CINNAMON OILS* 227 



they earn enough to maintain themselves for the whole year. 

 They and their overseers have a great practice in distinguishing 

 the different sorts of cinnamon by the taste ; and during the old 

 flourishing times of the monopoly, there were special cinnamon- 

 tasters, who were able to distinguish eight different qualities, and 

 who, during their functions, were obliged to live on rice, bread, 

 or fruit, so as not to irritate their palate, and spoil its sense of 

 discrimination. 



The coarser rinds, the offals and fragments broken off in 

 packing, are used for the distillation of cinnamon oil. Thirteen 

 pounds of bark produce an ounce, worth about two shillings. 



Another kind of cinnamon oil is distilled from the' leaves, and 

 is very different from that which is furnished by the rind. It 

 is dark brown, and resembles in smell the essential oil of cloves, for 

 which it is frequently sold in Europe, as its cost of production 

 is much cheaper. 



Nutmegs and cloves, the costly productions of the remotest 

 isles of the Indian Ocean, were known in Europe for centuries 

 before the countries where they grow had ever been heard of. 

 Arabian navigators brought them to Egypt, where they were pur- 

 chased by the Venetians and sold at an enormous profit to the 

 nations of the west. But, as is well known, the commercial 

 grandeur of the city of the Lagunes was suddenly eclipsed after 

 Vasco de Grama discovered the new maritime road to the East 

 Indies, round the Cape of Grood Hope (1498); and when a few 

 years later the countrymen of the great navigator conquered 

 the Moluccas (1511), they for a short time monopolised the 

 whole spice trade much more than their predecessors had 

 ever done before. But here also as in Ceylon the Portuguese 

 were soon obliged to yield to a stronger rival ; for the Dutch 

 now appeared upon the scene, and by dint of enterprise and 

 courage soon made themselves masters of the Indian Ocean. In 

 1605 they drove the Portuguese from Amboina, and before 1621 

 had elapsed, the whole of the Moluccas were in their possession. 

 Five-and-twenty years later, Ceylon also fell into their hands, 

 and thus they became the sole purveyors of Europe, with cinna- 

 mon, cloves, and nutmegs. Unfortunately, the scandalous manner 

 in which they misused their power throws a dark shade over 

 their exploits. For the better to secure the monopoly of the 



Q 2 



