382 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



tivated only at Amboyna, and on the othef 

 iflands which are under the immediate depen- 

 dency of the Company, and where they can ex- 

 ercile a continual fuperintendence. This inqui- 

 fition, introduced by Dutch cupidity, is Angu- 

 larly counteracted by the birds, which go and 

 depofit the feeds of the fpice-trees in the iflands 

 adjacent to thofe where they are cultivated ; 

 this has determined the Company alfo to fix 

 there refidents, whofe principal miflion is to 

 make conftant rcfearches in order to deftroy all 

 thofe which they may meet with : often, indeed, 

 thefe trees happen to be fown in places fo fleep, 

 that they efcape the moft active vigilance. 



The flaves, imported into the Moluccas, are, 

 for the moft part, drawn from Macaffar and 

 Ceram. The women of Macaflar have in ge- 

 neral agreeable features, and are of a middling 

 flature; their hair is not curly; their fkin, which 

 is of a tint ft ill more yellow than that of the Eu- 

 ropean women who are afflicted by the green 

 fieknefs, occafions them however to be defignated 

 by the natives of the Moluccas by the name of 

 white women, paran-pouatig pouter. 



Before the Dutch had cftablifhcd the 

 flave-tradc, the iflandcrs of Ceram uraclifed 

 the barbarous cuftom of eating the prifoners 

 that they had taken in their battles. It is 

 painful to learn that they have abandoned this 



atrocious 



