Copper engraving [Tot Amsterdam, Ghedruckt by Iudocum Hondium, woonende inde Calver-Straet, inden Wackeren Hont. Anno 1614. Met Privilegie.] Image 107 x 152 mm, Plate 110 x 153 mm, Sheet 223 x 168 mm mounted The second Dutch mission to China and Maluka, with the goal to create passage through the North (‘De tweede navigatie om den omploop by Noorden te versoecken, China ende de Molucken’). The Maluka Islands were the original ‘Spice Islands’ and were under Portuguese colonisation since 1511. The Dutch first started a mission to the Maluka Islands in 1599 and made several other expeditions after this. Armed conflicts broke out between the Dutch and the Portuguese, until the Dutch won the monopoly for trade in the region around 1619 and the Portuguese were driven out. The local population, also known as Moluccans, often got caught in the middle of these conflicts. An example is shown in this print, which depicts events during the second mission of the Dutch to the Maluka Islands. Two Moluccans are shown in the front wearing fur clothing and carrying bows and arrows. Behind them a Moluccan is sitting in a sled being pulled forward by two deer, while in the background a fight has broken out. ‘Historische beschrijvinghe der seer wijt beroemde coop-stadt Amsterdam’ (Historical description of the famous trading city Amsterdam) by Johannes Isaac Pontanus was first published in Latin (‘Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium historia’) by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam in 1611. Three years later, in 1614, Jodocus Hondius had the book translated by Petrus Montanus into Middle-Dutch and published it again. The book was put on the Index because of its hostility towards Roman Catholics. The book was essentially a cumulative history of all Dutch knowledge of the world, through the efforts of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) and their various commercial and exploratory enterprises. This print is from a rare Dutch edition of the publication.