The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XIX.] BANDA. 221considerable tract covered with large forest trees, dead, but stillstanding. This was a record of the last great eartliquake onlytwo years ago, when the sea broke in over this jiart of the islandand so flooded it as to destroy the vegetation on all the low lands.Almost every year there is an earthquake here, and at intervalsof a few years very severe ones, which throw down houses andcany ships out of the harbour bodily into the streets.Notwithstanding the losses incurred by these terrificvisitations,and the small size and isolated position of these littleislands, they have been and still are of considerable value to theDutch Government, as the chief nutmeg-garden in the world.Almost the whole surface is jDlanted with nutmegs, grown underthe shade of lofty Kanary trees (Kanarium commune). Thelight volcanic soil, the shade, and the excessive moisture of theseislands, where it rains more or less every month in the year, seemexactly to suit the nutmeg-tree, which requires no manure andscarcely any attention. All the year I'ound flowers and ripe fruitare to be found, and none of those diseases occur which under aforced and unnatural system of cultivation have ruined thenutmeg planters of h5ingapore and Penang.Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg-trees.They are handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, growing to theheight of twenty or thirty feet, and bearing small yellowishflowers. The fruit is the size and colour of a peach, but ratlieroval. It is of a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splitsopen, and shows the dark-brown nut within, covered with thecrimson mace, and is then a most beautiful object. Within thethin hard shell of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of commerce.The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda, whichdigest the mace but cast up the nut with its seed uninjured.The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of theDutch Government ; but since leaving the country I believethat this monopoly has been partially or wholly discontinued, aproceeding which appears exceedingly injudicious and quite unnecessary.There are cases in which monopolies are perfectlyjustifiable, and I believe this to be one of them. A small countrylike Holland cannot afford to keep distant and expensive coloniesat a loss ; and having possession of a very small island where avaluable product, not a necessary of life, can be obtained at littlecost, it is almost the duty of the state to monopolise it. Noinjury is done thei'eby to any one, but a great benefit is conferredon the whole population of Holland and its dependencies, sincethe produce of the state mono])olies save them from the weiglitof a heavy taxation. Had the Government not kept the nutmegtrade of Banda in its own hands, it is probable that the wholeof the islands would long ago have become the i^roperty of oneor more large capitalists. The monopoly would have been almostthe same, since no known spot on the globe can produce nutmegsso cheaply as Banda, but the profits of the monoi^oly would liavegone to a few individuals instead of to the nation. As an illus-