Departing from Ceylon, we steered our course to Malaca, which is distant from Goa six hundred leagues, near the Equinoctial line, at one degree's elevation of the Arctic Pole's circle, very near the great island of Sumatra, and the kingdoms of Sian and Pegu. The Portuguese have built a very strong city there, which is of vast importance to them, seeing it is the key and staple of the trade of China, Japan, the Moluccas, and other islands in the neighbourhood of Sunda: so that, after Ormus, there is no captain thrives like him of Malaca, for there he is at the straits of Malaca and Sumatra, where all the ships must touch and pay their dues. Even the Portuguese vessels cannot pass without the acquittance of the governor of Malaca, both going and returning.

This place causes much trouble to the Hollanders, English, and French, by reason whereof the Hollanders have desired to take it, and they laid siege to it in this wise:–The said Hollanders and the King of Jor had made a compact and treaty together to drive the Portuguese out of Malaca, and for this purpose the Hollanders had thirteen large vessels commanded by the Captain Corneille Madalif, their general in the Indies. So, on the 29th day of April 1606, he cast anchor before Malaca, with full 1,500 Hollanders, who, being landed, invested Malaca.