ABSTRACT
The first Dutch enterprise which successfully reached the East Indies was that of Cornelius Houtman in 1595; but this was only rendered possible by John Huyghen van Linschoten, who visited Portuguese India in 1583. Linschoten, who was a native of the province of Utrect, went at the age of sixteen to Seville in Spain, and in April, 1583, sailed for Goa in the suite of Vincente de Fonseca, who had been appointed to the Archbishopric of Goa. The startling exposure of its weakness and of the corruption and immorality of its administrators immensely stimulated not only the Dutch but all Europe in its desire to endeavour to wrest some of the profits of the Indian trade from the hands of those who had monopolised them. The castaways had, in the meantime, been made captive by the natives, but, save for the loss of their liberty, were not inhumanely treated.
