SPIC Y ISLAN D3. j6i 



have given it the additional defence of a caftle. It has not a tree 

 on it but which bears fruit, -and is particularly produilive of 

 nutmegs. 



Pido ciya, or Pulozvay, fays my old informant Humphrey 

 Fitzberbert^, " is the Paradife of all the reft, entermitting 

 " pleafure with profit. There is not a tree on that illand but 

 " the nutmeg and other delicate fruits of fuperfluitie, and 

 " withall full of pleafant walkes, fo that the whole countrey 

 " feemes a contriued orchard with varieties. They haiie none 

 " but raine water, which the keep in jarres and cifternes, or 

 " fetch it frome the aboue-named iflands, which is their only 

 " defea. The fea fliore is fo Iteepe, that it feemeth Nature 

 " meant to referue this ifland particularly to herfelfe. There is 

 « but one place about the whole ifland for a fliip to anchor in, 

 " and that io dangerous, that he that letteth fall his anchor fel- 

 " dome feeth the weighing of it again ; befides hee incurretb 

 " the imminent dangers of his fliip." 



Poloroon, or more properly Poeloron, is the laft. Thefe PoLORoorr. 

 iflands are the antient feats of the nutmegs, as the Moluccas NuxMEcg, 

 were of the cloves. At firfl they grew fpontaneoufly on moft 

 of the neighboring ifles,. and poflibly we fliall have occafion to 

 fliew, that they fpread much farther than is generally known. 

 Marco Poloi fpeaks of the Noix d'Inde, and the des clous de 

 Girojle, or cloves, as being found on the ifl.and of Necuram ; 

 but where that ifland flood I am not certain. Originally the 

 Arabs engrofled this rich trade, and conveyed the fpices up the 

 Red Sea, and from thence to Alexandria, from whence they were 



* Purchas, i. 698, | Bergeron, 135. 



^0^' IV. Y difperfed 



