8 TERN ATE. [chap. xxi. 



monopoly, and they would take care not to give their sub- 

 jects more than would amount to their usual wages, while 

 they would surely exact as large a quantity of spice as they 

 could possibly obtain. Drake and other early voyagers 

 always seem to have purchased their spice-cargoes from the 

 Sultans and Rajahs, and not from the cultivators. Now 

 the absorption of so much labour in the cultivation of this 

 one product must necessarily have raised the price of food 

 and other necessaries ; and when it was abolished, more 

 lice would be grown, more sago made, more fish caught, 

 and more tortoise-shell, rattan, gum-dammer, and other 

 valuable products of the seas and the forests would be ob- 

 tained. I believe, therefore, that this abolition of the spice 

 trade in the Moluccas was actually beneficial to the inha- 

 bitants, and that it was an act both wise in itself and 

 morally and politically justifiable. 



In the selection of the places in which to carry on the 

 cultivation, the Dutch were not altogether fortunate or 

 wise. Banda was chosen for nutmegs, and was eminently 

 successful, since it continues to this day to produce a large 

 supply of this spice, and to yield a considerable revenue. 

 Amboyna was fixed upon for establishing the clove culti- 

 vation ; but the soil and climate, although apparently very 

 similar to that of its native islands, is not favourable, and 

 for some years the Government have actually been paying 

 to the cultivators a higher rate than they could purchase 



