Ost-Indische Reyse, worin erzehlt wird viel gedenckwürdiges, und ungemeine seltzame Sachen bluhtige See- und Feld-schlachten, wieder die Portugisen und Makasser, Belägerungen, Bestürmungen, und Eroberungen vieler fürnehmen Städte und Schlösser... [with] VAN DER HEIDEN, Franz J. Gefährlichen Schiff-bruch des Ost-Indischen Jagdt-schifs ter Schelling

A tremendous visual resource and one of the most famous descriptions of the Dutch (and Portuguese) settlements in the East Indies, with striking views of Malacca, Batavia, Macassar, Ternate, Aniboina, Point de Galle, Colombo, Negapatam and elsewhere. These richly inked detailed engravings were used to great advantage by the Golden Cockerel Press to illustrate their publication of a translation of Jean de Lacombe's voyages to the East Indies (A Compendium of the East, 1937). This is the first German edition which, although published simultaneously with the Dutch edition, has an extra part added (see below). Many times reprinted, in different forms, the main work is by Schouten (his name is translated here as Walter Schultzen), a VOC ship's doctor who describes his voyage to and experiences over several years in the East Indies and at the Cape of Good Hope.

Lach, who quotes frequently from Schouten in his Asia in the Making of Europe, describes Schouten's work as 'one of the best' of the several descriptions of Java which appeared in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. 'Schouten described events as well as the land and its people. Much of what he wrote was the product of his own observations, although he obviously augmented them with information from other sources. His description of the court of Mataram, for example, is not an eyewitness account; he apparently never visited it. Since the whole book is written in Schouten's lively style, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the firsthand portions of his account and that which came from other sources'.

The second work included here, though it did not appear in the Dutch edition, is a German translation of Van der Heide's Vervarelyke schipbreuk van 't Oost-Indischen Jacht ter Schelling which had been separately published in Amsterdam the previous year. This is the dramatic account of an ill-fated VOC voyage from Batavia towards Europe: "Shipwreck on a desert island, hunger, and cannibalism are the themes of Franz Janszoon van der Heiden's tale describing the shipwreck of a VOC yacht off the coast of Bengal..." (Lach).

Lach continues that "According to Van der Heiden the Schelling was bound for Bengal from Batavia in October, 1661, when it ran aground during a storm and began to break up. Some of its crew escaped to a desert island where they struggled to stay alive for some time before building a rude raft with which they sailed to the mainland. Once on the mainland they were taken to a Mughal army camp and impressed into service. There is a brief description of the army and of the war they were fighting. Van der Heiden's tale may well be fictitious. The crew of the Schelling seems altogether too irresponsible, some of their adventures too unrealistic; the descriptions of the island are so general, it could be anywhere, and there are some serious lapses and illogicalities in the story".