"The goods used in purchasing these articles are as varied as the purchasers. The most important item is that of arrack—a spirit distilled from rice, and resembling rum; about twenty thousand gallons of it are sold at Dobbo every year, and sometimes as many as twenty-five thousand. English and American cottons are sold; and also tobacco, crockery, knives, muskets, gunpowder, Chinese gongs, small cannons, and elephants' tusks. The last three articles are the luxuries with which the natives of Aru buy their wives, and display in their houses or conceal as valuable property. They use tobacco both for chewing and smoking, and will not accept it unless it is very strong. The native pipe is similar to that used in Papua, or New Guinea, and is made of wood, with a long upright handle, which is set in the ground while the owner is using it. He squats before the pipe, and when in this position his mouth is just on a level with the end of the stem.
"I went from Dobbo to Amboyna and Banda, which are small islands not far from the much greater one of Ceram. They formerly belonged to the Portuguese, but are now in possession of the Dutch, and known to the commercial world for their products of cloves and nutmegs."
"I have read somewhere," said Frank, "that the Dutch destroyed the spice-trees on all the other islands, so as to have a monopoly in Banda and Amboyna. Was it not very unjust to the natives to do that?"
"All the facts in the case are not generally known," was the reply. "The Portuguese traders maintained high prices for these luxuries, and used to oppress the natives to obtain them. Sometimes the competition led to their paying such figures to the native princes that the latter became very wealthy, but their subjects were not benefited by them. When the Dutch came into possession, they determined to concentrate the culture in a few places, so that they could control it, and to this end they offered an annual subsidy to the native princes to destroy the spice-trees in their dominions. The latter were thus made sure of their revenue, while the people were able to devote more time to the cultivation of articles of food, and were relieved from taxes.
"The cultivation of the clove was restricted to the island of Amboyna, while Banda was made the seat of the nutmeg culture. There was so much complaint on the part of the English that the monopoly was finally removed in part; the trade is still surrounded with restrictions, as the Dutch are in possession of the islands where the culture can be conducted to the best advantage. It is a curious circumstance that the birds had much to do with the suppression of the monopoly."
"The birds?"
A BIRD OF AMBOYNA.
"Yes, a bird known as the nutmeg-pigeon. He lives on the mace which envelops the nutmeg; the latter is undigested and uninjured in his stomach, and he carries it to islands of whose existence the Dutch were not aware. The nutmeg is the seed of the tree, and as fast as the Dutch suppressed the cultivation in an island the birds restored it. Banda is still the centre of the nutmeg trade, as the article is produced more cheaply there than in any other spot, and it sends about two million pounds of this spice to market every year. The climate of Amboyna was found not altogether suited to the production of the clove; and as the clove-tree flourishes in other parts of the world, the monopoly could not be kept up. The clove is not the fruit of the tree, as many persons suppose, but the blossom; it is gathered before it is unfolded, and if you look at a clove you will see how much it resembles a bud just ready for opening.