These islands, situated 130 miles to the south-east of Amboyna, are ten in number, viz. Banda Neira, Gonong Apec, Banda Lantoir, Pulo Ay or Way, Pulo Rondo or Pulo Room, Rosyngen, Pulo Pisang, Craka, Capella, and Sonangy.

Of these, Banda Neira is the seat of the supreme government, and it is secured by one principal fortification, situate on the south side of the island, consisting of a small square fort, having a wet ditch, with a horn-work towards the sea. This fortification, which is called Fort Napau, forms the chief defence of the Banda Islands. The troops are quartered, and the public granaries are kept, in this fort; but the storehouses for the nutmegs and mace are on the outside, as well as the government-house. Above Fort Napau, on a neighbouring eminence, stands the castle of Belgica, an old pentagon, with round towers at the angles. It is surrounded with a wall, secured by small bastions, but has no ditch, and is said to have been built by the Portuguese.

Banda Lantoir or Great Banda is to the northward of Banda Neira. It is commanded by a considerable fort, which also domineers over the harbour, and is called Fort Hollandia. At first view the situation of this fort appears preferable to Banda Neira for the residence of government, not only on account of its strong and commanding situation, but because the island is the largest as well as the richest in the produce of spices. Its unhealthiness has been found, however, to be a sufficient objection. The water is said to be bad, and the vapour which sometimes descends from the volcanic mountain of the neighbouring island, Gonong Apec, is represented as particularly noxious. Such fatal effects were produced by these causes, that when the Wirtemberg Company formerly garrisoned the island, out of a hundred men eight died and forty fell sick in the course of two months. The numbers of decayed houses, also, which are seen in different parts of the island, show that the experiment of a settlement has already been tried, and has not been found to answer. This island appears very high from the sea; its sides are steep, and from the top of them there is a sort of table-land, which extends nearly from one end of the island to the other.

Gonong Apec is to the northward of Banda Neira, and derives its name from a large volcano about 2000 feet above the level of the sea, which constantly emits smoke, and sometimes cinders and ashes, accompanied with a crackling noise. On the south side of this island are two forts, originally intended to defend the west channel of Lantoir harbour; but, owing to an eruption of the volcano in 1778, at the same time that a dreadful hurricane laid waste the island, the lava flowed down in such quantities as to form a considerable promontory between these batteries and the channel they were intended to defend, so that they are now in a great measure useless. This island is generally unproductive, its surface being covered with a quantity of sulphur and chalk. There is no vegetation whatever on upwards of one third of the eminence on which the volcano is situated. Towards the sea the descent is exceedingly steep; but towards the harbour the declivity slopes gradually to the water, on the side of which are some plantations and a few straggling houses.

Pulo Way is about nine miles to the westward of Gonong Apec, and is defended by a strong fort. It is esteemed the most healthy of the whole group, and produces abundance of nutmegs, of a kind superior in quality to those of the other islands. Pulo Rondo, or Pulo Room, is about four miles farther, in a somewhat more northerly direction. On this island the English had a factory, from which they were expelled by the Dutch about the period of the massacre of Amboyna; and the island having been since abandoned, has become a wilderness. Rosyngen is about seven miles to the south-east of Lantoir. It produces nutmegs, mace, yams, and subsistence for a few cattle. The convicts of Amboyna were formerly kept on this island, and were compelled to cultivate the land for the use of the supreme government. Pulo Pisang is about two miles north-east from Banda Neira, and yields some fine fruits, as well as nutmegs and mace. The other three islands are uninhabited, being little more than barren rocks.

The Banda Islands were discovered in the year 1511 by the Portuguese, who immediately took possession of them in the name of their sovereign. About the year 1603 they were expelled by the Dutch. In 1608 the English, with the permission of the king, built a factory-house on Pulo Way, which the Dutch demolished as soon as the ship which brought out the factors returned to England. The natives of Banda, notwithstanding the opposition of the Dutch, assisted the English in forming a new colony; and shortly afterwards they, along with the natives of Lantoir, made a formal resignation of their respective islands to the new settlers. In 1620 Pulo Room and Pulo Way were added to the English dominions, and these cessions were confirmed by a treaty concluded between the English and the Dutch. But, in defiance of this treaty, the latter determined on the expulsion of their rivals from those islands, in the possession of which they appeared to be gradually establishing themselves. They accordingly attacked them with a strong force, seized their factories, magazines, and shipping, and, after stripping the factors naked, first whipped and then loaded them with irons. Some notion may be formed of the trade, then in its infancy, by the quantity of spices seized here, which amounted to 23,000 lbs. of mace and 150,000 lbs. of nutmegs. In 1654 the Dutch were compelled, by the firmness of Cromwell, to restore the island of Polo Room, and to make satisfaction for the massacre of Amboyna. But the English settlers not being adequately supported from home, were unable to resist the power of their rivals, and the island was retaken by the Dutch in 1664. They retained undisturbed possession of their conquests in this quarter of the globe until the year 1796, when the Banda Islands, along with all the other Dutch colonies, were conquered by the British. They were restored by the treaty of Amiens in the year 1800, but were again captured, and finally restored by the treaty of Paris concluded in the year 1814.

In the space between Banda Lantoir and the islands of Banda Neira and Gonong Apec there is a very good harbour formed with entrances both from the east and west, which enable vessels to enter it from either of the monsoons. These channels are well defended with several batteries, particularly the western one, which is very narrow. Between Gonong Apec and Banda Neira there is a third channel into this harbour from the north, but it is navigable only for small vessels.

The great articles of commerce in these islands are nutmegs and mace, which are engrossed at a fixed price, for the benefit of the Dutch East India Company; and the laws and regulations generally established are calculated to support and promote this monopoly rather than the happiness of the people or the improvement of the country. With this view, the cultivation of the nutmeg is only allowed in the islands of Banda Neira, Gonong Apec, Banda Lantoir, and Pulo Ay. In all the other islands the tree has been carefully extirpated, because, being at a distance from the seat of government, they were supposed to afford better opportunities for smuggling. In the islands which are appropriated to the cultivation of the nutmeg, they neither feed cattle nor produce grain sufficient for the maintenance of the inhabitants; and they are on this account dependent on Batavia for annual supplies of rice, and other articles of provision. In consequence of the low state of agriculture occasioned by this policy, the inhabitants are few, and the number of hands that would be necessary to bring the nutmeg plantations into the highest state of cultivation cannot be procured. This scarcity of hands renders it necessary to recruit the declining population by the importation of slaves. It would appear, also, that the inhabitants suffer severely when the supplies of provisions, on which they depend from abroad, happen to be interrupted.

About fifteen months before these islands were last conquered by the British, some reforms in the system of administration were carried into effect by a new governor, who had been appointed for that purpose. But before this period most of the planters were in great distress, having been charged with very heavy debts, incurred on account of loans in rice and money, made at different periods by the former governors; and this circumstance, joined to the great loss which they sustained by the dreadful hurricane of 1778, entirely ruined their private fortunes as well as their plantations. While they were in these distressed circumstances, the Dutch government, with an unfeeling avarice, aggravated their misery by compelling them to deliver their nutmegs at the reduced price of three farthings per pound, and the mace at a still lower rate. Under this accumulated distress, the spirit which had animated their fathers in the days of their independence seemed once again to revive, and they remonstrated in bold and determined language. They claimed the lands as their own prescriptive inheritance, which was undoubtedly the case, and actually proceeded to portion out their respective properties to each other. The Dutch, though they were touched by no feeling for the deplorable situation to which they had reduced the country, were nevertheless alarmed when they saw their discontented subjects determined to resist, and it was thought advisable to adopt a more just and conciliatory conduct. With this view, the accumulated arrear of debt claimed by the company from the planters, and which most of them were unable to pay, was cancelled. Several judicious regulations were also adopted regarding the management of slaves, and the prices at which the government received the spices of the planters were at the same time increased from the low rate to which it had been reduced to seven and a half stivers per lb. for mace, and to two and a half stivers for nutmegs, with a deduction of 17 per cent. in favour of the company and their servants.

In return for these concessions, it would appear that the company, after having pacified their subjects, seized their lands; and in this manner they continued to practise the same oppression as before, though the mode adopted was somewhat different. The planters in general, if they had once been freed from the enormous debt claimed by government, would, from the produce of their plantations, have speedily discharged all other claims; and they considered it hard, therefore, that, under colour of remitting this debt, they should be deprived of their respective properties, to which prescription gave them an undoubted right.

The nutmeg-tree is a native of several of the islands to the eastward; but it has been in a great measure extirpated from all of them except Banda. It begins to bear fruit at ten years' growth, the fruit improving in quality, and increasing in quantity, until the tree has attained the age of an hundred years. In its appearance it is handsome and spreading; the bark is smooth, and of a brownish gray colour. The leaves resemble those of the laurel, and afford, when bruised, a grateful aromatic odour. When the tree first begins to produce fruit, little yellowish buds make their appearance, out of which small white flowers are blown, two or three hanging upon slender peduncles. In the centre of the flower is an oblong reddish knob, from which the fruit is produced, though no more than one blossom out of three commonly ripens to a nutmeg. It is eight or nine months before the fruit arrives at maturity; but blossoms and ripe fruit are found together on the same tree, and the nutmegs are generally gathered three times in a year. The nutmeg, when ripe on the tree, has a very curious and beautiful appearance. It is almost the size of an apricot, and nearly of the same colour, with the same kind of hollow mark all round it. In shape it is somewhat like a pear. When perfectly ripe, the rind over the mark, which is nearly half an inch thick, and of a whitish colour, opens and displays the nutmeg in its black and shining shell, encircled by a net-work of scarlet mace. The shell in which the nutmeg is inclosed is about as thick as that of a filbert, and very hard. In preparing the fruit for use, the mace is first stript off and kept in baskets to dry in the sun, and the nutmeg in its shell is placed before a slow fire to dry, in five different houses made of split bamboos, fitted up for the purpose. In each of these houses it remains a week, till it is heard to shake within the shell, which is then easily broken. The nutmegs thus prepared are sorted into separate parcels. Each sort is put up by itself into baskets, and soaked three times in tubs of sea-water and lime; after which they are put into distinct closets, where they are left for six weeks to sweat, that the lime, by closing the pores of the nutmeg, may prevent its strength from evaporating. The lime is necessary to preserve the fruit from worms and other insects; and it requires much experience, as well as a considerable degree of judgment, to ascertain the precise time that the fruit should be suffered to remain in the lime; for if it be taken out too soon, it is worm-eaten, and if it is left to remain too long in the lime, it is burnt up and rendered useless.

The nutmeg is distinguished into three sorts, namely, the male or barren nutmeg, the royal nutmeg, and the queen nutmeg. The two last species are distinguished by the different sorts of fruit which they produce, that of the royal nutmeg being longer and more pointed, and its green shell being also thicker. It does not ripen so fast; and after opening it preserves its freshness eight or nine days. The mace is more substantial and three times as long as that of the queen nutmeg, and its stripes or thongs, of which there are from 15 to 17 principal ones, are of a livelier red; they are also broader, longer, and thicker, and not only embrace the nut through its whole length, but pass it, and cross under it as if to prevent it from falling. The royal nutmeg is generally from 15 to 17 lines long, and thick in proportion. It remains on the tree a long time after the opening of the green shell, and gives birth to an insect in the shell, which feeds upon and destroys it. The queen nutmeg produces much smaller nuts, only nine or ten lines long, not so thick by a third, and well marked by a longitudinal groove on one side. They are round, and the green shell is not so thick as that of the royal nutmeg. The mace, which is composed of nine or ten principal stripes, grows only half down the nut; thus leaving it at liberty to detach itself, and to escape from the insect formed in the shell. In two or three days also the green shell, losing its freshness, soon falls away from the nut.

Nutmegs should be chosen large, round, heavy, and firm; of a lightish gray colour on the outside, and the inside finely marbled; of a strong fragrant smell, warm aromatic taste, and a fat oily body. The oblong kind and smaller ones should be rejected. The real quantity of nutmegs produced has never been exactly ascertained. The largest quantity sold by the Dutch East India Company at one time was 280,694 lbs. in the year 1737. In 1756 there were sold 241,427 lbs.; and in 1778, 264,189 lbs. The average quantity annually sold in Europe has been stated at 250,000 lbs. exclusive of about 100,000 lbs. disposed of in the East Indies. The produce, however, has since greatly declined, which may be imputed to various causes. In the year 1778 the nutmeg plantations were laid waste by a tremendous hurricane; and this calamity was succeeded by oppressions on the part of the government, and by disturbances among the people. Agriculture and industry were in consequence neglected, and the annual produce of spices of all sorts, which amounted to 600,000 lbs. was suddenly reduced to 50,000 lbs. For seven years previous to the commencement of the war with France in 1793, the average quantity of nutmegs sold in Holland amounted only to 22,459 lbs. and that of mace to 7504 lbs. When Banda was taken by the English in 1796, the quantity of spices in the warehouses amounted to 84,777 lbs. of nutmegs, and to 19,587 lbs. of mace. In the several years of 1803, 1804, and 1805, when the Banda Islands were in possession of Britain, there were imported of nutmegs 104,094, 117,936, and 35,851 lbs., which were sold for L46,233, L54,733, and L23,742. The quantity retained for home consumption amounted on an average to 39,071 lbs. per annum, and the revenue which they yielded to L7879. The permanent duty levied on nutmegs imported from any British possessions is 2s. 6d. per lb., and from other parts 3s. 6d. per lb.

Of mace, the quantity consumed in Britain has decreased since the establishment of the East India Company. In the year 1615, the consumption amounted to 15,000 lbs. In 1803, when the islands were in possession of Britain, the whole quantity amounted only to 24,234 lbs., and the total value was L53,356. The quantity retained for home consumption is on an average about 5400 lbs. per annum. The duty on mace imported is 3s. 6d. per lb. when imported from any British colony; from other parts it is 4s. 6d. Mace should be chosen fresh, rough, oleaginous, of a fragrant smell, and a bright reddish yellow colour. The smaller pieces are esteemed the best. (See Milburn's Oriental Commerce, and the Asiatic Annual Register.) (v.)