Jan Huyghen van Linschoten
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Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563-1611) was a Dutch Protestant merchant, traveller and historian. His second name is also spelt as Huijgen.
He is credited with copying top-secret Portuguese nautical maps thus enabling the passage to the elusive East Indies to be opened to the English and the Dutch. This enabled the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company to break the 16th century monopoly enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the East Indies.
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[edit] Origins
Jan Huyghen was the son of a public notary from the town of Haarlem in Netherlands, but the family moved to the village of Enkhuizen when he was young. The addition of Van Linschoten could indicate that his family came from the Utrecht village of the same name [1].
[edit] Spain
He left for Spain during December, 1576 to be with his brother in Seville. He trained as a merchant eventually working with a merchant in Lisbon, staying in Spain for over six years. A downturn in trade in Portugal led him to seek alternatives. He managed with the help of his brother, Willelm, who was acquainted with the newly appointed Archbishop of the Portuguese colony of Goa, Dominican Vicente da Fonseca. He was appointed Secretary to the Archbishop. So Jan Huyghens sailed for Goa on April 8, 1583 arriving five months later via Madeira, Guinea, the Cape, Madagascar and Mozambique.
[edit] Goa
While in Goa, as a result of his position Jan Huyghens had access to secret information, including the nautical maps that were well guarded for over a century. Misusing the trust in him, for reasons unknown, Jan Huyghens began meticulously copying these maps.
The death of his sponsor, the Archbishop in 1587 while on a trip to Lisbon to report to the King of Portugal, meant that Jan Huyghens venture was over. He set sail for Lisbon in January, 1589, passing by the Portuguese supply depot at St. Helena island in May 1589.
[edit] Back in Holland
The voyage was interrupted by English piracy which forced a shipwreck, and as a result Jan Huyghen spent two years in the Azores. He landed in Lisbon only in 1592 and thereafter returned to his home at Enkhuizen.
With assistance from Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz, who specialised in shipping, geography and travels, Jan Huyghens wrote,Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten (Travel Accounts of Portuguese Navigation in the Orient) in 1595. This work contains a large number of sailing directions, not only for shipping between Portugal and the East Indies colonies, but also between India, China and Japan.
Jan Huyghen also wrote two other books, Beschryvinghe van de gantsche custe van Guinea, Manicongo, Angola ende tegen over de Cabo de S. Augustijn in Brasilien, de eyghenschappen des gheheelen Oceanische Zees (Description of the Entire Coast of Guinea, Manicongo, Angola and across to the Cabo de St. Augustus in Brazil, the Characteristics of the Entire Atlantic Ocean) in 1597, and Itinerario: Voyage ofte schipvaert van Jan Huyghen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 1579-1592 (Travel account of the voyage of the sailor Jan Huyghen van Linschoten to the Portuguese East India) in 1596.
In addition to detailed maps of these places, Linschoten also provided the geographic ‘key’ to unlocking the Portuguese grip on passage through the Malacca Strait; he suggested approaching the East Indies from the south of Sumatra through the Sunda Strait, thereby minimizing the danger of Portuguese attention.
[edit] Linschoten Award
ABN Amro Bank awards this annually to the best Dutch entrepreneur.
[edit] Linschoten Society
A Linschoten Society was founded in 1908 to publish rare or unpublished Dutch travel accounts of voyages, journeys by land, and descriptions of countries and survives today at the Amsterdam Ship Museum.
[edit] Additional reading
- Van Linschoten, Jan Huyghen. The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies, Elibron Classics, 2001, 368 pages, ISBN 1-4021-9507-9, Replica of 1885 edition by the Hakluyt Society, London
