The voyage around the world led by Olivier van Noort

In early February Van Noort reached the Brazilian coast at Cabo de São Tomé and continued to Rio de Janeiro. Here the Dutch fought briefly with the Portuguese garrison and, after losing a few more men, left the Portuguese colony. In March a decision was made to delay the passage through the Strait of Magellan as winter was coming. The expedition attempted to find St. Helena, but missed the island. By now many of the crew were sick with scurvy and many died. The expedition anchored for some time off the Brazilian coast at St. Clara island. Here most of the scurvy patients recovered. The Eendracht was deemed no longer seaworthy and burned. The expedition continued to the island St. Sebastian and then to Port Desire. Here three crew members who went ashore were killed by locals, who disappeared before the Dutch realized what had happened. The expedition sailed on to the Strait of Magellan. In December, on a small island in the Strait of Magellan the expedition encountered a large group of indigenous people who threw penguins at them from above and shot them with bow and arrow. The Dutch opened fire, landed ashore and killed all the men, and a number of women and children. They captured 6 children. Apparently, this was seen as revenge for the three crew killed at Port Desire. Afterwards the Dutch made slow progress through the Strait. While passing the Strait, the Vice Admiral, was court-martialled for mutinous conduct, convicted and set ashore. The Fleet reached the Pacific Ocean in February 1601, but lost contact with the Fredrik Hendrik

After departing from the coast of New Spain in late May 1600, the fleet of Olivier van Noort decided to cross the Pacific Ocean to seek the Philippines. Along the way they encountered several pacific islands. They deliberately made a stop at the Ladrones islands, which today are known as the Mariana Islands. They arrived at Guam on 15 September and stayed for 2 days to barter for fresh supplies of food and drinking water.

In October 1600 Olivier van Noort arrived in the Philippines with two ships, the Mauritius and the Eendracht. The expedition sailed to the southeast side of the island Luzon and went into a bay now called Albay Bay. After obtaining some provisions there, the ships continued slowly towards Manilla.

After staying near Manilla for about a month, on 14th December Van Noort was confronted by a Spanish fleet under Antonio de Morga. The ships engaged and a protracted battle took place. The Eendracht was captured by the Spanish. The Mauritius was rammed and entered by the Spanish admiral’s ship but the Dutch were able to defend themselves until a fire broke out and the Spanish had to retreat. The Mauritius then opened fire and caused such damage that they sank the admiral’s ship. The Eendracht was considered a lost cause and soon after disengaging Van Noort decided to leave Manilla to sail to Borneo.

After the battle at Manilla, the Olivier van Noort sailed the Mauritius to Borneo to find fresh supplies and possibly trade at Brunei, which he calls the city of Borneo. After arriving Van Noort sent an Chinese envoy to the shore to seek permission of the sultan to trade. At first, it seemed cordial relations were established and the Dutch traded for and bought fresh food supplies from locals who came up the ship in prows. An attempt was made to trade for pepper with Chinese merchants from Patani, but in the end this came to nothing. Meanwhile, the Dutch began to suspect that the sultan may be preparing an assault on the ship. Convinced that they were in an unsafe situation and seeing little opportunity to profitably trade at Brunei, a decision was made to sail to Java, to the city of Bantam

In December 1598 the fleet under Olivier van Noort arrived at the island Principe off the West African coast. Its goal was to obtain fresh supplies of food and water. The island was a Portuguese possession at the time. Only shortly before a Dutch fleet of Balthasar de Moucheron had occupied the island, but was forced to abandon it in November 1598. Van Noort sent forty men ashore of which four when to the Portuguese fort. But once they were inside, some were killed and another captured. One Dutchman managed to escape to their boat, where the others waited. The Portuguese chased them to the shore and killed 2 more men. The attack prompted Van Noort and his council to wage an assault on the Portuguese sconce with 120 men, but this attack was repelled. The next day, the Dutch landed again with 30 men at a nearby river and built their own sconce while obtaining much needed drinking water. Some men were sent inland to destroy sugar mills. While doing so, they were ambushed and forced to retreat.