First Dutch Expedition to the East Indies

It was instrumental in opening up the Indonesian spice trade to the merchants that eventually formed the Dutch East India Company, and marked the end of the Portuguese Empire's dominance in the region.

For a time, the merchants of the Netherlands were content to accept this and buy all of their spice in Lisbon, Portugal, as they could still make a decent profit by reselling it throughout Europe.

[2] Then, in September 1592, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten returned from an extended stay in Goa, India, and soon after, in collaboration with noted traveller Bernardus Paludanus, he published an account of his journeys that included a large amount of information on the East Indies that confirmed all of Plancius' charts and added more besides.

They recruited six other merchants and with them formed the Far-distance Company: Pieter Hasselaer, Jan Poppen, Hendrick Buick, Dirk van Os, Syvert Sem, and Arend ten Grootenhuys.

[12] His death set off a bitter feud over who would succeed that ended only when one of the officers, Gerrit van Beuningen, was put in irons for the remainder of the voyage.

[14] In June 1596, the fleet reached Bantam (Banten), Java but were received poorly due to the machinations of the Portuguese, who persuaded the Bantamese to raise their prices to absurdly high levels.

[15] At Sidayu, near Surabaya, the ships were boarded by natives and twelve men were killed in the ensuing battle, including the skipper of Amsterdam.

Only 94 of the original 248 men were still alive, and the leaders were split into two factions, one led by de Houtman and the other by Jan Meulenaer, who disagreed on where the fleet should go next.