of
VOC-ship 'Gelderland' (1601–1603) Born in
Rotterdam, Matelief was put in command of a fleet of eleven ships of the
Dutch East India Company with the destination of
Malacca. Malacca then was an inconvenient stronghold for non-Portuguese ships heading for the
Indonesian Archipelago, China or Japan. The fleet set sail from
Zeeland on 12 May 1605. It was the third (?) such fleet from the Dutch East Indies Company to visit Malacca. Matelieff met with
Steven van der Hagen on the island of
Mauritius for a briefing in January 1606. As one of the first, Matelieff described the
black rat, the
dodo and the
macaque monkey. Also his description of the vegetation of the island are most important. He reached Malacca in April 1606. In May Matelief de Jonge formed a formal pact with the ruler of
Johor,
Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah III, to expel the Portuguese. In exchange, the Dutch would get Malacca for themselves and would be able to conduct trade with Johor. The Dutch and the Malay also agreed to tolerate each other's religion.
First battle of Malacca (August 1606) Matelief laid
siege to the Portuguese-held Malacca for several months, but was repulsed on land by Portuguese troops under
André Furtado de Mendonça and their allies, a contingent of Japanese
samurai from
Red seal ships. A very large Portuguese fleet under
Dom Martim Afonso de Castro, the Viceroy of
Goa, arrived on the scene with twenty Portuguese ships on 14 August 1606. The two fleets fought from 17 August.
Nassau was boarded by
Santa Cruz and
Nossa Senhora da Conceição. Matelief, onboard
Orange, went to the rescue but collided with another Dutch ship,
Middelburg. These two ships were then attacked by
São Salvador and
Dom Duarte de Guerra's
galleon.
Orange managed to break free, but the two Portuguese ships and the
Middelburg all caught fire and sank in the action. The
Santa Cruz and
Conceição eventually managed to set the
Nassau on fire, leading to an explosion that sank her. in 1606 Matelief decided to withdraw from the action, with 150 dead on the Dutch side, and around 500 on the Portuguese side. On 19 August 1606 he obtained permission from the Sultan of Johor to anchor his fleet for repairs in the
Johor River.
Second battle of Malacca (September 1606) Matelief came back to the scene of the first battle about a month later. Castro had sailed away, leaving only ten Portuguese ships before Malacca. Matelief attacked the ships and managed to sink or burn every single one of them, on 21 September 1606. At the end of his trip Matelieff had lost six ships. Matelieff sailed in one ship from
Ternate to
Canton, and on 4 June 1607 he captured a Chinese
junk, loaded with spices from Banda. When six Portuguese ships under
André Pessoa showed up in front of the Chinese coast, he went back, without an agreement with China or reaching Japan. Matelieff arrived unsuccessfully on
Bantam on 24 November 1607, and sent
Willem Jansz with secret instructions to Banda to forestall the English ships. He left
Bantam on 28 January 1608.
Return to Europe with a Siamese embassy (1608) (1600) Matelieff returned to Europe in 1608 with
Cornelius Specx, a Dutchman who had established a factory in
Ayutthaya in 1604. Together with them was an embassy of 16 peoples from the
Kingdom of Siam sent by the Siamese ruler
Ekathotsarot. The embassy was brought to Holland by Matelief onboard
Orange. They arrived in
The Hague on 10 September 1608. There the embassy met with
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. Following this, a treaty was concluded between the
Dutch Republic and Siam in 1617. In 1618 Matelieff was appointed in the
vroedschap of Rotterdam, later as a
burgemeester of the city. In 1625 he lost his function as a deputy in the
States-General when staying too long in
Warsaw. ==Notes==