In the last decade of the sixteenth century, the first Dutch expeditions to Asia were organized and the first Dutch vessels rounded Cape of Good Hope. For these early voyages maps were produced. These Dutch charts of Asian waters were largely based on earlier Portuguese and Spanish sources. Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten worked and lived in Goa (1583-1589) in Portuguese service. Back is Holland, he published a detailed travel account of his travels to Asia and his stay in Goa, which eventually led to the establishment of the VOC and the breaking of the monopoly of the Portuguese trade in the East Indies. The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. VOC ships were equipped with standard

series of charts for navigation. The official chart makers of the company had to swear secrecy. All maps were hand-drawn, publication of geographical information of the trading areas was prohibited. Maps of the great voyage from Europe to Asia were produced in the chart office in Amsterdam, charts for inter-Asian navigation were largely produced in Batavia (now Jakarta). Only in the second half of the eighteenth century, a printed atlas with charts of the Asian waters was published in Amsterdam. The VOC already passed its heyday at that time and was dissolved in 1799.