with marvellous success, for they were already beginning to drive the
Portuguese from their most valuable possessions in the eastern seas and
to found for themselves a vast colonial realm.
During the early years of the war trade was carried on between them and
the Spaniards just as in times of peace. The Hollanders and Zeelanders
indeed regarded Philippe’s subjects in Spain and Italy as their best
customers, and relied upon the profit on commerce with them for means to
carry on the war. On various occasions the king tried to check this
trade, and the English were loud in denouncing it, still it went on,
though always diminishing in bulk, until 1598, when an edict was issued
by Philippe declaring all Dutch ships found in his ports confiscated and
their crews prisoners.
For some time this had been foreseen, and the merchants of Amsterdam and
Middelburg were intent upon seeking new markets to replace the old ones
that would be lost. They were of opinion that a short passage to China
might be found by way of the sea north of Europe and Asia, and a man
thoroughly qualified to make the effort to look for it was soon found in
the person of Willem Barendszoon, a seaman of great courage, patience,
and skill. On the 5th of June 1594 Barendszoon sailed from Texel with
three ships fitted out respectively by the cities of Amsterdam and
Enkhuizen and the province of Zeeland. He was also provided with a yacht
to explore in advance of the larger vessels. With him as supercargo of
the Enkhuizen ship was Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, of whom much will
presently be said. Barendszoon sailed north of Nova Zembla with the
Amsterdam ship and the yacht, while the other two vessels tried to pass
through the Waigats between Nova Zembla and the mainland. But ice
blocked the passage of them all, and they were obliged to return
unsuccessful to Amsterdam, where they arrived on the 16th of
September.[31]
[Sidenote: Voyages of Willem Barendszoon.]
The states-general then resolved to send another expedition to prosecute
the search for a passage, and on the 2nd of July 1595 seven ships sailed
from the Maas for that purpose under the leadership of the dauntless
Willem Barendszoon. There was another man in that fleet whose name
stands high on the roll of Dutch heroes, Jacob van Heemskerk, who went
on this occasion as supercargo of a ship of Amsterdam. But ice again
obstructed the passage, and having done all that was possible to get
through it, the explorers were compelled to put about and entered the
Maas on the 18th of November.
Barendszoon was now of opinion that by sailing much farther north an
open sea might be found, and as several geographers and travellers of
note supported him in this view, the city of Amsterdam fitted out two
ships, in which he and Heemskerk sailed from Vlieland on the 18th of May
1596. On this occasion Barendszoon visited Spitzbergen and reached 80°
north latitude, but ice still blocked the road to China. One of the
ships then returned home, the other was frozen fast and wrecked on the
coast of Nova Zembla. The crew built a hut on the shore, and passed the
winter in it, living largely on Arctic foxes and using the skins for
clothing. In the spring they launched their two boats, in which they
fortunately reached a Russian settlement on the mainland, and
ultimately Heemskerk and eleven others reached the Maas, 29th of October
1597. Brave Willem Barendszoon died of exhaustion on the journey. In our
own time the hut on Nova Zembla was found intact, having stood nearly
three centuries on the frozen shore, and the relics it contained are now
preserved in the national museum.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
When the first of these expeditions had failed, and while the result of
the second was still unknown, some merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a
fleet of four vessels, which in the year 1595 sailed to India by way of
the Cape of Good Hope. Before this date, however, a few Netherlanders
had visited the eastern seas in the Portuguese service, and among them
was one in particular whose writings had great influence at that period
and for more than half a century afterwards.
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten was born at Haarlem, in the province of
Holland. He received a good general education, but from an early age he
gave himself up with ardour to the special study of geography and
history, and eagerly read such books of travel as were within his reach.
In 1579 he obtained permission from his parents, who were then residing
at Enkhuizen, to proceed to Seville, where his two elder brothers were
pushing their fortunes. He was at Seville when the cardinal king
Henrique of Portugal died, leaving the succession to the throne in
dispute. The duke of Alva with a strong Spanish army won it for his
master, and shortly afterwards Linschoten removed to Lisbon, where he
was a clerk in a merchant’s office when Philippe made his triumphal
entry and when Alva died.
Two years later he entered the service of a Dominican friar, by name
Vicente da Fonseca, who had been appointed by Philippe primate of India,
the see of Goa having been raised to an archbishopric in 1557. In April
1583 with his employer he sailed from Lisbon, and after touching at
Mozambique--where he remained from the 5th to the 20th of August,
diligently seeking information on that part of the world--he arrived at
Goa in September of the same year. He remained in India until January
1589. When returning to Europe in the ship _Santa Cruz_ from Cochin, he
passed through a quantity of wreckage from the ill-fated _São Thomé_,
which had sailed from the same port five days before he left, and he
visited several islands in the Atlantic, at one of which--Terceira--he
was detained a long time. He reached Lisbon again in January 1592, and
eight months later rejoined his family at Enkhuizen, after an absence of
nearly thirteen years.
[Sidenote: Work of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten.]
Early in 1595 the first of Linschoten’s books was published, in which an
account is given of the sailing directions followed by the Portuguese in
their navigation of the eastern waters, drawn from the treatises of
their most experienced pilots. This work shows the highest knowledge of
navigation that Europeans had then acquired. They had still no better
instrument for determining latitudes than the astrolabe and the cross
staff, and no means whatever for ascertaining longitudes other than by
dead reckoning. The vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope was known by the
appearance of the sea-birds called Cape pigeons and the great drifting
plants that are yet to be seen any day on the shores of the Cape
peninsula. The different kinds of ground that adhered to the tallow of
the sounding leads to some extent indicated the position, as did also
the variation of the magnetic needle, but whether a ship was fifty or a
hundred nautical miles from any given point could not be ascertained by
either of these means. When close to the shore, however, the position
was known by the appearance of the land, the form of the hills and
mountains, and the patches of sand and thicket, all of which had been
carefully delineated and laid down in the sailing directions.
Linschoten’s first book was followed in 1596 by a description of the
Indies, and by several geographical treatises drawn from Portuguese
sources, all profusely illustrated with maps and plates. Of Mozambique
an ample account was given from personal observation and inquiry. Dom
Pedro de Castro had just been succeeded as captain by Nuno Velho
Pereira, who informed the archbishop that in his three years’ term of
office he would realise a fortune of about nine tons of gold, or £75,000
sterling, derived chiefly from the trade in the precious metal carried
on at Sofala and in the territory of the monomotapa. Fort São Sebastio
had then no other garrison than the servants and attendants of the
captain, in addition to whom there were only forty or at most fifty
Portuguese and half-breed male residents on the island capable of
assisting in its defence. There were three or four hundred huts occupied
by negroes, some of whom were professed Christians, others Mohamedans,
and still others heathens. The exports to India were gold, ivory,
ambergris, ebony, and slaves. African slaves, being much stronger in
body than the natives of Hindostan, were used to perform the hardest and
coarsest work in the eastern possessions of Portugal, and--though
Linschoten does not state this--they were employed in considerable
numbers in the trading ships to relieve the European seamen from the
heavy labour of pumping, hauling, stowing and unstowing cargo,
cleansing, and so forth. These slaves were chiefly procured from the
lands to the northward, and very few, if any of them, were obtained in
the country south of the Zambesi.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
It serves to show how carefully and minutely Linschoten elicited
information at Mozambique, that he mentions a harbour on the coast which
is not named by any of the Portuguese writers of the time except Dos
Santos, whose book was not then published, and who only refers to it
incidentally, though it is now known to be the best port between
Inhambane and the Zambesi. This is Beira, as at present termed, then
known to the sailors of the pangayos that traded to the southward as
Porto Bango. Linschoten gives its latitude as 19½°, half a league north
of Sofala. He mentions also Delagoa Bay, that is the present Algoa Bay,
and gives its latitude as 33½°. He describes the monsoons of the Indian
ocean, and states that ships from Portugal availed themselves of these
periodical winds by waiting at Mozambique until the 1st of August, and
never leaving after the middle of September, thus securing a safe and
easy passage to the coast of Hindostan.
[Sidenote: First Voyage of the Dutch to India.]
He frequently refers to the gold of Sofala and the country of the
monomotapa, of which he had heard just such reports as Vasco da Gama had
eagerly listened to eighty-six years before. Yet he did not magnify the
importance of these rumours as the Portuguese had done, though it was
mainly from his writings that his countrymen became possessed of that
spirit of cupidity which induced them a few years later to make
strenuous efforts to become masters of South-Eastern Africa.
Linschoten’s treatises were collected and published in a single large
volume, and the work was at once received as a text-book, a position
which its merits entitled it to occupy. The most defective portion of
the whole is that referring to South Africa: and for this reason, that
it was then impossible to get any correct information about the interior
of the continent below the Zambesi west of the part frequented by the
Portuguese. Linschoten himself saw no more of it than a fleeting glimpse
of False Cape afforded on his outward passage, and his description was
of necessity based upon the faulty maps of the geographers of his time,
so that it was full of errors. But his account of India and of the way
to reach its several ports was so correct that it could serve the
purpose of a guide-book, and his treatise on the mode of navigation by
the Portuguese was thus used by the commander of the first Dutch fleet
that appeared in the eastern seas.
The four vessels which left Texel on the 2nd of April 1595 were under
the general direction of an officer named Cornelis Houtman. In the
afternoon of the 2nd of August the Cape of Good Hope was seen, and next
day, after passing Agulhas, the fleet kept close to the land, the little
_Duifke_ sailing in front and looking for a harbour. On the 4th the bay
called by the Portuguese Agoada de São Bras was discovered, and as the
Duifke found good holding ground in nine or ten fathoms of water, the
_Mauritius_, _Hollandia_, and _Amsterdam_ entered and dropped their
anchors.[32]
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Here the fleet remained until the 11th, when sail was again set for the
East. During the interval a supply of fresh water was taken in, and some
oxen and sheep were purchased from the inhabitants for knives, old
tools, and pieces of iron. The Europeans were surprised to find the
sheep covered with hair instead of wool, and with enormous tails of pure
fat. No women or habitations were seen. The appearance of the
Hottentots, their clothing, their assagais, their method of making a
fire by twirling a piece of wood rapidly round in the socket of another
piece, their filthiness in eating, and the clicking of their language,
are all correctly described; but it was surmised that they were
cannibals, because they were observed to eat the half-raw intestines of
animals, and a fable commonly believed in Europe was repeated concerning
their mutilation in a peculiar manner of the bodies of conquered
enemies. The intercourse with the few Hottentots seen was friendly,
though at times each suspected the other of evil intentions.
A chart of the inlet was made,[33] from which it is seen to be the one
now called Mossel Bay. A little island in it was covered with seals and
penguins, some of each of which were killed and eaten. The variation of
the compass was observed to be so trifling that the needle might be said
to point to the north.
[Sidenote: Account by John Davis.]
From the watering place of São Bras Houtman continued his voyage, and
reached Sumatra safely. He next visited Bantam in the island of Java,
where, owing to the influence of Portuguese traders, he and several of
his attendants were made prisoners and were only released on payment of
a ransom of £400. Some other ports of Java were visited, as were also
Madura and Bali, and a small quantity of spice was purchased, but there
were many quarrels and some combats with the natives. So many men died
that it was necessary to burn the _Amsterdam_, which ship was much
decayed, and strengthen the crews of the other three vessels. Houtman
then left to return home, and reached Texel on the 14th of August 1597,
after an absence of over twenty-eight months.
Financially the first venture of the Dutch to the Indies was not a
success, but the spirit of enterprise was excited by it, and immediately
trading companies began to be formed in different towns of Holland and
Zeeland, and fleets were fitted out with the object of opening up an
eastern trade. It will not be necessary to give an account of all these
companies, but mention must be made of some of the fleets.
On the 15th of March 1598 two ships, the _Leeuw_ and the _Leeuwin_,
sailed from Vlissingen under command of Cornelis Houtman. In the _Leeuw_
the famous English seaman John Davis was chief pilot, that is sailing
master. They put into the watering place of Saldanha for refreshment,
where Davis, in his account of the voyage, says that the Hottentots fell
by surprise upon the men who were ashore bartering cattle, and killed
thirteen of them. In his narrative Davis says that at Cape Agulhas the
magnetic needle was without variation, but in his sailing directions,
written after another voyage to India, he says: “At False Cape there is
no variation that I can find by observing south from it. The variation
of Cape Agulhas is thirty minutes from north to west. And at the Cape of
Good Hope the compass is varied from north to east five and twenty
minutes.” At Atchin about a hundred and fifty tons of pepper were
purchased and taken in, but on the 1st of September 1599 a party of
Sumatrans went on board the two ships and suddenly drew their weapons
and murdered Cornelis Houtman and many others. In both ships they were
ultimately driven off with heavy loss. Some men were on shore at the
time, and they also were attacked, when eight were made prisoners and
the others were killed. Altogether sixty white men lost their lives on
this occasion. There was no further attempt to trade or to explore, and
after a voyage marked by loss the expedition reached home again on the
29th of July 1600.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
On the 1st of May 1598 Jacob van Nek sailed from Texel with six large
ships and two yachts. Second in command was Wybrand van Waerwyk, and
third in rank was Jacob van Heemskerk, who had only returned from his
terrible sojourn in the polar sea six months before. This voyage was an
eminently successful one. Four of the ships were speedily sent home
fully laden with pepper and valuable spices obtained at Bantam; two
others purchased cargoes at Banda, and when they sailed left twenty men
behind with money and goods to trade until the arrival of another fleet;
and the remaining two procured cargoes at Ternate, and left six men
there to trade when they sailed. All reached home in safety, with the
most valuable cargoes that had ever entered a Netherlands port.
On the 13th of September 1598 Olivier van Noort sailed from Goeree with
two ships and two yachts, having in all two hundred and forty-eight
souls on board, with the intention of ascertaining whether a western
route to India would not be preferable to that round the Cape of Good
Hope. It was necessary to burn one of the yachts on the passage, and one
of the ships parted company after passing through the straits of
Magellan and was never seen again. On the western coast of South
America Van Noort destroyed several trading vessels, and then set his
course for Manilla. Off that harbour, on the 14th of December 1600, two
large galleons attacked him, when the yacht _Eendracht_ sailed away,
drawing one of the galleons in pursuit. The _Mauritius_ engaged the
other, and after a stubborn combat succeeded in sinking her. As she was
going down some two hundred men jumped overboard, but instead of
attempting to rescue them, the crew of the _Mauritius_ pushed those who
swam alongside their ship underneath the water with poles. After the
engagement there were only forty-eight men left in the Dutch ship. The
yacht escaped, and reached Ternate, from which island her crew proceeded
to Bantam. Van Noort continued his westward course, and was the first
Netherlander to sail round the world. He reached Rotterdam on the 12th
of August 1601.
[Sidenote: The First Dutch Fort in India.]
On the 26th of April 1599 Stephen van der Hagen sailed from Texel with
three ships, the _Zon_, the _Maan_, and the _Morgen Ster_. The people of
Amboina were then at war with the Portuguese, and Van der Hagen entered
into an agreement with their ruler to assist him in return for a
monopoly of the sale of cloves at a fixed price. In accordance with this
agreement, in September 1600 under Van der Hagen’s direction a fort was
built at Amboina, and when he sailed he left twenty-seven Dutch
volunteers under Jan Dirkszoon Sonneberg to aid in guarding it.
No fresh discoveries on the African coast were made by any of the fleets
sent out at this time, but to some of the bays new names were given.
In December 1599 four ships fitted out by an association at Amsterdam
calling itself the New Brabant Company sailed from Texel for the Indies,
under command of Pieter Both. Two of them returned early in 1601,
leaving the _Vereenigde Landen_ and the _Hof van Holland_ under charge
of Paulus van Caerden to follow as soon as they could obtain cargoes.
On the 8th of July 1601 Van Caerden put into the watering place of São
Bras on the South African coast, for the purpose of repairing one of his
ships which was in a leaky condition. The commander, with twenty
soldiers, went a short distance inland to endeavour to find people from
whom he could obtain some cattle, but though he came across a party of
eight individuals he did not succeed in getting any oxen or sheep. A
supply of fresh water was taken in, but no refreshment except mussels
could be procured, on account of which Van Caerden gave the inlet the
name Mossel Bay, which it has ever since retained.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
On the 14th the _Hof van Holland_ having been repaired, the two ships
sailed, but two days later, as they were making no progress against a
head wind, they put into another bay. Here some Hottentots were found,
from whom the voyagers obtained for pieces of iron as many horned cattle
and sheep as they could consume fresh or had salt to preserve. For this
reason the commander gave it the name Flesh Bay.
On the 21st sail was set, but the _Hof van Holland_ being found leaky
again, on the 23rd another bay was entered, where her damages were
repaired. On account of a westerly gale the ships were detained here
until the 30th, when they sailed, but finding the wind contrary outside,
they returned to anchor. No inhabitants were seen, but the commander
visited a river near by, where he encountered a party from whom he
obtained five sheep in exchange for bits of iron. In the river were
numerous hippopotami. Abundance of fine fish having been secured here,
the commander gave the inlet the name Fish Bay.
On the 2nd of August the ships sailed, and on the 27th passed the Cape
of Good Hope, to the great joy of all on board, who had begun to fear
that they might be detained much longer on the eastern side by adverse
winds.
On the 5th of May 1601 a fleet of three vessels, named the _Ram_, the
_Schaap_, and the _Lam_, sailed for the Indies from Vere in Zeeland,
under command of Joris van Spilbergen. On the 15th of November the fleet
put into St. Helena Bay, where no inhabitants were seen, though smoke
rising from many fires was observed inland. The only refreshment
procurable was fish, which were caught in great quantities.
[Sidenote: Naming of Table Bay.]
On the 20th Spilbergen sailed from St. Helena Bay, and beating against a
head wind, in the evening of the 28th he anchored off an island, to
which he gave the name Elizabeth. Four years later Sir Edward
Michelburne termed it Cony Island, which name, under the Dutch form of
Dassen, it still bears. Seals in great numbers, sea-birds of different
kinds, and conies were found. At this place he remained only twenty-four
hours. On the 2nd of December he cast anchor close to another island,
which he named Cornelia. It was the Robben Island of the present day.
Here were found seals and penguins in great numbers, but no conies. The
next day at noon Spilbergen reached the watering place of Saldanha, the
anchorage in front of Table Mountain, and gave it the name Table Bay,
which it still bears.
The sick were conveyed to land, where a hospital was established. A few
inhabitants were met, to whom presents of beads were made, and who were
understood to make signs that they would bring cattle for sale, but they
went away and did not return. Abundance of fish was obtained with a
seine at the mouth of a stream which Spilbergen named the Jacqueline,
now Salt River; but, as meat was wanted, the smallest of the vessels was
sent to Elizabeth Island, where a great number of penguins and conies
were killed and salted in. The fleet remained in Table Bay until the
23rd of December. When passing Cornelia Island, a couple of conies were
set on shore, and seven or eight sheep, which had been left there by
some previous voyagers, were shot, and their carcases taken on board.
Off the Cape of Good Hope the two French ships of which mention has been
made were seen.
Spilbergen kept along the coast, noticing the formation of the land and
the numerous streams falling into the sea, but was sorely hindered in
his progress by the Agulhas current, which was found setting so strong
to the south-westward that at times he could make no way against it even
with the breeze in his favour. On the 17th of January 1602, owing to
this cause, he stood off from the coast, and did not see it again.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]