THE AMBOINESE HERBAL Book II. Chap. I.

the fruit in Europe moved both the Kings of Castile and Portugal to seek out these unknown islands with their fleets, as if they were a second Colchis In Greek mythology, Colchis was the fabulously wealthy land of the Golden Fleece; the author compares the spice islands to this legendary destination., and they brought them into our further knowledge. However, due to the insolence and pride of their governors, they fell into the hatred of the inhabitants and were driven out of the possession of these lands. Shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese, the inhabitants of little Ceram, called Hoeamohel, secretly took Mother-cloves original: "Anthophyllos" or "Moernagels." These are cloves that have been left on the tree to ripen into seeds. from Mackian and committed them to the soil in their own region, where they sprouted joyfully and propagated abundantly. The people of Combello claim this honor for themselves, for which purpose they showed in their mountains near the villages of Massili and Noubatoe two or three very ancient Clove trees, observed there until the beginning of the Dutch administration, which they hold to be the mothers of all other Amboinese Clove trees. From each of these, in a good harvest, they pick an entire Bahaar A Malay unit of weight; the text defines it here as 500 Dutch pounds., or five hundred Dutch pounds of fruit, and often even more. Shortly thereafter, the people of Hitoe acquired them in a similar manner and planted them in their region. Leytimora (or little Amboina) and the Uliasser Islands produced no Cloves until the arrival of the Dutch, by whose care these trees were first planted there, except for the people of Nussavive, who had already received some Cloves from the Hitoe people during the Portuguese time through the great familiarity they maintained with them in Ternate. On the island of Honimoa, the people of Tiouw and Paperoe boast that they were the first Clove planters; but this was undoubtedly done not long before the arrival of the Dutch, since it appears from Portuguese writings that none of the Uliasser Islands produced any Cloves in their time. Today, however, after they were first devastated and extirpated in the Molucca Islands by various disasters and wars, and then by certain treaties and conditions established with the inhabitants, they are now found only in the province of Amboina—and not in all its districts, but mostly in Amboina properly so called, and the three small neighboring peninsulas, namely Oma, Honimoa, and Nussalaut. For in other adjacent places, they were all uprooted due to the continuous rebellion of the inhabitants. They do not like large islands, such as Gelolo, Ceram, Buru, and Celebes; those that grew on Buru were not more than half a mile distant from the shore, for those trees that grow deeper in the colder mountains do not produce fruit joyfully. Similarly, they should not be placed too close to the shore, lest the sea air ruin or scorch them.

By the Javanese and Macassarese, some small trees were transported along with soil, as well as Mother-cloves, to their lands, which grew tall enough and reached a proper height, but refused to produce fruit there. From this it appears that the Supreme Arbiter of things A reference to God. has wisely placed his riches in each region, and established Cloves in the kingdom of the Moluccas, outside of which they cannot be propagated or perfectly cultivated by any human industry. We include under the Moluccan empire also the islands of Buru and the Xulas, which were formerly under the jurisdiction of Ternate, and are still partly subject to it.

Claudius Salmasius A famous 17th-century French classical scholar. in his Homonymis after Solinus, chapter 95, noted that Avicenna was the first who indicated that Cloves grow among the people of Sinae (that is, the Chinese). This is to be understood as follows: Chinese merchants in ancient times frequented the Moluccas and brought Cloves back from there to their homeland. At that time, Cloves were of no value in the Moluccas. They then sold them again to other foreigners or sent them to them, persuading them that the fruits were produced and growing in their own country. I also add that the Chinese perhaps at that time gave these fruits the name Tenghio, from which the Malays and Moluccans derived their Tsjenke. For the true indigenous names are Boa Lawan, Boengoe Lawan, and Bugu Lawan, which means the fruit or flower resembling a nail The word "clove" comes from the Latin "clavus," meaning nail, due to the spice's shape..

The same Salmasius thinks that the aromatic Cloves should more rightly be called Anthophylli Greek for "flower-leaves.", since they are picked while they are flowering, and the Mother-cloves should be called Caryophylli, as they truly resemble a small nut and contain a single kernel inside like an olive stone; but over time these names have been mixed and exchanged. The same author also maintains that the Caryophyllum of Pliny is one and the same as our Cloves, though...