There are a vast number of clove-trees on this island, which are carefully looked after, and a register of them is kept in the books of the company, being all numbered once every year, and they are not allowed to increase beyond a certain limited number, for fear of lessening the price, all beyond being cut down. All these trees belong to the Company, or the free burgesses, every burgess having only a fixed number; and if any one is found to have more than his allowance, he is severely fined, and all his trees forfeited to the company. Besides, the burgesses are bound to deliver the whole produce of their trees to the company at six-pence the pound. If any freeman or other is convicted of having sold or conveyed cloves from the island, to the value of ten pounds, his whole property is forfeited to the company, and he becomes a slave for life. The inhabitants used formerly to cheat the Dutch in the sale of their cloves, in the following manner. They hung up their cloves in a large sheet by the four corners, and set a large tub of water underneath, which the cloves, being of a very hot and dry nature, drew up by degrees, and thus made a large addition to their weight. But the Dutch are now too cunning for them, as they always try the cloves, by giving them a small filip on the head with the forefinger: if thoroughly ripe, and no deceit has been used, the head breaks off like a piece of thin brittle glass; but if watered, the clove is tough, and will sooner bend than break.
The nutmeg-tree is much like the peach, and there are a few of these in this island, but they grow mostly on the island of Banda, whence two or three ship-loads are exported yearly. The fruit of this tree consists of four parts. The first and outer rind is like that of a green walnut. The second, which we call mace, is dry and thin. The third is a tough thin shell, like that of a chesnut; and the fourth is the nutmeg, being the kernel included in that shell.
There are said to be some gold-mines in the island of Amboina; and a Malay once shewed me some of the ore, which, he said, came from these mines: but he said, at the same time, that he would be severely punished if the Dutch knew of his having any, as they wish, as much as possible, to keep this from the knowledge of all other Europeans.
Once every year the Dutch have to send a large force from Amboina on the following business, about the 20th of October. On this occasion the governor is attended by about seventy-five orambies, or boats of the country, some rowed by 100 paddles, some eighty, fifty, or forty paddles each, and in each of which there are two Dutch soldiers. I reckon therefore in this fleet 150 to 160 Dutch soldiers, and about 5250 Malays, allowing seventy to each oramby on the average. These seventy-five orambies are divided into three squadrons. The van-division of twenty orambies, is always commanded by a member of the council, who carries a yellow flag. The rear-squadron consists also of twenty orambies, and is commanded by the fiscal, having a red flag. The rest form the centre-squadron, and attend the governor, who has a serjeant and corporal, with twelve Dutch soldiers, for his body guard, and carries a blue flag. The governor is also attended by the Malay king and all their princes or chiefs, lest they should rebel in his absence. In this order the fleet proceeds to visit and victual the eastern, or Banda islands, especially those that produce cloves or nutmegs; and at every island it goes to, it is joined by additional boats. This cruize generally lasts for six weeks, during which they cut down and destroy all the clove and nutmeg-trees they can find, except those which are reserved for the use of the company. All or most of these islands would produce cloves, but they will not suffer them, having enough at Amboina alone to supply all Europe. On all of these islands the Dutch keep a few soldiers, three, six, nine, or twelve, according to their size, whose only business is to see the trees cut down, or at least to take care that they do not increase; as they are very jealous lest the English or French should serve them as they did the English at Amboina. During this annual expedition, the governor levies tribute from all the petty kings and chiefs of these islands, and commonly returns to Amboina at the end of six weeks.
The island of Amboina produces beavers, hogs, and deer, besides other animals. Among its birds are crocadores, cassawaries, birds of paradise, and others. The crocadore, or cockatoo, is of various sizes, some as large as a hen, and others no bigger than a pigeon, being all over white, except a crest of feathers on the top of their head, which is always either yellow or red. This bunch of feather usually lies flat, in a dent, or hollow, on the crown of the head, unless when the bird is frightened, when it is erected, and opens like a fan. The flesh and legs of this bird are very black, and they smell very sweet. When they fly up and down the woods, they cry crocadore, crocadore, or cockatoo, cockatoo, whence their name. The cassowary is as large as a Virginia turkey, having a head nearly the same with the turkey, with a long stiff bunch of hair on his breast, also like the turkey. His legs are almost as thick as a man's wrist, having five great claws on each foot. The back is high and round, both it and the pinions being covered with long hair instead of feathers. The female of this bird lays an egg so large that its shell will hold an English pint of fluid, having a thick shell, spotted with green and white, and exactly like China-ware. I never tasted the eggs of this bird, but its flesh is good eating, resembling that of a turkey, but stronger.
The birds of paradise are about the size of pigeons, and are never seen here alive, neither is it known whence they come. I have seen several of them at Amboina preserved in spice, in which state they are sent as rarities to several parts of the world. These birds are said to resort, in February and March, when the nutmegs are ripe, to Banda and Amboina, where they feed on the outer rind of the nutmeg, after which they fall to the ground, quite stupified, or as it were dead drunk, when innumerable ants gather about them, and eat them up. There are here many kinds of fish, but the most remarkable is the sea-porcupine, which is about three feet long, and two and a half feet round, having large eyes, two fins on the back, and a large fin on each side, near the gills. Its body is all beset with sharp spines, or quills, like a porcupine, whence its name is derived.
All round Amboina the bottom is sand, but the water is so deep that there is no anchorage near its shores, except to leeward, or on the west side, where a ship may anchor in forty fathoms, close to the shore in the harbour. This harbour runs so deep into the island as almost to divide it into two, which are joined by so narrow a neck of land that the Malays often haul their canoes across. On the east side of the entry into the harbour there is a small fort of six guns, close to which the depth is twenty fathoms. About a league farther up is the usual anchorage for ships, close under the guns of the great castle, which has been called Victoria ever since the massacre of the English at this place. About two miles farther to the N.E. and within the harbour, is the place where the English factory formerly stood; and near it is the hole into which the English were said to have been thrown after the massacre. Few of us who were now here but expected the same fate; and some of the inhabitants did not scruple to say that our only protection was our journal, which had been sent to Batavia by the Dutch ship we met when going into the harbour; as by this it would soon be known all over India that a part of Captain Dampier's crew had arrived at Aniboina, which would cause us to be enquired after.
A little to the eastward of Amboina there are several other small islands, the most noted of which are Boangbessay and Hinomsa, only a small distance east from Amboina. These two islands are moderately high, and not above a third part so large as Amboina. They are both well fortified, and produce store of cloves. The chief place for nutmegs is the island of Banda, which also belongs to the Dutch, being in lat. 4° 20' S. 28 leagues S.S.E. from Amboina. This island is said to have the form of a man's leg and foot, and is well fortified. The governor of Amboina is supreme over all the spice islands, even to Ternate and Tidore, which are also spice islands belonging to the Dutch, and are about forty miles to the north of the equator. We were so troubled at Amboina by musquitoes, a sort of gnats, that we had every night to put ourselves into a bag before we could go to sleep, as otherwise these insects bit us so intolerably that we could get no rest. Wherever they bit, there commonly rose a red blister, almost as broad as a silver penny, which itched so violently that many cannot forbear from scratching, so as to cause inflammations that sometimes aid in the loss of a limb. During our stay, we were allowed to walk in a paved yard about sixty yards square; but were not permitted to go into the town, that we might not learn their strength, or make any discoveries prejudicial to them.
We remained at Amboina from the 31st of May to the 14th of September, 1705, when three of their sloops were ready to sail with cloves to Batavia, in which twenty-five of our men were sent away to Batavia, ten of us being left behind, who they said were to be sent in another vessel, almost ready to sail. On the 27th September, a Malay man was brought to the Stadt-house to be tried for his life, being accused by his own wife of having murdered his slave. The slave had been dead six months, when the wife falling out with her husband, she went to the fiscal in the heat of her rage and revealed the murder, on which the husband was thrown into prison, but it was generally believed that he was wrongfully accused by his wife. During his trial the earthquake took place, formerly mentioned, which made the court break up, fearful the house might fall on their heads. At this time I observed that it is an error to suppose that it is always calm during an earthquake; for we had a fine fresh gale at S.S.W. both days on which the earthquake happened. Next day the court sat about eleven o'clock, continuing the trial; and while the wife was in her greatest violence in the accusation of her husband, the earth shook again with much violence, which obliged the court again to break up.
That same day, the 28th September, I and four more of our men were sent off for Batavia in a Chinese sloop, the other five men being promised to be sent after us in a short time, but we never heard of them afterwards. We sailed westwards till we came to the island of Lancas, in lat. 5° 27' S. and by my estimation, 2° 21', or 155 miles W. from Amboina. We then steered W. by N. till we made two islands called the Cabeses, whence we procured some hundred cocoa nuts. The eastermost island, to which we sent our boat, is low and uninhabited, but has been planted full of cocoa-nut trees by the Dutch, for the use of their vessels going between the spice islands and Batavia, as it is a kind of miracle to see any other ship in these parts except those belonging to the Dutch. Off this island we met our own bark which had brought us from America to Amboina, the Dutch having fitted her up with a main-mast and converted her into a very good vessel. This island is in lat. 5° 23' S. and nearly W. by N. from the island of Lancas, about forty-five miles distant, and has a shoal extending about two miles from the shore. To the S.W. of this is the other island of Cabeses, a pretty high island, on which the Dutch always keep a corporal and two soldiers, who go two or three times all over the isle to see that no cloves are planted, and if they find any to cut them down and burn them, lest any other nation might be able to procure that commodity, in which case Amboina would become of little value, as cloves are its only valuable product.