Portuguese Opening of the European Spice Trade

In the fourteenth century, it was inevitable that Portugal’s future would be linked with the sea. King Denis and then his son Afonso IV started to build the Portuguese navy and a commercial fleet that would rapidly develop and lead Portugal to become a major maritime power.

In July 1487, Bartolomeo Dias, a Portuguese mariner (and descendant of Dinis Dias), set sail from Lisbon in an attempt to search for the southern tip of Africa and round it, thereby hoping to prove up a new trade route to the East.

It was to be a further ten years from Dias’ historic rounding of the Cape before the Portuguese made it to India. The man chosen by King João to lead this attempt (and confirmed by his successor Dom Manuel) was Vasco da Gama, a man trusted by the king as a competent and resourceful mariner. Da Gama’s route would be different to that of Dias – he would head out into the mid-South Atlantic from Cape Verde before landfall at St Helena Bay in southern Africa, a journey of ninety-three days in itself. The main sources for the voyage are the anonymous Roteiro or Journal; letters written by King Manuel and Girolamo Sernigi immediately after the return from India; the Decades of João de Barros and the Chronicle of King Manuel by Damiao de Goes.²² There is also the account of Gaspar Correa, a Portuguese historian who lived in India from 1512 to 1529, but whose chronology differs from other reports.²³ The fleet comprised four vessels, the flagship S.

On the 16th they set sail, and then on the 18th they sighted the Cape but were unable to pass until the 22nd because of unfavourable winds. They reached Mossel Bay on the 25th, where they stayed for thirteen days. The store ship was broken up and burned here and stores transferred to the other vessels. Another (peaceful) encounter with Khoisan followed on the 1st. The following day, around 200 people appeared and played music on flutes and danced in a friendly atmosphere. An ox was bought, and later feasted on, ‘his meat as toothsome as the beef of Portugal’.

They set sail again on 8 December and marked their progress along this stretch of coast by the pillars erected by Bartolomeo Dias; despite struggling with winds and currents, they soon passed the furthest point that he had reached. On 11 January, short of water, they encountered a small river, the Rio do Cobre, and anchored near the coast in what is now southern Mozambique. They named the country ‘Terra da Boa Gente’ (Land of Good People, after their friendly reception). Their next stop, on 25 January, at the mouth of a broad river in northern Mozambique (subsequently named Rio dos bons Signaes), was also friendly: ‘these people took much delight in us.’ One young man was believed to have come from a distant country and was familiar with large ships such as those of the fleet – this was taken as a positive sign by da Gama suggesting proximity to Indian Ocean trading routes.

On 6 April, the S. Raphael ran aground on a sandbank and when the tide fell was left completely high and dry. Fortunately, they were able to refloat the ship at high tide, giving rise to much jubilation, and on the 7th they anchored off Mombasa, staying for six days. They didn’t enter the port as they suspected a plot against them, having seen a large armed group approach in a dhow at midnight on their first appearance. The plot to capture the Portuguese ships was later confirmed (by torturing two of the Mozambique natives retained on board) and they departed Mombasa on the 13th, heading north.

The same evening, they anchored off the town of Malindi, about 90 nautical miles from Mombasa. Initial communications were encouraging, and the king sent gifts of cloves, cumin, ginger, nutmeg and pepper.

On 18 May, after twenty-three days at sea and sailing before the wind, they sighted land and arrived at Calicut on the 20th. The Portuguese complement of crew included a number of convicts who were brought along for especially risky ventures. One such, Joao Nunez, was sent ashore at Calicut, where he was met by a pair of Tunisians who could speak some Spanish. Their first words were, ‘May the Devil take thee! What brought you hither?’ They were told that they were in search of Christians and spices. The author of the Journal describes Calicut as being inhabited by Christians, but this wasn’t the case and probably had more to do with wishful thinking and misinterpretation. The people were judged to be ‘well disposed and apparently of mild temper’, an assessment which proved premature. Messages were sent to the king (or ‘Zamorin’) and a meeting arranged which took place on the 28th. Da Gama and thirteen of the crew were received in a friendly manner by the governor and many men, and proceeded to Calicut by road and river. Accompanied by huge crowds, they arrived at the palace. When they finally met the Zamorin he was reclining on a couch chewing betel nut! The following day, they prepared to present their gifts – clothes, material, coral, sugar, oil, honey, etc. – but the courtiers accompanying them laughed at the humble nature of the gifts, saying that ‘the poorest merchant from Mecca, or … India, gave more’. Da Gama’s muted reception and later ill-treatment was fuelled by scornful Arab merchants and little progress was made.

Apart from some minor trade with locals for cloves, cinnamon and gemstones in the intervening weeks, no real business was done, and in August da Gama sent a message announcing their proposed departure. The Zamorin and Arab traders had proved unfriendly, even hostile, with Diogo Dias temporarily detained following an audience with the Zamorin on 13 August. Da Gama captured eighteen visitors to the ship and held them pending Diogo’s return. He set sail on 23 August, with Dias still ashore, and anchored far out at sea. Dias was subsequently returned to the ship on the 27th. On the 29th, da Gama resolved to depart, having proven the existence of spices and precious stones and being unable to do more. They were, however, becalmed, and the next day were approached by seventy boats from Calicut. When in range, da Gama ordered the ships to open fire on them. A thunderstorm approached and carried them out to sea and the pursuers were left behind.

They routed northwards parallel to the coast, and on 20 September they anchored off the Anjediva Islands, around 40 miles south of Goa. They gathered cassia from the islands and took on water; on the 27th, eight vessels were sighted in the distance and the crew fired upon them as they were thought hostile. They stayed until 5 October, having made repairs and gathered more cassia, and established that much of the country was ill-disposed towards them. The return crossing of the Indian Ocean took almost three months (5 October to 2 January) because of poor winds, and many of the crew got sick again with scurvy, with thirty men dying. They routed back via Malindi, but more of the crew died there. They left on the 11th, passed close to Mombasa, and then on the 13th anchored and transferred everything they could from the S. Raphael, before abandoning and burning it, as it was impossible to proceed with three ships given the dwindling number of crew. On 3 February they reached Angra de São Braz in Mossel Bay, where they caught many anchovies, seals and penguins, which they salted for the journey ahead. On the 20th they passed the Cape, though they suffered from the cold winds and were now anxious to return home. They had following winds for the next twenty-seven days and were then close to the Cape Verde Islands.

Details from the Journal finished on 25 April in this vicinity. Da Gama and Coelho were separated in a storm, with Coelho continuing onward and arriving at Cascaes near Lisbon on 10 July. Da Gama proceeded to São Thiago – his brother Paulo was dying and he would take him on a caravel to the island of Terceira, where he was to die shortly after arrival there. João de Sa was placed in command of the S. Gabriel and proceeded to Lisbon, arriving soon after Coelho. Da Gama’s arrival in Lisbon may have been 29 August (it isn’t entirely clear) and it was followed some days later by a triumphal, formal entry into the town. Da Gama was to be honoured by King Manuel in various ways – generous pensions, the title Admiral of India, and various territorial titles. He was to make two further voyages to India, one in 1502 and the third and final one in 1524. He died of malaria in Cochin on Christmas Eve of that year. Subsequent Portuguese Expeditions to India

Following the success of the da Gama expedition, it was followed in March 1500 by the dispatch of a much larger fleet comprising thirteen ships led by Pedro Alvares Cabral.²⁵ The main goals were to establish trade relations with India and to bring back spices. The expedition would include 1,500 men and would be a much more capable fighting force given the difficulties encountered by da Gama. Two of the ships would be headed for Sofala in Mozambique on a gold expedition, the remainder were all headed for India. Several veterans of da Gama’s expedition were included, most notably Nicolau Coelho, Pedro Escobar, João de Sa, Diogo Dias and his brother Bartolomeo Dias. One ship was damaged en route and had to return to Lisbon. After reaching the Cape Verde Islands, they took a south-westerly course which enabled them to benefit from favourable winds and the South Atlantic ocean circulation, though it isn’t clear how much knowledge of this system they had at the time. As a consequence of routing further west than da Gama, they sighted land on 22 April – they had discovered Brazil. The navigators calculated that it was east of the Tordesillas Line (a treaty with Spain dividing newly discovered lands between the two countries) and so Cabral claimed the new land for Portugal, naming it ‘Terra de Santa Cruz’. The supply ship was sent back to Lisbon on 2 May carrying items traded with local people, and letters to the king announcing the discovery. The remaining eleven ships departed shortly afterwards for the journey to India.

The Cape of Good Hope was reached around the end of May, but severe weather here led to the loss of four ships, a major disaster (this was when Bartolomeo Dias met his end). The surviving ships split into groups; Cabral’s three-ship group arrived at Mozambique island on 22 June, and despite the earlier altercations with da Gama, they were received well and allowed to resupply. Three more ships joined shortly afterwards, but that captained by Diogo Dias was missing. Dias had travelled too far east and then continued north past Madagascar, and next saw the African mainland around Mogadishu, far to the north. He stayed separated from the main group and, after a long spell in the Gulf of Aden, returned to Portugal on his own.

The main group, now reduced to only six ships, proceeded to Kilwa and then Malindi before beginning the Indian Ocean crossing on 7 August. They reached Anjediva Island on the 22nd and finally Calicut on 13 September. Cabral released four hostages taken by da Gama, bestowed more lavish gifts than the first trip, entered into talks with the new Zamorin, and successfully negotiated a commercial treaty; all was looking promising and a ‘factory’ (warehouse) was set up onshore. Aires Correia, the factor for Calicut, started to buy spices for the return journey, but by December had only managed to buy a portion of the spices needed and suspected that the Arab merchants had been closing them out of the market. Cabral complained to the Zamorin, who refused to intervene. Action was needed: he seized an Arab merchant ship and took its cargo of spices, claiming it belonged to Portugal under the terms of the treaty. The Arab merchants went berserk and attacked the Portuguese factory, slaughtering at least fifty-three of the workers, including Correia. There was no assistance from the Zamorin and so the next day Cabral seized further Arab merchant ships’ cargoes, burned the ships and killed the crews, before laying down a bombardment of the city, killing hundreds. This was the start of a conflict between Portugal and Calicut that would last intermittently for decades.

On 24 December, Cabral and his ships departed and set sail for Cochin, further south along the Malabar coast. A treaty was quickly signed with Cochin, which was desirous of emerging from under the shadow of its larger neighbour. The spice markets were smaller than those of Calicut, but sufficient to start loading the ships. Invitations were also received from Quilon to the south and Cranganore (close to the site of Ancient Muziris) and Cannanore to the north. Aware that Calicut was mobilising a large armada against him, Cabral made a brief visit to Cannanore and loaded some ginger, before heading back across the Indian Ocean. They lost another ship, which ran aground on the approach to Malindi, but recovered its cargo. The remaining ships reached Mozambique island; from here Cabral dispatched the fastest ship to return to Lisbon on its own with news of the expedition. All five returned safely, between June and July 1501. The third expedition had set sail some two months earlier; the Portuguese India expeditions became an annual event for many years to come.

The third expedition of 1501 comprised four, or possibly five, ships, led by João da Nova, its mission being simply to load up spices from India and return. It was heading for Calicut (the results of the previous expedition being unknown at the point of their departure) with a crew of around 400. They departed in April 1501, passed the Cape in July, and anchored at Mossel Bay, where they found a note left by one of the captains of the second expedition warning about the events at Calicut. They routed, as in previous expeditions, northwards up the East African coast, stopping at Mozambique, Kilwa and Malindi, learning more information about the situation in India along the way. They arrived at Cannanore in November where confusion reigned – the Zamorin of Calicut sent an emissary expressing sadness at the events of the previous year and wished friendship and peace with Portugal. Da Nova was invited to Calicut to collect items left behind and compensation. Da Nova suspected a trick and ignored the offer. Gaspar Correia, however, maintained that he sailed to Calicut and forewarned about the Zamorin’s treacherous intentions, seized the cargoes of three ships near the harbour and then destroyed them before heading south again to Cochin.²⁶ Da Nova had another problem: insufficient silver to pay for the spices he wanted to load. He was ultimately extended credit by the Raja of Cannanore, who allowed him to take the spices he wanted. In mid-December the fleet was ready to depart for home only to find themselves faced by a huge fleet of large and small boats from Calicut. They decided to fight their way through, and a two-day engagement ended on 2 January 1502, with the superior Portuguese weaponry and ships being the deciding factor despite the enemy’s far greater numbers; five large Calicut ships and numerous small vessels had been sunk for little damage to the Portuguese. All four ships returned home safely in September 1502, having also discovered the island of St Helena during the journey. They carried 900 quintals of black pepper, 550 quintals of cinnamon and 35 of ginger, in addition to other captured goods. The third expedition was somewhat disappointing given that the ships’ holds were not filled.

The fourth expedition of 1502 was commanded by Vasco da Gama – his second voyage to India.²⁷ This was part commercial, but largely military: to bring Calicut under control, after the disaster of Cabral’s second expedition. The fleet comprised twenty ships separated into three squadrons due to the state of readiness at the planned departure date of February 1502. On 29 July, the main force departed Malindi for the Indian Ocean crossing; eighteen ships in total made it across to the Indian coast. In September, the fleet anchored around 75 miles north-west of Calicut. On the 29th, da Gama committed an act of infamy. The Miri, a large merchant ship returning from Mecca with pilgrims aboard, was spotted by one of da Gama’s fleet and chased down. It was sent to anchor near the flagship, and when da Gama learned that it was based in Calicut, he ordered his men to seize the cargo and burn the vessel with all aboard. Gaspar Correia states that da Gama ignored the appeals of the owner who was on board, saying, ‘Alive you shall be burned, because you counselled the King of Calecut to kill and plunder the factor and Portuguese … for nothing in this world would I desist in giving you a hundred deaths, if I could give you so many.’²⁸ The ship was burned and sunk by artillery and all aboard killed, though many fought back, and any who escaped were speared by the crews. Several hundred were believed killed.

In mid-October, the fleet reached Cannanore. Negotiations were made for the establishment of a factory and a fixed-price schedule, which according to Correia was accepted by the Raja. On 25 October, the main part of the fleet sailed for Calicut, arriving on the 29th. Despite some conciliatory approaches from the Zamorin, da Gama demanded delivery of the goods taken from the Portuguese factory and all Muslims expelled from Calicut before any discussions could begin. Having received no positive response, the fleet laid down a cruel bombardment of the city on 1 November, continuing for two days. Correia noted that after the bombardment, two large ships and twenty-two smaller vessels were unlucky enough to appear off Calicut. Six of the small vessels were from Cannanore and were excused. The others were plundered and hands, ears and noses of the crew cut off, their teeth knocked out, and they were tied and boats set alight and sent towards the shore. All the body parts were sent in a separate boat with a Brahmin emissary dressed as a friar (who had also been mutilated) and a message to the Zamorin ‘to have a curry made to eat of what his friar brought him’. Leaving a blockade in place in Calicut, da Gama headed for Cochin, where a new fixed-price commercial treaty was established, and spices were loaded up.

Meanwhile, the nearby city of Quillon urged da Gama to take spices from themselves also. In early January, an approach was made by a wealthy Brahmin from Calicut acting as ambassador from the Zamorin, who purportedly wanted a permanent treaty with Portugal … and offered compensation. On 5 January, da Gama took two ships back to Calicut to finalise the treaty, but a trap had been set. He took the large ship Flor de la Mar into Calicut harbour, which was temporarily unprotected by the blockade ships, and laid anchor. Negotiations proceeded for three days, but on the early morning of the fourth day they were surrounded by around 100 small armed boats. Unable to bring cannon to bear, the crew tried desperately to keep the swarming vessels away by small arms. The Zamorin’s men set a prahu ablaze that was attached to da Gama’s large ship, but the crew cut the cables and it drifted free; at the same time, with some difficulty they managed to cut the anchor cables and made their slow escape from the harbour, bringing their cannon to bear as distance grew. Three hostages on board were hanged from the main mast in full view of the city. The fleet returned to Cochin, where there was more disturbing news: an armada comprising the Zamorin’s ships and those of privateers from the Red Sea was being assembled at Calicut to chase down the Portuguese; the enemy totalled twenty large ships, many smaller armed vessels and several thousand men. Urged by the Raja to leave for Portugal immediately, da Gama instead prepared for a fight. The fight came in early February near to Calicut, and the Portuguese fleet sank or damaged a large part of the opposition and routed the remainder. Returning to Cannacore, he deposited a small defensive force to protect the factory there, and then in late February set sail for Lisbon with twelve of the ships, leaving five or six caravels under Vincente Sodre to protect Cochin and Cannanore. Subsequent Armadas

The events of the first few expeditions paved the way for the coming decades: Portugal was to extend its empire and build its commercial power with ruthless violence and extortion. Intermittent wars with Calicut continued for the remainder of the century. A series of coastal fortresses were constructed – initially at Sofala and Kilwa on the East African coast and at Anjediva, Cannanore and Cochin on the Indian coast, later to be followed by many more. Annual armadas continued throughout the sixteenth century and into the first decades of the seventeenth century. However, the Indian population was not easily cowed, particularly where long-established trade relationships with Arab merchants were threatened, as shown by the resistance of Calicut. In 1508, an alliance between the Egyptian Mamluks and Gujaratis attacked a Portuguese squadron at Chaul and Dabul; this alliance was expanded the following year to include the Ottomans and the Zamorin of Calicut, and a vicious naval battle was fought at Diu in Gujarat, where Portugal prevailed. In an interesting side note, the Muslim force was aided by specialists from the Republic of Venice, which could clearly foresee the threat to its Mediterranean spice distribution monopoly, which depended on Arab-sourced spices.

The Estado da India (Portuguese India) was established in 1505, based initially in Cochin, but after 1510 it became headquartered in Goa (which incidentally remained Portuguese until 1961).

Spice imports to Portugal were huge. Annual pepper imports in the period 1503–06 ranged from 10,000 to 26,000 quintals.²⁹ Official estimates of ‘other spices’ in that period were only 991 to 6,000 quintals per year. However, Wake estimated that the annual non-pepper spice import for that period was much greater – in the region of 12,000 to 15,000 quintals – the surplus being the private trade conducted by unscrupulous officials. The pepper figures are probably reliable as the crown monopoly was strictly enforced. In this period, these figures probably represented about half of the European spice trade, but a decade later undoubtedly rose to a much greater percentage. Pepper imports rose to a massive 44,000 quintals in 1518. The Casa da India

The state-run organisation that administered this enormous trade was the Casa da India, which was founded in 1500. It looked after Portuguese assets in Africa, India, and subsequently other parts of Asia. It arranged finance for and organised the annual armadas to India and administered the shore bases, warehouses, customs houses, forts and military that became vital to the trade. Its offices in the Ribeira Palace in Lisbon (from 1511) reflected the company’s significance. The initial decades were highly lucrative and the objective of maintaining the royal monopoly on spices, precious metals and other valuable commodities was maintained without much difficulty. As the sixteenth century wore on, the cost of maintaining the huge colonial presence grew increasingly burdensome. The Ribeira Palace was destroyed in the devastating earthquake of 1755, but the organisation limped on until its final dissolution in 1833. Portuguese in Ceylon

Ceylon had been famous for the quality of its cinnamon for well over 1,000 years when the Portuguese arrived in 1505. The viceroy’s son, Dom Lourenço, arrived in the vicinity of Galle with a fleet of nine ships – by chance, because they were actually headed for the Red Sea but had encountered adverse winds.³⁰ The foreigners were cautiously welcomed and Dom Lourenço expressed their interest in a trading relationship. A treaty was agreed with the king (of Kotte, centred around the Colombo area), allowing them to take 400 bahars of cinnamon per year (1 bahar = 550lb/4 quintals) if they would defend the coasts from attack. Actually, in the first few years of the sixteenth century the Portuguese had been able to acquire several hundred quintals of cinnamon per year from the Malabar coast – but only by paying well above market price, which was unsustainable.³¹ Large shipments were made from Ceylon; e.g. in 1513 three ships brought 720 quintals into Lisbon port, with similar-sized shipments following in subsequent years. A fort was erected in Colombo in 1518 and Muslim traders were deterred, but the relationship was problematic and subsequently dismantled in 1524. Prices were kept high by a royal monopoly on cinnamon from 1520. In 1521, a bahar of cinnamon cost 3 cruzados, but would be sold at Cochin for 15; in 1525, a bahar could be sold for 195 cruzados in Lisbon! A contract struck in 1533 gave the Portuguese a monopoly over cinnamon purchase, plus an effective tribute of 900 bahars per year free of charge. The cinnamon was transported to Cochin or Goa and thence to Lisbon.

Later attacks on Ceylon from Calicut brought urgent requests for help, and the Portuguese won a decisive victory over the Zamorin’s fleet off Ceylon in 1538. In 1540, Miguel Ferreyra wrote to the Viceroy at Goa: ‘It was on account of the cinnamon that the Romans and other nations came to Ceilao; I fear, Senhor, that those who have obtained the taste for it will come behind us on its scent.’

The Portuguese lost Kotte city to the neighbouring Sitawaka kingdom in 1565, and their grip on the monopoly weakened. Continued conflict pushed up prices, though supply to Lisbon continued – in fact, it flourished due to a new contract system introduced in 1595. Everyone wanted some of the action, and with the Captain of Colombo being given the sole right to collect and export, numerous exemptions crept in.

In 1600, 4,508 quintals were delivered to Lisbon. Expanding production in Ceylon in the early seventeenth century led to collapse of the market. A strict royal monopoly was enforced from 1614 and annual production was fixed at 1,000 bahars.

Military conflicts with neighbouring kingdoms continued through the first two decades of the seventeenth century, most notably with Kandy, which was brought under control in 1617. After the conquest of Jaffna in the north in 1619, Portuguese control of Ceylon reached its widest extent and a period of relative peace ensued … until the Dutch appeared on the scene in 1638. The Dutch VOC, intent on controlling the Asian spice trade, saw an opportunity to ally themselves with the kingdom of Kandy, and the combined forces inflicted heavy losses on the Portuguese. Little by little the Portuguese lost ground, Colombo fell in 1656 and two years later they left Ceylon for good. As the Dutch governor would say in the 1670s, cinnamon was ‘the bride round whom they all want to dance in Ceylon’. Portuguese Expansion into Southeast Asia

The expansion into Southeast Asia was a logical one given that many of the spices found in India were imported from further east. The first step was to investigate the Sultanate of Malacca, which had been rumoured to be a huge trading entrepot. Capturing the city would not only enrich Portugal, but it would deny the vital spice trade to the hated Arabs. King Manuel sent an exploratory mission in 1509 led by Admiral Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, which confirmed the wealth of Malacca, but initial contacts soon turned hostile and several of his men were captured. In 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, led a large fleet of eighteen ships and took the city by force. Albuquerque was another brilliant but vicious commander – he was already a veteran of the 1503 and 1506 Indian armadas and led successful ventures against the Arabian coast, and then conquered Goa in 1510 in a bloody engagement. Albuquerque’s speech to his men in advance of the attack on Malacca summarised the two main motives:

The first is the great service which we shall perform to Our Lord in casting the Moors out of this country … And the other reason is … because it is the headquarters of all the spiceries and drugs which the Moors carry every year hence to the Straits [of the Red Sea] … but if we deprive them of this their ancient market there, there does not remain for them a single port … where they can carry on their trade in these things … and I hold it as very certain that if we take this trade of Malaca away out of their hands, Cairo and Meca are entirely ruined, and to Venice will no spiceries be conveyed except that which her merchants go and buy in Portugal.³²

After a difficult battle, Malacca was captured, but Albuquerque hadn’t finished there. He had by now learned the approximate location of the ‘Spice Islands’ and determined to seize them for Portugal. He sent three ships led by Antonio de Abreu, with second-in-command Francisco Serrão captaining another of the ships. Serrão was very close to Ferdinand Magellan (they were possibly cousins) and both had joined the 1506 India expedition and then participated in the conquest of Malacca. While Magellan was to return to Portugal, the new expedition set sail for the East in November 1511. After calling at Java, Serrão’s ship was wrecked in a storm, though the crew survived. Meanwhile, Abreu bought a junk to replace the lost ship, but they were forced to wait for favourable winds at Seram before making it to the Banda Islands; after loading up with spices he decided to head back, rather than press on northwards to the Molucca Islands, content with the cargo and information gained. Serrão, however, was shipwrecked a second time on his way back to Malacca in the vicinity of Ambon and again survived. Serrão eventually came to settle in Ternate around May 1512 and became close friend and advisor to the Raja (Ternate and Tidore both saw a chance to ally themselves with the Portuguese in Malacca). In the subsequent years, Serrão sent numerous letters to Magellan, Albuquerque and King Manuel. As a result, the Portuguese sent ships from Malacca to the Spice Islands every year from 1513, with Serrão helping to facilitate the trade.

Serrão died in 1521, but a large fort was built on Ternate in the following year (São João Baptista de Ternate); other small forts were also constructed at various times. However, an increasingly heavy-handed Portuguese presence led to trouble. Magellan and the First Circumnavigation

Ferdinand Magellan was also Portuguese, but after his plan to reach India by sailing west was rejected by King Manuel I, he fell into the service of King Charles I of Spain in order to reach the Spice Islands by a western route. His expedition of five vessels set sail in 1519, and after a long and arduous voyage discovered the Philippines in 1521 having suffered huge losses from scurvy, hunger, thirst and outbreaks of mutiny, and the loss of one ship and another deserting. Magellan himself was killed by natives on the island of Mactan. The momentous journey was described in great detail by Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian explorer who participated in the voyage as Magellan’s assistant.³³ The remaining fleet finally made it to the Moluccas in late 1521, and traded large volumes of cloves in Tidore, but only one ship, the Victoria, was seaworthy enough to return home. Despite the huge losses in men (only eighteen survived – which included Pigafetta – from the crews of 230) and materials, they brought back 26 tons of cloves, scores of sacks of nutmegs, mace and cinnamon, and loads of sandalwood, all of which had enormous value. Conditions Aboard the Ships

Apart from the appalling losses of men to scurvy and other disease, violence and shipwreck, conditions aboard ship were at best unpleasant and at worst a living hell. The French explorer Jean Mocquet related his journey to the East aboard the flagship of a Portuguese fleet headed for Goa in 1608–09:

Amongst us was the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable, because of the peoples vomiting up and down, and making dung upon one another: There was nothing to be heard but lamentations and groans of those who were straightened with thirst, hunger, and sicknesses, and other incommodities, and cursing the time of their embarkment, their fathers and mothers, and themselves …³⁴

He suffered with scurvy also:

I had a fit of Sickness, almost, the whole Voyage; yet this was not all, for I had besides that … (scurvy) … which rotted almost all my gumbs, and rendered a sort of a black and putrified blood; My knees were so contracted that I could not bend my limbs; my legs and thighs were as black as members gangreen’d, and was constrained to be continually launcing to get out this black and putrified blood. I launced also my gums, which were black and blue, and surmounting my teeth, going every day out upon the side of the Ship, holding by the cordage, with a little looking glass in my hand to see where to cut: When I had cut away this dead flesh, and drawn away abundance of black blood, I washed my mouth and teeth with urine, but the next morning there was as much; And my ill fortune was, that I could not eat, having more mind to swallow than to chew, upon the account of the great pains which this disease causes. I found no better remedy than the Syrop of Gilli-flowers, and good red wine: Great numbers died every day thereof, and there was nothing to be seen but bodies a flinging over-board. Portugal and Threats to its Brief Era of Dominance in the East

From 1530, a series of disagreements between the orang Ternate and the Portuguese led to periodic besieging of the colonial fort, which was relieved in 1536 by an armada arriving from Malacca. Following a period of relative calm under Sultan Hairun, the Portuguese were tolerated, though friendship and loyalty were never close. The Christian proselytising didn’t help and Christian communities on nearby Moro (Halmahera) and Bacan were attacked and there were anti-Christian disturbances in Ambon. Things came to a head in 1570 when Captain Diogo Lopes de Mesquita assassinated Hairun, which united the Moluccans against the Portuguese. They were besieged again in their fort for several years, until in 1575 they were finally expelled. But the islanders were nothing if not pragmatic and Portuguese merchants would still be allowed to trade. In the following year, the Portuguese formed an alliance with the rival island of Tidore, which also produced cloves, and a fort was constructed there in 1578 which was occupied until 1605.

About 650km to the south of Tidore, the Portuguese had another problem: the Banda Islands. Although Abreu had landed here in 1512, no permanent settlements had been established in the following years. Instead, the Portuguese sent traders on annual visits to the islands to load up with nutmeg and mace. The annual crop was substantial: 6,000 or 7,000 bahars of nutmeg and 500 or 600 bahars of mace.³⁵ In 1574, the Bandanese were encouraged by the uprisings in Ternate and eventually became allies with the Sultan of Ternate in preference to the rival Tidore, against the Portuguese.³⁶

Meanwhile, the long-established Portuguese presence on Ambon became the centre for Moluccan trading activities following the expulsion from Ternate. It had the benefit of a central position relative to the Banda Islands, which supplied nutmeg and mace, and the northern Moluccas, which supplied cloves. But Ambon too was an insecure foothold, and the Portuguese were prone to attacks from Muslim villagers, part of the issue being stirred by religion.

The Portuguese soldiered on in Ambon until 1605, when they were expelled by the Dutch. The islands continued to supply cloves to the empire but they were now living on borrowed time. Aftermath

The Portuguese had consolidated their hold on the Spice Islands by brute force, slavery and oppression of the natives. Their monopoly of the spice trade ultimately lasted for a century, when they were kicked out by the equally cruel and oppressive Dutch. It was also an imperfect monopoly – Venice was importing as much pepper from Alexandria in the 1560s as it was in the 1490s.³⁷ This came about as the Portuguese were unable to maintain a stranglehold on alternative routes – the Red Sea in particular could not be effectively controlled, though they controlled Hormuz from 1615. Overland supplies also continued. However, the proving of the Cape route had an irreversible effect on trade, especially Levantine trade, and the final nail in the coffin was the entry into the scene of the English and Dutch.