Journal du Voyage de l'Inde Orientale, faict per les navires Hollandoises

Cornelis de Houtman was a Dutch merchant and navigator who commanded the first Dutch fleet to the East Indies, sailing from the Netherlands in 1595 and returning in 1597. The voyage was organised by the Compagnie van Verre, or Company of Distant Lands, and showed that Dutch ships could reach the East Indies directly, challenging the Portuguese control over the Asian spice trade.

Originally published in Dutch in 1597, the account was revised and expanded the following year, when French and Latin translations also appeared. This is the first French edition, published in Middelburg in 1598. The work records the voyage of the four ships Amsterdam, Hollandia, Mauritius, and Duyfken to the East Indies, including their passage around the Cape of Good Hope, arrival at Java, and encounters with ports, peoples, trade goods, and local political authorities. The account includes observations on customs, trade, money, flora, fauna, topography, and a brief Malay vocabulary.

Although the voyage was difficult and commercially limited, it was a turning point in Dutch maritime expansion. It proved that Dutch merchants could sail to Southeast Asia and return with Asian goods without using Portuguese intermediaries. The voyage helped open the way for further Dutch expeditions and, soon after, the formation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602.

Within the collection, this journal relates to the East Indies and Asia maps by Jodocus Hondius I (80, 272, and 253), Henricus Hondius (459), and Willem Jansz. Blaeu (76, 121, and 108). Together, they show how Dutch voyage accounts and atlas maps reshaped European knowledge of Southeast Asia.