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 CHAPTER IV

THE EXPLORATIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE

HE circumstances which led to the establish- ment of the Portuguese Power in Malacca have been examined in the preceding chapter with a minuteness which is only warranted by the fact that this event marks, as has been already observed, the beginning of a new epoch in the exploration of southeastern Asia. Over the explorations which followed upon the settle- ment of Malacca we shall now have to pass with much less of detail and particularity, partly because consider- ations of space forbid more elaborate treatment of this single portion of our subject, and partly because the records of many wanderings are lost to us, while those which exist are too often of a very fragmentary character.

From the despatch by Dalboquerque of embassies to Siam, to Java and to several Sumatran kingdoms, and from the launching by him of the exploring fleet to the Moluccas, dates the gradual founding of commercial posts by white adventurers throughout southeastern Asia and the Malayan Archipelago. Malacca stood to each of these as a base of operations; the prestige of Malacca served to protect isolated outposts and individual traders; and the rumour of the wealth which was to be won in these regions speedily caused a host of hungry folk to