2SS BANLA. [chap. xDf. 



Kanary trees (Kanftrium commune). The light volcanic 

 soil, the ahade, and the excessive moistm-e of these islands, 

 where it rains more or less every month in the year, seem 

 exactly to suit the nntnie;^-tree, which reqnires no raamire 

 and scarcely any attention. All the year round llowers 

 and ripe fruit are to be found, and none of those diseases 

 occur wliich under a forced and unnatural system of cul- 

 tivation have ruined the nutmeg planters of Singapore 

 and renang. 



Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg- 

 trees. TlicT nre handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, 

 growing to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and hearing 

 small yellowish flowers. The fruit is the size and colour 

 of a peach, but rather oval. It is of a tough fleshy con- 

 sistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark- 

 brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace, and is 

 then a most beautiful object Within the thin hard shell 

 of the nut is the seed, wliich is tlic nutmeg of commerce. 

 The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda, which 

 digest the mace but cast up the riut with its seed un* 

 injured. 



The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly 

 of the Dutch Government ; btit since leaving the conntiy 

 I believe that this monopoly has been partially or wholly 

 discontinued, a proceeding which appears exceedingly in 

 judicious and quite unnecessaiy. There are cases in 

 which monopolies are perfectly justifiable, and I believe 

 this to be one of them. A small country like Holland, 

 cannot aObrd to keep distant and expensive colonies at a 

 loss ; and having possession of a very small islanil where 

 a valuable product, not a mecesmry of life, can be obtained 

 at little cost, it is almost the dutj' of the state to mono- 

 polise it No injurj' is done thereby to any one, but a 

 great benefit is conferred on the whole population of Hol- 

 land and it« dependencies, since the produce of the state 

 monopolies saves them from the weight of a heavy taxa- 

 tion. Had the Goveniment not kept the nutmeg t^ade of 

 Banda in its own hands, it is probable that the whole of 

 the islands would long ago have become the property of 

 one or more large capitalists. The monopoly would have 

 been almost the same, since no known spot on the globe 



