Greater Java, which is the island that forms a narrow strait with
that of Samatra, they have a factory (without a fort), to which they
bring the cloves and nutmeg and pepper which they buy there, which
amounts to a large quantity. They trade there, and a few years ago the
Javans drove them out. Since the English have become their allies,
they are able to keep the natives in subjection, and are building
a fortress.

They have other factories in the kingdom of Patan, at one of which
they buy a great deal of pepper. Patan lies more to the north of
the strait of Sincapura (which others call the strait of Malaca);
and further north lies the kingdom of Sian, which is very rich in
many kinds of merchandise, and in rubies. They have another factory
there. In the kingdom of Cambosea [_sic_; _sc._ Camboja] they have
another, and still another in Cochinchina. They are not allowed
to enter China, but rather, on account of the robberies which they
have perpetrated, they are held to be enemies of the country. In the
islands of Japon they have another factory, from which they procure
supplies and military stores, and which is of much importance to
them. Of the other islands of this archipelago no mention is made,
to avoid being prolix, although there are a great number of them.

Chapter IV. Wherein are considered the riches of the spice trade of
these Malucas Islands and the others.

These Malucas Islands give from year to year four thousand four hundred
bares of cloves in clusters, which are called "selected," according
to the relation which is made and the information given by Don Juan de
Silva, knight of the habit of Santiago, when he governed the Filipinas
Islands. Others say that there are eight thousand, and still others,
six. The first statement is the most accurate, and agrees with another
note made by Captain Gregorio de Vidana, a citizen of Manila; he was
a person very learned in manuscripts, who spent many years there,
and sought to inquire into the matter out of curiosity.

Four thousand four hundred bares of cloves, each bare containing 640
libras, amount to 2,816,000 libras--which at one ducado, the price
at which they are sold [in Europe] will bring the same number of
ducados. All this can be bought for a hundred thousand ducados. [55]
It is not bought with money, but with cloth purchased in India and in
China; and what in those countries costs ten is sold in the Malucas
at fifty. This profit is at present