United States or Syria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
These successful incursions into a region that the Spaniards and Portuguese had jealously regarded as peculiarly their own aroused both anger and alarm. Paulus van Caerden, Matelief's successor in command, was defeated and himself taken prisoner. Nor were the Spaniards content with attacking the Dutch fleets in the far East.
They had communication with vessels of other Dutch commanders, among them those of the ill-fated van Caerden, who was exchanged by the Spaniards March 23, 1610, proclaimed general of all the Moluccas July 1, 1610, and shortly after captured again by the Spaniards. They had certain negotiations also with the English.
At Bantam in Java two vessels of the four were sent, under command of van Caerden, to trade for pepper. The two ships coasted the shore of the island of Sumatra, stopping at various places, without much success, on account of the tricks of the natives in their trade, until they reached Achem in the northern part of the island.
Thence the vessels went in different directions and on different missions toward the Dutch base at Bantam. At Bantam Admiral Paul van Caerden anchored on January 5, 1608, to whom Matelief communicated the necessity of first attending to Molucca affairs, giving him also information and advice concerning those islands and the Dutch and Spaniards there.
After rounding the cape they besieged and took a Portuguese trading-post, after which they cruised past Goa, Calcutta, and other places, finally sighting Sumatra, January 5, 1607, and anchoring at Bantam, January 6. There they met the Matelief expedition. With a half-hearted following of Matelief's advice, van Caerden anchored at Amboina in March, whence on May 10, he started for Ternate.
There they had trouble with the natives which was instigated by a Portuguese priest, and after seizing some pepper, which act they justified, returned to Bantam in Java, where their cargo was completed. Van Caerden lost twenty-seven men on this voyage, but brought back ten others who had been held prisoners at Achem.
Word Of The Day