Editing Banda Islands (section)

===Portuguese===
In August 1511, on behalf of the king of [[Portugal]], [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] conquered [[Malacca]], which at the time was a major hub of Asian trade. In November of that year, after having secured Malacca and learned of the Banda Islands' location, Albuquerque sent an expedition of three ships led by his good friend [[António de Abreu]] to find them. [[Malay (ethnic group)|Malay]] pilots, either recruited or forcibly conscripted, guided them via [[Java]], the [[Lesser Sundas]] and [[Ambon Island|Ambon]] to Banda, arriving in early 1512.<ref name="Hanna1991">{{cite book|last=Hanna|first=Willard A.|author-link=Willard A. Hanna|title=Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and Its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands|publisher=Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira|date=1991|isbn=9780915980918}}</ref>{{rp|7}}<ref name="Milton1999">{{cite book|last=Milton|first=Giles|author-link=Giles Milton|title=Nathaniel's Nutmeg|publisher=Sceptre|date=1999|place=London|isbn=9780340696767}}</ref>{{rp|pages=5,7}} The first Europeans to reach the Banda Islands, the expedition remained in Banda for about one month, purchasing and filling their ships with Banda's nutmeg, mace, and [[clove]]s, in which Banda had a thriving entrepôt trade.<ref name="Hanna1991" />{{rp|7}} D'Abreu sailed through [[Ambon Island|Ambon]] and [[Seram Island|Seram]] while his second in command [[Francisco Serrão]] went ahead towards the Maluku islands, was shipwrecked and ended up in [[Ternate]].<ref name="Ricklefs1993" />{{rp|25}}

Distracted by hostilities elsewhere in the archipelago, such as Ambon and Ternate, the Portuguese did not return to the Banda Islands until 1529, when Portuguese trader Captain Garcia Henriques landed troops. Five of the Banda islands were within gunshot of each other and Henriques realised that a fort on the main island Neira would give him full control of the group. The Bandanese were, however, hostile to such a plan, and their warlike behavior was both costly and tiresome to Garcia whose men were attacked when they attempted to build a fort. From then on, the Portuguese were infrequent visitors to the islands, preferring to buy their nutmeg from traders in Malacca.<ref name="Milton1999" />{{rp|pages=5,7}}

Unlike inhabitants of other eastern Indonesian islands visited by the Portuguese, such as [[Ambon Island|Ambon]], [[Solor]], [[Ternate]] and [[Morotai]], the Bandanese displayed no enthusiasm for Christianity or the Europeans who brought it in the sixteenth century, and no serious attempt was made to Christianise the Bandanese.<ref name="Ricklefs1993" />{{rp|25}} Maintaining their independence, the Bandanese never allowed the Portuguese to build a fort or permanent post in the islands. Ironically, it was this lack of presence which attracted the Dutch to trade in Banda instead of the clove-producing islands of Ternate and Tidore.