The Breskens and her sister ship the Castricum (under Maarten Gerritsz Vries) had been sent by order of the Governor General in the Dutch East Indies, Anthonio van Diemen, to search for the Gold and Silver Islands that were said to lie somewhere northeast off the coast of Japan.
Unhappily for the Breskens' crew, a group of four Jesuits intent on infiltrating into Japan had been caught at around the same time in a different part of Japan.