VAN NOORT CIRCUMNAVIGATES THE WORLD
Oliver van Noort was the first Hollander to sail around the world.
Incidentally, he was the fourth navigator to succeed in this dangerous
enterprise since in the year 1520 the little ships of Magellan had
accomplished the feat of circumnavigating the globe. Of the hero of
this memorable Dutch voyage we know almost nothing. He was a modest
man, and except for a few lines of personal introduction which appear
in the printed story of his voyage, which was published in Rotterdam,
his home town, in the year 1620, in which he tells us that he had
made many trips to different parts of the world, his life to us is a
complete mystery.
[Illustration: Olivier van Noort.]
He was not, like Jacob van Heemskerk and Van Neck, a man of education;
neither was he of very low origin. He had picked up a good deal of
learning at the common schools. Very likely he had been the mate or
perhaps the captain of some small schooner, had made a little money,
and then had retired from the sea. Spending one's days on board a ship
in the latter half of the sixteenth century was no pleasure. The ships
were small. The cabins were uncomfortable, and so low that nowhere one
could stand up straight. Cooking had to be done on a very primitive
stove, which could not always be used when the weather was bad. The
middle part of the deck was apt to be flooded most of the time, and the
flat-bottomed ships rolled and pitched horribly. Therefore, as soon as
a man had made a little competency as the master of a small craft he
was apt to look for some quiet occupation on shore. He had not learned
a regular trade which he could use on shore. Very often, therefore,
he opened a small hotel or an inn or just an ale-house where he could
tell yarns about whales and wild men and queer countries which he had
seen in the course of his peregrinations. And when the evening came
and the tired citizen wanted to smoke a comfortable pipe and discuss
the politics of the pope, the emperor, kings, dukes, bishops and their
Mightinesses, his own aldermen, he liked to do so under the guidance
of a man who knew what was what in the world and who could compare the
stadholder's victories over the Spaniards with those which King Wunga
Wunga of Mozambique had gained over his Hottentot neighbors, and who
knew that the wine of Oporto sold in Havana for less than the vinegar
from Dantsic and the salted fish from Archangel.
Therefore we are not surprised when in the year 1595 we find Oliver
van Noort described as the owner of the "Double White Keys," an
ale-house in the town of Rotterdam. He might have finished his days
there in peace and prosperity, but when Houtman returned from his
first voyage and the craze for the riches of the Indies, or at least
a share thereof, struck the town of Rotterdam, Van Noort, together
with everybody else who could borrow a few pennies, began to think
of new ways of reaching the marvelous island of Java, made of gold
and jewels and the even more valuable pepper and nutmeg. Van Noort
himself possessed some money and the rest he obtained from several of
his best customers. With this small sum he founded a trading company
of his own. He petitioned the estates general of the republic and the
estates of his own province of Holland to assist him in an expedition
toward the "Kingdom of Chili, the west coast of America, and if need
be, the islands of the Moluccas." To make this important enterprise
successful, the estates general were asked to give Van Noort and his
trading company freedom of export and import for at least six voyages,
and to present it with ten cannon and twelve thousand pounds of
gunpowder. He asked for much in the hope of obtaining at least part of
what he desired.
In the winter of 1597 his request was granted. He received four guns,
six thousand pounds of bullets, twelve thousand pounds of gunpowder,
and a special grant which relieved him of the customary export tax
for two voyages. This demand for cannon, gunpowder, and bullets gives
us the impression that the expedition expected to meet with serious
trouble. That was quite true. The southern part of America was the
private property of the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Anybody who
ventured into those regions flying the Dutch colors did so at his own
peril. Among his fellow-citizens Van Noort had the reputation of great
courage. Nobody knew any precise details of his early life, but it was
whispered, although never proved, that many years ago, long before
the days of Houtman, he had tried to reach the Indies all alone, but
that he had preferred the more lucrative profession of pirate to the
dangerous calling of the pioneer. Since, however, all his privateering
had been done at the expense of the Spaniards, nobody minded these
few alleged irregularities of his youthful days. And the merchants
who drank their pot of ale at his inn willingly provided him with the
money which he needed, bade him go ahead, and helped him when during
the winter of the year 1597 he was getting his two ships ready for the
voyage.
Now, it happened that at that time a number of merchants in Amsterdam
were working for the same purpose. They, too, wanted to sail to the
Moluccas by way of the Strait of Magellan. For the sake of greater
safety the two companies decided to travel together. In June of the
year 1597 their fleet, composed of four ships, was ready for the
voyage. Van Noort was to command the biggest vessel, the _Mauritius_,
while the commander of the Amsterdam company was to be vice-admiral
of the fleet on board the _Henrick Frederick_. The name of the
vice-admiral was Jacob Claesz. We know nothing about his early career,
but we know all the details of his tragic end. There were two other
small ships. There was a yacht called the _Eendracht_, and there was
a merchantman called the _Hope_. The tonnage of the ships is not
mentioned, but since there were only two hundred and forty-eight men on
the four ships, they must have been small even for that time.
In a general way our meager information about the invested capital,
the strange stories of the early lives of the commanders, and the very
rough character of the crew show that we have to do with one of the
many mushroom companies, an enterprise which was not based upon very
sound principles, but was of a purely speculative nature. During the
earliest days of Indian trading, however, all good merchants were in
such a hurry to make money to get to Java long before anybody else and
to reach home ahead of all competitors that there was no time for the
promoting of absolutely sound companies.
On the other hand, the men who commanded those first expeditions had
all been schooled in the noble art of self-reliance during the first
twenty terrible years of the war against Spain. They were brave, they
were resourceful, they succeeded where others, more careful, would have
failed.
On the twenty-eighth of June of the year 1597 Van Noort left Rotterdam
to await his companions from Amsterdam in the Downs, England. He waited
for several weeks, but the ships did not appear, so he went back to
Holland to find out what might have become of them. He found them lying
at anchor in one of the Zeeland streams. Evidently there had been a
misunderstanding as to the exact meeting-place of the two squadrons.
Together they then began the voyage for a second time. They had lost a
month and a half in waiting for each other, but at that date forty-five
days more or less did not matter. The trip was to take a couple of
years, anyway.
[Illustration]
First of all Van Noort went to Plymouth, where he had arranged to meet
a British sailor, commonly referred to as "Captain Melis," a man
who had been around the world with Captain Cavendish in 1588, and who
was familiar with the stormy regions around the southern part of the
American continent. In exchange for one Englishman, Van Noort lost
several good Dutchmen. Six of his sailors deserted, and could not be
found again.
The first part of the trip was along the coast of Africa, a road which
we know from other expeditions. Then came a story with which we are
only too familiar from previous accounts, for the much dreaded scurvy
appeared among the men. When the fleet passed the small island of
Principe in the Gulf of Guinea, it was decided to land there and try
to obtain fresh water and fresh food. Unfortunately, this island was
within the established domain of the Portuguese, and the Hollanders
must be careful. Early in the morning of the day on which they intended
to look for water they sent three boats ashore flying a white flag as
a sign of their peaceful intentions. The inhabitants of the island
came near the boats, also carrying a white flag. They informed the
Hollanders that if they would kindly visit the near-by villages the
natives would sell them everything they wanted, provided the Hollanders
paid cash. The men were ordered to stay near the boats, but four
officers went farther inland. They were asked to come first of all
to the Portuguese castle that was on the island. They went, but once
inside, they were suddenly attacked, and three of them were murdered.
The fourth one jumped out of the gate just in time to save his life. He
ran to the shore. This was a great loss to the Hollanders, for among
the men who had been killed was a brother of Admiral van Noort and
the English pilot upon whom they depended to guide them through the
difficult Strait of Magellan.
[Illustration]
To uphold the prestige of the Dutch Republic, Van Noort decided to
make an example. The next day after he landed with 120 of his men and
entrenched himself near the mouth of a river, so that he might fill his
water-tanks at leisure. Then, following this river, he went into the
interior of the country and burned down all the plantations and houses
he could find.
Well provided with fresh water, he thereupon crossed the Atlantic
Ocean and steered for the coast of Brazil. On the ninth of February he
dropped anchor in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, which was a Portuguese
town. He carefully kept out of reach of the menacing guns of the
fortification. The reception in Brazil was little more cordial than it
had been on the other side of the ocean. The Portuguese sent a boat
to the Dutch ships to ask what they wanted. The answer was that the
Hollanders were peaceful travelers in need of fresh provisions. The
provisions were promised for the next day, but Van Noort, who had
heard similar promises before, was on his guard and for safety's sake
he kept a few Portuguese sailors on his ship as hostages.
On the morning of the next day he sent several of his men to the shore
to get the supplies. They landed near a mountain called the Sugarloaf.
Once more the Portuguese did not play the game fairly. They had posted
a number of their soldiers in a well-hidden ambush near the Sugarloaf.
These soldiers suddenly opened fire, wounded a large number of the
Dutch seamen and took two of them prisoners. A little later a shot
fired from one of the cannon of the castle killed a man on board the
_Eendracht_. The two Dutch prisoners were safely returned the next day
in exchange for the Portuguese hostages, but Van Noort was obliged to
leave the town without getting his provisions. Therefore a few days
later he landed on a small island near the coast where he found water
and fruit, and his men caught fish and wild birds and were happy. Again
the Portuguese interfered. They had ordered a number of Indians to
follow the Dutch fleet and do whatever damage they could. When a Dutch
boat with six men came rowing to the shore it was suddenly attacked by
a large number of Indians in canoes. Two of the six men were killed.
The other four were taken prisoner and were never seen again.
Of course adventures of this sort were not very encouraging. Some of
the officers suggested that, after all, it might be a better idea to
discontinue the voyage around the South American coast before it was
too late. They proposed that the ships should cross the Atlantic once
more, and should either go to St. Helena and wait there until the next
spring or should sail to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope; for it
was now the month of March, and in that part of the world our summer is
winter and our winter is summer. Wherefore they greatly feared that the
ships could not reach the Strait of Magellan before the winter storms
of July should set in. It was upon such occasions that Van Noort showed
his courage and his resolute spirit. His expedition was in bad shape.
One of the ships, the _Eendracht_, was leaking badly. Through the
bad water, the hard work, and the insufficient food a large number
of sailors had fallen ill, and every day some of them died. Wherever
the expedition tried to land on the coast of Brazil to get water and
supplies they found strong Portuguese detachments which drove them
away. Not for a moment, however, did Van Noort dream of giving up his
original plans.
[Illustration]
At last, after many weeks and by mere chance, he found a little island
called St. Clara where there were no Portuguese and no unfriendly
natives and where he could build a fort on shore to land the sick
men and cure them of their scurvy with fresh herbs. The expedition
remained on Santa Clara for three weeks. Gradually the strength of the
men returned, but they were still very weak, and it was now necessary
that they should get plenty of exercise in the open air. Therefore the
admiral ordered the kitchens to be built at a short distance from the
fort. Those men who walked out to the kitchen got more dinner than
those who demanded that their food be brought to them. Soon they all
walked, and they greatly benefited by this little scheme of their
commander. On June 28 they were able to go back to the ship, and then
they set sail for the south. Two men, however, who had caused trouble
since the beginning of the voyage and who seemed to be incorrigible
were left behind on the island to get home as best they could. They
never did. Even such a severe punishment was not a deterrent. A few
days later a sailor attacked and wounded one of the officers with a
knife. He was spiked to the mast with the same knife stuck through his
right hand. Then he was left standing until he had pulled the knife
out himself. It was a very rough crew, and only a system of discipline
enforced in this cruel fashion saved the officers from being murdered
and thrown overboard, so that the men might return home or become
pirates.
I have just mentioned the bad condition of the _Eendracht_. The ship
was so unseaworthy, and so great was the danger of drowning all on
board, that Van Noort at last decided to sacrifice the vessel. The
sailors were divided among the other ships, and the _Eendracht_ was
burned off the coast of Brazil.
Van Noort now reached the southern part of the American continent.
The Strait of Magellan had been discovered in 1530. But even in the
year 1598 it was little known. The few mariners who had passed through
had all told of the difficulty of navigating these narrows, with
their swift currents running from ocean to ocean and their terrible
storms, not to speak of the fog. Crossing from the Atlantic into the
Pacific was therefore something which was considered a very difficult
feat, and Van Noort did not dare to risk it with his ships in their
bad condition. He made for the little Island of Porto Deseado, which
Cavendish had discovered only a few years before. There was a sand-bank
near the coast, and upon this the ships were anchored at high tide.
Then, when the tide fell, the ships were left on the dry sand, and
the men had several hours in which to clean, tar, and calk them and
generally overhaul everything that needed repairing. On the shore of
the island a regular smithy was constructed. For three months everybody
worked hard to get the vessels in proper condition for the dangerous
voyage.
[Illustration]
While they were on the island the captain of the _Hope_ died. He was
buried with great solemnity, and the former captain of the _Eendracht_
was made commander of the _Hope_, which was rebaptized the _Eendracht_.
This word means harmony in Dutch, and the Good Lord knows that they
needed harmony during the many difficult months which were to follow.
On November 5, fourteen months after Van Noort left Holland, and when
the number of his men had been reduced to 148, he at last reached the
Strait of Magellan. The ship of the admiral entered the strait first,
and was followed by the new _Eendracht_. The _Henrick Frederick_,
however, commanded by Jacob Claesz, the vice-admiral, went her own way.
Van Noort signaled to this ship to keep close to the _Mauritius_, but
he never received an answer. Van Noort then ordered Claesz to come to
the admiral's vessel and give an account of himself. The only answer
which he received to that message was that Captain Claesz was just as
good as Admiral van Noort, and was going to do just exactly what he
pleased.
[Illustration]
This was a case of open rebellion, but Van Noort was so busy navigating
the difficult current that he could not stop to make an investigation.
Four times his ship was driven back by the strong wind. At the fifth
attempt the ship at last passed the first narrows and anchored well
inside the strait. The next day they passed a high mountain which they
called Cape Nassau, and where they saw many natives running toward the
shore. The natives in the southern part of the continent were not like
the ordinary Indian with whom the Hollanders were familiar. They were
very strong and brave and caused the Hollanders much difficulty. They
handled bows and arrows well, and their coats, made of skin, gave them
a general appearance of greater civilization than anybody had expected
to find in this distant part of the world. When the Dutch sailors rowed
to the shore of the strait, the Indians attacked them at once. It was
an unequal battle of arrows against bullets. The natives were driven
back into their mountains, where they defended themselves in front of
a large hollow rock. At last, however, all the men had been killed,
and then the sailors discovered that the grotto was filled with many
women and children. They did not harm these, but captured four small
boys and two little girls to take home to Holland. It seems to have
been an inveterate habit of early expeditions to distant countries to
take home some natives as curiosities. Beginning with Columbus, every
explorer had brought a couple of natives with him when he returned
home. The poor things usually died of small-pox or consumption or some
other civilized disease. In case they kept alive, they became a sort of
nondescript town-curiosity. What Van Noort intended to do with little
Patagonians in Rotterdam I do not know, but he had half a dozen on
board when on November 28 his two ships reached the spot where they
expected to find a strong Spanish castle.
[Illustration]
This fortress, so they knew, had been built after the attack of Drake
on the west coast of America. Drake's expedition had caused a panic
among the Spanish settlements of Chile and Peru. Orders had come from
Madrid to fortify the Strait of Magellan and close the narrows to
all foreign vessels. A castle had been built and a garrison had been
sent. Then, however, as happened often in Spain, the home government
had forgotten all about this isolated spot. No provisions had been
forwarded. The country itself, being barren and cold, did not raise
anything which a Spaniard could eat. After a few years the castle had
been deserted. When Cavendish sailed through the strait he had taken
the few remaining cannon out of the ruins. Van Noort did not even find
the ruins. Two whole months Van Noort spent in the strait. He took his
time in this part of the voyage. He dropped anchor in a bay which he
called Olivier's Bay, and there began to build some new life-boats.
After a few days the mutinous _Henrick Frederick_ also appeared in this
bay. Van Noort asked Claesz to come on board his ship and explain
his strange conduct. The vice-admiral refused to obey. He was taken
prisoner, and brought before a court-martial. We do not know the real
grounds for the strange conduct of Claesz. He might have known that
discipline in those days meant something brutally severe; and yet
he disobeyed his admiral's positive orders, and when he was brought
before the court-martial he could not or would not defend himself.
He was found guilty, and he was condemned to be put on shore. He was
given some bread and some wine, and when the fleet sailed away he was
left behind all alone. There was of course a chance that another ship
would pick him up. A few weeks before other Dutch ships had been in the
strait. But this chance was a very small one, and the sailors of Van
Noort knew it. They said a prayer for the soul of their former captain
who was condemned to die a miserable death far away from home. Yet
no one objected to this punishment. Navigation to the Indies in the
sixteenth century was as dangerous as war, and insubordination could
not be tolerated, not even when the man who refused to obey orders was
one of the original investors of the expedition and second in command.
On the twenty-ninth of February Van Noort reached the Pacific. The last
mile from the strait into the open sea took him four weeks. He now
sailed northward along the coast of South America. Two weeks later,
during a storm, the _Henrick Frederick_ disappeared. Such an occurrence
had been foreseen. Van Noort had told his captains to meet him near the
island of Santa Maria in case they should become separated from him
during the night or in a fog. Therefore he did not worry about the fate
of the ship, but sailed for the coast of Chile.
After a short visit and a meeting with some natives, who told him that
they hated the Spaniards and welcomed the Hollanders as their defenders
against the Spanish oppressors, Van Noort reached the island of Santa
Maria. In the distance he saw a ship. Of course he thought that this
must be his own lost vessel waiting for him; but when he came near, the
strange ship hoisted her sails and fled. It was a Spaniard called the
_Buen Jesus_. The Dutch admiral could not allow this ship to escape.
It might have warned the Spanish admiral in Lima, and then Van Noort
would have been obliged to fight the entire Spanish Pacific fleet.
The _Eendracht_ was ordered to catch the _Buen Jesus_. This she did,
for the Dutch ships could sail faster than the Spanish ones, though
they were smaller. Van Noort had done wisely. The Spaniard was one of
a large fleet detailed to watch the arrival of the Dutch vessels. The
year before another Dutch fleet had reached the Pacific. It suffered a
defeat at the hands of the Spaniards. This had served as a warning.
The Hollanders did not have the reputation of giving up an enterprise
when once they had started upon it, and the Spanish fleet was kept
cruising in the southern part of the Pacific to destroy whatever Dutch
ships might try to enter the private domains of Spain.
[Illustration]
From that moment Van Noort's voyage and his ships in the Pacific were
as safe as a man smoking a pipe in a powder-magazine. They might be
destroyed at any moment. As a best means of defense, the Hollanders
decided to make a great show of strength. They did not wait for
the assistance of the _Henrick Frederick_, but sailed at once to
Valparaiso, took several Spanish ships anchored in the roads, and
burned all of the others except one, which was added to the Dutch
fleet. From the captain of the _Buen Jesus_ Van Noort had heard that a
number of Hollanders were imprisoned in the castle of Valparaiso. He
sent ashore, asking for information, and he received letters from a
Dutchman, asking for help.
Van Noort, however, was too weak to attack the town, but he thought
that something might be done in this case through kindness. So he set
all the crew of the _Buen Jesus_ except the mate free, and him he
kept as an hostage, and sent the men to the Spanish commander with
his compliments. Thereupon he continued his voyage, but was careful
to stay away from Lima, where he knew there were three large Spanish
vessels waiting for him. Instead of that, he made for the Cape of San
Francisco, where he hoped to capture the Peruvian silver fleet. Quite
accidentally, however, he discovered that he was about to run into
another trap. Some Negro slaves who had been on board the _Buen Jesus_,
and who were now with Van Noort, spread the rumor that more than fifty
thousand pounds of gold which had been on the _Buen Jesus_ had been
thrown overboard just before the Hollanders captured the vessel. The
mate of the ship was still on the _Mauritius_, and he was asked if this
was true. He denied it, but he denied it in such a fashion that it was
hard to believe him. Therefore he was tortured. Not very much, but just
enough to make him desirous of telling the truth. He then told that
the gold had actually been on board the _Buen Jesus_; and since he
was once confessing, he volunteered further information, and now told
Van Noort that the captain of the _Buen Jesus_ and he had arranged to
warn the Spanish fleet to await the Hollanders near Cape San Francisco
and to attack them there while the Hollanders were watching the coast
of Peru for the Peruvian silver fleet. No further information was
wanted, and the Spaniard was released. He might have taken this episode
as a warning to be on his good behavior. Thus far he had been well
treated. He slept and took his meals in Van Noort's own cabin. But soon
afterward he tried to start a mutiny among the Negro slaves who had
served with him on the Spanish man-of-war. Without further trial he was
then thrown overboard.
The expedition against the silver fleet, however, had to be given
up. It would have been too dangerous. It became necessary to leave
the eastern part of the Pacific and to cross to the Indies as fast
as possible. The Spanish ship which had been captured in Valparaiso
proved to be a bad sailor and was burned. The two Dutch ships, with a
crew of about a hundred men, sailed alone for the Marianne Islands.
Some travelers have called these islands the Ladrones. That means
the islands of the Thieves, and the natives who came flocking out to
the ships showed that they deserved this designation. They were very
nimble-fingered, and they stole whatever they could find. They would
climb on board the ships of Van Noort, take some knives or merely a
piece of old iron, and before anybody could prevent them they had dived
overboard and had disappeared under water. All day long their little
canoes swarmed around the Dutch ships. They offered many things for
sale, but they were very dishonest in trade, and the rice they sold was
full of stones, and the bottoms of their rice baskets were filled with
cocoanuts. Two days were spent getting fresh water and buying food, and
then Van Noort sailed for the Philippine Islands. On the fourteenth of
October of the year 1600 he landed on the eastern coast of Luzon. By
this time the Dutch ships were in the heart of the Spanish colonies,
and it was necessary to be very careful not to be detected as
Hollanders. The natives on shore, who had seen them in the distance,
warned the Spanish authorities, and early in the morning a sloop rowed
by natives brought a Spanish officer.
[Illustration]
Van Noort arranged a fine little comedy for his benefit. He hoisted the
Spanish flag and he dressed a number of his men in cowls, so that they
would look like monks. These peeped over the bulwarks when the Spaniard
came near, mumbling their prayers with great devotion.
Van Noort himself, with the courtesy of the professional innkeeper,
received his guest, and in fluent French told him that his ship was
French and that he was trading in this part of the Indies with the
special permission of his Majesty the Spanish king. He regretted to
inform his visitor that his first mate had just died and that he did
not know exactly in which part of the Indies his ship had landed.
Furthermore he told the Spaniard that he was sadly in need of
provisions and this excellent boarding officer was completely taken
in by the comedy and at once gave Van Noort rice and a number of live
pigs. The next day a higher officer made his appearance. Again that
story of being a French ship was told, and, what is more, was believed.
Van Noort was allowed to buy what he wanted and to drop anchor on the
coast. To expedite his work, he sent one of his sailors who spoke
Spanish fluently to the shore. This man reported that the Spaniards
never even considered the possibility of an attack by Dutch ships so
far away from home and so well protected by their fleet in the Pacific.
Everything seemed safe.
But at last the Spaniards, who had heard a lot about the wonderful
commission given to this strange captain by the King of France and
the King of Spain, but who had never seen it, became curious. Quite
suddenly they sent a captain accompanied by a learned priest who could
verify the documents. It was a difficult case for the Dutch admiral.
His official letters were all signed by the man with whom Spain was
in open warfare, Prince Maurice of Nassau. When this name was found
at the bottom of Van Noort's documents, his little comedy was over.
Nobody thereafter was allowed to leave the ship, and the natives were
forbidden to trade with the Hollander. Van Noort, however, had obtained
the supplies he needed. He had an abundance of fresh provisions, and
two natives had been hired to act as pilot in the straits between the
different Philippine Islands.
[Illustration]
The next few weeks Van Noort actually spent among those islands, and
with his two ships terribly battered after a voyage of more than two
years of travel he spread terror among the Spaniards. Many ships were
taken, and landing parties destroyed villages and houses. Finally
he even dared to sail into the Bay of Manila. Under the guns of the
Spanish fleet he set fire to a number of native ships, and then spent
several days in front of the harbor taking the cargo out of the ships
which came to the Spanish capital to pay tribute. As a last insult, he
sent a message to the Spanish governor to tell him that he intended to
visit his capital shortly, and then got ready to depart for further
conquest. He had waited just a few hours too long and he had been
just a trifle too brave, for before he could get ready for battle his
ships were attacked by two large Spanish men-of-war. The _Mauritius_
was captured. That is to say, the Spaniards drove all the Hollanders
from her deck and jumped on board. But the crew fought so bravely
from below with guns and spears and small cannon that the Spaniards
were driven back to their own ship. It was a desperate fight. If the
Hollanders had been taken prisoner, they would have been hanged without
trial. Van Noort encouraged his men, and told them that he would blow
up the ship before he would surrender. Even those who were wounded
fought like angry cats. At last a lucky shot from the _Mauritius_ hit
the largest Spaniard beneath the water-line. It was the ship of the
admiral of Manila, and at once began to sink. There was no hope for
any one on board her. In the distance Van Noort could see that the
_Eendracht_, which had only twenty-five men, had just been taken by
the other Spanish ship. With his own wounded crew he could not go to
her assistance. To save his own vessel, he was obliged to escape as
fast as possible. He hoisted his sails as well as he could with the few
sailors who had been left unharmed. Of fifty-odd men five were dead and
twenty-six were badly wounded. Right through the quiet sea, strewn with
pieces of wreckage and scores of men clinging to masts and boxes and
tables, the _Mauritius_ made her way. With cannon and guns and spears
the survivors on the _Mauritius_ killed as many Spaniards as possible.
The others were left to drown. Then the ship was cleaned, the dead
Spaniards were thrown overboard, and piloted by two Chinese traders who
were picked up during the voyage, Van Noort safely reached the coast
of Borneo. Here the natives almost succeeded in killing the rest of
his men. In the middle of the night they tried to cut the cables of
the last remaining anchor. The _Mauritius_ would have been driven on
shore, and the natives could have plundered her at leisure; but their
plan was discovered by the Hollanders. A second attempt to hide eighty
well-armed men in a large canoe which was pretending to bring a gift of
several oxen came to nothing when the natives saw that Van Noort's men
made ready to fire their cannon.
[Illustration: La bataille d'dutre nous et contpe sieux de Manille
faicte le 14 Decembre an^o 1600]
Another year had now gone by. It was January of 1601, and Van Noort's
condition was still very dangerous. There were no supplies on board.
The Chinese pilots did not know the coast of Borneo. There were many
islands and many straits, and Van Noort had lost all idea as to
his exact position. When he met a Chinese vessel on the way to India
he forced it to heave to and stole the mate, who was an experienced
sailor. Then the wind suddenly refused to blow from the right
direction, and it was many weeks before the _Mauritius_ reached the
harbor of Cheribon, in the central part of Java, many miles away from
Bantam.
[Illustration]
Van Noort called upon his few remaining officers to decide what they
ought to do. If his expedition were to be a financial success, he must
find some place where he could buy spices. Bantam was near by, but
according to the stories of Houtman and his expedition, the people
in Bantam were very unfriendly. With his twenty-three men the Dutch
commander did not dare to risk another battle. It is true that since
the visit of Houtman his successor Van Neck had established very good
relations with the sultan; but Van Noort had been away from home for
over three years, and knew nothing of Van Neck's voyage.
He might have guessed that there were Hollanders in Bantam when he
found that there were no spices to be had in any of the other Javanese
ports. Wherever he went he heard the same story. All the spices were
now being sent to Bantam, where the Hollanders paid a very high price
for them. But Van Noort distrusted this report. It might be another
plot of the Portuguese to catch him, and to keep out of harm's way, he
sailed through the straits of Bali, avoided the north coast of Java and
went to the Cape of Good Hope.
The home trip was the most successful part of the entire voyage. It is
true that, without good instruments, the Dutch ships once more lost
their bearings. They thought that they were two hundred miles away
from the coast of Africa when they had already passed the cape. On
the twenty-sixth of May Van Noort landed at St. Helena. Three weeks
later he met a large fleet. The ships flew the Dutch flag. They were
part of a squadron commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk, outward bound for
their second voyage to India. From them the Hollanders got their first
news from home; how Van Neck's expedition had been a great success,
and how Bantam, which had been carefully avoided, was now a Dutch
settlement. Van Noort told them of his fight with the Spanish fleet
in different parts of the Pacific, and in turn he was informed of the
great victory which Prince Maurice had just won over the Spaniards near
Nieuwpoort which had assured the Dutch Republic its final liberty. Then
both fleets continued their voyage. On the twenty-eighth of August Van
Noort and forty-four out of the two hundred and forty-eight who had
sailed away with him three years before came back to Rotterdam.
[Illustration: La baye de Isle et Cite de Borneo. Bapt. a Deutechum
fec.]
The next year a few other men who had belonged to the expedition
reached Holland. They had served on the _Henrick Frederick_ which had
disappeared just after Van Noort had left the Strait of Magellan. They
had waited for their commander near the island of Santa Maria, but the
arrival of the Spanish man-of-war had spoiled all idea of meeting each
other on that spot. The _Henrick Frederick_ had crossed the Pacific
alone. Many of her men had died, and the others were so weak that when
they reached the Moluccas they could no longer handle the ship. They
had sold it to the Sultan of Ternate for some bags of nutmeg, and with
a small sloop of their own construction they had reached Bantam in
April of the year 1602. There they had found a part of the same fleet
of Heemskerk which Van Noort had met on the coast of Africa. On one
of the ships many sailors had just died. Their place had been offered
to the men of the old _Henrick Frederick_. In the winter of 1602 they
returned to their home city.
That ended one of the most famous of the expeditions which tried to
establish for the Hollanders a new route to the Indies through the
Strait of Magellan. But while Van Noort was in the Pacific the route
of the cape had proved to be such a great and easy success that
further attempts to reach Java and the Moluccas by way of the Strait
of Magellan were hereafter given up. The Pacific trading companies
were changed into ordinary Indian companies which sent all their ships
around the cape. As for Van Noort, who was the first Hollander to sail
around the world, he entered the naval service of the republic, and had
a chance to practise his very marked ability as a leader of men in more
dangerous circumstances. As an Indian trader he would not have been a
great success. The old irresponsible buccaneering days of that trade
were gone forever. The difficult art of founding a commercial empire by
persuasion rather than by force was put into the hands of men who were
not only brave, but also tactful.