Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/98

 68 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO duced to permit the introduction of the Reformed Re- ligion. A few examples must suffice to illustrate these gen- eral principles of policy. The arena was that great island world, perhaps the mountain-tops and plateaus of a submerged continent, which stretches from the shores of Asia to the Australian coast. An almost con- tinuous belt of long islands (Sumatra, Java, Flores and Timor, and others) curves southeastwards from the Malay Peninsula to the northwest point of Australia. Within this belt, on the north, lie Borneo; Celebes to the east of Borneo; the Moluccas or Spice Islands, including Ternate and Tidore; with the valuable Nut- meg and Clove Isles, Banda, Amboyna, Pulaway, Pula- roon, and Rosengyn among them to the south; and finally New Guinea at the easternmost extremity. The Philippines stretch in elongated broken masses north- ward from the Spice Islands toward Formosa, China, and Japan. The Dutch resolved to make themselves masters both of the outer or southern belt of long islands and of the rich spice archipelago which they girt in. A glance at the map will show that the first strategic point on the outer belt is Achin, on the northwestern point of Sumatra, commanding the entrance to the nar- row sea between that island and the Malay Peninsula. The King of Achin claimed a disputed supremacy over all Sumatra, and in 1600 the Dutch entered into a treaty with him for a resident factory. The relations were gradually strengthened into an armed alliance against