THE MOLUCCA ISLANDS. 
xii 
the Asiatic Archipelago, principally by the inhabitants of the coasts ; in the 
mountains are found others, still pagans, to whom are given the name of AU 
fouras ; they are said to be very cruel and savage, but it appears that this 
reputation is exaggerated, perhaps unjust. 
We have already said that the principal return of Banda, of which the soil 
is generally stony, is the crop of nutmegs and mace ; the other cultures are very 
trifling and Government is obliged to provide regularly for the supplying food 
in these islands by sending rice from Java. The canari tree however is found 
abundantly in the jungles, the nuts of which are collected by the inhabitants 
and from which they make an oil superior to that of the cocoanut, the sayoivctr 
from which they prepare a fermented drink : also lime trees, bambus and cocoa- 
nuts, all productions of nature, which the Indians of the Archipelago know bow 
to use in so many useful ways. 
Banda can furnish annually 500,000 lbs of nutmegs and 150,000 lbs of mace ; 
this is not, as some persons suppose, the flower of the nutmeg, but the internal 
envelope of the nut; it is found as a tissue between that and the husk or ex¬ 
terior green skin. 
The tree which furnishes these two productions is one of the most agreeable 
to the eye, at least I thought so when for the first time I saw a number loaded 
with fruit at Pondokgedd, where they border the large walks of the magnificent 
garden belonging to the nestor of our eastern possessions, the worthy M. W. 
Engelhard. The nutmeg tree attains a height of 35 to 40 feet; it has some re* 
semblance to our European pear-tree ; its leaf is of a deep and shining green. 
Commencing to bear fruit about its ninth year, the tree produces during more 
than half a century, if care is taken to shelter it properly, which is done at Ban¬ 
da, by placing it in plantations of canari trees or of wild nutmegs, which the in¬ 
habitants call pala boeij ; these have the same leaf and flower, but they give no 
fruit. 
When the flower of the nutmeg falls, it is replaced 6y the nut ; this requires 
several months to attain maturity, when it is of the size and the form of an. 
apricot ; its skin of a yellowish green, opens and displays the nutmeg covered 
with its mace of a beautiful red colour. The average annual produce of a tree 
is calculated at 5 or 6 lbs of nuts ; there are some however which give from 15 
to 20 lbs. Although the nutmeg bears during the greater part the year, the 
principal crop is in August, and a second in November and December. These 
crops are liable to turn out more or less good ; good nuts are sometimes ill pro¬ 
vided with mace and often on the contrary very inferior nuts are aceompanied 
by a superior mace. 
The nuts, carefully withdrawn from their green exterior skin and from the 
mace, are exposed to the Bmoke during two or three months upon frames or 
hurdles in buildings constructed for the purpose (Aombuisen) and then deprived 
of a last interior and very hard shell, an operation which is called afktopping 
van de noot, in order speedily to be steeped in lime mixed with sea water. This 
method of preparing the produce requires the greatest precautions, for it is very 
delicate and very easily deteriorated. The mace ought to be thoroughly dried, 
but by the sun or wind ; sometimes the planters, when the season is humid, 
secretly avail themselves of the smoking frames (rookparra parras ) to accelerate 
the operation ; but then the mace acquires an inferior colour and sweats more 
slowly, when it is exposed daring the voyage to the heat at the bottom of the 
hold. 
The mode of cultivating the nutmeg at Banda is quite different from that pur* 
sued with the clove at Amboyna; it has rather some resemblance to the process 
which is employed in the Western colonies, where the work is performed by 
slaves. In 1621 when, as we have mentioned, Banda Neira and Lonthoir were 
completely subdued, but at the same nearly depopulated, it was necessary to 
obtain the means of continuing a culture which had been the real end of a war 
as long as it was sanguinary ; the Company decided on colonising this part of 
