ola_, another town in Machian, they have two
forts with eight cannons, this place being very strongly situated by
nature. The natives of all these places are under their command. Those
of _Nofakia_ are not esteemed good soldiers, and are said always to side
with the strongest; but those of Tabalola, who formerly resided at
_Cayoa_, are accounted the best soldiers in the Moluccas, being deadly
enemies to the Portuguese and Spaniards, and as weary now of the Dutch
dominion. In these fortified stations in Machian, when I was there, the
Dutch had 120 European soldiers; of whom eighty were at _Tafasoa_,
thirty at _Nofakia_, and ten at _Tabalola_. The isle of Machian is the
richest in cloves of all the Molucca islands; and, according to report,
yields 1800 bahars in the great monsoon. The Dutch have one large fort
in the island of Bachian, and four redoubts in the isle of Moteer. The
civil wars have so wasted the population of these islands, that vast
quantities of cloves perish yearly for want of hands to gather them;
neither is there any likelihood of peace till one party or the other be
utterly extirpated.

Leaving them to their wars, I now return to our traffic, and shall shew
how we traded with the natives, which was mostly by exchanging or
bartering the cotton cloths of Cambaya and Coromandel for cloves. The
sorts in request and the prices we obtained being as follows:
_Candakeens_ of Baroach six _cattees_ of cloves; candakeens of _Papang_,
which are flat, three cattees; _Selas_, or small _bastas_, seven and
eight cattees; _Patta chere Malayo_ sixteen cattees; five _cassas_
twelve cattees; coarse of that kind eight cattees; red _Batellias_, or
_Tancoulas_, forty-four and forty-eight cattees; _Sarassas chere Malayo_
forty-eight and fifty cattees; _Sarampouri_ thirty cattees; _Chelles,
Tapsiels_, and _Matafons_, twenty and twenty-four cattees; white
_Cassas_, or _Tancoulos_, forty and forty-four cattees; the finest
_Donjerijus_ twelve, and coarser eight and ten cattees; _Pouti Castella_
ten cattees; the finest _Ballachios_ thirty cattees; _Pata chere Malayo_
of two fathoms eight and ten cattees; great _Potas_, or long four
fathoms, sixteen cattees; white _Parcallas_ twelve cattees; _Salalos
Ytam_ twelve and fourteen cattees; _Turias_ and _Tape Turias_ one and
two cattees; _Patola_ of two fathoms, fifty and sixty cattees; those of
four fathoms and of one fathom at proportional prices; for twenty-eight
pounds of rice, a dol