Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrai9101882roya).pdf/320

 querors or settlers in Malacca and elsewhere (1610-11); by the Spanish in the Manilas (1571); by the Dutch in Bantam (1596). Amboyna (1609); a little later Batavia was occupied (1619), and later still Banda (1627), and Padang (1660). No factories had, before this last date, been established in Sumatra, Borneo, or on the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula. On the Malacca side of the Peninsula the Dutch had already opened factories in Perak, Kĕdah aud Junk Ceylon.

This period consists exclusively of individual enterprises of a non-political character. These enterprises were almost wholly concerned with the pepper-trade in Bantam and the spice-trade in Banda, Amboyna, Ternate and Tidore. These were the local names the most familiar in England, and are to be found in 's "Paradise Lost," in, in 's History, &c.

There were also ventures to Bantam and the coast of Sumatra for pepper, and to the northern parts of the Peninsula for tin and pepper. The English E. I. Company, though it did not promote them, and before long began to oppose them, took advantage of these enterprises in some cases. For instance, after 's visit to Bantam in 1602, the Company established a factory there. As to political status, our merchants were entirely excluded. from it by the older settlers—the Portuguese and Spaniards, and afterwards the Dutch. When they were admitted, as at Bantam and Amboyna, into a kind of alliance with the Dutch, it was always one of subordination, even before the latter became para- mount through the capture of Malacca by the allied Dutch and Achinese (1641). After that event, the Dutch supremacy was, of course, more exclusive. No satisfaction could be obtained, either before or after 1641, for the "Massacre of Amboyna," though the story excited some indignation in England for many years.

The next period (1694-1762) is one of mixed commercial and political intercourse, promoted, and as far as possible monopolised, by the East India Company,—commerce being still first and foremost in the consideration of all, both at home and abroad.

The long Naval Wars with the Dutch, which terminated in 1674 were looked upon with little satisfaction in England, but they