Amboyna synonyms

After visiting Amboyna, the Moluccas and other isles of the Malay archipelago, he returned to Malacca in July 1547, and found three Jesuit recruits from Europe awaiting him.

Amboyna Island lies off the south-west of Ceram, on the north side of the Banda Sea, being one of a series of volcanic isles in the inner circle round the sea.

Granite and serpentine rocks predominate, but the shores of Amboyna Bay are of chalk, and contain stalactite caves.

The vegetation is also rich, and Amboyna produces most of the common tropical fruits and vegetables, including the sago-palm, bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, sugar-cane, maize, coffee, pepper and cotton.

Cloves, however, form its chief product, though the trade in them is less important than formerly, when the Dutch prohibited the rearing of the clove-tree in all the other islands subject to their rule, in order to secure the monopoly to Amboyna.