Tonga The Travels Of William Schouten & Jakob Le Maire 1991 1 Pa’anga Proof

Jacob Le Maire was a Dutch mariner, born in Antwerp who circumnavigated the globe from 1615 to 1616. He discovered the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island, Argentina; that strait is now named the Le Maire Strait in his honor. He was the first person to round Cape Horn, proving that Tierra del Fuego was not a continent. In June 1615 Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten sailed from Holland with two vessels, the Eendracht and the Hoorn, in command of an expedition whose objective was to evade the trade restrictions of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) by finding a new route to the Pacific and the Spice Islands. They followed the north coasts of New Ireland and New Guinea and visited adjacent islands, including what became known as the Schouten Islands. In 1616 they rounded Cape Horn, which they named for the Hoorn, which was lost in a storm. The Dutch city of Hoorn was also the birthplace of Schouten. Although they had opened an unknown route, the VOC claimed infringement of its monopoly of trade to the Spice Islands. Le Maire and Schouten were arrested and the Eendracht was confiscated in Java. After beeing released, they returned from Batavia to Amsterdam; Le Maire died during that journey at the young age of 31.