John Saris and the China Captain - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 63

sword, the spices of Matyan were their due by right of conquest. When Saris told
RichardCocks,histhird-in-command,tokickthemoffhisship,thetwoDutchmen
threatened that they would kill anyone caught selling cloves to the English. Saris
replied stoutly that he would trade 'with anye man which would deale with me'. In
practice this proved difficult to arrange. The locals tried bringing cargo aboard the
EnglishshipthatnightbutweresurprisedandsurroundedbyheavilyarmedDutch-
men.SarissentCocksashorethenextdayinhopeofrevivingthedeal,butAdriaan
Martens Blocq, the Dutch commander, 'came to Mr. Cocks, and willed him to tell
me that I sent my people no more ashoare in the night, for yf I did he would kill
them. Mr. Cocks answered him with laufture, and so lefte him.' Laughter was a
bold response from Cocks, but it was not enough to loosen the Dutch grip on the
region. Blocq would later write to his superiors to complain about 'the arrogance
and viciousness' of the English, who had tried to interfere with people who were
'little more than our slaves'.
The Dutch defended their conduct by declaring that they had already contracted
the producers from whom Saris tried to buy. This was what free trade required and
allowed. In fact, the contracts had been imposed at gunpoint and had stipulated
prices so low that none of the suppliers would have sold them any spices except
under coercion. As the governor overseeing Dutch interests in the Moluccas wrote
back to Amsterdam: 'We could not have prevented the English trade with the nat-
ives if we had tried to stop it on the strength of sworn contracts and agreements
alone.' He blamed Islam for the failure of the suppliers to honour their contracts
to sell their spices only to the Dutch, and advised that 'naked force' would have to
be used henceforth to keep local rulers in line. The Dutch ideal of the free sea was
nothing but a legal fiction covering their brutal dominion over the Spice Islands.
National trade craves monopoly.
Saris decided in early April to make for Tidore, one of the Spice Islands where
the Spanish still held a base, to explore the possibility of forging an alliance
to block the Dutch determination to monopolise the spice trade. The Clove ap-
proached the east side of Tidore, the deepwater side of the island that lacked easy
anchorage. A strong swell pushed the Clove closer to shore than he intended, and
the Spaniards responded by firing a shot to keep the English off. After a few more
exchangesonbothsides,theSpaniardsfiredacannonwithoutshotinit,asignthat
they were willing to parlay. Saris answered in kind, and the Spanish commander,
Don Fernando Besero, sent out two men in a boat bearing a white flag of truce
to ask what nation they sailed under and what business they had. Despite finding