Captain Best and his ships sail on…

English traders frequently engage in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean.

The company achieves a major victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612, at Suvali in Surat.

The company decides to explore the feasibility of gaining a territorial foothold in mainland India, with official sanction from both Britain and the Mughal Empire, and requests that the Crown launch a diplomatic mission.

In 1612, James I instructs Sir Thomas Roe to visit the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty that will give the company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat and other areas.

In return, the company offers to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the European market.

This mission is highly successful, and Jahangir sends a letter of approval to James through Sir Thomas Roe.

Eventually, the East India Company seizes control of Bengal and slowly the whole Indian subcontinent with its private armies, composed primarily of Indian sepoys.

Run, one of the smallest of the Banda Islands that are today a part of Indonesia, is only about three kilometers long and less than one kilometer wide but of considerable economic importance due to the value of the spices nutmeg and mace which are obtained from the nutmeg tree (Myristica fragans), at this time only growing on the Banda Islands.

Nutmeg is more valuable than gold at this time.

Sailors of the East India Company of the second expedition of James Lancaster, John Davis and John Middleton who stayed in Bantam on Java had first reached the Island in 1603 and developed good contacts with the inhabitants.

Nathaniel Courthope, hired in 1609 by the East India Company to go to the Spice Islands, had left England with great fanfare and by 1616 is a factor at Sukadana in Borneo.

Courthope lands his ships, Swan and Defence, on Run, on December 25, 1616, in a quest to break the Dutch hold on the nutmeg supply.

He persuades the islanders to enter an alliance with the British for nutmeg.

A second British East India Company voyage, commanded by Sir Henry Middleton, reached the islands of Ternate, Tidore, Ambon, and Banda in 1604. In Banda, the expedition encountered fierce hostility from the Dutch East India Company (VOC), marking the beginning of Anglo-Dutch competition for control over the lucrative spice trade.

Between 1611 and 1617, the English established trading posts in Sukadana (southwest Kalimantan) and other key locations, further intensifying their commercial rivalry with the Dutch in the region. Posts include: ...

 

...Makassar, ...

...Jakarta and ...

...Jepara in Java, and ...

...Aceh, ...

...Pariaman and ...

...Jambi in Sumatra, all of which threaten Dutch ambitions for a monopoly on East Indies trade.

VOC headquarters have been in Ambon for the tenures of the first three Governor Generals (1610-1619), but it is not a satisfactory location.

Although it is at the center of the spice production areas, it is far from the Asian trade routes and other VOC areas of activity ranging from Africa to Japan.

A location in the west of the archipelago is thus sought; the Straits of Malacca are strategic, but have become dangerous following the Portuguese conquest.

Moreover, ...