ABSTRACT
On 22 June 1596, after a long and unlucky passage around the Cape of Good Hope and northeast across the Indian Ocean, the four Amsterdam ships of the first Dutch ‘Company for Afar’ came to anchor before the Javanese town of Bantam, thus ending a voyage that had begun on 21 March 1595 … The accounts of the first voyage transport us into the midst of everyday life in the town of Bantam — ceremonial visits are exchanged with the town authorities, the governor, and the shahbandar; nobles and merchants come on board: ‘There came such a multitude of Javanese and other nations as Turks, Chinese, Bengali, Arabs, Persians, Gujarati, and others that one could hardly move … They came so abundantly that each nation took a spot on the ships where they displayed their goods, the same as if it were on a market.’ 1
