Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563 – 8 February 1611) was a Dutch merchant, traveller and writer. He travelled extensively along the East Indies regions under Portuguese influence and served as the archbishop's secretary in Goa between 1583 and 1588. He is credited with publishing in Europe important classified information about Asian trade and navigation that was hidden by the Portuguese. In 1596, he published a book, Itinerario (later translated as Discours of Voyages into Ye East & West Indies), which graphically displayed for the first time in Europe detailed maps of voyages to the East Indies, particularly India. During his stay in Goa, he meticulously copied the secret charts page by page. Even more crucially, he provided nautical data like currents, deeps, islands and sandbanks that were vital for safe navigation, along with coastal depictions to guide the way. The publication of the navigational routes enabled the passage to the East Indies to be opened to trading by the Dutch, French and the English. As a consequence, the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company would break the 16th-century monopoly enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the East Indies.
Origins Jan Huygen was born in 1563 at Haarlem in Holland, where his father, Huig Joostenszoon, was an innkeeper and notary. His mother, Marietje Tin Henrixdochter, had been previously married to a man named Tin with whom she had two sons, Willem and Floris Tin. In addition to his older half-brothers, Jan had a younger brother and sister. Jan Huyghen added the patronym van Linschoten when he was living in Goa. Neither of his parents had any connection with the Utrecht village of Linschoten and it is not known why he appended it to his name. The family moved to the town of Enkhuizen when he was young. His father was the innkeeper of The Golden Falcon and was prosperous enough to make loans in the shipping business. Details of Jan's education are not known but it is likely he attended an Enkhuizen Latin School where he studied reading, writing, mathematics and some Latin. He later recalled that he “took no small delight in the reading of histories and strange adventures".
Early career Linschoten left Holland in 1579 at the age of sixteen. When he was older, he confided that he had no plans except to seek a life of adventure so that when he returned home he would have "something to tell [his] children". On January 1, 1580, he landed in Seville where his two older brothers, Willem and Floris, had established a business. He stayed briefly with Floris, hoping to learn Spanish and establish himself as a merchant. When Philip II of Spain marched into Portugal in August 1580, Linschoten and his brother Floris followed the army in search of opportunities they assumed would follow conquest. Floris soon died of a plague epidemic that swept through Spain and Portugal. Linschoten found a job in Lisbon, working with another merchant. A downturn in trade led him to seek alternatives. With the help of Willem, who was acquainted with the newly appointed Archbishop of the Portuguese colony of Goa, Dominican D. Frei João Vicente da Fonseca, the younger Huyghen was appointed Secretary to the Archbishop. Huyghen sailed for Goa on 8 April 1583, arriving five months later via Madeira, Guinea, the Cape, Madagascar and Mozambique.
Goa
While in Goa, Jan Huygen van Linschoten kept a diary of his observations of the Portuguese-ruled city, amassing information about the Europeans, Indians, and other Asians who lived there. He also had access to maps and other privileged information about commerce and Portuguese navigation in southeast Asia and used his cartographic and drawing skills in order to copy and draw new maps, reproducing a considerable amount of nautical and mercantile information. Several of the nautical charts that he copied had been meticulously kept secret by the Portuguese for more than a century. Later, after returning to Enkhuizen, he collected accounts from other travellers, such as his friend Dirck Gerritsz "China" Pomp, a fellow resident of Enkhuizen who earned his nickname from his travels in the Far East, and was the first Dutchman to travel to China and Japan in three voyages of the Nau do Trato as constable of artillery. Jan Huygen van Linschoten made note of the trading conditions among different countries, and the sea routes for travelling between them. This information later helped both the Dutch and the English to challenge the Portuguese monopoly on East Indian trade. The 1587 death of his sponsor, the Archbishop of Goa, while on a voyage to Lisbon to report to the King of Portugal, meant the end of van Linschoten's appointment. He set sail for Lisbon in January 1589, passing by the Portuguese supply depot at St. Helena Island in May 1589.
The Azores
During a stopover on Saint Helena he met Gerrit van Afhuijsen, an Antwerp resident who had been in Malacca. From him he gained a knowledge of the spice trade in that region. On the next stopover, the Azores, he stayed for two years due to shipwreck caused by the English, who besieged the island. He used the time to map the city of Angra on Terceira for the island's governor, Juan de Urbina. Van Linschoten only reached Lisbon in January 1592. He spent six months at Lisbon, then sailed to his homeland in July 1592 and settled in his home city of Enkhuizen.
Barentsz First voyage
In June 1594, van Linschoten sailed from Texel in the expedition headed by Dutch cartographer Willem Barentsz. The fleet of three ships was to enter the Kara Sea, with the hopes of finding the Northeast passage above Siberia. At Williams Island the crew encountered a polar bear for the first time. They managed to bring it on board, but the bear rampaged and was killed. Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya and followed it northward, before being forced to turn back in the face of large icebergs.
Barentsz Second voyage
The following year they sailed again in a new expedition of six ships, loaded with merchant wares that they hoped to trade with China. The party came across Samoyed "wild men" but eventually had to turn back when discovering the Kara Sea to be frozen. Van Linschoten was one of two crew members to publish journals about the Barentsz expedition.
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