Willem Janszoon - Political Life

Political Life

Around 1617/18 he was back in the Netherlands and appointed as a Council of India. He served as admiral of the Dutch Defense fleet He was awarded a gold chain worth 1,000 guilders in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the British East India Company near Tiku on West Sumatra, which had aided the Javanese in their defense of the town of Jakarta against the Dutch. In 1620 he was one of the negotiators with the English. In a combined fleet they sailed to Manilla to prevent Chinese merchants dealing with the Spanish. Janszoon became vice-admiral; in the year after admiral. At the end of his life Janszoon served as governor of Banda (1623–27). He returned to Batavia in June 1627 and soon afterwards, as admiral of a fleet of eight vessels, went on a diplomatic mission to India. On 4 December 1628, he sailed for Holland and on 16 July 1629, reported on the state of the Indies at The Hague. He was probably now about sixty years of age and willing to retire from his strenuous and successful life in the service of his country. Nothing is known of his last days, though he is thought to have died in 1630.

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