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until 1596, it seems probable that the manuscript was examined by many who were interested in the future of Holland's trade with Asia, and its subsequent publication, and translation into many tongues, dealt a tremendous blow to Portugal, for it contained a merciless exposure of the futility of her system and of the rottenness which was eating into the heart of her administration in the East.

On April 2, 1595, a fleet of four vessels, equipped by the newly established Dutch East India Company, sailed from the Texel, under the command of Cornelius Hout- man. The Cape route was followed, and in June, 1596, the fleet reached Sumatra. Coasting towards the south, Houtman passed through the Straits of Sunda, and made a considerable stay at Bantam, the town at the north- western extremity of Java, where a Portuguese factory was already in existence, and where the Dutchmen speed- ily obtained permission to establish a trading-post of their own. Their coming was, of course, viewed with great dissatisfaction by the Portuguese, and though the latter concealed their hostility, they set to work to intrigue against their rivals, and succeeded so well that serious misunderstandings arose between Houtman and the na- tives. After leaving Bantam, the Dutch adventurers passed to Jaccatra, the town upon the ruins of which Batavia, the modern capital of the Dutch East Indies, has been reared, and thence, coasting along the northern shores of Java, visited Bâli and Lômbok. At the latter place he found that his crews had been so much reduced that their number no longer sufficed to work all the ships, and the Amsterdam, a vessel of 200 tons, was abandoned