 The sorry state of Macau's defenses became known to the Hollanders when the Dutch ship "Gallias" seized a Portuguese ship carrying a case of letters off the coast of Malaya at the end of 1621.Judging by these intercepted letters and information available from Japan, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Jan Pieterszoon Coen considered that Macau was not in a position to resist a serious attack, and set his invasion plan in motion.At Batavia, headquarters of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), Coen organized an initial fleet of eight ships for the expedition to Macau, with orders that any Dutch vessel encountered along the way were to be incorporated into the invasion fleet.