In 1668, Fort Vollenhove was built on Kisar to protect against attacks by the Portuguese who were quartered on Timor. A small European garrison supervised the observance of the trade monopoly. When the military occupation was abolished almost 150 years later, the garrison's Dutch soldiers and their families remained on the island. Mestizos, the descendants of Dutch soldiers and Kisarese women, have Dutch names and physical features such as blond hair and blue eyes.12
Strongholds were also built on the important trade centre of Aru and on Damer to protect the spice monopoly. In order to concentrate the nutmeg trade on Banda permanently, nutmeg cultivation was terminated on the whole of Maluku Tenggara from 1648 onwards. On Kei, Damer, Moa, Teun, Nila and Serua tens of thousands of nutmeg trees were destroyed, despite heavy protests by the population. Nutmeg had always been an important means of barter in local trade. Kisarese for example had a flourishing barter trade in slaves, mostly originating from Timor, with the inhabitants of these nutmeg producing islands.
Counter measures by the affected islanders soon made themselves felt From 1666 onwards, for example, the population of Damer repeatedly stormed the Dutch fortification. Yet to no avail. In the first decade of the 18th century the Damerese—presented by the Dutch as the prototype of "those stubbornheaded island peoples"13 —were permanently defeated. After the extirpations, the islanders, especially those of the small islands of Teun, Nila and Serua, led a miserable existence. They had been deprived of their main source of barter and they dared not plant any trees out of fear of a new confrontation with the Dutch. 14
Around the end of the 17th century the Dutch took more measures to monopolise trade. From 1692 the inhabitants of Maluku Tenggara were prohibited from trading with the Bandanese and other "strangers." This meant the end of the age-old, intensive trading in the region. As a result of this the southeastern Moluccans were also devoid of many import goods that were of great importance in mutual barter trading. The population resisted once more, notably on Aru, but again unsuccessfully.
However, Dutch measures did not prove water-tight and there was illicit trade via the old channels. Moreover the Dutch themselves became aware of the disadvantages of their merciless politics. On Banda there was a shortage of foodstuffs after the supply of sago by the Keiese and Aruese had been prohibited and food from elsewhere was considered too expensive.
Therefore the United East India Company encouraged Christianity on the islands of Kei and Aru at the end of the 17th century, after the termination of the extirpation politics, hoping to create peace and quiet and to "civilise" the population. Under such conditions, it was hoped, they could be persuaded to start trading again with the Bandanese. In 1705 the 1692 trading ban was lifted.15
Nevertheless the trade between the southeastern Moluccans and the Bandanese ceased once more around the middle of the 18th century. Macassars and Buginese from South Sulawesi came to trade, especially in the eastern part of Maluku Tenggara. An attempt of the United East India Company to prevent this trade led to new revolts. Resistance was especially heavy on Aru. In 1787 the Dutch stronghold was attacked and the occupational force murdered, and in 1794 even the Keeper of the Post, the local Dutch representative, was killed. In that same year the Aru archipelago was abandoned by the Dutch "because it was a real nuisance": it was becoming too expensive.16
During this period the entire Dutch position on the Moluccas weakened. Wars, corruption and mismanagement sapped the United East India Company. Furthermore, the clove monopoly of the Company was affected due to the fact that cloves were now also cultivated elsewhere in the world. By the end of the 18th century the English succeeded in driving out the Dutch from the Moluccas. In 1795 they occupied Ambon and a year later they were in possession of Aru.
From Merchants to Colonists
After two periods of intermediary rule by the English, the Dutch returned to the Moluccas in 1817. In 1789 the bankrupt United East India Company had been taken over by the Batavian Republic, so that it was now the Dutch State which ruled over the islands. The Dutch freed trade within the Moluccas and formally opened the region for Macassar and Buginese traders in 1827. In 1853-54 Banda and Ambon, among others, were declared free ports. During the second half of the 19th century the economy of the Banda islands flourished once again, enabling trade with the southeast Moluccas to start up again and Macassar ships to call at these islands.17
A period of renewed contact with the southeast Moluccas was ushered in by governmental journeys of inspection. The aim was to establish Dutch authority more firmly on the islands and to bring the inhabitants Christianity and "civilisation." In the course of the 19th century views of social justice gradually started to play a role in the relationship between mother country and colony, but it would take until 1900 before the well-being of the natives would become important in Dutch policy under so-called "Ethical Politics."
The Dutch were received in divergent manners on the islands. During the first official journey in 1825 the Dutch authorities were welcomed in many places as the "Tuan Company" and were carried across the island in sedans. On Wetar, however, civil servants met savage and shy inhabitants and on Babar the islanders were even considered murderous and rapacious. The population of Damer had "lapsed into barbarism" and were barely able to support themselves.
On other islands the Dutch came into contact with the descendants of inhabitants who had been christianised in previous centuries and who could often read and write, revealing a thorough biblical knowledge. Bibles and prayer-books dating from the 18th century were found. On Leti they saw bridegrooms who wore 18th century Dutch military or civil clothes at church marriages. On Moa someone was encountered who was entirely clad in Dutch clothing, including a wig, triangular hat, skirt and high-heeled shoes with heavy silver buckles. The western clothing of the christian population contrasted strongly with the clothing of the "heathens," which consisted of nothing more man "a piece of tree bark." The islanders repeatedly requested the Dutch to provide a military occupational force and to appoint a religious instructor.18
Photographs 2.6. and 2.7. Traces of Banda's troubled past: old Portuguese dwellings and fort Belgica.
Missionaries
From 1825 onwards Dutch missionaries were active on the western islands of Maluku Tenggara. Persons like Heymering, Luyke, Bar and Dommers, sent out by the Dutch Missionary Society, stayed there under very dire circumstances, some of them with their families. They lived among the population. As a consequence of the bad climate and the very inadequate communication, they had to relinquish their work and in 1841 the mission on the southwestern islands was discontinued.
The reports of governmental journeys convey an increasing sympathy for the poor, remote districts. Preachers, who often travelled along with the government ships, also described the Southeast Moluccas as a problem region. Resident Riedel noted in 1886 that nothing was done to enhance the inhabitants' social and moral development.19 In short, firmer Dutch rule, good education and missionary attention was deemed necessary.
Slowly but surely missionary work on the western islands was started up again. After freedom of religion was decreed for the entire Kingdom in 1848, missions could develop activities in the region. During 1888-89 the first Roman Catholic Station of the Cross was established in Tual (Kei islands) in the east of Maluku Tenggara, where the Protestant mission had failed to do any work after its first attempt in the 17th century.20
The government saw the mission as an instrument for strengthening its power and calling a halt to the advance of Islam, which was considered damaging for Dutch authority. On the Kei and Aru islands Islam had been introduced by Islamic traders—Javanese, Macassar and Buginese—and more than four centuries later, in the second half of the