rections in the Moluccas down to the year,168:1,
when the Dutch at length established the monopoly
to their heart’s desire. That they might regulate
and control production and price just as they
thought proper, the clove trees were extirpated
every where but in Amboyna, the seat of their
power ; and the surrounding princes were bribed
by annual stipends to league with them for the destruction
of their subjects’ property and birthright.
This plan was begun about the year 1551.% The
contracts are still in force, and an annual fleet vi*
“ Admiral Ylaming,” says Rumphius, “ having now. returned
from Banda, and observing, as before stated, that
the Company was overstocked with cloves, he longed for
an opportunity of rooting up a portion of the ¿love trees.
The existing disaffection seemed to him to afford that opportunity,
by means of which the whole produce; might
be secured to the Company, and the faithless inhabitants
be prevented from smuggling. With this view., he requested
the king of Ternate to come to Amboyna, ’ that hb
might accompany him to Batavia, to take measures with
the Governor.General and Council for settling the affairs
of the Moluccas. He also proposed to the king that die
should cause to be extirpated all the clove • trees, in his
country, as they were the cause of all the disaffection
which existed, and that he should yearly receive, in consideration
of this service, a good sum in money f In another
place he says that, on one occasion, at a single gathering,
Amboyna alone produced, for the first crop, a rich
harvest of two thousand bahars, 1,188.000 lbs. avoirdupois,
but that fortune favoured the admiral, for the, troops, sent to
ravage the country succeeded in destroying a great many
sago and cocoa-nut trees, with 3000 clove trees 1
sits the surrounding islands, to suppress the growth
of cloves, which, in their native country, spring
up, with a luxuriance which these measures of Satanic
rigour, and of sacrilege towards bountiful
Nature, can scarce repress.
By the plan on which the clove trade is now
conducted, a plan carried into effect through so
much iniquity and bloodshed, the country of spices
is rendered a petty farm, of which the natural
owners are reduced to the worst condition of pre-
diaB slavery, and the great monopolizer and oppressor
is that government whose duty it should
have been to insure freedom and afford protection.
Human ingenuity could hardly devise a plan more
destructive of industry, more hostile to the growth
of public wealth, or injurious to morals, than this
system, framed in a barbarous age ; and it reflects
disgrace upon the character of a civilized people to
persevere in it.
It is curious to remark how the monopolizers, in
carrying the details of this system into effect, at
once impose upon the natives and deceive themselves.
The nominal price paid to the natives is
actually above the natural price of the commodity,
but they are cheated in the details. The cultivator
brings his produce to the public stores, where
it is subjected at once to a deduction of one-fifth,
for payment of the salaries of the civil and military
officers. The price of the remainder is fixed at
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