Cornelius Specx

Cornelis Specx (15??-June 11, 1608) is known as the first European to interact with the Thai court.[1]

In 1601 he sailed under Joris van Spilbergen to Aceh. The journey was organised by Balthasar de Moucheron. Specx became a bookkeeper of the Dutch East India Company in 1603. In June 1604 he was sent by Admiral Wijbrandt van Waerwijck to Siam with presents for king Naresuan, hoping to get access to China with Siamese help.[2] He established a trading post ("factory") in Ayutthaya in 1604.[3]

An embassy of five people from the Kingdom of Siam was sent by the following Siamese ruler, Ekathotsarot.[4] and brought to Holland by Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge onboard Orange, who had left Bantam on January 28, 1608.[5] A few precious stones, taken on board by Specx, disappeared. The embassy arrived in The Hague on September 10, 1608, and met with Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange.[6]

Specx died during the journey. His goods were sold before the mast.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Histoire de la Thaïlande 11 - Alain BOTTU Home page
  2. 1 2 IJzerman, J.W. (1923) Cornelis Buijsero te Bantam. 1616-1618. Zijn brieven en journaal, met inleiding en bijlagen, p. 238.
  3. ↑ Early Mapping of Southeast Asia, p. 184, by Thomas Suarez
  4. ↑ Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance.
  5. ↑ English intercourse with Siam in the seventeenth century, p. 38
  6. ↑ Galileo's Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy, Page 96, by Mario Biagioli
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