[53] The “geometrical pace” is, in English measure, roughly estimated at five feet; in Spanish measure, according to Los Rios’s reckoning—­the tercia (or “third"), being one-third of a vara, is equivalent to 11.128 English inches—­the geometrical pace would be 55.64 English inches.  The length of the wall, accordingly, would be a little less than two English miles.

[54] Of this name Crawfurd says (Dict.  Indian Islands, p. 283):  “The collective name, which the Portuguese write Maluca, and is correctly Maluka, is equally unknown, although said to be that of a place and people of the island of Gilolo.  No such name is, at present, known to exist in that island ...  All that De Barros tells us of the name is, that it is a collective one for all the islands.”  He cites (pp. 101, 102) various names for the clove that are current in the Indian islands, and some found in early writers but among them is none resembling Maluca.

[55] See the detailed description of the clove tree, its product, the mode of gathering cloves, their properties, and the extent of the trade in this spice in Recueil des voiages Comp. des Indes Orientales, i, pp. 503-507.  The price at which the Dutch bought cloves from the natives (in 1599) is there stated at fifty-four reals of eight.  The extent of the crop is thus stated:  “According to what the inhabitants of Ternate say, the Molucca Islands produce annually the following quantity of cloves:  the islands of Ternate and Tidore, each 1,000 bares; Bassian Island, 2,000 bares; and Motier Island, 600 or 700 bares.”  Crawfurd says (Dict.  Indian Islands, p. 503):  “In England, before the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, a pound of cloves cost 30_s._, or 168_l._ per cwt.”

[56] Spanish, entretenidos; persons who were performing certain duties, in hope of obtaining permanent positions, or waiting for vacancies to occur in certain posts.

[57] The ancient city of Ormuz was on the mainland, but was removed to the opposite island, Jerun, because of repeated Tartar attacks.  Its fame almost rivaled that of Venice from the end of the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.  It was owned by the Portuguese during 1507-1622, when it was taken by Shah Abbas, with the aid of the English East India Company.  It was next to Goa the richest of Portuguese possessions.  See Voyage of Pyrard de Laval (Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1888), ii, p. 238, notes 1 and 2.

[58] The editors of Voyage of Pyrard de Laval (ii, p. 357, note) say of the clove:  “It is curious that this spice seems not to have been known to the Romans, nor to any Europeans till the discovery of the Moluccas by the Portuguese.”  Duarte Barbosa, in East Africa and Malabar (Stanley’s trans., Hakluyt Society edition, London, 1866), pp. 219-220, quotes cloves from Maluco as worth per bahar in Calicut 500 and 600 fanoes; and, when clean of husks and sticks, 700 fanoes, 19 fanoes being paid as export duty.  At Maluco they were worth from one to two ducats per bahar, and in Malacca as much as fourteen.  Captain John Saris (see Satow’s edition of Voyage of Capt.  John Saris, Hakluyt Society publications, p. 33) bought cloves for “60 rials of 8 per Bahar of 200 Cattyes.”