n a fierce outburst, and threw off the
fragments of rock which compose the outer group. A curious fatalism
characterises the inhabitants of volcanic districts, and the
incalculable value of Banda in the middle ages outweighed all risks of
eruption and earthquake. The history of island colonisation by
Portugal, Spain, and Holland, forms a continuous record of battle,
loot, and persecution, in which the native population was decimated,
and even now the inhabitants would be quite insufficient to cultivate
and gather the "golden fruit," without the aid of innumerable emigrants
from Java. Hard measures were dealt out in order to maintain the
monopoly of spices, and the injury to the native races, by destroying
the nutmeg trees of the other islands, crippled the trade which had
found a natural outlet in Asia. All the nutmegs were sent to Europe,
but one-fifth of the yearly produce was diverted by smuggling into
forbidden channels, though severe punishment was inflicted upon
offenders. Economic administration was unknown in the 17th and 18th
centuries, but the holocaust of spices burnt in the market-place of
Amsterdam, and the extermination of the nutmeg trees in Moluccan
islands, sent a thrill of horror through the European world, which
placed such an exaggerated value on the possession of spices that the
wars waged to secure them breathe the romantic fanaticism of a wild
crusade. Monopoly and slavery were at length definitely abolished, and
in 1873 the Dutch Government, realising the necessity of Free Trade,
sanctioned the independence of the nutmeg planters. The far-seeing
views of Sir Stamford Raffles during the second brief English
occupation of the Moluccas, from 1810 to 1816, were disregarded in
England (knowing little, and caring less, about the remote Spice
Islands), though his counsels were eventually adopted by the Dutch
Government as the only means of ensuring an increased profit. A
high-prowed native boat, known as an _orembai_, plies across the
narrow strait which separates the islands of Banda Neira and Banda
Lonthar, or Great Banda. The long range of hills covered with a dense
forest of the precious nutmeg trees, attains an ideal of sylvan scenery
surpassing even the glorious palm-woods of Java. These may be described
in terms of comparative accuracy, and their beauty painted in realistic
language, but none can translate into words the irresistible charm and
glamour of the nutmeg aisles, the exquisite foliage an