Volume 18 — Dutch Factories and Posts in the Orient
Reading edition
Account of the factories, and the posts garrisoned with infantry and artillery, that the Dutch enemies maintain in the islands of the East.
Item. From these factories are taken food and other provisions for Maluco, and a ship of a thousand toneladas of pepper every year.
Item. In Negapatan they have a factory, without a garrison; from it are carried cloths, which the Terrenate Indians of Maluco wear.
Item. In Patane there is a factory, without a garrison; from it are shipped glazed earthenware, silk, and various drugs which come from China, and one shipload of more than 600 toneladas of pepper each year.
Item. In Cian [i.e., Siam] they have a factory, without a garrison; from it are carried jewels and various drugs of much value.
Item. In Borneo they have a factory, without a garrison. Thence are sent gold, jewels, and camphor.
Item. In Japon they have a factory, without a garrison. Thence are shipped military supplies and provisions for Maluco; and thus the Dutch greatly hinder the progress of Christianity in that country.
Item. In Macazar they had two factories; but have removed them thence because the king and the natives do not get along well with them.
Item. In the island of Banda they have a garrison, with artillery and troops. They gather there Masatrella nutmegs to the amount of more than 1,600 bares each year.
Item. In the island of Bachan they have a garrisoned fortress; more than a hundred bares of cloves are shipped thence each year.
Item. In the island of Maquian they have three garrisoned fortresses; and 1,200 bares of cloves are gathered there each year.
Item. In the island of Mutiel they have a garrisoned fortress. From this island they ship more than 350 bares of cloves each year.
Item. In the island of Tidore they have a garrisoned fortress, and his Majesty has another. The whole island yields each year about 600 bares of cloves, of which half, or a little less, is secured by the Dutch.
Item. In the island of Terrenate they have two garrisoned fortresses, and his Majesty has one. The island yields each year more than 700 bares of cloves; and the profitable part of it is gathered by the Dutch, as they have friendly relations with the natives, while his Majesty obtains never a pound—although it is true that the greater part is lost through war.
From these islands—Bachan, Maquian, Motiel, Tidore, and Terrenate—which are the ones that Don Pedro de Acuña won back and left in peace and quiet, with an amply sufficient garrison to maintain them, the enemy enjoys and obtains each year nearly two million pesos in profit. The reason for this loss to us was that, on account of Don Pedro’s death, so many quarrels arose between his adherents and those of the Audiencia that they spent all the time in making war against each other with ink and paper. In the meantime the enemy fortified themselves in Malayo, and took possession of the island of Maquian, and those of Motiel Page 103and Bachan, and the other ports which they now hold, without its costing them a drop of blood. But this burnened us with much ignominy; for we—being occupied in wasting paper and ink in lawsuits, which have continued to this day—both by this loss and that other which first arose from the dismantling of a fort in Mindanao which had been built in the port of La Caldera, have given the enemy an opportunity to take possession of so large a part of these islands. And the worst is, that these factions are lasting to this very day, and are causing the many losses and the great expenses which your Majesty now incurs; and these hatreds will not be lacking, for they are so deeply rooted. It is for us to apply a check to them, for from them has sprung the loss of respect to whomsoever should have it, and thence have come to this court reports so sinister.