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Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 1 September 1599) was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia and managed to begin 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, even though the voyage itself was a disaster.<br/><br/> The voyage may be regarded as the start of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia. Within five years, sixty-five more Dutch ships had sailed east to trade. Soon, the Dutch would fully take over the spice trade in and around the Indian Ocean.
A gong is an East and Southeast Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal or brass disc which is hit with a mallet. According to the Dutch chronicler Houtman in 1597: '[In Banten,] dancing goes on all night, so that at night there is a great racket of gongs and instruments'.