chinamen, but
they were worse than the Javanese. They offered their pepper to the
Hollanders at a ridiculously low price, but after the bags had been
weighed they were found to be weighted with stones and sand and pieces
of glass.
There was no end to all the small annoyances which the Dutch admiral
was made to suffer. There were a number of Portuguese soldiers hanging
about the town. They had been made prisoners during the last fatal
expedition against Bantam, and they suffered a good many hardships.
One day they were allowed to pay a visit to the Dutch ships, and the
tales of their misery were so harrowing that the admiral had given them
some money to be used for the purpose of buying food and clothes. No
sooner, however, were the prisoners back on dry land than they started
the rumor that the Hollanders were dangerous pirates and ought not to
be trusted. Van Neck vowed that he would hang his ungrateful visitors
if ever they came to him again with their tales of woe. Meanwhile, in
order to stop further talk, he promised to raise the price of pepper
two reals. For five reals a bag his ships were now filled with a cargo
of the costly spice.
In a peaceful way the month of December went by. It was the last day
of the year 1598 when quite unexpectedly the lost ships that had been
driven away from their admiral near the Cape of Good Hope appeared at
Bantam. They had passed through many exciting adventures. After they
had lost sight of the commander-in-chief, they had first spent several
days trying to discover his whereabouts. Then they had continued their
way to get fresh water in Madagascar. They had reached the coast of
the island safely, but just before they could land a sudden storm had
driven them eastward. On the seventeenth of September they had again
seen land, and they had dropped their anchors to discover to what part
of the world they had been blown by the wind. The map did not show
that there was any land in this region. Therefore on the eighteenth
of September of the year 1598 they had visited the island which lay
before them, and they found that they had reached paradise. All the
sailors had been taken ashore, it being Sunday, and the ships' pastor
had preached a wonderful sermon. So eloquent were his words that one
of the Madagascar boys who was on the fleet had accepted Christian
baptism then and there. After that for a full month officers and men
had taken a holiday. Whatever they wished for the island provided in
abundance. There was fresh water. There were hundreds of tame pigeons.
There were birds which resembled an ostrich, although they were smaller
and tasted better when cooked. There were gigantic bats and turtles so
large that several men could take a ride on their back. Fish abounded
in the rivers and the sea around the island, and it was thickly covered
with all sorts of palm-trees. Indeed, it looked so fertile that it was
decided to use it as a granary for future expeditions. Grain had been
planted, and also beans and peas for the use of ships which might
come during the next years. Then the island had been officially annexed
for the benefit of the republic. It had been called Mauritius after
Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadholder of Holland. Finally after a
rooster and seven chickens had been given the freedom of this domain,
to assure future travelers of fresh eggs, the four ships had hoisted
their sails and had come to Bantam to join their admiral.
[Illustration]
Van Neck now commanded several ships, which were loaded. But the others
must await the arrival of a new supply of pepper, which was being
brought to Bantam from the Moluccas by some enterprising Chinamen. This
would take time, and Van Neck was still in a great hurry. He refused
to consider the tempting offers of the Sultan of Bantam, who still
wanted his help against his Portuguese enemies. Instead, he entered
into negotiations with a Hindu merchant who offered to bring the other
ships directly to the Moluccas, where they would be in the heart of
the spice-growing islands. The Hindu was engaged, and navigated the
ships safely to their destination. Here through their good behavior
the Hollanders made such an excellent impression upon the native ruler
that they were allowed to establish two settlements on shore and leave
a small garrison until they should return to buy more mace and nutmeg
at incredibly reasonable terms. As for Van Neck, having saluted his
faithful companions with a salvo of his big guns, which started a panic
in the good town of Bantam, where the people still remembered the
departure of Houtman, he sailed for the coast of Africa.
He had every reason to be contented with his success. In a final
audience with the governor of the city of Bantam he had promised this
dignitary that the Hollanders would return the next year, "because
that was the will of their mighty ruler." The governor, from his side,
who upon this occasion had to deal with a much better class of men
than Houtman and his crew of mutinous sailors, had decided that the
Hollanders were preferable to the Portuguese, and he assured Van Neck
of a cordial reception.
The return voyage was not as prosperous as the outward trip had been.
Dysentery attacked the fleet, and many of the best officers and men
had to be sewn into their hammocks to be dropped into the ocean, where
they found an honorable burial. St. Helena, with its fresh water and
its many wild animals, was reached just when the number of healthy men
had fallen to thirty. A week of rest and decent food was enough to cure
all the men, and then they sailed for home. But so great was the hurry
of this rich squadron to reach the markets of Amsterdam that Van Neck's
ship was almost destroyed when it hoisted too many sails and when the
wind broke two of the masts. It was not easy to repair this damage in
the open sea. After several days some sort of jury rig was equipped.
The big ship, with its short stubby mast, then looked so queer that
several Dutch vessels which saw it appear upon the horizon off the Gulf
of Biscay beat a hasty retreat. They feared that they had to do with
a new sort of pirate, sailing the seas in the most recent piratical
invention.
On the nineteenth of July, after an absence of only one year and two
months, the first part of Van Neck's fleet returned safely to Holland.
The cargo was unloaded, and was sold on the Amsterdam exchange. After
the full cost of the expedition had been paid, each of the shareholders
received a profit of just one hundred per cent. Van Neck, who had
established the first Dutch settlement in the Indies, was given a
public reception by his good city and was marched in state to the town
hall.