Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/402

374 devastation: the houses could not be inhabited for several days, and some of them were even overthrown.

In the island of Banda, a little to the eastward of Amboyna, there is an open volcano.

At Karuku a little island, also to the eastward of Amboyna, and at the distance of about 5,100 toises from it, are hot springs which, according to the accounts of several Europeans, will completely coagulate an egg in five minutes. The hot vapour which issues from those waters does not injure the trees which are continually bathed in it; but on the contrary they exhibit proofs of a vigorous vegetation.

This little island of Karuku is principally allotted to the culture of the clove-tree.

I found, in the gardens of the natives some nutmeg-trees, the largest of which did not exceed twenty-two feet in height, the trunk having been about three inches in diameter. They already bore a great quantity of fruit. The nutmeg-tree delights in the shade of large trees; and these enjoyed the shelter of the canarium commune. The same tree affords them its shade, in the island of Banda, which is chiefly applied to their culture by the Dutch.

The Council of the Dutch East India Company, which is established at Batavia, finding the produce