Joris van Spilbergen (1 November 1568Bakker, Michel. "Joris van Spilbergen and the Battle of Arequipa", ''IsGeschiedenis'', June 4, 2013
/ref> in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

– 13 January 1620 in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the Brabantian dialect, local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the Province ...

) was a Dutch naval officer. His first major expedition was in 1596, when he sailed to Africa. He then left for Asia on 5 May 1601, from Veere, a seaport on the island of Walcheren in Zealand, in command of the fleet of the company of Balthazar de Moucheron (a trading company before the establishment of the VOC). His ships were the ''Ram'', ''Schaap'', and ''Lam''.Anthonisz, Richard Gerald. ''The Dutch in Ceylon'', Asian Educational Services, Colombo, 1929
/ref> Spilbergen met the king of Kandy (

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

) Vimala Dharma Suriya in 1602, and discussed the possibility of trade in

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

. In 1607, Spilbergen, onboard ''Aeolus'', was with Jacob van Heemskerk at the Battle of Gibraltar. In 1614, he sailed beyond the

Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to the south. Considered the most important natura ...

with an expedition of five ships. Despite the fact that the

Twelve Years' Truce The Twelve Years' Truce was a ceasefire during the Eighty Years' War between Habsburg Spain, Spain and the Dutch Republic, agreed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609 and ended on 9 April 1621. While European powers like Kingdom of France, France began tre ...

between Spain and the Dutch Republic was in force, he raided the Spanish settlements on the coast of Mexico and South America. He fought the Spanish at

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists ...

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...

and Navidad.Quanchi, ''Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands'', page 233 On October 26, he captured the pearl fishing ship ''San Francisco'' at Zacatula.Myers, Paul A., ''North to California'', Llumina Press, 2004
After sacking the village of Santos (then Portuguese colony) in 1615, aiming to weaken the Spanish-Portuguese influence in South America (but being repelled by the local population), he sailed across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

, the

Philippine Islands The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and eventually to

Ternate Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...

in the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

in March 1616. He fought in the Second Battle of Playa Honda and was defeated by the Spanish Armada in the

Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...

(Philippines). He circumnavigated the earth, and returned to the Dutch Republic in 1617. He died a poor man in

in 1620.

Citations

General and cited references

External links

Spilbergen's Journal translated by J. A. J. de Villiers, 1906
1568 births 1620 deaths 17th-century Dutch explorers Admirals of the navy of the Dutch Republic Circumnavigators of the globe Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War (United Provinces) Military personnel from Antwerp Netherlands–Sri Lanka relations {{Netherlands-bio-stub