34$ VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



ferves them as a Shelter in the ifland of Banda, 

 which is principally appropriated to their culture 

 by the Dutch. 



The council of the Dutch Eaft-India Com- 

 pany, which refides at Batavia, finding that the 

 produce of the nutmeg-trees of Banda was fuf- 

 Jicient for exportation, and wifhing, befides, to 

 fupprefs all contraband trade in this valuable 

 commodity, ordered, a few years previous to 

 our arrival at Amboyna, all the nutmeg-trees 

 that grew there to be defiroyed. This order Was 

 executed, and very few cfcaped ; but a hurricane 

 which happened in the fame year deranged all 

 thefe calculations founded on cupidity; it effected 

 at Banda what the council had juft caufed to be 

 executed at Amboyna. 



Orders were then given by the fame council 

 to try to repair the mifchicf which they had done 

 at Amboyna. They vvifhed to rc-eftablifh at 

 this place the culture of the nutmeg-tree; ac- 

 cordingly, thofe which are there met with along 

 the fhores of the roadftcad arc flill very young ; 

 yet I remarked in fevcral gardens in the town, 

 and oppofite the houfe of the commandant of 

 the fort, fome much larger, which cfcaped the 

 deftruclivc orders iflucd by the regency of 

 Batavia. 



We found the beautiful laurel called laurus 

 adilaban, which yields, by diltillation, an aro- 

 matic 



