Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/422

 406 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF restoring the spice trade to its natural state. To render this inteUigible, it will be necessary to pre- mise a very short sketch of the culture and trade in nutmegs, as conducted under the monopoly re- gulations, and of the attempts made to extend the culture beyond the limits of the native country of the nutmeg tree. The clove tree is cultivated by the aboriginal inhabitants of Amboyna, but the nutmeg by the hands of slaves, imported into the Banda isles for this express purpose by the Dutch. The inhabitants of the little cluster of the Banda islands made the earliest and most spirited resist- ance to the establishment of the monopoly, but being few in number, and their country open to the military operations of the European power, they were completely subjugated ; and, in the year 1620, it was the hard fate of the few who survived the struggle to be expatriated. To keep up the cultivation of the nutmeg plantations, the Dutch made a sort of sale of them to invalided European soldiers, and other adventurers of their own nation, whose descendants, an indolent, ignorant, idle, and dissipated class of men, are the present possessors. Under these persons are placed the slaves, about 2000 in number, who till the soil and cure the spices, natives of some of the surrounding islands. The number of children to a marriage among them is no more than /ao, whereas, among the free popu- lation of Amboyna, it is three ; and the annual