Book Description

Excerpt from The Adventures of John Smith in Malaya: 1600-1605 In the beginning of the year 1600, James Neccy, a merchant and adventurer, whose house was famous in the city of Haarlem in Holland, obtained a charter from the States General which empowered him to trade in the Eastern seas, and at the same time to further Dutch interests and influence so far as layd in his power in that region. His charter also hinted that it would be well for him to go armed, as besides enemies of the State, there were sea robbers in those waters. In pursuance of his charter he laded two galleons and a crompster (kromsteven) with assorted merchandise, and set sail. It was his intention to get as quickly as possible to the Malay Peninsula, stopping only at certain ports for the purpose of taking in water and fresh provisions. If fortune favoured him, he intended loitering about in the Straits of Malacca and perhaps doing a little damage to the Portugals' trade there, either as a merchant, by legitimate sharp trading, or, seeing that he was armed, perhaps there might be some chance of a fight at sea with some of their ships, or better still, a richly laden galleon bringing home cloves from Amboyna, or gold from Ophir. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.