14 CINNAMON book ii
Whenever
the people of Macassar have any cloves they pay for the goods brought
to them with that spice ; payment is also made with tortoiseshell,
which is in great demand in all the Empire of the Mogul and in Europe :
it is also made with gold dust, by which there is 6 or 7 per cent, to
be gained instead of its being lost on the money of the island,
although it be gold, because the King alloys it so much. The four
places where cloves grow in abundance are the land of Amboine, the land
of Ellias, the land of Seram, and the land of Bouro.1
The islands of Banda, which are six in number, known as Nero, Lontour, Pouleay, Roseguin, Polleron, and Grenapuis,3 yield
nutmegs in great abundance. The island of Grenapuis is about 6 leagues
in circuit, and culminates in a peak from whence much fire issues. The
island of Damne,3 where the nutmeg also grows in great
abundance and of large size, was discovered in the year 1647 by Abel
Tasman, a Dutch commander.
The
prices of cloves and nutmegs, as I have seen them sold to the Dutch in
Surat in certain years, were as follows: The maund of Surat is equal to
40 sers, which make 34 of our livres at 16 onces to the livre. A maund
of cloves was sold for 103 1/2 mahmudis. A maund of mace was sold for
157 1/2 ; of nutmegs for 56 1/2 mahmudis.4 All the cinnamon comes at present from the island of Ceylon.5 The tree which produces it closely resembles our willows and has three barks. The first
1 Amboyna, Gilolo, Ceram, and Boeroe (or Buru), islands in the Molucca Sea.
2
Pulo Neira (i. e. island of palm wine); Lontor (the name of a palm);
Pulo Ai or Pulo Wai (i. e. water-island); Rosingen (Rosolanguim of De
Barros); Pulo Run (or Rung, i.e. chamber island); and Gunongapi
(fire-mountain or volcano). These, with four others, constitute the
Banda group. (Crawfurd, Diet. 33 ff.; Ency. Brit., iii. 310.)
3
Tasman discovered Van Diemen's Land, but nutmegs can hardly grow there
; possibly Tavernier has made some mistake. The reference is possibly
to the Dama Archipelago off the west coast of Cochin-China.
4 Equal respectively to £3 17s. 6d., £5 18s. l\d, and £2 2s. id. per 34 livTes.
5 Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 161 f.; Watt, Commercial Products, 313
ff. On the strange tale of the mode of collecting cinnamon, in Arabia,
resembling the way in which Sindbad the Sailor found diamonds, see
Herodotus, iii. Ill; Sir R. Burton, Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, ed. 1894, iv. 357 ff.
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