ce, 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 deg.
20' S. 28 leagues S.S.E. fr