During My Leisure, I Had Many
Opportunities Of Enquiring Into The Condition Of Amboina, By Which I Was
Enabled To
Draw up a pretty large account of the island and its
inhabitants, which I flatter myself will be acceptable to
The public, as
the Dutch are careful to prevent any accounts of this place from being
published.
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.
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