Hoaed!

I was sitting in a cafe drinking camomille tea, reading like a good student, disturbing no one. My table was next to the table of some gentelman that was apparently waiting for someone who didn't seem to be showing up. He asked me what time it was: it was only quarter past. I felt like I needed to say something. He doesn't seem to be coming, I commented. He took it as an invitation to talk and asked me what I'm doing. I told him about my exciting convertion to a linguist. We talked about it for a while (he seemed interested) and then he said: wait a minute, I have something that I'm trying to solve for 10 years now, maybe you could help me. He reached for his bag and rummaged in it to come up with a notebook. From there he fished out a small battered piece of paper which said:

HOAED NISATR ND LEOR G N SOMOEANCO

He askes me if I know what it might mean. The only thing I could come up with was Somoa but he shook his head. The text comes from 1616, he explained, and was written on a sash that was was presented as a gift to his great great [...] grandfather together with a ceremonial priest's cloak. He showed me the photo. It was a very beautiful red cloak with golden ornaments and a prominent golden cross on the chest.
His ancestor lived on one of the Moluccan islands and the gifts where presented to him by Flemmish merchants that were travelling to the Moluccan islands for spices (the islands were at the time the only place in the world where nutmeg and clove could be grown and an object of intensive rivalry between Dutch, Spanish, English and Portuguese merchants). The name of one of these merchants was Erik de Vlamingh. That is all he knows, he explained.

From 'Spice: the history of a temptation' by Jack Turner:

The first Dutch ships called at the North Moluccas in 1599, returning to Amsterdam low in the water from the weight of the cloves they carried: 'So long as Holland has been Holland', one crewmember claimed, 'such richly laden ships have never been seen'.

It was the time when The Dutch and the British were beggining to question the Spanish and Portuguese dominion at sea. Around 1605, the Moluccans went from Portuguese to Dutch hands. But the the battle was far from over, the English were also extremely interested in the islands. A huge role in this war was played by Sir Francis Drake, a pirate and an adventurer on the orders of the British crown. As a consequence the islands were occupied by both superpowers and were a source of continuous conflict. As Jack Turner writes:

One English merchant in the Moluccas reported that the Dutch 'grew starke madde' at having to share the proceeds from the Moluccas' clove and nutmeg.

Finally, a treaty of Breda in 1667 was signed, according to which the Dutch control over the Moluccas was traded for their recognition of English sovereignty over a territory they have seized from the Dutch. This territory was then called 'New Amsterdam', better known today as New York.