Born in what is now Belgium, Jacques was an independent trader dealing chiefly in precious stones, bezoars, and Indian textiles. He lived for more than three decades of his adult life in Asia, and left some of the earliest and fullest European accounts of southeast Asia. Borschberg has selected material from his autobiography and four memorials to the Spanish crown and to the Portuguese viceroy in Goa, and Roy has translated them into English for the first time. They position Melaka and the regions of the Malay Peninsula, including the Singapore and Melaka Straits, into a vast web of trading relations maintained by Portugal and Spain that spanned from the eastern coast of Africa to the Japanese islands. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)