monopoly, to haye them there so exclusively, that they either 
destroyed them themselves, in the remainder of the isles, or kept 
their princes in their pay for the purpose of doing so. — In fact, 
they pursued the same line of policy with the Nutmeg, as has 
been already described with regard to the Clove, under that 
article (tab. 2749, 2750). They have, more than once, suffered 
dearly for their insatiable avarice: for the dreadful hurricanes 
and earthquakes, which spared other islands, nearly annihilated 
the Nutmegs of Banda in 1778; so, that the Dutch were only 
able to have a few supplies for several years afterwards. While 
the Dutch remained undisputed possessors of the Spice Islands, 
the quantity of Nutmegs and Mace exported from their Nutmeg- 
grounds, circumscribed as they were, was truly enormous. Sra- 
VoriNvs, in his valuable * Voyage to the Kast Indies,” gives 
. an excellent account of the commercial history of this spice. 
A quantity, estimated at no less than 250,000 tbs annually, used 
to be vended in Europe, and nearly half that amount in the 
East Indies. Of Mace, the average has been 90,000 ‘tbs sold 
in Europe, and 10,000 Ths in the Fast Indies. When the Spice 
Islands were taken by the British, in 1796, the importations of 
the East India Company into England alone, in the two years 
following the capture, were, of Nutmegs, 129,732 ‘bs, and of 
Mace, 286,000 tbs. When the crops of spice have been super- 
abundant, and the pe likely, in consequence, to be reduced, 
the same contracted spirit has actuated the Dutch to destroy 
immense quantities of the fruit, rather than suffer the mar- 
kets to be lowered. A Hollander, who had returned from the 
Spice Islands, informed Sir Witt1am Tempe, that, at one 
time, he saw three piles of Nutmegs burnt, each of which was 
more than a church of ordinary dimensions could hold. In 1760, 
M. Beaumaré witnessed, at Amsterdam, near the Admiralty, the 
destruction, by fire, of a mass of Spice, which was valued at one 
million of livres, and an equal annie was condemned to be 
burnt on the day following: and Mr. Wixcooks, the translator 
of Stavorinus’s Travels, relates, that he himself beheld such 2 
conflagration of Cloves, Nutmegs, and Cinnamon, upon the little 
island of Newland, near Middleburgh, in Zealand, as perfumed 
the air, with their aromatic scent, for many miles round. 
M. Poivre has the credit of introducing this valuable Jant : 
into the isles of France and Bourbon, in 1772, together with the 
Clove; thence, by the liberal policy of the Fr i t to 
Guiana and to the West lediin Télassis — ”. sae oe 
In 1796, the British took possession of the Molucca Isles, 
and, two years afterwards, planted the Nutmeg at Bencoolen, ™ 
Sumatra, where it has grown with the greatest luxuriance ; 5° 
that, in five years, the trees had arrived at from ten to fourteeD 
feet in height, and, in October and November, 1802, two hundred 
and forty seven trees, out of about six hundred, blossomed. About 
half of these were male and the rest female. A second im ‘ 
tion was made to that island, by the assistance of the 
government; and the son of Dr. Roxsureu arrived there with 
twenty-two thousand Nutm ich, in 
y ui eg plants, from Amboyna, which, © 
