154 
five park-slaves from the Banda nutmeg parks, as they were called, 
arrived in Penang, sent by the Resident of Banda to look after the 
nutmegs and cloves, of which about 600 nutmeg plants and half a 
dozen clove trees had been already received in Penang. In May, 
1800, there were 1,300 plants in the Gardens, which consisted of 20 
orlongs at Ayer Hitam and 30v orlongs reserved at Sungei Cloan, 
chiefly for growing pepper. In June 29, the ship Amboyna arrived 
from’ Amboyna with 15,000 cloves and 500 nutmeg trees. The 
Botanic Gardens were now much enlarged, and it was urged that 
Mr. Smith should return and take charge of them as soon as possible. 
In 1802 there were 19,000 nutmeg trees and 6,250 cloves in the 
Gardens and altogether about 33,000 spice plants in the island. 
* The first nutmeg fruit and the first mangosteen in Penang were 
roduced in 1801. At this time Sir William Hunter, surgeon to 
the East India Company, was in charge of the Gardens, with a staff 
of fifty convicts. An account of the plants of Prince of Wales 
Island from a manuscript in the British Museum, was published 
recently by the Editor in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the 
oyal Asiatic Society, vol. 53. It shows that a number of other 
plants of a useful and ornamental character, many obviously sent 
from the Moluccas by Smith, were cultivated in the spice gardens. 
Among the plants recorded in this work and elsewhere are Cinnamon, 
Pimento Coffee, Kaya Puteh, Colelava (sie, probably clove bark, 
Kult Lawan, Cinnamomum Culilawan, Bl.), Teak, Loquat, Arta- 
botrys odoratissima, Canary nut, etc ; 
apt. James Law, in his dissertation on the soil and agriculture 
ot ——s (1836), a the position and area of the Gardens 
us :-—‘ It comprised 130 acres of land lyi the sl hich 
ae eae and lying on the slopes whic 
old, and 6,259 clove trees, of which 669 were above six and under 
seven years old.’ Hunter says the Gardens were in the valley of 
Ayer Hitam. 
“ Sir George Leith was 
Col. R. T. Farquhar in 18 
and extravagant man, 
on useless fortifications. 
_ “ Hunter seems to have left the island about 1803, and Smith died 
in 1806, or soon after. 
“The Gardens, which in 1804 to 1805 had a staff of 80 coolies 
and cost '$11,909,41, were sold at 12 days’ notice by auction for 
$9,656. The trees were dug up and carried off by the purchasers 
but most of them died. So ended the first Gardens of Penang. 
_ “From 1805 to 1822 Penang possessed no cardens, then at the 
instance of Sir Stamford Rafiles the second at Mehl wats founded. 
They were also situated at Ayer Hitam, and put under the charge 
of a botanical school master, George Porter. These gardens exis 
Lieut. Governor but was succeeded by 
03. He appears to have been a reckless 
spending large sums on his own luxury and 
