20 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
King, Philip the Second of Spain, were, from subjects, elevated into sovereigns; and 
their first expedition, commanded by Cornelius Houtman, to the Indian seas; in 
the year 1595, laid the foundation of that power which they afterwards displayed 
there in 1598; a power, which they would have preserved entire, had not some 
very formidable rivals appeared in the English and French nations. At the latter 
period they had possessed themselves of the conquests made by the Portuguese, as 
well as the Spaniards, in the Indian Ocean, and consequently of the islands of Cerne 
and Mascaregnas. Admiral Van Neck was the first who landed on the Isle of 
Cerne, in 1598, when it proved to be uninhabited. He gave it the. name of 
Mauritius. 
If even this enterprize, which took place on the return of Houtman, were not 
connected with the former one, whose disgrace it was formed to repair, and whose 
pilots it employed, particularly Guzarate Abdul, whom the Dutch had brought from 
Java with that intention, it would be nevertheless necessary to give an account of 
it in this place, as it relates to the establishment of the Dutch trade at Bantam. 
The importance of this object occasioned the equipment of a more considerable 
armament than the former. The number of vessels was doubled, and a whole win¬ 
ter was employed in the necessary preparations. On the first of May this fleet set 
sail from the Texel, under the command of Admiral James Cornelius Van Neck. 
The names of the vessels have been preserved, and were as follow: the Admiral’s 
ship was called the Mauritius; the second, commanded by Wybrand Van Warwick, 
whose name has been celebrated from his conduct in subsequent expeditions, was 
the Amsterdam ; and the six others received the denominations of the six provinces 
of Holland, Zealand; Gueldres, Utrecht, Friesland, and Overyssel. The^wbole 
equipage amounted to about 560 men. 
This voyage presents nothing more than the ordinary transactions of maritime 
life, until the month of September, when, having been separated in a violent storm, 
off the Cape of Good Hopej five of them were driven towards the Isle of Mada¬ 
gascar. They doubled the Cape St. Julien, and, on the 17th, discovered the island, 
which the Portuguese had denominated the island of Cerne. The Dutch, knowing 
nothing of it but its name, ordered out two boats to reconnoitre the shore, one of 
which discovered the south-east port, which is sheltered from the winds, and appeared 1 
capable of containing fifty ships, with an excellent bottom. The seamen had brought 
on board in the evening several large birds, and a great number of small ones, which 
