HISTORY OF THE CLOVE TRADE. 157 



similarity of tlie native name to tliat of the Chinese, 

 and its marked difference, according to De Cauto, 

 ft'om that of the Brahmins or Hindu?, lends probabil- 

 ity to this view. When the Portuguese first came to 

 these islands, the Chinese, Arabs, Malays, Javanese, 

 and Macassars, vrere all found here trading in this 

 article. Of the two fonner nations, the Chinese were 

 probably the first to reach this region, though the 

 Arabs sailed up the China Sea and carried on a large 

 trade with the Chinese at Canpu, a port in Hangchau 

 Bay, south of the present city of Shanghai, in the 

 thirteenth century, or fully two hundred years be- 

 fore the Portuguese and Spaniards arrived in these 

 seas. 



The first notice of cloves in Europe occurs in a 

 law passed during the reign of Aiu'elian the First, 

 between a. d. 175 and 180, where they are mentioned 

 as forminsr an article of commerce from India to Alex- 

 andria ; for the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea 

 formed at that time the chief highway of Eastern 

 trade. From these islands the cloves were first taken 

 by the Malays and Javanese to the peninsula of Ma- 

 lacca, where they passed into the hands of the Telin- 

 gas or Klings, who carried them to Calicut, t]ie old 

 Capital of Malabar. Thence they were transported 

 to the western shores of India and shipped across the 

 Arabian Sea, and up the Gulf of Aden and the Red 

 Sea to Cairo. These fi-equent transfers so increased 

 the .original price, that in England, before the dis- 

 covery of the Cape of Good Hope, thirty shillings 

 were paid for them per pound, or one hundred and 

 sixty-eight pounds sterling per hundred - weight, 



