treasures for themselves, and wrest the trade from their 

 enemies. 



Their first attempt to reach the Indies was discouraging. It 

 was a favourite idea in those days that a short and practicable 

 route to China and India could be found by the north-east 

 passage round the north of Europe. To find this passage and 

 take the Portuguese in the rear was the object of the first 

 Dutch enterprise. The expedition proved disastrous, getting 

 no further than Nova Zembla. Two subsequent expeditions in 

 the same direction met with no better fate. 



Baffled in their efforts to find a passage through the frozen 

 seas of the North, the Dutch turned their attention to the old 

 route round the Cape. The merchants of Amsterdam formed 

 a company, under the quaint name of " The Company of 

 Far Lands," and fitted out four vessels, the largest 400 tons, 

 and the smallest only 30 tons burden. The little fleet sailed 

 from the Texel 2nd April, 1595. After a fifteen months' 

 voyage it reached Java, and laid the foundation of the Dutch 

 eastern trade. From this time numerous new companies were 

 formed in Holland : every year fresh fleets left for the east, 

 many of them returning with rich cargoes, and making 

 enormous profits. In spite of the violent attacks of the 

 Spaniards and Portuguese, the Dutch steadily pushed their 

 way in the Eastern Archipelago, and made reprisals on their 

 enemies with telling effect. Their humane and prudent 

 conduct contributed greatly to their success in establishing 

 trade relations with the native princes, by whom the Portuguese 

 were detested for their cruelty, arrogance, and overbearing 

 behaviour. 



The English had now entered into competition with the 

 Dutch in the India trade, and in 1600 the first English East 

 India Company was founded. But the English company 

 found their rivals too powerful. In 1602 the various com- 

 panies in Holland agreed to cease their mutual competition 

 and unite. This was the beginning of the famous Dutch East 

 India Company, which, on 20th March, 1602, received from 

 the States-General a charter for twenty-one years, giving it an 

 exclusive monopoly of the trade with the East. The company 

 had a capital of six and a half millions of florins, or ±'550,000, 

 more than eight times that of its English rival. It was 

 managed by a body of seventeen directors, known as the 

 Council of Seventeen. 



The Dutch had already (1602) established themselves per- 

 manently in Java. Here they founded the city of Batavia, 

 which became the centre of their trade and the residence of the 

 Governor-General of their Eastern possessions. They estab- 

 lished factories in Malabar, drove the Spaniards from Amboyna 



