Kaibobo

The inhabitants of Kaibobo are reported to have remained faithful to the VOC from the year 1605, when Castle Victoria on Ambon was conquered. The Company assisted this village against Loehoe, a nearby enemy village, and in exchange it gained permission to conduct free trade with the Kaibobo villagers. Kaibobo was one of the most important native villages on the southern coast of West Ceram. In contrast to most of the rest of Ambon, the residents of Kaibobo were soon converted to Christianity. The local population supplied services to the VOC. The men of Kaibobo were called up in turn to serve at the Zeelandia redoubt on the island of Oma with ten men on average working there per month. The work they were required to do varied, but it mainly comprised building fortifications or supplying the raw materials for construction. Around 1687 the VOC, aided by the local population, built a church in Kaibobo. The town supplied the wood used by the VOC in stockades, or wooden fences, for nearby settlements. Pieter van Dam, who recorded the history of the VOC around 1701, maintains that the village boasted a barricade by the name of Den Bosch, built in 1695.