THE MOLUCCAS 
315 
Besides these, we have in 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 Hew 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. Por 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. 
From the remotest times the spices of the Moluccas 
have been known to the civilised nations of the West. 
The clove is mentioned by Pliny, for the “ cariofilum ” 
