De eerste scheeps-togt, gedaan na Oost-Indien, op kosten van de Engelse Maatschappy, in den jaare 1601. Onder 't beleyd van den Generaal James Lancaster. Mitsgaders een beknopt berigt van eenige voyagien voor die tijd na Oost en West-Indien door Engelse en andere volkeren gedaan

Key Properties

Edition: the Dutch translation published by Pieter van der Aa, the title-page stating it is translated from the English for the first time ("Nu aldereerst uyt het Engelsch vertaald")

Imprint: Te Leyden, by Pieter vander Aa, Boekverkoper, 1706. Met Privilegie

Illustration: title-page with an engraved allegorical vignette signed J. Goeree del.; folding engraved map of the East Indies with a cartouche of the reception of the English by an Eastern ruler, titled d'Uytrusting der Engelze Maatschappye onder den Generaal James Lancaster voor d'eerste maal over Zee na Oost-Indien gedaan; three engravings printed in the text, one of them on p. 8 of the Beknopt berigt

Size: 34 x 45 cm

Map: one folding engraved map, the only map the work calls for

Binding: modern speckled calf spine, marbled paper boards

Collation & Technical Description

Title-page with engraved vignette.

Beknopt berigt van eenige der eerste reysen gedaan door Engelse en andere volkeren na Oost en West-Indien, pp. (1)-18, ending with "Eynde" and a woodcut tailpiece; with an engraving in the text on p. 8.

Korten inhoud der afdeelingen in dese volgende reys begrepen, 1 leaf.

De eerste reys na het opregten van de Engelse Oost-Indische Maatschappy, gedaan Anno 1601, beginning on p. 1, in six sections (the contents leaf places section VI at p. 26).

Folding engraved map of the East Indies, marked "Pag. 1"; the work calls for this one map only.

Three engravings printed in the text (besides the vignette on the title-page), one of them on p. 8 of the Beknopt berigt. The map is the only folding plate.

Size: 34 x 45 cm.

Condition

In good condition.

References & Bibliography

STCN 190883472 (this part); STCN 190036478 (De wijd-beroemde voyagien na Oost- en West-Indien ... gedaan door de Engelsen)

Tiele, Nederlandsche bibliographie van land- en volkenkunde (Amsterdam 1884), p. 4

Description

In 1600 a group of London merchants raised 72,000 pounds to send ships to the East Indies, and on 13 February 1601 a fleet of four ships sailed from Woolwich under the command of James Lancaster: the Dragon of 600 tons, the Hector, the Ascension and the Susanna, with the Guest as victualler and 480 men in all. The text follows the voyage section by section: the outfitting and the letters Queen Elizabeth gave Lancaster for the princes of the Indies, the passage to Saldanha (Table Bay), where scurvy had struck the crews and the sick were brought ashore in tents, the voyage past Madagascar and Antongil Bay to Aceh in Sumatra and the trade there, the taking of a Portuguese prize near Malacca, the exchange of gifts and letters with the King of Aceh, the founding of a factory at Bantam, and the return to England.

The book opens with a separate Beknopt berigt, a short survey of English and other voyages before 1600: Madoc and the Cabots, John Rut's letter from Newfoundland of 1527, the voyages of John Hawkins and Francis Drake, the English prisoners of the Inquisition in Mexico, Humphrey Gilbert's letter of 1583 from St. John's, Ralph Fitch's journey overland to Ormuz and India, and Lancaster's own earlier voyage of 1591 under George Raymond. It ends with the remark that the English name was then so well known in the East that the first Dutch traders presented themselves there as Englishmen.

The folding map shows the whole region of the voyage, from Persia and India to China, Japan, the Philippines and the coasts of New Holland, with a cartouche showing the English being received by an Eastern ruler.

Historical Significance

Lancaster's voyage of 1601-1603 was the first undertaken by the English East India Company, chartered on the last day of 1600. Its factory at Bantam on Java became the Company's first base in Asia, and Lancaster was knighted after his return.

Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) of Leiden published, from 1706 onwards, a large collection of voyage accounts translated into Dutch, issued as separate parts with their own title-pages and later gathered into his collected editions. This part belongs to the series of English voyages; the text is translated from the English, after the account printed by Samuel Purchas.