Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – August 1599), brother of Frederick de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia and managed to begin the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch, even though the voyage itself was a disaster.

In 1592 Cornelis de Houtman was sent by Amsterdam merchants to Lisbon to discover as much information on the Spice Islands as he could. At the same time he returned to Amsterdam, Jan Huygen van Linschoten returned from India. The merchants determined that Bantam (Banten) provided the best opportunity to buy spices. In 1594 the two merchants founded the company 'compagnie van Verre' (meaning "the long-distance company"), and on April 2, 1595 four ships left Amsterdam: the Amsterdam, Hollandia, Mauritius and Duyfken.

The voyage was beset with trouble from the beginning. Scurvy broke out after only a few weeks, due to insufficient provisions. After quarrels among the captains and traders, several were killed or imprisoned on board. At Madagascar, where a brief stop was planned, further complications led to many more deaths, and the ships remained there for six months while many of the crew died. The Madagascan bay where they were anchored is now known as the "Dutch Cemetery". On June 27, the ships finally arrived at Banten, a northwestern port in Java. Only around a hundred of the original 249 men had survived the voyage.