The Dutch Governor of Ambon, Anthonio van den Heuvel, once wrote 'wild men such as those of Scotland and Ireland are also found throughout the islands of India, especially on Ceylon and many other islands within the territory of the Tarnatan King, namely on the coast of Batochina'.1 Van den Heuvel was obviously comparing dwellers of the islands mentioned with Gaels from Scotland and Ireland as opposed to suggesting that the East Indies were awash with Gaelic settlers. However it is interesting that he had an impression of the Gaels by which he, and the recipient of the letter, would be able to judge the local tribesmen he mentioned. Van den Heuvel could easily have met Scotsmen either in The Dutch Republic or, indeed, in the East Indies, whether working for the English, Dutch or Portuguese. One Scot approached the Honourable East India Company [EIC] with some information in 1614 having apparently returned to Britain after 32 years service for the Portuguese in the Indies.2 The EIC records did not name him on that occasion, but a later reference lets us know that his name was William Carmichael. That man had spent four years in The Hague between 1614-1618 fighting the Dutch for compensation for goods they had taken from him while he worked with the Portuguese in the Mollucas in 1612. Carmichael argued that since he was a subject of James VI his goods could not be considered 'legitimate prize' in the Portuguese-Dutch conflict. The case was not resolved, and so Carmichael wrote to James VI in 1622 seeking 'letters of reprisal' against any Dutch shipping found in British waters in order that he could recoup his fortune.3 The service of other Scots in the Dutch East Indies is more easily traced (and of a happier nature) than that of William Carmichael. Harry Shanks, for instance, died in Batavia in Java in 1629. He was aged about 60 years old and was in the employ of the EIC working out of their Batavian factory. He left a will in which, through his fellow Scots John Wedderburn and George Brown, both EIC colleagues, Shanks expressed his desire to leave his fortune to the Trinity House Hospital in Leith, Scotland.4 This was not the first institution to have benefited in this way. The Aberdonian, Reverend Patrick Copeland (c. 15 80-1651), had travelled to the East Indies (albeit not the Dutch Indies) as the chaplain to the tenth voyage of the EIC in 1613. On his return, and after subsequent trips, he donated several sums of money totalling 6,000 merks Scots for the establishment of a Chair of Divinity at Marischal College in Aberdeen.5 Throughout the early seventeenth century, many other men bearing Scottish names arrived in the East Indies, but outwith the control of the Portuguese trading company or the EIC. Due to the nature of record keeping at the time, it is often impossible to tell if all these men were Scots, or Dutchmen of Scottish parentage. In any case, foreign born Scots frequently acted as a conduit by which Scottish kin