publisher Joost Gillis Saeghman. The map published in this book, Exacta & accurata delinatio… regionibus China, Cauchinchina, Camboja, sive Champa, Syao, Malacca, Arracan & Pegu, was prepared by Petrus Plancius. An English-language edition of the Itinerario was published in London in 1598, entitled Iohn Huighen van Linschoten his Discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies. A German edition was printed the same year. Considered very significant, it was published in Latin in Frankfurt, 1599; another Latin translation in Amsterdam, 1599; and in French in 1610. The Itinerario continued to be re-edited after van Linschoten´s death in 1611, until the middle of 17th century. Jan Huygen also published the Dutch translation of Father José de Acosta's book on Spanish America in 1597, and in 1601 he published an academic account of his own travels to the North. He joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1609, he also published in Dutch the letter from the duke of Lerma, the King´s favourite, to Philip III of Spain, about the Moorish revolt in Spain. That same year he was asked to give an opinion on foundation of the Dutch West India Company (GWC). In addition to detailed maps of these places, van Linschoten also provided the geographic ‘key’ to unlocking the Portuguese grip on passage through the Malacca Strait. He suggested traders approach the East Indies from south of Sumatra through the Sunda Strait, thereby minimizing the risk of Portuguese intervention. This passage eventually became the main Dutch route into southeast Asia and was the origin of their colonization of the territories that form today's Indonesia. This data was used extensively in the preparation of the first fleet for Asia, that of Cornelis de Houtman (1595-1597). Van Linschoten gave the route that de Houtman followed, sailing to the west of Madagascar on the way to Java island, which the Dutch would follow for many years, and he participated in the debates over the fleet's preparation and destination. Due to this, during his lifetime, van Linschoten engaged personally in polemics with Petrus Plancius, the later cartographer of the VOC, for the preparation of de Houtman's fleet, but also in his sailings North. He also worked closely with Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer and Bernardus Paludanus. Van Linschoten died in Enkhuizen, where he had acted as Treasurer to the town since 1597. Legacy and honors The Linschoten Society (Linschoten-Veeeniging) was founded in