The stamp depicts a combination of two cards, namely a sea-chart and a profile card into a rectangle (right)
The flagship MAURITIUS http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... TIUS#p6582 on which Cornelis de Houtman stayed is seen sailing in Bantam Bay on West Java, which is surrounded by green mountains on different height.
Behind the ship is part of a wind-rose of a compass, with the compass lines visible. It ship sails literally on the compass and the compass points. In reality this is also done in unknown waters in a metaphohorical sense.
In the rectangle on the left is a detail of the Table Mountain at Cape of Good Hope placed.
Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 (Gouda, Netherlands – 1 September 1599 Aceh, Java), brother of Frederick de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia and managed to begin the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch, even though the voyage itself was a disaster. Houtman was not the navigator of skipper of the expedition but the first merchant
In 1592 Cornelis de Houtman was sent by Amsterdam merchants to Lisbon to discover as much information on the Spice Islands as he could. At the same time he returned to Amsterdam, Jan Huygen van Linschoten returned from India. The merchants determined that Bantam (Banten) provided the best opportunity to buy spices. In 1594 the two merchants founded the company 'compagnie van Verre' (meaning "the long-distance company"), and on April 2, 1595 four ships left Amsterdam: the AMSTERDAM, HOLLANDIA, MAURITIUS and DUYFKEN.
The voyage was beset with trouble from the beginning. Scurvy broke out after only a few weeks, due to insufficient provisions. At Madagascar, where a brief stop was planned, seventy people had to buried. The Madagascan bay where they were anchored is now known as the "Dutch Cemetery". After the dead of one of the skippers, quarrels broke out among the captains and traders; one was imprisoned on board and locked up in his cabin. On June 27, the ships finally arrived at Bantam, a northwestern port in Java. Jan Huyghen van Linschoten had told them not to pass through the Malacca Strait, which was controlled by the Portuguese, but through Sunda Strait.
De Houtman was introduced to the Sultan of Bantam, who promptly entered into an optimistic treaty with the Dutch, writing "We are well content to have a permanent league of alliance and friendship with His Highness the Prince Maurice of Nassau, of the Netherlands and with you, gentlemen." The local Portuguese traders became very conspicuous when De Houtman did not buy any black pepper, and wanted to wait on the next harvest. Unfortunately, De Houtman was undiplomatic and insulting to the sultan, and was turned away for "rude behavior", without being able to buy spices at all.
The ships then sailed east to Madura, but were attacked by pirates on the way. In Madura, they were received peacefully, but De Houtman ordered his men to brutally attack and rape the civilian population in revenge for the unrelated earlier piracy.
The ships then sailed for Bali, and met with the island's king. They managed to obtain a few pots of peppercorns on February 26, 1597. Two of the crewmembers stayed on the island. At Bawean one of the ships, the AMSTERDAM was purposely set on fire, and the crew divided over the other three ships. When the sailors had enough of the exhausting voyage, it was decided not to go to the Moluccas and return to Holland. That evening another one of the skippers died. De Houtman was accused of poisoning him.
Portuguese ships prevented them from taking on water and supplies at St. Helena. Out of the 249 man crew, only 87 returned, too weak to moor their ships themselves.
Though the trip was a humanitarian disaster and financially probably just broke even, it was a symbolic victory. It may be regarded as the start of the Dutch colonization of Indonesia. Within five years, sixty-five more Dutch ships had sailed east to trade. Soon, the Dutch would fully take over the spice trade in and around the Indian Ocean.
On his second trip to the East, for the new formed Veersche Company, Cornelis de Houtman was in command of two ships and on 21 June 1599 Houtman was with much deference received by the Sultan of Ache.
Houtman agreed then that his two ships would sail to Johor in Malaysia with troops of the Sultan to start a war in exchange for a load of pepper. But in the meantime the Portuguese incited the Sultan against the Dutch.
01 September 1599 numerous heavily armed officers and troops of the Sultan boarded the two vessels. As a gift they were bringing food and liquor with them, what was distributed under the crews of the two ships. In the food and the drinks was an ingredient that had hallucinogenic properties, most probably derived from the plant Dature. Once a part of the crew was numb the native troops attacked and killed Cornelis de Houtman and 27 crew, also the 22 men on shore were killed or enslaved. Frederick Houtman de brother of Cornelis was imprisoned for several years until gifts given to the Sultan by Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau freed him.
Netherlands 1996 80c sg1815, scott994
Wikipedia. And Internet.