The Portuguese, indeed, abandoned their enterprises in the southern seas in favour of developing their trade between Goa and the east coast of Africa. They excelled as navigators and explorers, but the whole of their history shows that they have never formed any conception of the principles of administration. [Illustration: GERMAN COLONIES IN THE PACIFIC, 1914. (Reproduced by permission of _The Times_.)] The Dutch concentrated on Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and ever since have waged war with the natives. It seems strange that both these nations should have decentralised Colonial interests away from their home countries, in striking contrast to our own country which has pursued a policy binding her oversea dominions closer and closer to the motherland--a policy which has eventuated in the formation of a comity of nations firmly united by the bonds of sentimental tradition and common commercial interest. The Portuguese made Goa the centre of their East African and Eastern enterprises,[G] and the Dutch placed the Cape of Good Hope (while it was in their possession) under the administration of Batavia in the Island of Java. The spice trade attracted adventurers of all the pioneering nations. Spain made extensive voyages of discovery and plunder in the South Seas, and their galleons for many years provided the excitement of the chase as well as profit in "double pieces of eight" for British sea rovers; but the Spanish acquired but a tentative hold upon territory, and this was finally released by the Spanish-American War of 1901. The legacy of Spain to the South Seas was the romantic occupation of searching for wrecks bearing cargoes of doubloons and the abandoned booty of pirates, which they seem to have collected for the specific purpose of burying in brass-clamped chests on uninhabited islands for the benefit of the adventurous spirit who might in future years display sufficient enterprise and determination to find his way through the maze which surrounded the prizes. The latter part of the seventeenth century saw one of the greatest periods of British activities in venturing trade abroad, albeit it often-times took the form of preying upon the rich cargoes collected by the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese marauders. This, however, was then the most approved and recognised form of commerce. Direct trade in Borneo and Sumatra by the British was commenced in about 1685, and "factories" were established to develop the spice trade which was then the richest of the East, a cargo of pepper-corns being regarded as one of the most valuable that could avoid a meddlesome buccaneer and be safely brought to port.