1770 SPICES POPULATION 401 



of them. Cloves, though said to be originally the produce of 

 Machian or JBachian, 1 a small island far to the eastward, and 

 fifteen miles north of the line, from whence they were when 

 the Dutch came here disseminated over most or all of the 

 eastern isles, are now entirely confined to Amboyna and the 

 neighbouring small islets ; the Dutch having by different 

 treaties of peace with the conquered kings of all the other 

 islands, stipulated that they should have only a certain 

 number of trees in their dominions ; and in future quarrels, 

 as a punishment, lessened their quantity, till at last they 

 left them no right to have any. Nutmegs have been in the 

 same manner extirpated in all the islands, except their native 

 Banda, which easily supplies this world, and would as easily 

 supply another, if the Dutch had but another to supply. Of 

 nutmegs, however, there certainly are a few upon the eastern 

 coast of New Guinea, a place on which the Dutch hardly 

 dare set their feet, on account of the treachery and warlike 

 disposition of the natives. There may be also both cloves 

 and nutmegs upon the other islands far to the eastward ; for 

 those I believe neither the Dutch nor any other nation seem 

 to think it worth while to examine at all. 



The town of Batavia, though the capital of the Dutch 

 dominions in India, is so far from being peopled with 

 Dutchmen, that I may safely affirm that of the Europeans 

 inhabiting it and its neighbourhood, not one -fifth part 

 are Dutch. Besides them are Portuguese, Indians and 

 Chinese, the two last many times exceeding the Europeans 

 in number. Of each of these I shall speak separately, 

 beginning with Europeans, of which there are some, especially 

 in the troops, of almost every nation in Europe. The 

 Germans, however, are so much the most numerous, that 

 they two or three times exceed in number all other 

 Europeans together. Fewer English are settled here than 

 of any other nation, and next to them French ; the politic 

 Dutch (well knowing that the English and French, being 

 maritime powers, must often have ships in the East Indies, 

 and will demand and obtain from them the subjects of their 



1 Bachian, off the south-west coast of Gilolo, is really south of the equator. 



2 D 



