Jan Huyghen van Linschoten is the son…

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten is the son of a public notary from the town of Haarlem in the Netherlands, but the family had moved to the town of Enkhuizen when he was young.

The addition of van Linschoten could indicate that his family came from the Utrecht village of the same name.

He had at thirteen hleft for Spain during December 1576 to be with his brother in Seville, remaining there until 1580 when he got a job working with another merchant in Lisbon.

An economic recession a few years later had led him to seek the help of his brother, Willem, who was acquainted with the newly appointed Archbishop of the Portuguese colony of Goa, Dominican Vicente da Fonseca, who appointed Jan Huyghen Secretary to the Archbishop.

He had sailed for Goa on April 8, 1583, arriving five months later via Madeira, Guinea, the Cape, Madagascar and Mozambique.

While in Goa, as a result of his position, Linschoten had access to secret information, including the nautical charts that the Portuguese have well guarded for over a century.

Misusing the trust in him, for reasons unknown, Linschoten had begun meticulously copying these maps page by page.

The death of his sponsor in 1587, while on a trip to Lisbon to report to the King of Portugal meant the end of his position, so Linschoten had sailed for Lisbon in January 1589, passing by the Portuguese supply depot at St. Helena island in May 1589.

English piracy forced a shipwreck, stranding Linschoten two years in the Azores.

He landed in Lisbon only in 1592 and thereafter returned to his home at Enkhuizen until June 1594, when ...