BISCOTERY OF THE MOLUCCAE 



215 



broad, Nortlieast of tlie latter is a small rock called 

 Pulo Krakka, or " Women's Island." 



The centre of the circle of which Lontar is an 

 arc falls in a nan'ow passage called Sun Strait, which 

 separates Gunong Api from Banda Neira. The di- 

 ameter of this circle is ahout six miles. Without 

 .it, another concentric circle may be ili'aw^i, which 

 will pass through Pulo Ai, Water Island," on the 

 west, and Rosengain in the southwest ; and outside 

 of this a third concentric circle, which will pa^^s 

 through Swangi, Sorcery or Spirit Island," on the 

 northwest, Pulo Run (Rung), *^ Chamber Island " on 

 the west, and the reef of Rosengain on the southwest 

 The total ai'ea of the whole group is seTcnteen and 

 sis-tenths geogi-aphical square miles. 



The first European w^ho reached these beautiful 

 and long-sought islands was D'Abreu, a Portuguese, 

 but he cannot correctly be styled their discoverer, for 

 the Arabs and Chinese, and probably the Hindus, 

 had been trading here for years before his anival, as 

 De Barros informs us D'Abreu, w^hile on his way, 

 touched at Gresik, in Java, to procui'e " Javanese and 

 Malay pilots who had made this voyage," and he 

 further adds : " Every year there repair to Lutatam " 

 (Lontar) " Javanese and Malays to load cloves, nut- 

 megs, and mace ; for this place is in the latitudes 

 most easily na\agated, and where ships are most safe, 

 and as the cloves of the Moluccas are brought to it 

 by vessels of the countiy, it is not necessary to go to 

 the latter in search of them. In the^w islands now 

 named" (Lontar, Rosengain, Ai, Run, and Neira), 

 " grow all the nutmegs consumed in every part of the 



