338 COMPENDIUxM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



its shining outer shell, until ready for export. The fruits 

 are devoured whole by certain large pigeons of the genus 

 Carpophaga, which consequently fell in early days under 

 the ban of the Dutch, who were endeavouring to restrict 

 the tree to the Banda group, and feared that the birds 

 would be the means of conveying it elsewhere. It is a 

 very singular fact that the nutmeg — like the clove — is 

 not, and does not appear ever to have been, used by the 

 native races, and it is difficult to explain how they can 

 have become known to civilised nations at so early a 

 period in the world's history, especially in the case of the 

 clove, where the product is so largely artificial. 



The Banda Islands were first visited by Varthema in 

 about 1505, who, rather inaptly, speaks of them as being 

 most wretched and gloomy in appearance. Six years 

 later, Antonio d'Abreu reached them with his fleet of 

 three vessels and brought a cargo of nutmegs back to 

 Malacca, but some years elapsed ere the Portuguese 

 fairly established themselves. They did not hold them 

 long, being ejected by the Dutch in 1609. On this 

 occasion the natives opposed the new-comers, and suc- 

 ceeded in kiUing the admiral and sixty-five of his men. 

 The result was a war of extermination ; 3000 were 

 killed and over 1000 taken prisoners, and the rest fled 

 the islands. The plantations, or " parks," as they were 

 called, were divided among the conquerors, whose 

 descendants — the " Perkeniers " — much mixed in blood, 

 held them as freehold on condition that they delivered 

 the entire produce to the Government at a fixed rate. 

 The Bandanese having been exterminated, it became 

 necessary to get other labour, and this was done by a 

 wholesale system of slave -catching in the less known 

 islands, Siau in the Sangir chain supplying a large 

 number. Later, when the carrying trade in slaves 



