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Important early voyages to the East Indies and the impetus for the discovery of Australia

SPILBERGEN, Joris van and Steven van der HAGEN.
Historis journael van de voyage gedaen met 3 schepen uyt Zeelant naer d'Oost-Indien onder het beleyt van den commandeur Joris van Spilbergen, syn eerste reyse. In den jare 1601. 1602. 1603. 1604. Als meede beschrijvinge van de tweede voyage ghedaen met 12 schepen na d'Oost-Indien onder den admirael Steven vander Hagen.
Amsterdam, Joost Hartgers, 1648. 4to. With a woodcut of 2 ships on the title-page and a folding engraved plate with 6 illustrations (each about 8 x 9 cm). Modern brown goatskin. 96 pp.
€ 8,000
Account of the famous first voyage to the East Indies by the German naval officer in Dutch service, Joris van Spilbergen (1558-1620), first published in 1605. Appended are Potanus's description of Java (pp. 57-61) and, with its own drop-title, an account of Steven vander Hagen's second voyage to the East Indies (pp. 62-96), first published in 1606.
Funded by the entrepreneur Balthasar de Moucheron, Spilbergen left for the East Indies with three ships: Het Lam (the lamb), De Ram (the ram) and Het Schaap (the sheep). He sailed from Veere in Zeeland on 5 May 1601. In November he rounded the Cape of Good Hope to reach Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in May 1602. Until September the fleet was anchored at Batticaloa on Ceylon's east coast where Spilbergen negotiated with the king of Kandi, promising him military assistance against the Portuguese. Between September 1602 and March 1603 he was at Banda Atjeh, in Sumatra, negotiating with the sultan and hunting for Portuguese ships. In February 1603 ships of the newly founded Dutch East India Company arrived at Atjeh and were joined by Spilbergen's fleet. After spending the summer of 1603 at Bantam in Java, Spilbergen returned to Holland with his two remaining ships, arriving at Vlissingen on 24 March 1604.
In 1603 the VOC appointed Steven vander Hagen to lead a voyage to the East Indies, which sailed in December 1603 with twelve heavily armed vessels taking about 1200 men. His instructions were to attack the Portuguese trading ports in India, take Malacca, and expell the Spanish from the Moluccas. Also with Vander Hagen's fleet was the yacht Duyfken under command of Willem Jansz., who was to discover Australia in 1606. In September 1605 Vander Hagen sailed for Holland leaving the Duyfken and another vessel in the Indies for further exploration, and leaving three manned forts in the Spice Islands.
With a small tear in the folding plate, slightly affecting the background of 1 illustration, and faint marginal water stains in a few leaves, but generally in good condition. Alden & Landis 648/181 (5 copies); Howgego, to 1800, S158; Sabin 89448; STCN (5 copies); Landwehr & V.d. Krogt, VOC 198.
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