The Monks of Malabar Malabar. Boolboom has fled from France to India to escape the vixenish temper of Anita Tivoli to whom he was engaged to be married. As the story opens, Boolboom has prospered as a merchant in ivory and is about to wed a native woman Tata-Lilli ("Hail the Groom, Hail the Bride"). Cocodilla enters and speaks about a wife's obligation to her husband ("Where He Goes, We Go Too"). Boolboom and the monks of Malabar confirm the customs ("The Monks of Malabar"), although Boolboom is not beyond flirting with Daru ("The Dear Little French Grisette"). Anita then puts in a very
Dutch Malabar motivated by the lucrative pepper trade on Malabar, the primary aim for the Dutch in capturing the coast from the Portuguese was to secure Dutch Ceylon from Portuguese invasions. After failed attempts to capture the main Portuguese fort of Goa in 1604 and 1639, the Dutch decided to aim for the secondary Portuguese trading posts on the Malabar Coast. In 1650s the Dutch possessed only the unfortified factories at Kayamkulam and Cannanore. They took Quilon (now known as Kollam) on29 December 1658, but it was reconquered by the Portuguese on 14April 1659. On February10, 1661 the Dutch commander of Ceylon,