François Valentyn

François Valentyn was born in 1666 in Dordrecht, Holland, where he lived most his life; however, he is known for his activities in Southeast Asia, notably in Ambon, in the Maluku Islands.

When he finally returned to Dordrecht he would go on to write his Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (1724–26) a massive work of five parts published in eight volumes and containing 1,200 engraved illustrations and some of the most accurate maps of the Indies of the time.

Johannes II van Keulen (d. 1755) became hydrographer to the VOC, at the time Valentyn's Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën was published.

It was in Van Keulen's time that many of the VOC charts were first published, one signal of the decline of Dutch dominance in the silver and spice trade.

[3] Beekman nevertheless cites him as an important figure and, given his writing style, diction and aptitude for narrative, considers him one of the greatest Dutch prose writers of all time.