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into the Straits of Malacca, forcing Matelief to raise the siege, but was immediately after trounced most soundly by that redoubtable Dutchman in a great sea fight. For the moment, however, Malacca itself was saved, but a death-blow to the prestige of Portugal in Malaya had been dealt, and from that moment the fate of the first conquerors of Malacca was sealed. Matelief, flushed with victory, sailed to the Moluccas, where in the following year he succeeded in driving the Spaniards out of Tidor. Till 1611 this island was held by the Dutch, but in that year it was retaken by the Spaniards together with the island of Banda, though soon after the Dutch reestablished themselves in Ternate. In 1641, however, Malacca fell before the joint attack of the Hol- landers and the Achehnese, and passed into the keeping of the former, as also in the course of time did the Moluccas and most of the islands of the Malayan Archi- pelago.

After the final defeat of the Portuguese and the con- quest of Malacca the power of Holland in Malaya grew rapidly. By means of superior energy and enterprise the Dutch contrived to engross the greater part of the spice- trade, leaving to the English traders only an insignificant residue. In 1682, by fomenting an insurrection headed by the son of the King of Bantam, they succeeded in driv- ing the British out of Java, which they then annexed. little by little, till they had made themselves masters of the whole. The English fell back upon Sumatra, where they held factories in Acheh, at Priaman, Fort Marlborough, and at Bengkulen, stations which became of less and less