Joris van Spilbergen

Joris van Spilbergen (1568 in Antwerp – January 31, 1620 in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil ...

) was a Dutch naval officer. Joris van Spilbergen was born in Antwerp in 1568.Bakker, Michel. "Joris van Spilbergen and the Battle of Arequipa", ''IsGeschiedenis'', June 4, 2013
/ref> His first major expedition was in 1596, when he sailed to Africa. He then left for Asia on 5 May 1601, from

Veere Veere (; zea, label=Zeelandic, Ter Veere) is a municipality with a population of 22,000 and a town with a population of 1,500 in the southwestern Netherlands, in the region of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. History The name ''Veere'' ...

, a seaport on the island of Walcheren in Zealand, in command of the fleet of the company of Balthazar de Moucheron (a trading company before the establishment of the VOC). His ships were the ''Ram'', ''Schaap'', and ''Lam''.Anthonisz, Richard Gerald. ''The Dutch in Ceylon'', Asian Educational Services, Colombo, 1929
/ref> Spilbergen met the king of Kandy (

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

)

Vimala Dharma Suriya Vimaladharmasūriya I was a king of Kandy from 1590 to 1604. His reputation was built when he successfully repulsed two major Portuguese offensives on Kandy, the Battle of Danture in 1594 and the Battle of Balana in 1602, in both of which the P ...

in 1602, and discussed the possibility of trade in