larger island has coral rock to a height of three or four hundred feet, while above
is lava and basalt. It seems probable, therefore, that this little group of four
islands is the fragment of a larger district which was perhaps once connected
with Ceram, but which was separated and broken up by the same forces which
formed the volcanic cone. When I visited the larger island on another occasion, I
saw a considerable tract covered with large forest trees—dead, but still standing.
This was a record of the last great earthquake only two years ago, when the sea
broke in over this part of the island and so flooded it as to destroy the vegetation
on all the lowlands. Almost every year there is an earthquake here, and at
intervals of a few years, very severe ones which throw down houses and carry
ships out of the harbour bodily into the streets.
Notwithstanding the losses incurred by these terrific visitations, and the small
size and isolated position of these little islands, they have been and still are of
considerable value to the Dutch Government, as the chief nutmeg-garden in the
world. Almost the whole surface is planted with nutmegs, grown under the shade
of lofty Kanary trees (Kanarium commune). The light volcanic soil, the shade,
and the excessive moisture of these islands, where it rains more or less every
month in the year, seem exactly to suit the nutmeg-tree, which requires no
manure and scarcely any attention. All the year round flowers and ripe fruit are
to be found, and none of those diseases occur which under a forced and
unnatural system of cultivation have ruined the nutmeg planters of Singapore
and Penang.
Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg-trees. They are
handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, growing to the height of twenty or thirty
feet, and bearing small yellowish flowers. The fruit is the size and colour of a
peach, but rather oval. It is of a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splits
open, and shows the dark-brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace, and
is then a most beautiful object. Within the thin, hard shell of the nut is the seed,
which is the nutmeg of commerce. The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of
Banda, which digest the mace, but cast up the nut with its seed uninjured.
The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of the Dutch
Government; but since leaving the country I believe that this monopoly has been
partially or wholly discontinued, a proceeding which appears exceedingly
injudicious and quite unnecessary. There are cases in which monopolies are
perfectly justifiable, and I believe this to be one of them. A small country like
Holland cannot afford to keep distant and expensive colonies at a loss; and
having possession of a very small island where a valuable product, not a
necessity of life, can be obtained at little cost, it is almost the duty of the state to