Frederick de Houtman | |
|---|---|
 De Houtmanc. 1615 | |
| Governor of the Moluccas | |
| In office 11 July 1621 – 25 February 1623 (1621-07-11 –1623-02-25) | |
| Preceded by | Laurens Reael |
| Succeeded by | Jacques le Fèbre |
| Governor of Amboyna | |
| In office 1 March 1605 – 18 February 1611 (1605-03-01 –1611-02-18) | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Caspar Janszoon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Frederik de Houtman Unknown date,c. 1571 |
| Died | 21 October 1627(1627-10-21) (aged 55–56) |
| Spouse | Vrouwtje Cornelisdr Clock |
| Relatives | Cornelis de Houtman (brother) |
| Occupation |
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| Employer | |
| Expeditions | |
Frederick de Houtman (c. 1571 – 21 October 1627) was a Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor who sailed on thefirst Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597, during which time he made observations of thesouthern celestial hemisphere and contributed to the creation of 12 new southernconstellations.
De Houtman was born inGouda. De Houtman assisted fellow Dutch navigatorPieter Dirkszoon Keyser withastronomical observations during thefirst Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597.[1] In 1598, de Houtman sailed on a second expedition led by his brother,Cornelis de Houtman, who was killed during the voyage. Frederick was imprisoned by theSultan of Aceh,Alauddin Riayat Syah, innorthern Sumatra.
He used his two years of captivity—from September 1599 until August 1601—to study the localMalay language and to make astronomical observations. These observations supplemented those made by Keyser on the first expedition. The constellations formed from their observations were first published in 1597 or 1598 on a globe byPetrus Plancius, and later globes incorporated adjustments based on De Houtman's later observations.[2]
Credit for these constellations is generally assigned jointly to Keyser, De Houtman, and Plancius, though some of the underlying stars were known beforehand.[1] The constellations are also widely associated withJohann Bayer, who included them in his celestial atlas,Uranometria, in 1603. After De Houtman's return to Europe, De Houtman published his stellar observations in an appendix to his dictionary and grammar of theMalayan andMalagasy languages.[3]
In 1619 De Houtman sailed in theDutch East India Company shipDordrecht, along with Jacob Dedel in theAmsterdam.[4] They sighted the Australian coast near present-dayPerth, which they called Dedelsland. After sailing northwards along the coast he encountered and only narrowly avoided a group of shoals, subsequently called theHoutman Abrolhos.
De Houtman then made landfall in the region known asEendrachtsland, which the explorerDirk Hartog had encountered earlier. In his journal, De Houtman identified these coasts asLocach, mentioned byMarco Polo to have been a country far south of China and indicated as such on maps by cartographersPlancius andLinschoten.[5][6]
English
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