ABSTRACT
After the establishment of the Dutch United East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) in 1602,1 the Dutch began to settle in the East Indies. At first only men were settlers, but this changed in 1610 with the arrival of the first Governor-General Pieter Both (1610-14). On 30 January 1610 Both left the Netherlands with a fleet of eight ships. Aboard there were not only sailors, but also occupying forces for the forts in the East Indies, ministers and artisans with their families, and thirty-six spinsters, the last turning out to be mainly ‘of ill repute’. After a journey full of deprivation the company arrived on 19 December 1610 at Banten on Java.2
