9 



cloves. It has been remarked that at banquets in England 

 in the Middle Ages a place next to the spice-box was more 

 coveted than the proverbial place above the salt. This mav 

 probably be explained by the fact of the little variety of food 

 possible during the Middle Ages, when (in the winter especially) 

 all classes had to live mostly on salt provisions— especially 

 salt fish— and had hardly any fresh vegetables, until the Dutch 

 taught Europe how to grow them. Before the discovery of 

 the route round the Cape, a pound of spice was often worth 

 as much as a quarter of wheat. After Da Gama's voyage 

 the trade remained for a century in the hands of the Portuo- ue ?e, 

 and the monopoly yielded them enormous profit, sometimes as 

 much as fifty-fold. The hope of getting possession of this 

 coveted trade was the chief incentive to Dutch efforts to reach 

 the Indies. Pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were too widelv 

 grown to enable them to command a monopoly, and in these 

 articles the English East India Company was able with more 

 or less_ success to divide the trade with the Dutch. It was 

 otherwise with the more valued spices, such as nutmeo- and 

 cloves. _ These were limited to a few of the East India Islands 

 S- i eS n!r n P artlcuIar g rew nowhere but on two or three islands 

 of the Moluccas. To secure the monopoly of these the Dutch 

 accordingly bent all their energies. In 1605 thev succeeded 

 in driving the Portuguese out of Amboyna, and obtaining the 

 mastery of the whole of the Moluccas. The English East India 

 Company kept up an obstinate rivalrv, but the Dutch mn 

 them with determined hostility. Thev attacked the English 

 factories on small pretext, captured their vessels, and, after 

 the massacre of a number of English traders at Amboyna, in 

 1623, finally excluded their rivals from all share in the trade 

 This contest for the spice trade was the origin and chief cause 

 of the long and bitter enmity between the two nations. To 

 such lengths did the Dutch go that some years later they 

 ruthlessly rooted up the clove plantations on all the islands of 

 the Moluccas except Amboyna and Banda. Here alone did 

 they allow the clove to be produced, in order that they might 

 enhance the price and make certain of preserving: their 

 monopoly. 



But to return to Tasman. It is evident that his singular 

 capacity had soon made itself evident to the colonial authorities 

 for in August, 1635, we find the simple sailor of three years 

 before, now as " Commandeur Abel," cruising at the head of 

 a fleet of small vessels (kids) to protect the jealously guarded 

 monopoly from foreign intrusion, and generally to harass the 

 ships of hostile European rivals in the waters of Amboyna 

 and the Banda Sea. In September, 1636, he was on his wav 

 back to Batavia, the centre of Dutch rule and the residence 



