Fort Victoria on the island of Amboina, 1617 (oil on canvas)

This bird’s-eye view of the Mollucan island of Ambon has a small portrait of its first Dutch governor, Frederik Houtman, lower right. Fort Victoria was seized from the Portuguese by the Dutch East India Company in 1605 for clove production. Houtman initially maintained good contacts with the Ambonese chiefs until the VOC mounted punitive expeditions to prevent the sale of the spice to rivals. Amboina, or Ambon, would remain the main base of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) from 1605 until its headquarters moved to Batavia, now Jakarta, in 1619.