330 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
ever, poor, for little trade is carried on, and the abundance 
of sago gives them no inducement to cultivate the soil. 
There is hardly any part of the East where the traveller 
finds it so difficult to procure the usual tropical fruits 
and vegetables, or any food fit for the consumption of 
civilised beings. The population in 1878 was supposed 
to be about 226,000. 
10. The Amboina Group. 
The Amboina group consists of the main island, 
Ambon—or, as it is known to the English, Amboina—and 
three smaller islands lying to the east—Haruku, Saparua, 
and Nusa Laut. It was hither that the Dutch in the 
middle of the seventeenth century brought the clove 
cultivation, having extirpated the tree in its native islands 
of Ternate, Tidor, and Makian; and, although this in¬ 
dustry is no longer a monopoly, and the spice exported 
in much reduced quantities, the good roads on the smaller 
islands, and the size of the capital, testify to a long- 
existent civilisation, which has affected all the native 
inhabitants. 
The main island is about 30 miles in length, and is 
so deeply indented by two bays on opposite sides that 
it forms practically two islands, the narrow, sandy, con¬ 
necting isthmus being only 3 0 yards wide. Across 
this—the “Paso”—the native praus are dragged, the 
passage between the town and the smaller islands being 
by this means greatly shortened. The total area of the 
island is about 260 square miles, and the population 
32,000, of which rather more than half live in the town. 
The size of these Molucca towns thus falls far short of that 
of the populous cities of Java, Sumatra, and even Borneo, 
although their trade has been renowned for centuries. 
