THE MOLUCCA ISLANDS. 
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The climate of Amboyna is more healthy and agreeable than that of most of 
the countries situated between the tropics; the soil is in part rocky and 
arid, it is this in which cloves thrive best. Other parts however are of great 
fertility and the mountains are covered with a vegetation as rich as that of the 
island of Java ; iu its vast plains and along the shores are seeu millions of cocoa- 
nut trees and sago palms of which the delicate flour furnishes the principal nu- 
rishment of the inhabitants. The culture of rice has not attained to nearly the 
same perfection there which it has done in Java ; some attribute this to the poli¬ 
cy of the old company who fettered as much as they could the culture of this 
grain, the favorite food of the inhabitants, in order the better to hold them in 
subjection ; others attribute it to the laziness and natural indolence of the inha¬ 
bitants which has increased still more in those who have embraced the Christian 
religion. It is a fact that every year the government is obliged to send to the 
Moluccas a large quantity of rice from Java, for the consumption. 
Coffee and indigo, according to experiments which have been made, succeed 
perfectly ia Amboyna ; in the gardens of some wealthy private persons are 
found all kinds of legumes and flowers which have been naturalized in Java, 
The vegetable kingdom here also affords precious woods from which the 
inhabitants extract medicinal and aromatic oils, such as, amongst others, the 
cayou poutie, and other woods which are used in cabinet-making : it is not 
at all unusual to see single pieces, round and flat, fitted for the tops of tables, 
of 6 and even 7 feet in diameter ; however the most beautiful woods come to 
us from the island of Ceram, 
But that which above all has made Amboyna so precious, is the culture of the 
clove. If the gold mines cost dear to the primitive inhabitants of Peru and of 
Mexico, the value of this tree so prized has often drawn upon those of the Mo¬ 
luccas violences less cruel and less sunguinary, yet too rigorous not to be de¬ 
plored, the more so that they have stiflled their industry, their agriculture, and 
their activity. 
In an average year the crop of cloves may be reckoned at 250 or 300 thousand 
lbs. There are years, like those of 1819 and 1820, when this quantity has been 
much surpassed ; but then io others the crops have been less ; in 1821, it did 
not ICO thousand lbs. 
The districts of Amboyna, of Harouko, of Larique, of Saparoua and of Hiia 
have been chiefly employed for the culture of the clove ; they are subdivided 
into cantons, placed under the surveillance of native chiefs, having the title of 
rajas or pattis, but more generally known under that of orong kaya. In these 
cantons, the parks or gardens, called in Malay tanah dati , containing a certain 
number of clove trees, are found under the care and management of subaltern 
chiefs called orang hiah ; these direct all the plantations, the cultivation of the 
parks and the gathering of the fruits. This last commences about the middle of 
the month of October and often lasts two or three months. It is said that the 
average produce of a clove tree amounts to 5 or 6 lbs of cloves, although they 
have been known to give as much as 25 lbs. The tree itself is odb of the beau¬ 
tiful ornaments of the creation j it attains very commonly a height of 30 or 40 
feet; its branches do not stretch far from the trunk which is of a pale grey; its 
leaves are regularly renewed in the month of May ; they are of an oblong form, 
of a deep colour. The clove tree begins to bear at 15 years, and attains the state 
of perfection at 20. The clove, in Malay chinkeh, is at first of a clear green, 
then yellow orange, and at last of a deep red colour, indicating that it ib ripe. 
When it is wished to preserve the fruit to sow in new plantations it is neces¬ 
sary to leave it a month longer on the tree ; during this lapse of time the clove 
swells and loses its aromatic odour ; it is then that the clove ought to be sown 
as soon as it falls from the tree, and ought not to remain more than 24 hours 
upon the ground. For the rest, the clove can be equally multiplied by means 
of suckers which are found in abundance at the feet of old trees. 
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The residency of Banda, which, in the time of the Company of the Indies 
