1770 SPICES—POPULATION 401 
of them. Cloves, though said to be originally the produce of 
Machian or Bachian,! 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. 
2D 
