242 TRAVELS IX TOE EAST IXDIAxV ABCOIPELAGO. 



spreads do\niwarcl, closely pursuing the rotreatiiig 

 sea, and the islands become exactly wliat they are at 

 tie present day. 



The Banda group fonn but a point in the wide 

 area of the residency of Banda. All the eastern part 

 of Ceram is included in it, the southwest coast of 

 New Guinea, and the many islands south and south- 

 west to the northern part of Timur, Southeast of 

 Ceram ai'e the Ceramdaut, that is, " Ceram lying to 

 seawai'd/' or Keffing group, numbering seventeen isl- 

 ands. Theu' inhabitants are like those 1 aaw on the 

 south coast of Ceram, and do not belong to the Pa- 

 puan or negro race. They are great traders, and con- 

 stantly visit the adjoining coast of New Guinea, 

 where they purchase birds of paradise, many lurk or 

 parrots of various genera, " crown pigeons," Mega- 

 podiidem, scented woods, and very considerable 

 quantities of wild nutmegs, which they sell to the 

 Bugis traders, who usually touch here at Banda on 

 their outward and homeward passages. I saw many 

 of the wild nutmegs that had been brought in this 

 way fi'om New Guinea. Instead of being sphei'ical, 

 like those cultivated here at Banda, they are ellipti- 

 cal in outline, frequently an inch or an inch and 

 a quarter long, and about three-fourths of an inch 

 in diameter. They do not, however, have the ricli, 

 pungent aroma of the Banda nutmegs, and this, I am 

 assured, is also the case with all wild ones wherever 

 found, and even with those raised on Sumatra and 

 Pinang trom seeds and plants originally carried fi-om 

 these islands. Wild nutmegs ai*e also found on Bam- 

 ma southwest of Banda, and on Amboina, Ceram, 



