Van Linschoten
Full Name: Jan Huyghen van Linschoten
Achievements: One of the great early 16th century explorers
Born: 1563, Haarlem, Holland
Died: February 8, 1611; Enkhuizen, Netherlands (Aged about 48)
Field & Discipline: Literature; Exploration; Writer
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Spouse: Unknown
Children: Unknown
Education: Unknown
Major Work:
"Voyages into East and West Indies" (1598)
Life & Times:
As a youth, Linschoten read histories and stories of adventure in strange lands which gave him the desire to travel. In 1583, at the age of twenty, he joined an expedition to Portuguese Goa in India via the Cape of Good Hope, the route opened up by [followed footsteps of] da Gama*.
Linschoten got a job as bookkeeper to Vicentius de Fonseca, the archbishop of Goa, and remained in India for the next six years. When he returned to the Netherlands, he wrote up his experiences. He recorded the voyage out to India, giving descriptions of coastlines, rivers and creeks, and then described the customs, government, commerce and botany of Goa, and his experiences there.
The books were printed by [books printed by] Plantin’s* printing house and then, at the instigation of the English geographer, [publicized by] Hakluyt*, translated and printed in England in 1598.
They were eagerly read, particularly by merchants in Holland and England who were anxious to expand their trading operations. It was a long and dangerous journey round
the Cape of Good Hope to the East and everybody wanted to find a quicker route. In 1594, Linschoten and the Dutch navigator, Willem Barents, set out to search for a northeast passage to the Orient via the Arctic.
They reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya and continued northwards. Barents went home after this but Linschoten went on into the Kara Sea before bad weather forced him to turn back. The following year he and Barents returned to the Kara Sea with a fleet of seven ships but this time the sea froze over and again they had to retreat.
Linschoten published the diary he had kept on these voyages and inspired later attempts by the Dutch and English to search for a northern route to India.
Extra Connections: His discoveries spurred development of the [spurred development of] East India Company*
Assessment: One of the early pioneers of trading routes to the East.
Oneliner: JH van Linschoten, early cartographer and explorer
Bibliography:
- Encyclopedia Britannica.