Netherlands/ Indonesia: The island of Bali—an English copy of Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman’s map of 1596-7.

On this map, the boxes ‘A’ indicate the king’s palaces; B is where de Houtman met the king; C is what de Houtman calls the ‘Cape of Pigs’; D is where the Dutch fleet anchored; E where they went ashore.

Cornelis de Houtman (1565—99), brother of Frederick de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia which helped start the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch.

However, the voyage itself was a disaster, beset with mutiny, killings and scurvy. De Houtman managed to insult and alienate almost everyone he met on the way. He was refused spices after insulting the Sultan of Banten on Java, then he allowed his men to rape and plunder on Madura. He managed to buy only a few pots of peppercorns on Bali; then in 1599, in Aceh in Sumatra, he insulted the sultan, setting off a sea battle in which he himself was killed.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History