In this voyage to the isle of Banda, we passed about twenty islands, some of them inhabited and some desert.  This island of Banda is very low, savage, and barren, being about 100 miles in circuit.  It has neither king nor governor, but is inhabited by a savage and brutal people, who live without law, order, or government, dwelling in low huts scarcely rising above the ground, and having a scanty shirt for their whole clothing.  Their complexion inclines towards white, and they are of low stature:  They go bareheaded and barefooted, with their hair hanging down, having broad round foreheads.  They are idolaters, and worse even than the Poliars and Hyrana[98] of Calicut, being of dull apprehension, little strength, and altogether barbarous in their manners.  The soil bears no fruits except nutmegs, which grow on a tree very much like the peach in its branches and leaves.  Before the nut becomes ripe, the mace expands round like a red rose; but when the nut ripens the mace closes and embraces the nut, and both are gathered together, which the natives do without rule or order, catch who catch may, all things being there in common.  The tree yields fruit of its own nature without grafting or pruning, and it is so common and plentiful that twenty-six pound weight is sold for three souses or half a carline of the money which is current at Calicut.  These islanders have no other order of justice than the law of nature, and live therefore without lawsuits or any of those contentions proceeding from thine and mine.

[Footnote 98:  These are named on a former occasion Nirani.—­E.]

Having tarried three days in Banda, my companion asked the Christian merchants where was the region which produces cloves, and they told him that these were found in an island named Monoch or Molucca, six days sail from Banda.  We therefore resumed our voyage, and came there in seven days.  This island[99] is very narrow, yet is longer than Banda, and the inhabitants are even more barbarous than those of Banda, for if it were not for the human shape, they differ in nothing from brutes.  Their colour is whiter, owing to the air being colder.  This island produces cloves, which likewise grow on several small and desolate islands on its coast.  The body of the tree resembles the box-tree, and has leaves almost like the bay tree.  When the cloves are ripe, the inhabitants beat them off the tree with long canes, having previously laid matts under the tree to receive them.  The soil is sandy, and so low under the horizon that the north star cannot be seen[100].  The price of cloves is about double that formerly mentioned for nutmegs, but they are sold by measure, as the natives are entirely ignorant of the use of weights.

[Footnote 99:  Instead of one island, the Moluccas are a group of islands, the largest of which, Gilolo, is about 200 miles from N. to S. On its western side are several small islands, the most important of which for the produce of cloves are Ternate and Tidore.  Gilolo was probably the island visited by Verthema.—­E.]