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On his way back in 1606 with his cargo of cloves, spices and other products of the far Orient, he encountered at Mauritius another westward-bound fleet of eleven ships under Cornelis Matelief. Matelief's first objective was the town of Malacca, held by the Portuguese and commanding the straits to which it gave its name.
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.
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.
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