222 THE MOLUCCAS. [chap. 



possibly have come about that the trade in such insignificant 

 objects as cloves and nutmegs should have been considered as of 

 almost equal importance with the riches of the Xew World. 

 Yet Ternate for nearly two centuries was the scene of as much 

 bloodshed and cruelty as any spot on the surface of the globe. 

 So long ago as the end of the fifteenth century the spices of the 

 Moluccas were made known to the civilised world by the Bugis 

 and other native traders, but it was not until 1511 that Antonio 

 d'Abreu sailed into these unknown waters and returned with his 

 laden galleon from Amboina. His accounts excited the cupidity 

 of the Portuguese, liut the constant fighting that their conquests 

 in Malacca and Sumatra entailed obliged them to postpone their 

 designs on these still more distant regions. Ten years later — the 

 year of the discovery of the Philippines by ]\Iagellan on his 

 memorable voyage round the world — an expedition was fitted out 

 under Antonio de Brito. It reached Ternate, and finding the 

 Trinitie — one of the ships of Magellan's squadi-on — in the port, 

 seized her and sent her crew as prisoners to JMalacca. De Brito 

 and his people were received with the greatest kindness by the 

 Ternatians, and before the year was out had built a fort upon the 

 island. Once fairly established there was no longer need for the 

 conceahnent of their designs, and they commenced the hateful 

 policy which, in those days, characterised the Dutch and Portu- 

 guese alike. For more than sixty years the history of the islands 

 is little else than a record of the most atrocious cruelties and the 

 vilest acts of treachery. At the end of that time their power, 

 which had been gradually waning, was practically crushed by a 

 rising of the islanders and the capture of their forts. ]\Ieanwhile 

 the Spaniards, in spite of having agreed in 1529 to renounce their 

 claim to the Moluccas for the sum of 350,000 ducats, had not only 

 intrigued against the authority of the Portuguese in the islands, 

 but had even fitted out expeditions against them, although without 

 success. In 1606, however, a squadron from Manila succeeded in 

 taking both Tidor and Ternate, but, strangely enough, no garrison 



