Moluccas by the westward route, and Joris Spilbergen was appointed to
the command as admiral, with a commission from the States-General. He
was furnished with four ships of Amsterdam, two of Rotterdam and one
from Zeeland. On the 6th of May 1615 Spilbergen entered the Pacific
Ocean, and touched at several places on the coast of Chile and Peru,
defeating the Spanish fleet in a naval engagement off Chilca. After
plundering Payta and making requisitions at Acapulco, the Dutch fleet
crossed the Pacific and reached the Moluccas in March 1616.
The Dutch now resolved to discover a passage into the Pacific to the
south of Tierra del Fuego, the insular nature of which had been
ascertained by Sir Francis Drake. The vessels fitted out for this
purpose were the "Eendracht," of 360 tons, commanded by Jacob Lemaire,
and the "Hoorn," of 110 tons, under Willem Schouten. They sailed from
the Texel on the 14th of June 1615, and by the 20th of January 1616
they were south of the entrance of Magellan's Strait. Passing through
the strait of Lemaire they came to the southern extremity of Tierra
del Fuego, which was named Cape Horn, in honour of the town of Hoorn
in West Friesland, of which Schouten was a native. They passed the
cape on the 31st of January, encountering the usual westerly winds.
The great merit of this discovery of a second passage into the South
sea lies in the fact that it was not accidental or unforeseen, but was
due to the sagacity of those who designed the voyage. On the 1st of
March the Dutch fleet sighted the island of Juan Fernandez; and,
having crossed the Pacific, the explorers sailed along the north coast
of New Guinea and arrived at the Moluccas on the 17th of September
1616.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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