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were born would bear a European surname. On the other, if the mother was a European,
the children would continue to use the native clan name.
During its rule, the VOC made contracts with the rulers of the colonized territory to
monopolize trade and weaken the power of the kings and other local authorities. The
VOC also made contracts with the sultans they had conquered to provide slaves for the
Company in the nutmeg and clove plantations. Thus, the Sultan of Tidore was tied to
this agreement with the Dutch and had to submit a number of slaves to the Dutch. The
agreement made the Sultan of Tidore press local chiefs harder to provide slaves. Papuans
tried in various ways to abduct people from other tribes (Hasselt, 2002). To enhance the
effect, every year the Sultan of Tidore sent big boats to the areas considered its colonies.
Tidore’s expeditions engaged in slave hunting not only to meet their tribute quota to Tidore
and the Dutch, but also for financial gain. The price of a slave in 1654 ranged between 25
and 30 real per person (Masinambow, 1984).
In 1689, the VOC banned the purchase of slaves in the western part of the archipelago
(Andaya, 1991: 83, 88), at a time when the colony desperately needed slave labor. This
caused an escalating demand for slaves in the east and expanded the hunt for slaves as
a commodity. Free Burgers and Mardyker obtained licenses to supply slaves for VOC
(Andaya, 1991: 83-84). The VOC employed them, because they knew the local trading
network (sosolot) better. In this trade, slaves from Timor were transported to the west,
especially to Jakarta. P. J. Veth in his Het Eilend Timor states that Dutch Servants in Batavia
were mostly slaves from Timor.
In the hunt for slaves, thousands of free people were enslaved. Trade networks formed
between the East and the West of the archipelago were so complex that the slaves traded
came from different ethnic groups both native and non-native. On 17 September, 1779,
Kobiai alias Maba, a rich man from Geser sailed to Rarakit. There he bought 11 Selayar
prisoners from Tanete South Sulawesi who were traded by Papuan pirates from Salawati
(Widjojo, 2013). It was even reported that no less than 70 pirate ships from Papua in 1824
after an agreement between the Dutch and Tidore was made, sailed towards the West
and arrived in Banyuwangi waters in East Java (Kamma, 1981: 62). R. Z. Leirissa noted
the possibility that there were two routes used by traders from East Seram throughout
the 17th and the 18th centuries to get to the markets in Sumba, Sumbawa, Lombok and
Bali. The first route went past the north coast of the island of Seram, Buru, Buton, turned
southwest and went across the Java Sea through Bonerate, Timor or Sumbawa ending
up in Bali. The second route (southbound lane) went through the Aru Islands, the Banda

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