TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND NOBLE

L O R D,

LORD JOAN MAATSUIKER,

GOVERNOR OF THE EAST

I N D I E S,

Who is under the jurisdiction of the United Netherlands, and Generalissimo

of the most Noble Lords of the Direction of the

East India Company.

A large ornamental woodcut initial 'C' featuring intricate floral and foliage patterns within a square frame.

As we looked around to see to whom we might most especially inscribe and offer these labors of ours, spent in arranging the Garden of Malabar original: "Horto Malabarico", no one occurred to us more closely, no one more suitably, than You. Most Illustrious and Noble Lord, to whom this was to be presented, not merely so that we might choose You as the patron of this work, but for these reasons: both because You hold the government and administration of these Malabar regions—in which our Garden was produced and arranged—with the highest praise for skill, and because you are a most devoted lover of new and rare things in these lands, and finally because we possess a small cottage in these places as if in our own garden, and [to] our eyes and soul—