THE MOLUCCAS 315 



Besides these, we have iii all the chief towns of the 

 Moluccas a number of the descendants of the early 

 Portuguese settlers. These go by the name of " Orang 

 Sirani," or Nazarenes. They speak Malay with a con- 

 siderable intermixture of Portuguese words, but owing to 

 their having been under Dutch rule for several centuries, 

 they have become Protestants, and are altogether ignorant 

 of their own origin. 



In addition to these sources of ethnological confusion, 

 we must remember that slavery has long prevailed in 

 these islands, and that, as already stated, by means of 

 the piratical fleets, slaves have been brought from the 

 remotest parts of the archipelago. The Ternate and 

 Goram people are great traders to New Guinea, and 

 Papuan slaves are very common. Again, we find in 

 most places a considerable number of Chinese and Arab 

 merchants, who all have native wives. For more than 

 a century after the first discovery of the Spice Islands by 

 the Portuguese, the ships of all nations — Spanish, Dutch, 

 and English especially — crowded into the eastern seas to 

 obtain a share in the traffic in spices, which was in those 

 days as alluring as the search after gold, and even more 

 profitable. Among the crews of these vessels there 

 would be men of every race, and many of them would 

 become temporary, and some permanent, settlers in these 

 sunny isles, and leave behind them descendants who 

 would add to the diversity of type among the apparently 

 native races which is here so puzzling. 



4. History and Political Divisions. 



Prom the remotest times the spices of the :Moluccas 

 have been known to the civilised nations of the "West. 

 The clove is mentioned by Phny, for the " cariofiluni " 



