1 62 



SPICY ISLANDS, 



difperfed to all parts of fouthern Europe. The general original 

 name of the nutmeg-tree is Fata. The Arabs called the fruit 

 Giauz-hant and Gjeu-zottib'h or the aromatic nut ; it was never 

 mentioned but by the later Greek writers, who named it Koc^ttoi* 

 ^M^KiY-ov, and the Latins^ nux mofchata ; fo that it was not known 

 till long after the clove. We retain the ufe of them in our dif- 

 penfatory ; they are an agreeable aromatic, and ufed as aftrin- 

 gents in diarrhaeas and dyfenteries : even in India they are pre- 

 fcribed in the fame diforders. Gerard informs us, that in his 

 days they were chewed to corre6t a bad breath ; " that it is 

 « good againll freckles in the face, quickencth the fight, 

 *< ftrengthens the belly and feeble liver ; it taketh away the 

 <* fwelling in the fpleene, ftayeth the laike, breaketh winde, 

 *« and is good againft all cold difeafes in the body." 



It is often ufed as an apbrodifac^ efpecially among the Negroes, 

 The Europeans in India apply it as a philtre in cafes of love. 

 The eating the raw fruit is often attended with raoft dangerous 

 confequences ; idiotcy, and even phrenzy enfues, and fome- 

 times death. This boafted perfumed air, which falutes the 

 voyager at great diftances from land, is pregnant with the moft 

 fatal difeafes. Few countries are fo very unwholefome as the 

 Spicy IJlands. 



As foon as the Dutch made themfelves mafters of the Banda 

 IJIands, they began with extirpating the nutmeg-trees and cloves 

 on all thofe adjacent, in fome by force, in others by employing 

 the natives for hire. Some of the princes of the Moluccas, re- 

 duced by wars, confented to receive penfions for that purpofe ; the 

 king of 1'ernate had about fix thoufand pounds a year, and the 



monarch 



