Particular Account of the Cinnamon. 351 
lies, (who were members of the council of justice in the time 
of the Dutch,) are appointed to superintend the whole of this 
process ; and one of them is always required to be present to 
prevent the apothecary who conducts the distillation from 
embezzling any of the oil. After remaining for some time in 
the recipient, the oil is carefully skimmed off under the eye 
of the commissaries, and put into large bottles, wliich are 
sealed with the government seal, and brought to the governor, 
by whom they are placed in a chest secured in the same 
manner. The reason of all these precautions is the great 
scarcity and value of this oil. It is only made at the com- 
pany’s laboratory at Columbo ; and the quantity is much less 
than can be procured from an equal weight of any other spice. 
The jealousy of the Dutch has prevented the exact quantity 
procured from the hundred weight from being ever accurately 
ascertained. The usual price on the spot was three fourths of 
a Dutch ducat ; but of late years little has been to be pro- 
cured at any price. I saw a pint bottle of it set up for sale 
among the effects of the late Dutch governor Van Anglebeck ; 
but the upset price which was upwards of ten pounds sterling, 
deterred any one from becoming the purchaser. Cinnamon- 
oil is esteemed an excellent remedy for spasms in the stomach. 
That extracted from the finer sorts of cinnamon is of a beau- 
tiful gold colour, while that from the coarser bark is darker 
and brownish. 
The process for obtaining the oil of cinnamon which I have 
described is that which was put in practice by the Dutch. 
The manufacture has not been carried on since the island came 
into our possession, and indeed it can never be resumed with 
much advantage, or to any considerable extent. The small 
