[Sca-cooks] world's oldest clove tree, BBC article
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at att.net
Fri Aug 9 18:29:43 PDT 2013
The history is a little more complex than that. The Portuguese had traded
with the Banda since 1512, but the Bandanese were fairly war-like and not
interested in the "benefits" of Christianity,so when the Dutch showed up
around 1600, the Portuguese did not have a strong enough foot-hold on the
islands to hold them. The Dutch established a fort on Bandaneira and
reinforced it in 1609 in opposition to the English on Ai and Run. The
Bandanese didn't like the Dutch expansion, so they held a meeting with the
Dutch admiral, then killed him and 40 of his key men.
The Dutch spent the next few years trying to push the English out of the
islands. In 1621, they turned their attention back to the Bandanese, taking
total military control of Bandaneira and Lonthar. The Dutch then forced the
Bandanese to sign an impossible treaty and when they couldn't adhere to the
terms, Governor Coen solved the Bandanese problem with military force
including Japanese mercenaries. Japanese mercenaries apparently were known
in parts of Asia from around the 14th Century, but the Portuguese made
serious use of them from some time in the 16th Century. The Banda campaign
was possibly the last hurrah for the mercenaries for the Shogun banned the
practice in 1621.
"The Japons are not suffered to land in any port in India (Asia) with
weapons; being accounted a people so desperate and daring, that they are
feared in all places where they come." -- Sir Edward Michelbourne, English
privateer, early 17th Century.
While many of the Bandanese were killed, a number of survivors fled to other
islands. Captured Bandanese were sold into slavery with an estimated 1,000
being kept to tend the nutmeg.
The Dutch history of brutality was a reason why various native populations
initially looked favorably on the Japenese invaders at the start of WW II in
the Pacific.
Bear
> Actually the article that was linked does mention nutmeg and that the
> Dutch killed the males on that island. I hand't realized that they were
> that brutal, but I'm not surprised.
> "On the Banda Islands, to the south - the world's only source of nutmeg -
> the Dutch used Japanese mercenaries to slaughter almost the entire male
> population."
>
> I do have that book here at home, but haven't read it yet. I guess it
> needs to move up in my priority list. :-)
>
> Nathnls-Nutmeg-rev (4K) 11/ 1/09 A Review of "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" by
> Johnnae llyn Lewis, CE.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BOOKS/Nathnls-Nutmeg-rev.html
>
> Stefan
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