To the Powerful / Noble / Honorable / Wise

and very Provident Lords / the Lords States

General of the United Netherlands.

The Illustrious / High-born Prince and Lord / Maurits / by the grace

A large ornamental drop cap 'M' is decorated with intricate floral and leaf scrollwork patterns.My Lords, it is well known to every merchant and sailor trading and traveling on the Mediterranean Sea how great a prosperity the inhabitants of these lands have enjoyed there, and still enjoy daily. If anyone requires any proof or evidence for these words of mine, let him only look at the manifold ships that, at most times of the year, swarm there more and more, partly visiting the old discovered harbors and places, and partly scouting for new ones: which, without a doubt, would not happen were there no profits to be made there. I do not even mention the endless and terrible perils of the pirates, which are easily overlooked by all in view of the sweet earnings. The merchant runs nowhere but where he knows or hopes to make a gain; he flees from loss like a cancer. Yet, how dangerous, how risky, indeed how almost impossible it is to sail or navigate such places without having proper instructions, good descriptions, charts, and whatever adheres to them, even a child can, so to speak, easily notice. To this end, I have, for some years now, with all possible diligence and industriousness, sparing no time and cost, gathered together