mSTORT OF TEE CLOTE TRADE. 



157 



similarity of tLe native name to tliat of tlie Chinese, 

 and its marked difference, according to De Canto, 

 from tliat of the Brahmins or Hindus, lends probabil- 

 ity to this view. '\^Tien the Portuguese first came to 

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

 and Macassars, were all found here trading in this 

 article. Of the two former nations, the Chinese were 

 probably the fii'st 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 airived in these 

 seas. 



The first notice of cloves in Europe occurs in a 

 law passed during the reign of Aurelian the First, 

 between a. d. 1 75 and 180, where they are mentioned 

 as forming 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 iirst taken 

 by the Malays and Javanese to the peninsula of Ma- 

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

 gas or KHngs, who carried them to Calient, the 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 frequent transfers so increased 

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

 covery of the Cape of Good Hope, thirty shillingg 

 were paid for them per pound, or one hundred and 

 sixty-eight pounds sterling per hundred - weight, 



