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[English Translation]
Princes & Republics that are in this vast expansive
region, to profit from them;
by both avoiding the excessive vices that abound where
the true God is not recognized, & by following the
moral virtues, & good customs in conformity with the law
of nature & the sovereign God. And also by the same
means to give posterity the most worthy parts of
my labors & observations. And since, according to
the custom of those who bring some treatise to
light, it is necessary to give one direction, I
judged that I could not provide one better than that of
your Excellencies, for that which I speak of the
navigation that I had made on your ships, what I had learned there
is in this treatise. As for this too, your
flourishing State only begins to lay the
first foundations of its glory. You will be able
by raising the body of this excellent edifice, to
use the porphyres & alabasters marbles; even the
diamonds, emeralds & rubies which are in this
treatise, which will only be able, being well applied,
to bring much luster & ornament to it. But you
must know first to place them there,
from what mines they are taken, & in what manner I have organized
them, as to present them to you. Know then,
GENTLEMEN, having arrived at Bandan in the
year 1598, at the principal city of Java Major, seeing that in
a short time I could neither see, nor learn, what
I had promised myself by leaving these lands, I
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