square miles. Of the population, which is about 6000, 400 are Europeans; in the whole residency, the inhab- itants number about 110,000, including the eastern part of Ceram. The principal island of the group is Neira, south-east from Amboyna, in 4° 33' S. lat. and 130° E. long., separated by narrow straits from Goenong-Api on the west, and Great Banda on the east. The coast is steep, and surmounted by several forts and batteries, which command the straits and roadstead. The town of Neira, on the south side of the island, is the capital of the Dutch residency of Banda. It has a Protestant church, school, and hospital. The Banda Islands have a rich soil, and are planted with nutmeg-trees, producing upwards of a million pounds of nuts and over a quarter of a million pounds of mace. Pine-apples, the vine, banana, cocoa-nut, and other fruit-trees thrive, and are abundant. Ay is the prettiest and most productive of the group. Goenong-Api is a lofty volcano. The cli- mate is not particularly healthy. The east monsoon be- gins in May, and the west in December, and both are ac- companied with rain and storms. The Uliassers, which, with Amboyna, produce the cloves of commerce, are Saparoua, Oma or Haroukou, and Nousa-Laut. They lie to the east of Amboyna, in 3° 40' S. lat. and 128° 33' E. long., and have an area of 107^ square miles. Saparoua is the largest, and is formed of two mountain- ous peninsulas, joined in the middle by a narrow strip of undulating, grassy land. The population amounts to 11,655, of whom 7340 are Christians, having twelve schools, with a very large attendance of scholars. Oma, separated from Saparoua by a strait of a league in width, has eleven villages, of which Harouka and Oma are the chief. It is mountainous in the south, and has several rivers and sulphurous springs. The beautiful village of Harouka, on the west coast, is the residence of the Dutch postholder, who is president of the council of chiefs. Here is the head office of the clove produce. There are two forts on Oma, several churches, and six schools, with 700 pupils. Population 7188; one half Christians, the other Mohammedans, Nousa-Laut lies to the south-east of Saparoua. It is planted with clove- trees, which in 1853 produced 120,283 pounds. There are upwards of 30,000 cocoa-nut-trees. The inhabit- ants, who were formerly pirates and cannibals, amount to 3479 souls, are all Christians, and have schools in ev- ery village — in 1859 they were attended by 870 pupils.
The Spice Islands generally are healthy both for Eu- ropeans and Asiatics ; and, though the plains are some- times very hot, mountains are always near, where it is pleasantly cool in the mornings and evenings. Besides the spice-trees, the bread-fruit, sago, cocoa-nut, banana, orange, guava, papaw, also ebony, iron-wood, and other valuable timber-trees, are abundant.
The natives of some of the islands are Alfoers; of others, Malays on the coasts, and A Ifoers in the interior. In Ceram are also Papuan negroes, brought originally from Bali and Papua as slaves. These are harshly treated and poorly fed. The governor of the IVIohic- cas has a salary of $8500, gold, and, with the secretary and other officials, resides in the cit^' of Amboyna, the streets of which are broad, planted with rows of beauti- ful trees, and cut each other at right angles. There are two Protestant churches, a town-house, orphanage, hospital, and theatre, besides a useful institution for training native teachers, with which is connected a printing-press. — Chambers, s. v.
History, etc. — The Moluccas were first discovered by Europeans in 1511, when the Portuguese, under Antonio de Abreu and Francisco Serrao, landed there. Tliey found, however, that the Arabians had already been there, and had made converts of the natives along the coast — the IMalays. In the mountains thej' found the Papuans (q. v.), but these Oriental negroes were sav- ages, and in a large measure remain so to this day. The king of Portugal claimed the island, and held undis- puted sway until 1599, when the Nethcrlanders took Tidore. In 1623 tliey drove out the English from these
MOLUCCAS
446
MOMIERS
islands, of which they had taken possession, and in 1G63 the Netherlanders akme remained to lord it over the Moluccas. Though for a time the British got a hold in the island, the Dutch finally became its possessors. The islanders have frequently attempted to throw oft' the Dutch yoke, but have failed thus far. The wars with the Alfoers of Ccram, in 1859 and 1800, have brought them more fully under Dutch rule. Recently new sultans of Tcrnate and Tidore have been appointed, with less po>vtr than their predecessors. Tlie natives along the coast speak a dialect of the Malay tongue, mixed with many foreign words; but the ancient I^Io- lucca or Tirnata language appeared to tlie eminent Asi- atic linguist, Dr. Leyden, to have been an original tongue. They have adopted many of the tenets, or rather observances, of the Brahminical system ; but many of them, named Shorifs, boast of their descent from 3Ioliammcd, and are held in great respect, espe- cially if they have performed the pilgrimage to Jlecca. The Papuans have been rapidly decreasing, and have wholly disappeared in most of the smaller islands. But they still exist in many of the more eastern islands, and hold undisturbed possession of New Guinea. The houses on these islands are generally raised on pil- lars eight or ten feet high, on account of the moisture, and are entered by means of a ladder, which is after- wards drawn up. The color of the natives is a deep mixture of black and yellow, and their dispositions un- civiL They subsist chiefly on sago. The men wear little covering, except a hat of leaves, and a piece of cloth round the middle; and the women are dressed in a large wide garment like a sack, with a remarkably broad hat on their heads. Their arras are a kind of light tough wood, arrows of reeds, pointed with hard wood, and bucklers of black liard wood, ornamented with de- signs in relievo, made with beautiful white shells. The Moluccans liave themselves but little intercourse with natives of civilized countries; indeed they know con- siderably less of them than others in the archipelago. They seldom see a European vessil.