Jan Huyghen van Linschoten

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563 – 8 February 1611) was a Dutch merchant, trader and historian. An alternative spelling of his second name is Huijgen.

He travelled extensively along the East Indies' regions under Portuguese influence and served as the Portuguese Viceroy's secretary in Goa between 1583 and 1588. He is credited with publishing in Europe important classified information about Asian trade. In 1596 he published a book, Itinerario (later published as an English edition as Discours of Voyages into Y 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, abusing the trust put in him by the Viceroy, Jan Huyghens meticulously copied the top-secret charts page-by-page. Even more crucially, Jan Huyghens provided nautical data like currents, deeps, islands and sandbanks, which was absolutely 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 English and the Dutch. As a consequence, The British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company broke the 16th-century monopoly enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the East Indies.

Jan Huyghen was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands, the son of a public notary and his wife. The family moved to the town of Enkhuizen when he was young. The addition of van Linschoten could indicate that his family had origins in the Utrecht village of the same name [1].

Huyghen left for Spain during December 1576 to live with his older brother Willem, who was working as a merchant in Seville. He learned Spanish and worked there until 1580, when he got a job in Lisbon, Portugal, 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 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.

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