difpeVfed to all parts o f fouthern Europe. The general original
name o f the nutmeg-tree is Pata. The Arabs called the fruit
Ciauz-hant and Gjeu-zottibi, or the aromatic nut; it was never
mentioned but by the later Greek writers, -who named it K«^-nm
juuwsixiiv, and the Latins, nux mofcbata ; fo that it was not known
till long after the clove. We retain the ufe of them in our dif-
penfatory; they are an agreeable aromatic, and ufed as aftrin-
gents in diarrhseas and dyfenteries : even in India they are pre-
icribed in the fame diforders. Gerard informs us, that in his
days they were chewed to correft a bad breath; “ that it is
<i good againft freckles in the face, quickeneth the light,
“ ftrengthens the belly and feeble liv e r ; it taketh away the
u fwelling in the fpleene, ftayeth the laike, breaketh winde,
“ and is good againft all cold difeafes in the body.”
I t is often ufed as an apbrodijiac, efpecially among the Negroes.
T h e Europeans in India apply it as a philtre in cafes of love.
The eating the raw' fruit is often attended with moft dangerous
eonfequences; idiotcy, and even phrenzy enfues, and fome-
times death. This hoafted perfumed air, which falutes the
voyager at great dillances from land, is pregnant with the moft
fatal difeafes. Few countries are fo very unwholefome as the
Spicy I/lands.
As foon as the Dutch made fhemfelves mafters o f the Banda
I/lands, they began with extirpating the nutmeg-trees and cloves
on all thofe adjacent, in fome by force, in others by employing
the natives for hire. Some of the princes o f the Moluccas, reduced
by wars, contented to receive peniions for that purpofe; the
king o f 'female had about fix thoufand pounds a year, and the
monarch
monarch o f fidor about five hundred. This treaty has been
twice renewed.
W h Jln the Dutch firft took polfeffion o f the illands, they met
with fome difficulties.. The natives were impatient o f the yoke,
and killed the Governor, William Verhoeven, as they could not
fee the jufticeof having their nutmeg-woods robbed by ftrangers,
they thought themfelves juftified in putting to death any
thieves they met within their limits; but the Captain General,,
the great Koen, came in force in the year 1621, and put a flop to
the evil, by the radical, cure o f a general malfacre-
The. white inhabitants, or rather Creoles, are chiefly the otit-
eafts o f the world", or refugees of the moft abandoned principles,
often fent here by their relations, fo that Banda itfelf is
called the houfe o f correction. Thefe are the colonifts who r e -
peopled the iiland, and who get Have» front the neighboring
places to cultivate the land. Happily the climate is fo unhealthy
that very few o f thefe exiles, we may call them, ever
return to be a pelt to their country or their relations.
In the Bandagroup, the nutmeg trees are permitted to grow
only on that ifland,Z.o»io/V, mdPulo aya; the beft are thofe o f
Lontoir, among the lofty and rocky mountains, and on the edges
o f the precipices,, which makes the gathering, o f the fruit a
work o f great danger.
Pulo aya is only two miles lbng, quite fiat, and lo deftitute o f
water, either rain or fpring, that they are obliged to get it from
the neighboring illes, and preferve it in cifterns ; yet here grow
the loftieft trees,, and fo productive are they, that the whole
Y 1 world