Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/487

OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 443 were aggravated by earthquakes in that year, in 1673 and 1674, which were also themselves the direct cause of the loss of many lives. The last insurrection of the people of the Mo- luccas broke out in 1680, and continued during the whole of that and the following year. These were the last efforts of those islanders to maintain their independence. Enfeebled and broken- spirited by their ineffectual efforts, they submitted from this time. The Dutch were now enabled to carry their principles of commercial policy into the most rigid practice. The consumption of spices decreased as their price rose, and the Spice Islands hence- forth ceased to be of value and importance. The monopoly of the spices was secured by the conquest of Macassar in the year I669. It was the avidity of the Dutch to secure the monopoly of the spices, and the natural hostility of the people of Celebes, towards those who unjustly and vio- lently excluded them from a traffic in which they had so long and so extensively engaged, one which was so beneficial to them, and so natural to their geographical and moral situation, which produced the long wars between them, the incidents of which are given in the native history of that island. It need hardly be remarked, that the commercial and political importance of Celebes ceased with the loss of its independence, and its subjection to the com- mercial shackles of Dutch policy.