Frederick de Houtman [SEP] native language
Frederick de Houtman
Frederick de Houtman (1571 – 21 October 1627), or Frederik de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who sailed along the Western coast of Australia en route to Batavia, known today as Jakarta in Indonesia. He made observations of the southern stars and possibly contributed to the creation of 12 new southern constellations.
Biography.
Frederick de Houtman was born in Gouda, Holland, Seventeen Provinces.
He assisted fellow Dutch navigator Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser with astronomical observations during the first Dutch expedition to the East
Indies in 1595–1597 (during which Keyser died). He also sailed in 1598–1599 on a second expedition led by his brother Cornelis de Houtman. Cornelis was killed on that expedition, and Frederick was imprisoned by the Sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra, but used his two years of captivity to study the local Malay language and to make astronomical observations. These observations supplemented those made by Keyser on the first expedition. The constellations formed from their observations were first published in 1597 or 1598 on a globe by Petrus Plancius, and later