About the year 1520 or 1521, Antonio de Britto, with six vessels under his command, bound to the Moluccas, touched first at _Túban_ and proceeded afterwards to _Agacai_, where he remained seventeen days, during which time he sent a boat to the island of _Madúra_, for the purpose of exploring it; but the men landing incautiously were surprised and made prisoners, and were not ransomed without much difficulty, and the friendly intervention of the governor of _Agacai_. Antonio de Britto had scarcely accomplished the ransom of his men, when he was joined by Don Garcia Henriquez with four vessels bound to Banda for spices, and at the same time a Javan vessel arrived from Banda. This vessel had been furnished with a pass from the Spaniards, under Fernan de Megalhaen, who having passed by the straits which bear his name, had arrived at the Spice Islands. This was the first intelligence which the Portuguese received of Megalhaen's discovery of the route round the southern extremity of the American continent, and they were the more mortified at it, as he had left his own country in disgust, and was then in the service of Spain[6]. The first voyage made by the Dutch was in 1595, in which year their first fleet, under the command of Houtman (who had been previously employed by the Portuguese in the East India service), sailed direct to Bantam. At this period the Portuguese were at war with the king of Bantam, to whom Houtman offered assistance, in return for which he obtained permission to build a factory at Bantam, which was the first settlement formed by the Dutch in the East Indies. Following the example of the Dutch, the English East India Company, immediately after their incorporation by Queen Elizabeth in 1601, fitted out a fleet of four ships, the command of which was entrusted to Captain Lancaster, who sailed from London in 1602, first to _Acheen_ (_Aché_) on Sumatra, where he procured part of his cargo, and entered into a treaty with the king, of which a copy is yet in existence. From _Acheen_ he went to _Bantam_, and settled a factory there, which was the first possession of the English in the East Indies. Captain Lancaster brought home a letter from the king of Bantam to Queen Elizabeth in 1602, which is still in the state paper office. In 1610, the first Dutch governor general, Bolt, arrived at Bantam, and finding the situation of his countrymen in that province not favourable to the establishment of a permanent settlement, removed to _Jákatra_. On the 4th of March, 1621, the name of _Batavia_ was conferred upon the new establishment of the Dutch in _Jákatra_, which from that period became the capital of their East Indian empire. In 1683, the English, who had hitherto maintained a successful rivalry with the Dutch, withdrew their establishment from _Bantam_.