An Addition to the Sea Journal of the Hollanders unto Java

An Addition to the Sea Journal of the Hollanders unto Java is a later facsimile of an English account connected with the first Dutch trading expedition to Java, undertaken by Cornelis de Houtman and his fleet in 1595–1597. The original text was published in London by John Wolfe in 1598 and is associated with Cornelis Gerritsz. It supplements the sea journal of the voyage and records European observations on Java, navigation, trade, and contact in Southeast Asian waters. Contemporary bibliography identifies the 1598 London publication as An addition to the sea journal or navigation of the Hollanders unto Java.

The voyage was a turning point in Dutch involvement in the Asian spice trade. Although commercially difficult and marked by conflict, it demonstrated that Dutch ships could reach Java independently of Portuguese-controlled routes and information networks. This helped prepare the ground for later Dutch commercial expansion in Southeast Asia and, in 1602, the formation of the Dutch East India Company, or VOC.

Within the collection, this work is closely connected with early printed mapping of Southeast Asia, including the Southeast Asia map from Jan Huygen van Linschoten's Itinerario (74) and the wider Asia and Indian Ocean map (254), both of which show how Iberian and Portuguese geographical knowledge entered Dutch and English print. It also provides useful context for later Dutch sea charts of Java and the Sunda Strait, including Doncker’s chart of Java (422) and Samuel Dunn’s later chart of the Sunda Strait (419), which show how early voyage knowledge developed into practical hydrographic mapping.