Journal, Memorials and Letters of Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge

Book excerpt: Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge was a Director in the Rotterdam chamber of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) for three decades in the early 17th century. In May 1605 he set sail from the Dutch Republic with a fleet of 11 ships, and in the following year launched an unsuccessful attack on Portuguese Melaka. After visiting various locations in the region and signing landmark treaties with the rulers of Johor (1606) and Ternate (1607), he returned to the Netherlands in 1608. There he wrote a series of epistolary reports and memoranda that were carefully studied by leading policy makers in the Republic, among them the renowned jurist Hugo Grotius, and the politician and diplomat Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Early VOC policy for south-eastern Asia drew heavily on Matelieff's submissions, and the materials reproduced in this volume provide candid insights into key elements of VOC strategy, trade, security and regional diplomacy, as well as Dutch relations with Spain and Portugal. Here translated into English for the first time, this collection of Matelieff's writings is an invaluable resource for students of business history, early colonial history, and the history of international law.