The Dutch merchant Jan Pieterszoon Coen (ca. 1586-1629) founded Batavia as governor general of the Dutch East India Company. Possessed of great administrative and military ability, he contributed greatly to the expansion of Dutch influence in the East Indies.

Born at Hoorn probably at the end of 1586 (he was baptized on Jan. 8, 1587), Jan Coen at the age of 13 obtained employment with a firm of former Dutch merchants in Rome, where he remained for almost 7 years and where he learned bookkeeping, other commercial skills, and several languages.

Returning to Holland in 1607, Coen sailed on December 22 of that year for the Dutch East Indies as an employee of the Dutch East India Company. He returned home in 1610, and 2 years later the company dispatched him to the Indies as commander of two ships. At the end of 1614 Coen was named director general, the second highest post, and on April 30, 1618, he was...