EARLY EXPEDITIONS TO THE SPICE ISLANDS. 147 



information from the Javanese and Arabs, wlio, as 

 early at least as 1322, visited tliese islands to pur- 

 chase spices.* The Dutch first came to the East in the 

 employment of the Portuguese, and in this manner 

 became acquainted with its geography and its wealth. 

 Their earliest expedition sailed fi'om Holland in 1594, 

 under Houtman. His fleet first visited Bantam and 

 the island of Madura. At the latter place the na- 

 tives seized some of his crew, and obliged him to pay 

 two thousand rix dollars to ransom them. On the 

 3d of March, 1599, he arrived here ojff Hitu-lama. A 

 serious and continual warfare then began between 

 the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the Dutch, for the 

 possession of the Moluccas, which lasted until 1610, 

 when the Dutch became masters of these seas, and 

 monopolized the lucrative trade of the nutmeg and 

 the clove. The English also tried to secure this valu- 

 able prize, but the Dutch finally compelled them to 



* Francis Valentyn, the aiithor of the most comprehensive and accu- 

 rate history and description of the Dutch possessions in all the East, was 

 a Lutheran clergyman. He was born at Dordrecht, about the year 1660. 

 In 1686 he arrived at Bata\aa as a minister, and having resided some time 

 at Japara, near Samarang, he was transferred to Amboina, the future 

 field of his ministry and literary labors. After a residence of twelve 

 years in the Spice Islands, he was obliged to return home on account of 

 ill-health. Having remained in Holland for eleven years, he sailed a 

 second time for India in 1705. Arriving at Java, he remained on that 

 island for two years, and then proceeded to the Spice Islands, where he 

 resided for seven years, and in 1714 he returned again to Holland. Im- 

 mediately after his arrival he devoted himself to arranging his copious 

 notes for publication. His first volume was published in 1724; this was 

 followed by seven others, all fully illustrated, the last appearing in 1726. 

 They embrace a complete description and history of all the Dutch pos- 

 sessions from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan. The date of the death 

 of this eminent man is not known, but he must have been in his sixty- 

 sixth year when he finished his great work. 



