Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Two expeditions set out in 1598. That of Sebold Van Weert
failed and it was that of Oliver Van Noort which gained the accolade
as the first Dutch circumnavigation. In July he left Rotterdam with
four ships, the
Maurice, Concord, Hope
and
Henry Frederike.
Like
earlier captains, Van Noort aimed to establish a firm commercial
base for trade with the Moluccas. Although he did get home again
with a cargo of cloves it was only after experiencing the same diffi-
culties which had beset his predecessors. A year after setting out the
convoy was still in the Atlantic, having been delayed by bad weath-
er and a clash with the Portuguese. Inevitably, men and ships were
beginning to feel the strain. Several of the crew had already died of
fever and scurvy before Van Noort made a landfall on the southern
coast of Brazil. The vegetation was sparse but what there was the
sailors made good use of:
. . . we found little but herbs and two trees of sour plums, which
cured the sick in fifteen days.
The Dutch were the first to make a serious study of scurvy
*
and
its possible remedies, although it was a Spanish monk, Antonio de la
Ascension who wrote the first clear description of the disease and
its symptoms, in 1602:
The first symptom they notice is a pain in the whole body which
makes it so sensitive to touch . . . After this, all the body, especially from
the waist down, becomes covered with purple spots larger than great
mustard seeds. Then from this bad humour some strips or bands come
behind the knee joints, two fingers and more wide like wales [weals] .
. . These become as hard as stones, and the legs and the thighs become
so straight and stiff with them that they cannot be extended or drawn
up a degree more than the state in which they were when attacked .
. . The sensitiveness of the bodies of these sick people is so great that
