Compiled by René van Stipriaan
At the Court of the King of Bali
Bali, 12 February 1597
By a member of Cornelis de Houtman’s expedition Aernout Lintgens
Even before Barentsz and his men made their final attempt to find a route through the north, a convoy of four Dutch ships departed for the East Indies by the southern route, under the command of Cornelis de Houtman. Houtman carried with him the notes Jan Huygen van Linschoten had kept during his years in Portuguese service. They intended to establish trading contacts in the East Indian Archipelago without involving the Portuguese.
It proved to be a harsh education. The Dutch became involved in one conflict after another and lost a ship and many men. Only at their final stop in the archipelago, on Bali, did they succeed in establishing a good relationship with a local ruler and his court.
On the evening of 12 February, we were sitting by candlelight in the house of the kyloor, together with several of the king’s noblemen. The kyloor began asking about the condition of our country and whether there were many horses there. I answered that there were, and said that they were much larger than the horses in this country.
He then asked how many horses our king assembled when he went to war. I told the kyloor that he went to war with as many as 30,000 mounted men and 50,000 foot soldiers, all of them armored from head to toe so that no firearm could shoot through them, and that many different kinds of weapons were used.
Furthermore, when the king wished to besiege a city, he took as many as 150 metal cannon with him. The smallest of these was as large as one of the cannon aboard our ship that the King of Bali had ordered to be measured. In addition, there were countless other small pieces of artillery.
The kyloor and the noblemen were greatly astonished by this. He had someone ask me the name of our king, to which I replied, “Maurice of Nassau.” The kyloor wrote down the name.
He asked how old the king was. I answered that he was around thirty years old. He then asked whether he was already married, and I answered no. The kyloor was greatly astonished that a king would wait so long and not marry in good time, so that he might have children who could inherit the kingdom if the king were suddenly to die in battle.
The kyloor asked me whether the Kingdom of China was larger in size than our country. I answered that our country was larger.
The kyloor had a map brought out so that I could show him where our country was. I pointed out the Netherlands, Germany, the Baltic region, Norway and part of Russia, and called the whole of it Holland.
He asked me from which place we had departed with our ships. I pointed out the city of Amsterdam. He wrote it down and asked how many ships sailed from there. I answered that as many as 4,000 ships like ours departed from there each year, in addition to countless others that were sometimes smaller and sometimes larger than our pinnace.
I told him that on one occasion 700 ships had left Amsterdam in a single day. The kyloor and the noblemen were greatly astonished that there were so many ships in our country.
They asked whether our country was as warm as it was there. I answered:
“No. On the contrary, it is extremely cold, especially at this time of year, because it is now winter there.”
I told them that the water could become so hard from the cold in a single night that a man could walk across it, since they did not understand the word freezing. I said that after five or six days it could become so hard that wagons and horses could cross over it. They could scarcely believe this and considered it impossible.
They then had someone ask how the ships managed at such a time. I answered that they simply remained still in the harbors until, after three or four months, it began to rain and the sun shone brightly. The hardness would then melt again, and the ships would begin preparing once more to sail to every country.
I also explained that there were islands in the sea where it did not freeze so severely and where ships could enter during the winter.
Then a nobleman arrived carrying a letter written on a leaf with the point of a knife. It stated that the kyloor was to bring the three of us before the king and that he was to bring the gifts and the map with him.
The gifts and the map were then carried overhead, as is customary in that country. In this way we entered the palace where the king was seated. We bowed to him in our own manner and were then seated among his councilors and noblemen.
First, a beautiful large gilded mirror was presented to him. It was handed to the nobleman who normally carried the king’s kris. The king therefore did not take the mirror into his own hands, but he was very pleased with it.
He was then given a piece of velvet, a gun and several crystal vases. All of these pleased him greatly.
The king then ordered the firearm to be brought forward and wanted me to fire it, which I did in his presence. He had someone tell me that he had ordered this so that he himself could remember how it was done, since his noblemen had forgotten and were unable to make it fire. The gun was then put away again.
The king asked whether we carried a portrait of our king aboard our ships. I said no. He then asked whether there were any portraits of the captains aboard the ships. Again, I answered no.
The map was then brought before the king, and he personally gave me a thin stick with which to point out all the kingdoms and countries shown on it.
I began by pointing out the principal islands of the East Indies. The king then asked which island was Bali. I pointed it out to him. The king was greatly astonished that it appeared so small on the map. […]
He asked which route we had taken to get there. I showed it to him, and he asked how long we had been travelling and how many miles we had sailed.
I answered:
“About fifteen months passed before we saw the islands of Sumatra and Java, and we have sailed between four and five thousand miles.”
This greatly astonished the king. He asked how long we had now been away from Holland.
“About two years,” I answered. “Because this is our first voyage, because we have visited various countries and because we were unfamiliar with the conditions, the journey has taken us so long. We could now reach this place in six or seven months.”
Editor’s note: The text does not explain what a kyloor is. It does not appear to be a commonly known title. One of the few other sources describes this person as a governor, so in the accompanying video kyloor was replaced with governor to prevent confusion.
The printed footnote adds that this Ki Lorrah, or “governor,” is described here as a “brother” of the king, but that this relationship is not mentioned anywhere else.