169. tab. 105,“ is wholly o f a pure white, except the greater
feathers o f the wings, and the tail, which are black.
L e t me queftion whether (from its name) the Aromatic
Pigeon, Latham, iv. 631; PI. Enl. 163, does not feed on. thefe
pretious fruits, and contribute likewife to their difperfion.
A m b o in a . Amboina is about 30 leagues to the north-weft of the Banda
ifles. This is in refpeA to cloves, what thofe are in refpeA to
nutmegs. The Hutch have made it the great and foie plantation
o f that valuable fpice. They deftroy with the fame zeal all
that they can find on the iflands within their reach, or bribe or
compel the natives to do it for them. The governor o f Amboina
makes annually in great ftate the tour o f the iflands, with a fleet
o f perhaps fifty fail o f Corocoros, the veflels of the, country, to
enforce obedience, and to ihew his power to the people, and the
inhabitants o f the ten iflands dependent on it.
q o ib - S o m e gold duft feveral years ago was obferved to be waihed
down by the mountain torrents; it was traced to the iouree, ancS
the mine difcovered. I am not able to give my readers the con—
fequences, nor the prefent ftate o f the produce. This ifland has
alfo its volcano. The Brim/lone mountain called Wawani, in*
1695 made a dreadful eruption.
Amboina lies in Lat. 4° 25' fouth, and is divided very nearly
in two by a long bay, which, with the fea, contra As it into two
peninfulas, joined at the eaftern end b yfb very narrow and fandy
an ifthmus, that fmall veflels may eafily be dragged over. The
larger or more northern portion is called Hitoe, the other Ley
- Pimor. The whole ifland is full of mountains, covered not only
■with woods o f clove trees, but with the richeft produAions o f
Flora',
Flora; for variety and Angularity of vegetation, no part o f the
torrid zone can (in even far greater fpace) vie with it in numbers
and elegancy. The whole length o f the greater portion of
this double ifland, I may call it, is feventy miles. The intervening
fpace o f water is a moft fecure and beautiful meandering
bay, with numberlefs ftreams falling from the hills, a blefling
enjoyed by every fide of the ifland. Dampier * tells us, that the
fea furrounding it is a hundred fathom deep ; the bottom fandy
and unfit for anchoring, except at the Ley, at the weft end,
where it may be done in twenty fathoms.
Amboina was difcovered by Antonio. d'Abreu f , about the year
1511. It is faid to have been even then peopled with Malayans,
and poifibly fome o f the Aborigines, reprefented as a moft barbarous
race. Their prefent religion is Mabometanifm mixed with
Paganifm. By the wooden print given at p. 10. o f the old
edition o f Heemjkirk's Voyage, fome o f the people had no more
than a wrapper round their middle, others were cloathed in long
garments, and the military in a fhirt and Ijprt o f fhort breeches.
Their weapons were fpears, fcyipetars, poifoned darts blown out
o f tubes, and even matchlocks, as early as the year 1598, which
laft they probably got from the Poftugue/e, their firft matters :
their defenfive arms were ihields, very long and narrow. Nieu-
hoff gives a print of an Amboinefe foldier in the Hutch fervice at
Batavia: many Amboinefe are fettled there, and are reprefented
as a moft dangerous and turbulent people.
T h e conquell: of Amboina by the Portuguefe arofe from this
circumftance. In 1346 Galoun, governor of 5fernate, had obferved
great numbers' o f fmall veflels reforting from Java, Macajfar,
* Voyages,iv. p. 184, f Lonquetes des Portugais, vol. iii, p. 41.
Banda,
W h e n to is -
COVERED.
C o n q u e r e d
BY THE
P ortuguese*