The Daily Brunei Resources

It has been a while since I last wrote an article for my column, The Golden Legacy in The Brunei Times. I finally found the time to write this one entitled 'The First Dutch Visit to Brunei in 1600' and it was published on Sunday, December 22, 2013. +++++ Captain Oliver van Noort The First Dutch Visit to Brunei in 1600 by Rozan Yunos ON December 26, 1600, four hundred and thirteen years ago, people in Brunei saw two ships with Dutch crewmen sailing into the Brunei Bay. They were the remnants of a Dutch fleet of four ships which had set out two years earlier on September 1, 1598, from Rotterdam trying to circumnavigate the world. The fleet was originally made up of two vessels, the Mauritius, the Hendrick Frederick and two smaller yachts, the Hope and the Eendracht. The Mauritius was captained by Oliver van Noort who financed two of the four vessels and the other two were financed by an Amsterdam syndicate. The other three captains were Pieter Calesz, Jan Huydecooper

The Borneo Bulletin on December 7, 2013 continued with BA Hussaimiya's article on the Legal History of Brunei Darussalam. +++++ Shifting sands of Brunei history: Issues of genealogy & chronology Posted date: December 07, 2013 In: Features B A Hussainmiya PhD (Continuation of ‘On the travails of writing Brunei’s early history and the Boxer Codex’, published on Page 44 of the November 30, 2013 edition of the Weekend Bulletin) ALTHOUGH Brunei’s official history scarcely refers to the 16th century Boxer Codex, its many revelations significantly buttress the fact that Islam originated much earlier than some Western writers like Father Robert Nicholl opines. According to him, the date of Islam in Brunei is somewhat coterminous with the advent of the Europeans in the early 16th century. The problem of early Brunei historiography is not confined to the date of the coming of Islam only. Still some confusion prevails as to the chronology of the early Brunei Sultans as well.