This island of Amboina, so famous, or rather infamous, for the cruelties and injustice formerly committed there by the Dutch upon the English, is twelve leagues long from N. to S. being high and mountainous, with intermediate vallies, which are very fertile, but the hills are in a great measure barren.  The soil of the vallies is black, and affords salt-petre.  The middle of the island is in lat. 3 deg. 40’ S. The original inhabitants of the island are Malays, who are of middle stature and tawny complexions.  The women are brighter than the men, and have long black hair, reaching to the calves of their legs.  They have round faces, with small mouths, noses, and eyes.  Their dress is a linen or cotton waistcoat, reaching only below their breasts, and a cloth round their waists, four yards long and a yard broad, which serves as a petticoat, as the Dutch women only are permitted to wear petticoats; neither are any of the men allowed to wear hats, except the king or rajah.  The natives are numerous, yet the Dutch possess the whole sea-coast, and have here a strong castle, built of stone, mounted by sixty pieces of cannon, besides several small forts in other parts of the island.  Near the castle is a small town of about 100 houses, of stone, brick, or timber, inhabited by the Dutch.  None of the houses exceed one storey, as the place is subject to earthquakes, which would endanger the houses if higher, and even low as they are they often fall.  While we were there we had a great earthquake for two days, which did much mischief as the ground opened in several places, and swallowed up several houses with their inhabitants.  Several of their people were dug out of the ruins, but most of them dead, and many others had their legs and arms broken by the fall of the houses.  Where we were, the ground swelled up like a wave of the sea, but no damage was done.

This island is governed by a council of five, consisting of the governor, the senior merchant, or ober koop-man, the Malay king, the captain of the fort, and the fiscal, which last is the judge.  There are said to be on the island 350 Dutch soldiers, with 120 or 130 Dutch freemen and petty officers, and about as many Chinese, who reside here for the benefit of trade, though not allowed to participate in the spice trade, which the Dutch reserve entirely to themselves.  I thus estimate that the Dutch are able to muster in this island about 550 fighting men, including themselves and the Chinese; for they can count very little on the Malays, who would gladly join any other nation against them.  The Malay women are said to be very loose, and not ashamed of having intercourse with men.  They are soon ripe, being often married at nine years of age, and are said to have children by ten or eleven.  All who reside near the coast must live under the Dutch government, which is very dissolute and tyrannical, and they are severely punished for even small faults, being often reduced to slavery, and condemned to wear